Halloween is an enigma.

She doesn’t hate it per se.

Many great childhood memories took place during Halloween. Funny costumes. Sweet candy. Walking around her neighborhood with her mom.

But people get a bit too invested for her taste.

If it was up to Talla, she would never go to a Halloween party ever. But it isn’t up to her.

So here she is. Waiting outside her house for her best friend, the one dragging her to said party, dressed as a cowgirl.

Her shiny black hair is braided into messy pigtails with a beige cowgirl hat adorning her head. Not wanting to put too much money into this, she just wore some old jeans that still have white paint on them from when she helped her uncle paint his living room. She has a white tank top with a red flannel over it, the loose ends tied together.

Kicking her feet, the heavy boots send a rock flying into the street. Her cousin’s boots sort of fit. A bit clunky but they work for her costume. What mattered is that she didn’t have to pay for them.

A high pitched screech alerts Talla to Alina’s car rolling up. Her car always makes that when it’s slowing down. She tells her to get it repaired, but her friend refuses. Says it’s too much to get it fixed right now.

“Talla! Howdy!” Alina shouts through her open car window. Talla can see the glimmer from Alina’s sparkly makeup, looking absolutely stunning in her fairy theme.

“Is that real lasso rope, partner,” Alina continues to tease, playing into Talla’s outfit.

She chuckles, “No. It’s literally whatever my dad had in the basement.” It’s not the heavy material a lasso would be, but it looked enough to pass. It’s pretty light weight as it hung over her shoulder.

Getting into the passenger side, Talla gets a full view of Alina’s costume. Her friend was practically born to be a fairy. The shiny makeup stood out on her dark skin, somehow bringing out the light specks in her eyes. Her pastel pink could have been made out of flower petals just from the softness. The layers fell as if she were blooming.

In addition to her makeup and shimmery dress, her hair had some fairy dust in it, like stars in a pitch black night.

“You look right out of Fairytopia,” Talla compliments her. Alina beams, her pink lips stretching with how much she smiled.

Even though Alina is absolutely gorgeous inside and out, she always had low self esteem. From what Talla has seen, her parents are really strict on appearances. A lot of generational trauma there. So Talla tries to compliment Alina whenever she can.

“Well we do share a name!” Alina points out.

“So whose party is this again?” Talla questions, seeing the scenery greatly shift from nice rural houses to rich suburbia.

“JT’s Halloween Bash.” Talla turns her head as if she is glancing out the window and winces. JT is an….acquired taste. At least for Talla. Ever since they were partners in science one time like four years ago, she had a bad impression of him. He did nothing and floated through life. All his friends came off like that. Talla knows that’s not fair to assume and judge, but hey, she’s human.

And it isn’t like she says that to their faces.

“You probably won’t even see him, Talls. I know you hate the whole football team.”

It actually startles Talla with Alina’s awareness. She thought she hid it much more than she apparently has. “I don’t hate them. I don’t know them. And they don’t know me,” she counters. Because it’s true.

Well she hates JT. But not the whole football team.

“Well however you feel, I’ll be there the whole time!” She reassures Talla. But somehow that doesn’t make her feel better. Something feels off in the air tonight.

“Thanks.”

OoOoO

This is why she doesn’t like parties. Especially Halloween ones.

It’s crowded. And people are dressed weirdly and you can’t tell who is who because of masks, makeup, or head coverings.

She’s seen like ten people dressed as Spiderman. So many horror movie killers. And weirdly revealing costumes.

“There’s Priya,” Alina gushes, her eyes getting a faraway glaze over them. This happens every time Priya is in a mile radius. Talla can practically see her insides melt.

It takes her a moment to pinpoint Priya since she doesn’t have the Priya radar that Alina does. Finally, she spots her in a very floral costume. At first glance she looks like poison ivy with the dark green dress, but the bright flowers that adorn her outfit stray away from that. Maybe a nymph.

But she could be wearing a cardboard box and Alina would still fancy her.

“Go talk to her.”

“What? I can’t!” She exclaims and then clamps her hand over her mouth as if Priya would hear her through all the noise. Like seriously, a group of rowdy guys dressed as royalty are playing beer pong and whooping and shouting.

Priya would need super hearing.

“Yes you can! You have AP Bio together. Start with that,” she suggests.

Even though Alina’s crush is rom com worthy, it isn’t because she has never actually talked to her and one day began liking her. No, Alina and Priya know each other quite well. They both are at the top of the class and compete for highest rank. But in a friendly (some would say flirty) way.

“I can’t do it. She would never like me,” Alina continues, dragging her hands over her face, spreading some body glitter around by accident. The plastic wings attached to her back shaking.

“Then why is she looking over here,” Talla says. Instantly, Alina’s head whips up, thankfully not in Priya’s direction but at Talla. “She is?”

Planting her hands on her shoulders, Talla gets her to look at her in the eye. “Alina. I can’t promise Priya’s feelings, but I can say from my perspective that she’s head over heels for you too.”

“You think?” She asks, her voice small. So differently from her bubbly nature.

“If she doesn’t, I’ll be right here.”

Alina chances a glimpse at Priya who turns away because of course she had been looking their way. “You don’t mind? I’ll only be a second! This probably won’t even go well.”

As if Talla would let herself be the reason Alina doesn’t talk to her crush. “Go!” She encourages, pushing her playfully.

Her friend gives her a smile before slowly approaching Priya. Just seeing Priya’s big grin from where she is standing, she can tell that Priya feels the same.

Talla feels kind of weird just watching them, but she’s been invested in their relationship for a while now. It’s like a TV drama. She can’t look away.

“That was nice. What you did for Alina.” Talla almost spills her soda can, being so startled at someone speaking so close to her ear.

Righting herself, she turns to the source. It’s Link. One of JT’s football friends. She has a couple classes with him. He’s…fine. She doesn’t really know anything about him.

“Well she’s my best friend. She needed that push,” she replies, taking a sip of her Pepsi. Why is he talking to her? This is probably the longest conversation they’ve ever had, and they’ve been at the same school since 6th grade.

“Link,” he says, putting out his hand which has several kid rings on his fingers. It’s the first time she notices his costume. He’s a prince or something like that with a cape that could be a rug and a plastic crown.

“I know. We’ve been at the same school since middle school,” she mentions in a flat tone.

Tilting his head like a dog, he studies her. His stare makes her uneasy. She doesn’t like being the center of attention.

“Talla,” she reminds him, just so he stops.

Once he heard her name, he snaps his fingers, and comments, “Oh yeah, you’re the one always breaking the curve along with your friends.”

Talla isn’t on level with Alina or Priya, but she is a close third. Which is apparently the only thing she’s known for.

“Yep, that’s me, ruining everyone’s dreams apparently,” her sarcasm taking over. Sometimes, it just slips out. Though this time, it was on purpose.

He shrugs his shoulders in a way that Talla thinks is supposed to be in a good hearted way. “That just means your really dedicated,” he says.

She narrows her eyes at him, but he doesn’t flinch, so she thinks he’s being serious.

“Link, you can stop.” May as well be blunt. He doesn’t appear to be affected by subtlety. Some people just need to be hit in the face. With words. Not literally.

To his credit, he looks confused. The space between his eyebrows scrunches up. “Stop what?”

It’s her turn to shrug. “I don’t know. Talking to me.”

“So I can’t talk to you?” He questions. His fingers tap on the side of his solo cup, the rings making a clunk each and every time.

“Well you can, but why do you want to?” She’s curious now. Link isn’t the worst person out of the football team. That would be JT. But she wouldn’t have thought he was the talk-to-her-for-no-reason type.

She is aware that she comes off unapproachable and probably intimidating. That’s probably why people love Alina. She is so bubbly and outwardly kind. It is a wonder why Alina is her best friend since they are very opposite.

“Because I can?” He states like a question.

He’s confused and she’s confused why he’s confused.

“This is the first real conversation we’ve probably ever had.”

Scratching the back of his head, tussling his chestnut hair, he almost knocks off his crown. “We have to start somewhere.”

“Link,” she says, exuding annoyance.

Finally catching onto it (or maybe he’s just done messing with her), he holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. I just thought saw what you did for Alina and I wished I had a friend like that. That’s all,” he confesses.

_Friend like that_. Huh. That’s not what Talla expected.

“You have a lot of friends,” she feels the need to point out. Though she knows how quantity doesn’t mean quality. He just seems all friendly with so many people. Link is one of those guys that high fives people in the hallway and knows everyone’s name. Not the kind who wishes he had something that she has.

“I have football friends. I have school friends. But outside those environments, I don’t have many. Certainly not one like you….I mean what you and Alina have,” he stumbles, tripping over his words.

“Well maybe you should surround yourself with different people if that’s what you want,” she suggests. Link isn’t certainly…different than she thought.

Talla isn’t exactly jealous of Link. Because she can’t think of anything worse than being associated with the football team. But she can’t deny that it would be nice to be seen. To have the confidence to just talk to people.

“Maybe I will,” Link replies, looking over at the other football guys that are being very dramatic at a beer pong loss.

While it isn’t in her nature to comfort someone she doesn’t really know, she feels the need to share with him like he did with her. It’s only fair. “If it makes you feel any better, Alina is probably my only friend, so I have a lot of energy to put into one friendship.”

He gives a chuckle at her attempt at a joke.

“Well a lot of people could gain from your kind of friendship.”

“Like you?” She asks.

“Maybe.”

———

(So I have a plan to expand this. My first idea for this actually isn’t in this part 😂. I spent so long introducing Talla, that it won’t fit in this!)