Hurricane

October 2005

“Do you want to go to a Halloween party with me?” Pete asked me. It was a few days after I had been released from the hospital, and I was back to my normal routine of going to Pete’s house. Pete and I were lying on his bed together. Despite completing an album not that long ago, he was still writing. I had been able to convince him to take a break though.

“A Halloween party?” I asked. Pete’s arm was around my waist, holding me to him as we laid there.

“Yeah,” he said. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No,” I said, smiling. “I’m just finding it difficult picturing you at a Halloween party.”

“Really?” Pete questioned.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I don’t know. I guess it was just kind of unexpected.”

It was silent for a moment.

“So, do you want to go?” Pete asked.

“I guess,” I said. “I don’t have a costume though.”

“We’ll get you one,” Pete said.

“Isn’t Halloween in a few days?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Pete said. He was silent for a moment and I knew he was thinking. “Do you want to go get a costume today?”

“We can do that,” I said. Pete sat up quickly, and looked down at me.

“Let’s go,” he said, smiling at me. I smiled back and sat up before I leaned forward and kissed Pete for a moment.

“Let’s go,” I repeated, climbing over Pete to get out of the bed. I pulled my shoes on as Pete climbed out of his bed. I waited for him to put his shoes on and then we went downstairs. I followed Pete out to the driveway and got into his SUV.

“Do you have a costume yet?” I asked as he backed out of the driveway.

“No,” he replied. He glanced at me with a smile on his face before looking back at the road.

“And you know where a costume store is?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. I nodded my head. “And just to clear things up, I’m buying your costume.”

“Pete,” I said, looking at him. “You don’t need to pay for my costume. I have some money.”

“I’m paying for it,” he said. “Just save your money.”

I sighed, deciding not to argue with him. He’d win anyways. About ten minutes later and Pete was parking in front of a costume store. There were several costumes on display in the front window and I looked over them quickly before getting out of the SUV. Pete came over to me and took my hand as we started towards the store. Pete pulled me around the store, looking carefully at each costume before moving on. At one point, I tried to reach out and touch one of the costumes to try and get a better look, but Pete pushed my hand aside.

“Are you going to let me pick out my own costume?” I asked.

“Do you know what you want?” he asked in returned.

“Well, no.” I said. “But you’re not letting me look at any.”

“Do you trust me in finding you an amazing costume?” Pete questioned.

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. Pete smiled at me and squeezed the hand he was holding before moving on to the next rack of costumes. As we moved on to yet another rack, Pete stopped suddenly and grinned.

“I have an idea,” he said. He led me to where there were some dressing rooms and let go of my hand. “Wait right here.”

I nodded my head and watched as Pete went over to someone who worked in the store and spoke to him. Pete followed the employee to a rack of costumes we hadn’t looked at yet and left Pete. Pete looked up from the costumes he was looking at smirked at me, making me a bit nervous as to what he was up to. I saw him pull something off the rack, but I couldn’t see what it was.

When he was closer, I saw that he had a white dress with him and when he was close enough he handed it to me.

“What kind of costume is this?” I asked.

“Angel,” he said. I looked at him and he smiled at me. “Try it on.”

I rolled my eyes and entered one of the dressing rooms. Quickly, I took off the clothes I had been wearing and slipped on the dress. It fit perfectly. The only problem with it was that it was way too short; I was definitely not used to this. I studied myself in the mirror for a moment before there was a knock on the door of the dressing room.

“Yeah?” I said.

“Are you going to let me see it?” Pete asked. I opened the door and inch and looked out at Pete.

“How badly do you want to see?” I asked in return.

“Just open the door,” he said, smiling at me. I smiled back before opening the door more. Pete looked at me for a minute, his eyes scanning up and down my figure before he nodded. “It looks good.”

“Really?” I asked. “It’s kind of short isn’t it?”

“You don’t need to worry about the length,” Pete said. “Your legs look amazing anyways.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let me get changed and then we can get your costume.”

I started to close the door, but Pete stopped me. He pushed me back slightly before closing us in the dressing room.

“Pete,” I said, giggling a little. “What are you doing?”

“You just look so amazing in that costume,” he said. He pushed me back a little until my back was against the wall and he pressed his body closely to mine so that there was no space between us. His hands held onto my waist with a firm grip as he brought his face down to mine, capturing my lips in a kiss. His tongue found its way into my mouth and for a moment, I forgot where we were. I could feel Pete’s hand creeping up under the skirt of the costume when I decided to pull away.

“We can’t do this here,” I said. Pete pouted before taking a step away.

“Fine,” he said. He opened the door. “I’ll wait out here for you to get changed.”

When I finished changing, Pete wasn’t standing outside the door of the dressing room like I expected him to be. I looked around the store and saw him inspecting something on the other side of the store. When I got closer, I saw that he had a headband with devil horns on it.

“What’s that for?” I asked. Pete looked at me.

“This is my costume,” Pete said, holding up the devil horns.

“That’s it?” I asked. Pete smiled.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Okay, then,” I said. “Do we need anything else?”

Pete looked around.

“Oh, shit,” Pete said. “I almost forgot—we need to get you some wings and a halo. Do you have white shoes?”

“Yeah, I have white shoes,” I said.

“Good,” Pete said. He started looking around the store for a minute until he saw what he was looking for. He started to walk away from me and I followed a moment later. “What kind of wings do you want?”

I was surprised to see that they had a few different choices as I looked at the display.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. I didn’t know what I wanted and I’m sure Pete could make a good choice. He looked at me for a moment and then at my costume. He looked back at our wing choices and a moment later had a pair in his hands.

“These ones will be good,” he said. He handed me the wings and turned back around, picking something else up. “And your halo.”

He took one last look around the store.

“I think we’re good,” he said. I followed Pete to the check out area. After he paid, Pete smirked at me. “Now let’s go back to my house so you can put your costume back on.”