Blood Fest: A Short Story

Tuesday, 31st October, 3:24pm

Whitley hated the Halloween season. At one point in her life, she wouldn’t have minded joining tomfoolery, but then she grew and change became inevitable for her. All she wanted at the moment was to get home, go on her bed and sleep the disaster of a holiday off, but of course her best friend had other ideas regarding how she wanted them both to spend their night. With annoyance, she kicked the rotten pumpkin off the tiled street onto The Colter’s lawn with her dusty Doc Martens. This would teach them to decorate properly next time. Osprey Street was a pretty sane neighborhood to live in, with its tiny box houses and their white picket fences, except for the occasional petulant child who would stop at nothing until they brought down the walls of their house with their screams and the housewives whose defining characteristic were their ability to spread information faster than social media has proved to do. Whitley knew the moment she and her dad moved into the pretentious neighborhood that she’d never fit in -she never fits in anywhere. Her father, Chase had a much better luck with the adults there though. His charm won over all the housewives, their respective husbands and the two old couple that lived on the street.

Soon enough, Whitley got to the door of her house and wasn’t in the least surprised to see that her father had made another limp attempt at decorating. She wondered where he got the time to decorate coupled with his packed schedule as a doctor. The door opened and inside of the apartment smelled heavily of microwaved pizza, for a doctor the man ate a lot of takeout. Whitley walked past the hallways into the adjoining kitchen and wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see her father chomping on a slice of pizza on his feet.

“Hey dad!” She said dryly, moving towards the drawer to grab a plate for herself.

“Hello darling, how was practice today?” He kissed her cheek when she got close enough to him. She shrugged in a non-commitant manner as if to say ‘who knows?’, then grabbed two slices for her plate. “Any plans for today?” He asked, just as she was about to leave the kitchen for her room where she was supposed to be holed up for the rest of the day.

“You know it dad. Sleep till tomorrow when everyone should finally be over their temporal craze.”

“Alright kid, the choice is yours. Just ensure you lock the doors, and keep the candy outside in a bowl where people will be sure to see it.”

“Yes dad. I’ll see you in the morning.” She said, making her way up the stairs into her room. An issue that had baffled her for a long time after they moved into the house was why her dad decided to buy such a huge house when it was just the two of them. Not that she didn’t enjoy the pleasure of picking the biggest out of all the rooms which happened to be located right at the end of the passageway. The door closed downstairs just as she got settled on her bed and snuggled her feet into the plush red rug placed by her bedside, she was going home alone for the rest of the night. Dialing her best friend’s number, she chewed nimbly at one slice of pizza, sighing in relief when she picked up.

“Whit, are you settled in yet? I should be with you in about 2 hours. Xander is throwing a sick party tonight at his place and we absolutely need to be there.” Leighton came on the phone almost immediately barraging her with information.

“Leigh,” Whitley answered tiredly. ‘What did I say about Halloween.”

“You don’t celebrate it. Yeah, I know. But this is just a casual party –“

“With people dressed in ridiculous costumes and equally ridiculous face paints.”

“They will be dressed, not us. I need that party tonight especially with what I experienced during cheer practice today.”

“What happened?” Whitley answered, though she had a faint idea on who could make cheer practice an instant stressor for her friend. “Jax.” Leighton said, spite dripping like honey from her tone.

“Let me guess, with Jemma.”

“You guessed right bitch. Those two had no problem shoving their tongues down each other’s throat, and right in my line of sight too. I had to fight the urge to tear the two of them apart.” Leighton answered. Whitley could hear the jangle of keys underneath and guessed her friend was either on her way home from practice or still at school. “What did we say about Jax, babe?” Whitley asked, knowing the answer that was sure to come.

“Jax is a stinking piece of shit who doesn’t deserve an iota of my time.”

“And Jemma- ” She urged. “Jemma is a slut who only goes after people’s waste of an ex.”

“That’s right B.” Whitley cheered. “Now get over here and let’s get ready to shut down this party.” The call ended with both promising to see each other soon and Whitley focused on eating the second slice pizza slice.