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“Stay safe, little bro,” Garroth said, reaching over and ruffling my hair. I quickly dodged out of the way, replying, “You too, Garroth.” He rolled up the window and drove off. I turned around to see Gene waiting for me, leaning on the doorway.
“You look great,” he said as I walked over. “I see you went all out again.”
“And I see you didn’t dress up at all again,” I teased him. He huffed, crossing his arms.
“I can be Apollo’s emo boyfriend,” he said as the two of us walked inside.
“You’re already my emo boyfriend. That’s not a costume.” I walked into the living room. Dante was sitting on the couch, very focused on typing on his phone. He was wearing a Spiderman costume - which he’d worn every year since we’d met, and probably even before that. “Hey, Dante.” After a second, Dante glanced up.
“Hey, Vylad.” His eyes widened. “Woah. Your costume is so cool .” I grinned, swishing my golden cloak.
“You like it?” I said. Gene rolled his eyes at me.
“C’mon, I have to do your makeup,” he said, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards his room. “Then we’ll go pick up everyone else.”
***
“I look fucking amazing ,” I said, staring at myself in the mirror. I loved the glittery gold makeup under my eyes. It went perfectly with my gold and white costume.
“It’s just eyeliner, eyeshadow, glitter, and a bit of blush,” Gene shrugged. “It’s nothing too complicated.”
“It still looks great. Thank you.” I leaned over and pecked his cheek, making his face go bright red. “Let’s hurry up before your brother decides to leave without us.”
“Right,” Gene muttered as I walked out of the bathroom. Dante was still sitting on the couch, smiling at his phone. He glanced up.
“Are we leaving yet?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Gene said, grabbing his phone off the counter. “We’ll head over to Sasha’s place first, her house is closest.” Dante frowned. “You can live without your boyfriend for another ten minutes. Let’s go.”
***
Eventually, they’d picked everyone up (Maria owned a van that she let Gene drive, which was good because all six of them could fit in it) and started heading toward my neighborhood - it was a richer neighborhood, which meant better candy. Plus, the old lady across from us always gave out hot chocolate.
“Next time I need to make Gene do my makeup,” Sasha said as Gene parked in the Ro’meave’s driveway. She was a vampire, as usual, although this time she’d put on long fake nails. “Your makeup looks amazing, Vylad.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Gene said as they all got out of the car. “Okay, stick together, no running off, no committing any crimes-”
“Not even one?” Zenix asked, making me chuckle. Gene just sighed.
“Not even one.”
“You’re no fun, Gene,” I said, wrapping my arm around Gene’s shoulders - which was a lot more difficult to do than I’d thought, since Gene was a good six inches taller than me.
“You can commit crimes, because I trust that you’d do it for a good reason,” Gene said, making me grin. “I don’t trust the rest of you. Except maybe Sasha.”
“So homophobic,” Zenix sighed. I stuck my tongue out at it, Gene rolling his eyes.
“Let’s go grab hot chocolate,” I said, pulling away from Gene and heading across the street, having to half-drag Gene along behind me. The lady was sitting in a chair next to a little table of candy and cups of hot chocolate.
“Hello, dears,” she said, smiling at us. “Help yourselves.” Our group let out a chorus of “thank you”s as we grabbed hot chocolate and candy. I grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and handed it to Gene, who hesitated.
“It’s really good,” I assured him. He took it, sipping it a little. “See?”
“Mhm.” The lady looked between Gene and I.
“Is this the boyfriend you told me about last year?” she asked. Gene glanced at me as I nodded.
“I managed to drag him out here this year,” I said, pulling his free hand out of his pocket and holding it. “Last year he convinced us to let him stay home.”
“Something I’m wishing I did this year,” Gene muttered. Despite saying that, he intertwined our fingers and stepped a little closer to me.
“Well, I’m glad you came out here,” the lady said, smiling at him. “I hope you six have a good night. Don’t eat too much candy.”
“I plan on it,” Zenix said, grinning with her very sharp teeth. The lady chuckled.
“Well, you all have fun,” she said. I waved goodbye as Dante and Travis finally decided which direction they wanted to go in.
“Ooh, look at that house,” Sasha said, pointing at a house that was completely decked out in decorations. There was even a dressed up mannequin hanging from a tree. They went all out every year. I remembered going to that house as a little kid and being completely terrified, especially when Zane had dragged me to the front door through all the fake fog. It looked a little less scary when the sun was barely starting to set, and a lot less scary now that he was way older.
“Race you,” Dante said, running up the driveway towards the door. Travis chased after him, easily catching up and immediately making fun of Dante for being slow. I laughed, while Gene just rolled his eyes and smiled a little.
“I love your costumes,” the person at the door said as he passed out candy to all of us. “Happy Halloween, y’all.”
The six of us went from house to house attempting to avoid various groups of screaming children, while the sun set and the night got colder and colder. As it started to get closer and closer to 30 degrees, I started to regret wearing a toga (although my costume did get several compliments from random strangers, which made it worth it). Gene, Sasha, Zenix, and I talked the entire time, laughing about school and work while Dante and Travis kept running ahead of us.
“I’ll never forget that one kid in my math class who said he got three black trash bags full of candy every year,” Gene said as I swung our hands back and forth between us.
“Why the hell would he need that much candy?” Sasha asked, the four of us following Dante and Travis up to a door. “How would he even eat all of that?”
“Maybe it’s for fun, like what Laurance does,” I said, holding out my bag as the person at the door put a couple pieces of candy in it. “Thank you.”
“Laurance does that for the thrill of committing crimes,” Gene said. “They break into gated neighborhoods.”
“Garroth told me about that,” I said, giggling as I remembered how distressed Garroth had been. “Apparently Laurance got the cops called on himself. He and Garroth had to make up some excuse and somehow didn’t get fined or anything.”
“They got the cops called on them ?” Sasha laughed.
“And they’re still doing it again this year,” I said. Gene glanced around for a second and then shouted, “Dante, wait up. Don’t run off with your boyfriend.”
“I’m not!” Dante called back, already two houses down. “You’re just slow!”
“We’re almost back home,” I said, Gene and I both walking a bit faster. “We should probably head back soon. We’re still gonna watch a movie, right?”
“Of course,” Gene said. “It wouldn’t be Halloween without watching Hocus Pocus for the hundredth year in a row.”
“I also need to get back to your house so I can start eating candy,” Zenix said, holding its bag up. “I’m starving.”
“I’ll order pizza,” Gene said. “We’re all probably hungry, and we shouldn’t eat all our candy in one night.”
“Speak for yourself, I’m going to,” Zenix said, sticking out its tongue.
“My house is just over there,” I said, pointing to my house, which was a couple doors down. “Let’s grab Dante and Travis before they run off again and head home.”
***
“Quit making out in the back seat, we’re here,” Gene said, parking the car in the garage as Dante and Travis both tried to stammer out excuses at the same time. As all of us got out, Gene leaned over to me and muttered, “I regret letting them sit back there together.” I chuckled, linking our arms together as we all headed to the door.
“I can order pizza,” Sasha said as we all sat down in the living room. Gene started to speak, but Sasha held up her hand and pulled out her phone. “You’re terrible at phone calls. Sit down.” Gene crossed his arms and sat down, kicking off his boots and leaning on my shoulder. I wrapped the two of us up in the blanket I’d grabbed off the coffee table.
“Don’t eat all your candy or you’ll get sick,” Gene said as Dante bit into a whole Kit Kat. Dante snuggled up to Travis and stuck his tongue out at his brother. Gene huffed and glanced up at me. The two of us stared at each other for a second, before Gene kissed my cheek, pulling away with gold glitter on his lips. He wiped his mouth and said, “There. Now your makeup’s all messed up.” I smiled and hugged him tighter. He closed his eyes and relaxed.
“Love you, Gene.” All he replied with was “mhm, you too” as Sasha put her phone away and grabbed a DVD case off the shelf. I whispered “adorable” under my breath as the movie started up.