Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Bailey's POV

Holidays are always fun. I loved getting in the spirit and being around happy atmospheres and decorated houses, showing off their cheerful attitudes.

My favorite holiday was the fourth of July, watching the fireworks were always my favorite but Jade’s was Halloween. She loved dressing up and the little bit of mystery behind everyone. The spook exhilarated her and having fun was her specialty.

“Jade, can you come here and help me?” I yelled from the bathroom. She walked in with a white tank top on and black and white striped prison pants. “Can you help me pin my hair up in the back?”

Jade took all my bobby pins that were scattered on the counter and started pinning my extra curly brown hair back, frequently taking the curling iron to curl some loose strands. After she was done I looked in the mirror and I didn’t see Bailey anymore, instead I saw a princess.

“Is it creepy that if I saw you on the street, I might actually believe you were Belle?” I laughed and adjusted my yellow ballroom dress.

“Where’s my beast?”

Jade laughed and ran to get the door after it rang.

“Jade! You forgot your hat!” I chased Jade and handed her the black and white striped cap that accompanied her prison jumpsuit. “Oh, hey Alex.”

“Hey Princess,” he joked and winked. I laughed and my cheeks reddened at the meaning behind the comment.

Jade reached up and ruffled Alex’s hair. “Here’s your beast, Jazz.”

“Hey! My hair is supposed to be messy thank you very much!” Alex faked slapped Jade. “I’m a scarecrow.”

“You scared me,” Jade laughed and hugged Alex. “Let’s get outta here.”

I slipped on my princess heels and followed Jade and Alex out the door.

“Wow! Jack, you look awesome!” Jade exclaimed when she saw a replica of Elvis Presley step out of Alex’s car.

“Thank you, thank you very much.”

I laughed stiffly and followed the three on our walk to Rian’s house. As we walked, Jade and Alex continuously laughed and joked around with Jack. I added in a few words, but like usual, I stayed a little quieter.

I don’t think I was the only one who felt the tension between me and Jack. Even Alex and Jade felt a little bit of it, usually filling the silences with random stories. I crossed my arms over my chest and hobbled along with them all.

Finally after the extremely long walk to Rian’s house we arrived, with a greeting by a wizard, a fairy, a mummy, a bird and a pair of superheroes; batman and batgirl.

“Hey guys!” Jack yelled and ran over to the group of costumes.

“Hi Elvis,” the mummified version of Zack laughed. I walked up to the group and gave Kaylie a smile, complimenting her fairy wings and cute make-up. Zack stood on my right and gave me his usual bump with his shoulder. “I like your dress; it’s pretty,” Zack said quietly.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

I was going to say something else but Rian cut in. “Are we just going to stand here? Let’s get some CANDY!” Jack fist pumped and Kara fixed Rian’s Batman cape, a replica on her back.

As Jack walked by, he tripped over himself and knocked in to me. There was an awkward moment between us as we made that painful eye contact, not really knowing how to react to one another. Jack looked at me and I caught his eye, causing him to immediately look somewhere else. We continued playing eye hockey until I cleared my throat and spoke up, getting everyone’s attention. “Well are you guys coming?”

Alex finally made his way over to his girlfriend. “Hi birdie,” he said cutely, nuzzling his nose against hers. Lisa smiled up at him and took his hand to lead him with the rest of us.

“Let’s get this show on the road, bitches!” Jack yelled again. We all pulled out our pillow cases and started running along with Jack to the first house.

We arrived and gathered on the porch. Alex took the liberty of shoving his way to the front of the big group and ringing the doorbell.

“TRICK OR TREAT!” we all yelled.

We looked pretty ridiculous running around the neighborhood. Full grown children, almost half of us were six feet tall. No matter how absurd our costumes were, I was having a blast. Laughing, being relaxed and comfortable with everyone was awesome. Even Jack and I were loosening up. It was that kind of mood where everyone was having fun, so the anxiety I had built up was deteriorating and I was giggling again with him, forgetting the trouble we were having before.

We were nearing upon the last house in Rian’s neighborhood after a couple hours, it was dark and some of us were getting tired.

“Come on!” Jack yelled as he scurried up the next spooky driveway. Zack, Alex, Jade and Kaylie gathered in a circle at the end of the driveway and talked and waited for the rest of us to get the candy. “Come on, Bailey! I thought you were a runner!” he yelled, running back to me as I hobbled in my heels up the driveway.

He grabbed my wrist and yanked me along with him. After getting our candy, we joined everyone at the bottom of a random driveway.

“Damn, my feet kill,” I whined, leaning down to massage my feet.

“Why the hell would you wear heels?” Kara asked.

“Good question,” I laughed.

Jack scissor kicked and egged us on, “Next house!” Jack’s pillow case was filled to the brim but he still wanted to continue.

“Ugh. Dude,” Alex dragged out. “Let’s go to the party!”

“What party?” Melanie wondered.

“There’s a party a couple blocks over,” Jade clarified. “This is getting boring, so let’s go!”

After plenty of quarrelling, we finally decided to split in to two groups. Alex, Jade, Zack, Melanie, Rian and Kara chose to leave and Jack, Kaylie, Lisa, Melanie and I continued on.

“You guys, my feet hurt, I wanna go to the party.”

“Baybay,” Jack pretend scolded. “Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Let’s go!!!” He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, running through a random person’s yard and accidentally hitting my head on a couple of branches from trees he passed under.

“Nice lacey underwear, Bailey!” Zack yelled from the street. I squealed and tried to pull my dress down after it flipped up, but couldn’t reach. Luckily no one could see my face turn bright red.

“Nice ass!” Alex hollered even louder. I heard everyone laugh as Lisa and Jade both smacked his shoulders. I finally yelled enough to get Jack to go back with everyone else and Jade pulled off my heels as I lay tossed over Jack’s shoulder. Zack took them and threw them in his pillowcase, then lifted me off Jack.

“You coming with us to the party?” Zack asked.

“No, she’s coming with me,” Jack said with his lisp, throwing his arm around my shoulder. I shrugged out of his grasp, feeling crowded by him again. He couldn’t just expect me to be alright with him. I might be a girl with few words, but we needed to talk things out. I had avoided the confrontation all week; at school we ignored the problem at hand and made very awkward, very short, small talk.

I was definitely not in the mood for a party though. I turned to Zack, “Eh…I think I’m going to stay.”

Jack fist pumped again and swung an arm around me. “Hells yeah!” I shrugged out of it again.

“Jack, stop.”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Stop,” I mumbled quietly so nobody would hear, but I’m sure a couple people did.

“Wait, you’re going to the party?” Lisa asked Alex as everyone started going separate ways.

“Um yeah, aren’t you?”

“No, I was going to go with Bailey, Melanie and Kaylie…”

“Oh…” There was an awkward silence and shuffle of feet on the pavement. “Well, I’ll uh, I’ll trick or treat with you guys. It’s all good.”

Lisa shook her head. “No, you were looking forward to the party. Just go. It’ll be fine.”

“Lisa,” Alex sighed with a little frustration and stepped forward to her. They both started whispering so none of us could hear and we all looked around, pretending to be distracted by the night air. Finally they stopped talking and Alex gave her a peck on the lips. Lisa leaned her forehead against his and whispered a farewell, putting on a smile.

“See you later, babe. You bitches ready?!” Alex said after turning to everyone who was going to the party. Everyone screamed in agreement and started sprinting away towards the party house.

“That was…awkward…” Melanie commented dryly.

Lisa smile and adjusted her bird costume. “Nah. It’s totally fine. We’ll meet up later.” To relieve tension, Lisa snatched Melanie’s wizard hat of her head and stuck it on top hers. “Next house or what?”

“Next house!” Jack chimed in, pulling me along with. I pulled my arm free from Jack and ran barefoot next to him. Melanie, Kaylie and Lisa were about five strides ahead of us as we ran through yards . “You comin’, Baybay?” Jack shouted behind him.

“Yes, Jack. I’m coming,” I said annoyed. I saw him look back, his brown eyes questioning.

He slowed a little. “You okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” We finally stopped and Jack didn’t look like he was going to drop it.

I put my hand on my forehead and exhaled before I spoke, “Jack, I just, don’t want to start this tonight. I’m having fun.”

“But you’re not having fun with me?” he asked, getting in that weird, unfamiliar, defensive mood.

“I am having fun with you, that’s what I mean,” I shot back just as cynical, coming out of my shell a little more.

“Well, you don’t look like it.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that fell over us and I looked at the ground. I shuffled my bare feet before I finally spoke, still looking down. “It’s just, before…”

“Yeah?”

“You just, were…acting like we were fine again. Like there wasn’t tension. But there’s still what happened before…”

“You mean when you yelled at me?” Jack said bitterly. I cringed at the tone. I had never heard him sound so sour.

“…Yeah. Then.”

“Okay, well what do you want me to say? Sorry?” He rolled his eyes meanly. “Okay. Sorry I called you “Jazz” even though I have apologized. I told you, I didn’t know it would offend you!”

“I didn’t know either!” We both stayed quiet and stared angrily in to one another’s eyes. I cross my arms over my chest and spoke softly. “It’s not just that.” Jack waited for me to clarify. “It’s when you ask me those questions. Like, about New Jersey.”

“I don’t get what you mean,” he said shaking his head, getting annoyed almost.

“You know, in painting and at lunch and sometimes when we are at Mel’s house. You always ask me about my friends and my parents and…I hate it.”

Jack looked like he was trying to remember what I was talking about for a while. “I was just trying to get to know you. I don’t know if you realized,” he said sarcastically, “but I like to talk. And I like to make friends. That’s my way of making friends with you. You’re a shy person.” The way he said the last sentence hit me hard. He sounded so insincere about it.

“Well I hate it when you ask me that stuff! I hate it!” He looked hurt; truly torn. His brown eyes turn upside down and his eyebrows lowered on his face sadly. “It makes me…feel weird. I-I sometimes get sick thinking about it.”

“About what?” he asked skeptically.

“When you always scratch your way in, thinking that you have the right to know every single piece of shit detail about me. You’re not entitled to that, Jack! You can’t go around making jokes about me and what I used to be like, thinking it’ll be funny! Cause it’s not! I hate thinking about it!”

“W-Why?” he asked hesitantly.

I dithered on the subject but finally said something. “I-It just brings back bad memories.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

The silence that was becoming more and more normal over the past few days, even in Jack’s presence, fell over us again. I looked around me at the spooky decorations and took in the costumes on the few kids left that were going door to door. Jack was doing it too, making sure we didn’t make eye contact as we both thought about what to say that would fill the gap in words between us.

“Hey, guys! What the hell?!” Melanie yelled from a couple houses over.

“We’ll be there in a sec!” Jack yelled back, his voice piercing in the chilly night air. “So um,” he cleared his throat. “Uh, I guess, I didn’t know that. I mean, I knew that there was something you were hiding, I mean we all know it.” What did he mean by that? “I just thought you were really cool, and I wanted to be your friend.”

“I want to be friends with you too, Jack,” I laughed silently. “I hate when we have those creepy silences. Like when we were walking to Rian’s house tonight? Weird.”

“Yeah, that was really odd feeling. I’ve never been at that much of a loss for words!” Jack said, really in awe at the moment we had a couple hours earlier. I made me think of all the harsh silences and tense conversations over the past couple days.

I laughed when I looked at his smiling face peering down at me, then he pulled me in to a hug. “Friends?”

“Best friends!!” he yelled in my ear and jumped up in down while I was in his arms. I ruffled his hair. We started walking to catch up to Melanie and Lisa and Jack spoke up. “So you don’t like being called Jazz?”

“Only by Jay,” I said shyly.

Jack hesitated before he asked. “Why?”

“Well, I don’t really know exactly. I think it’s because she’s the only one that ever calls me it, you know? And I guess I just don’t want people using it. I though it would be okay, but then when you said it, I just didn’t like it. It’s special.”

“Mmhmm,” he commented understandingly. “What does it mean anyways? Like, Jay and Jazz? I get the “Jay.” But “Jazz?””

Just a moment ago I had thought that I was becoming relaxed with Jack again, but all I wanted to do now was coil up and not tell him anything. I told Jack the name was special; it gave me memories. The memories could be good or bad, depending on what I chose. “It’s um…well…there’s a story behind it.” Jack looked like he was waiting for more. “My brother gave it to me. And, I just don’t want to go in to it okay?”

I think Jack caught a glimpse of the tears that welled up for a brief couple seconds and stopped that topic before it went any further.

“So. Just don’t get too obnoxiously personal. I can do that,” Jack smiled and stuck his finger through one of my little ringlets in my curly hair.

“But, if you would like to know something. I like oranges.”

“Oranges are bad for your bladder!!!” Jack screamed, so it echoed through the almost empty, dark streets.

“Shut up,” I laughed, smacking his bedazzled vest. I yawned unwillingly, causing Jack to too.

“Aw, I don’t have anymore room in my pillow case,” Jack pouted when we caught up to the rest of the girls. Their pillow cases were filled too.

“Well, why don’t we just go back to my house?” Melanie suggested.

“And do what?” Lisa asked confused.

“What we always do,” Kaylie laughed. “watch a movie!” We all started on our long trek home, and I felt so much better. A weight was lifted off me and I no longer had to stress about how painting class was going to go, or how many questions I would have to dodge.

“Fuck. I stepped on a rock and my foot’s bleeding!” I yelped, hoping up and down, my candy spilling everywhere.

“FREE CANDY!!”

“Jack, shut the fuck up,” Melanie said lamely, causing me to laugh as he crawled around frantically picking up the dropped candy.

“Hop on, bestie!” I jumped on Jack’s back and he carried me to Melanie’s where he proceeded to eat almost half of his huge pillow case full of candy. He bounced off the walls and yelled even more random comments than usual, making them louder and more racist. Jack would be a treat for his mom when he went home.