Operation Beautiful

I told you I would manage no matter what the delivery spot, didn’t I?

Honestly, it could be anyone. We just held a party, for crying out loud! Except for that screen door...

Yup, I know what all the people on the roster look like. I guess that is kinda creepy, but a friend helped out and we got it done.

I sit down on the bathroom floor and try to collect my thoughts. Who could it be?

Well, I guess you could say I’m a friend of Jess’. And my question to you would be...are you Corey? Haha. I think I know the answer. The fact that you call her “Jessica” and your batman boxers comment gave it away.

Batman boxers? When have I ever told a friend of Jessica’s that I have Batman boxers? When did I even tell Jessica that I have Batman boxers?

I glare and throw a piece of celery at him.

“My boxers happen to be Batman,” I say in all seriousness. “Yours are the freakish cat-woman ones.” Suddenly, I realize that Emmaleigh is right here. I feel my cheeks heat up.

“Um...boxers aside...” Emmaleigh says quietly.

Holy--oh my God. I throw open the bathroom door and storm down to Jessica’s room.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” I say, throwing the pink piece of paper in Emmaleigh’s face.

“W-w-what are you talking about?” I realize that I’m a little too worked up about this for my own good. I must be scaring her. I sit down next to her on the bed.

“The post-its. They’re from you, aren’t they?” I ask, softer. She looks at me and then the pillow in her hands.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” She tries to move off the bed, but I grab her arm.

“Hey, tell me first. It’s just a yes or no question.” She looks down and shakes her head.

“No.” I grab her chin and force her to look up.

“You’re not allowed to lie. Are you the one I’ve been exchanging post-its with the entire time?” She seems to relax a bit. She squares her shoulders and looks me in the eye.

“No. No I’m not.” I let go of her, confused.

“Then who is this” I wave the post-it around “from?” The door is kicked open and I see Jessica with a water bottle in each hand.

“It was Jess,” Emmaleigh says, looking at her friend.

“What, the post-its?” Jess says. “Yeah, that was me. I didn’t know it was you until Emmaleigh saw the note and told me about your Batman boxers.” She winks at me. “They’re very nice boxers, by the way. Far superior to Matt’s cat-woman version.” I feel myself blush a bit. This is a...surprise.

“Ah. So...I guess you win. Since you guessed first.” She nods and climbs into bed next to Emmaleigh.

“Yup. You owe me lunch, pal.”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “Well, I’ll see you guys tomorrow...or rather, later today.” It is like four in the morning or something by now.

“What took you so long?” Matt asks when I finally come back to the room.

“Jessica’s the post-it note person.” He sits up suddenly in bed.

“She’s the who?”

“The person I’ve been passing post-it notes with.”

I won’t deny the fact that when I thought it was Emmaleigh I was kind of happy and excited. She’s kind of like Haley in a sense, one of the quieter, more straight-forward girls. So finding out it’s been Jessica it’s kind of a...disappointment. Jessica is a little wilder than her friend. And therefore a little scarier. I think I’d prefer our conversations to stay via post-it note.

***
“Let’s go, Corey!” I’m standing in front of the full-length mirror in Matt’s room. Yeah...the guy’s a bit on the narcissistic side. And the naturally good-looking side. I’m not much of either, I think.

“Corey!” Jessica’s voice yells again. I’m not really looking forward to this. For starters, I don’t like the idea of being left alone with Jessica. And then...what if they have haunted houses at the carnival? I don’t like haunted houses. At all. But it’s been months since Halloween, right? They won’t have any. Right?

I brush my hands nervously over my red woolen henley and grab a hoodie. I briefly consider calling Spike and asking him to come along. I’ll just text him on the way, that way Jessica won’t know I’m trying to avoid her.

“Let’s go buy tickets, Corey,” Jessica says, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the booth. Once we’ve left Matt and Emmaleigh far enough behind, I detach her arm from mine.

“Well done,” I say. “So what’s the plan?”

“I figure that we should start with the haunted house,” She begins. Hoo-ray. “Emma gets scared really easily, so that should get them closer together. And then after that we can lose them in the Hall of Mirrors?”

“I don’t like haunted houses,” I say sullenly as the lady gives us back our tickets.

“Why not?” She asks with a laugh.

“Because...I just don’t.” I say. I’m not about to admit to her that I get scared easily.

“Okay, well that’s not that big of a deal. Let’s go!” She skips back to Matt and Emmaleigh.

“Haunted House?” Emmaleigh asks, staring at her friend in disbelief. Matt is glaring at me. I just shrug.

“What’s up with you and Jess?” He whispers in my ear as we head to my doom.

“I don’t know,” I whisper back. “She’s the one randomly dragging me places. Ask her.”

“You better not be hitting on her,” he warns.

“That would be like hitting on my own sister,” I lie. The truth is more akin to: “I would rather be hit by a house.”

We enter the haunted house and are immediately accosted by bats. Someone lets out a girly shriek. Poor Emmaleigh.

“Corey, are you scared?”

Oh. It was me.

I detach my fingers from Jessica’s shoulder and attempt to put as much distance between the two of us as possible. But it’s dark. And who knows what’s within a foot of Jessica?

“Holy sh--” I hiss as something strange and ghosty floats across our path. In the dim light, I see Emmaleigh clutching onto Matt’s arm. I have to feel bad for her, he’s not doing a very good job in the comforting department. His arms hang pretty limply by his sides and I can tell that he’s probably rolling his eyes as he pats her head briefly.

“Sorry,” I hear her mutter.

“It’s not a big deal,” he mutters back. “I didn’t know you were this--” He’s cut off by Emmaleigh hiding her face in his chest as an enormous, black, bloody-knife-wielding Grim Reaper yells “BOO!” in her face. He hugs her close and rubs her back a bit. “Just chill out, okay?”

“Corey, if you could just...loosen your grip a bit?” Jessica asks, biting back a laugh. I realize that my nails are clamped into her arm. Looks like Emmaleigh that wasn’t the only one slightly creeped out by all the blood.

We exit the haunted house a tired mess. Well, Emmaleigh and I are a tired mess.

“Corey, watch over Emma for a bit, will you?” Matt asks, more or less dumping her in my arms. He grabs Jessica’s elbow and the drags her off.

“What?” she protests.

“I think it’s time we had a little chat,” he says, his voice dangerously low.

“So...” I say awkwardly, looking down at the Emmaleigh in my arms.

“So...” she agrees, tentatively straightening her legs and moving away from me.

“That was sufficiently awkward,” I begin, quoting her words from last night.

“Yeah...” she agrees, a small smile on her face as she plays along.

“Yeah? Is that all you can say?” I protest. Emmaleigh giggles. “So you don’t like haunted houses?” I ask.

“Yeah. But it sounded like you weren’t to fond of them either.” A sly grin spreads over her face.

“I was less scared than you!” I say quickly. “I didn’t end up in Matt’s chest.”

“Well, I wasn’t using Jess as a teddy-bear!” she retorts, blushing at my mention of Matt.

“Please, I was not!” I say, vaguely recalling hugging Jessica from the back.

“Fine. Prove it!” So the two of us go back to the front of the Haunted House. Ready for what would probably be the scariest time of my life.