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room. I could see her in the kitchen
hovering over the stove.
    “Hope you’re making enough for two.”
    She turned around to give me a smile. “I
heard you upstairs. You haven’t been eating a lot. I’m not that
good a cook, but you’ll get over it.”
    I laughed. I couldn’t remember the last time
I laughed.
    “I don’t even cook for Daryl, so keep this a
secret.”
    I pointed at her. “Speaking of Daryl.
Homecoming next Friday, right?”
    “You’re still going?”
    “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
    “Well, you know. We thought you might not
go.”
    “Nah. You guys wouldn’t have any fun without
me.”
    “You’re probably right.” She paused for a
moment. There was a bit of uncomfortable silence. “Listen, I’ll
never bring it up. But if you want to talk about what happened, you
know I’m here for you, right?”
    I smiled. My best friend since kindergarten.
We knew things about each other that we didn’t even share with our
boyfriends and girlfriends, when we had them. We teased each other
a lot. Our friendship was full of humor and practical jokes. But we
knew when to be serious, and we took care of each other.
    “Thanks, Cindy. I appreciate it.”
    “Now shut up and help me finish
breakfast.”
    *****
    Things quickly got back to normal. It’s funny
how life does that. After a full day of school and hanging out with
my sister and Cindy, my mind went from dwelling on haunted houses
to getting ready for Homecoming. I did get a quick update from
Tammy that her house was now “normal”, but besides that, I didn’t
think about it too much.
    I did think about Homecoming. Much more than
I really wanted to. I blame that on Cindy and Alicia. They kept
putting it in my head on how I needed to look my best. Since I was
going alone, they made it their personal goal to make sure I left
Homecoming with someone. The funny part is the more they kept
putting the focus of Homecoming on me, the more I stopped caring. I
was only going to spend time with my two best friends. And I hate
to admit it, but their argument of “This will be the only time we
get to do this” worked. Cindy and I were seniors, this was it for
us. Alicia would spend the next three high school years without us.
I didn’t want to be the one to keep our little group apart on our
only Homecoming night.
    The big day came up quick. Three hours before
the dance, Alicia was in her room doing whatever it is ladies do to
get ready for something important. Me, I was downstairs working out
in a pair of shorts. That shows how much I was stressing over the
dance compared to Alicia. I couldn’t help but laugh as every now
and then I’d hear a scream followed by “My fucking hair!” from
upstairs.
    It didn’t take me long to get ready at all.
After I was dressed and happy enough with what I saw in the mirror
I went downstairs. It took Alicia another twenty minutes to get
ready.
    “Are you excited?” she asked.
    “Eh, it should be fun.”
    “Oh, come on, Alex. You aren’t pumped up at
all at seeing every hot girl in school dress up to impress
guys?”
    “Aren’t they dressing up to impress their
dates?”
    She smiled fiendishly. “Well, yeah. But let’s
put it this way. I’m going with Tom from my algebra class. But he’s
not my boyfriend.”
    I just rolled my eyes.
    There was a honk outside. Alicia took a deep
breath.
    “How do I look?”
    She looked great, as usual. My sister and I
were nothing alike physically. I always thought she had the looks
in the family. I gave her a thumbs-up.
    “Remember to grab the camera. Mom said she
wants enough pictures to fill a book.”
    I grabbed the digital camera from the dining
room table and followed Alicia outside. Cindy stood there in front
of a white limousine. I still felt renting a limousine was
overboard, but there was no arguing with them.
    I tried to keep my mouth from opening as I
approached Cindy. I spend so much time with her that I forget how
hot she is sometimes. She wore a white dress that