I wanted to give Armando a second shot.

I could hear everyone in the world sighing all at once. I knew it was dumb and stupid and it made me look desperate. I mean, why would I want to date Armando? He had accepted payment to play with my emotions and libido.

"But we had a great first date," my heart kept repeating. "We laughed and joked around and had an amazing time."

"Yeah, but he could've been faking it," my brain responded. "He had already been paid so everything that happened could've been a lie. Every smile was already purchased, every laugh already planned. Maybe our first day wasn't as great as I thought it had been."

"Or it was, we don't know for sure," my heart replied.

I knew the odds weren't in my favor but a second chance was a second chance. That day, after school, I got back to my house and spent the day with my mom, trying to make up my mind: should I find the courage to call Armando or should I listen to Buch instead?

I looked at my phone, at the text messages I had. Armando still hadn't replied to the threats and curses I had sent him. It was a miracle he hadn't blocked me yet. I thought about giving him a call but I decided to text him instead.

I wrote a simple "hey," and a "how are you?" and sent them. I waited for a whole day. He didn't reply.

It was the 30th of October when I decided to go to the mall, to the bowling alley where I first saw him. Nothing. Luckily, Buch's sushi place was in the mall so I hung out with him that day. He tried to make me change my mind, convince me to let Armando go but to no avail.

The next day I couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere in my house but there was no sight of them. I remembered that mom kept a spare set in the garage so I went and took them. They looked funny but...

When I got out of the house I went to check the bowling alley for the second day in a row. There was nothing. Again. Of course, he wasn't there! I thought. Armando just came here because Buch and Captain told him I was going to be here. It's not like he hangs out here often.

I know, I responded to myself, checking my texts. Armando still hadn't replied. But I don't have many options right now.

I was walking towards the sushi place, again, strolling through the mall. Everywhere around me there were smiling pumpkins on the floor, cobwebs on every corner, and skeletons standing next to every store. It was hard not to notice what time of the year we were at. In the end, right before I got to the sushi place, sitting on a table at the restaurant across, I saw Captain.

I was still a little mad at him and, had I been paying attention, I wouldn't have talked to him but as soon as I saw him my hand raised to the air, instinctively. "Hey, Captain!"

That's when reality hit me. First, he wasn't alone. He was with some boy around our age but, right after I greeted Captain, the boy stood up and left. For a second I thought it was Armando but when the boy looked back at me I could see it was just some random boy.

Secondly, I was mad at Captain. He still hadn't apologized to me yet even though the whole Armando thing had been his idea. Maybe Buch said he apologized for the two of them but that didn't count in my book. I thought about just walking away but I had just waved at him and, besides, that random boy had just left.

I sighed and walked towards him.

"Hey," I greeted him.

"Hey," was all I got in return.

We stared at each other and stayed seated in silence. Well, he was seated, I was awkwardly standing up across the table. I wasn't sure if I should sit or not, if I should say something or not but when one of the waiters came to us, I sat. "Who was the guy that..."

"Never mind that," Captain moved in his chair, uncomfortable. "You..." There was a pause as if a thought was passing through his head. "What are you doing here, Johnny?"

I looked over my shoulder and pointed at the Japanese restaurant. "I was going to the sushi place, see if Buch was there."

Captain didn't even flinch. He looked down and started picking up the scraps of food on the table. It was evident that he had been there for a while. Before opening his mouth, he looked me in the eyes. "Well, Buch told me you wanted to see Armando."

I had my guard down so when I heard that I got defensive. "So?"

"Why do you even want to see him?" Captain leaned against the table, almost pushing the little Halloween pumpkin in the middle. "After all that has happened?"

"You mean, after what you did?" I said, stern. But then, I remember something Buch had told me: "It was your idea, after all, right?"

It was a low blow but it was true. I could see in his eyes the guilt he felt. A part of me was proud of having said that, while another thought I could've chosen better wording.

"That's fair," Captain conceded, sad and distant. Maybe it was regret, maybe it was something else. "It was my idea although Buch and I did it together. I'm sorry about that. I'm... I'm not that great with apologies. I know I should've said it sooner. Sorry about that too."

I let out a big sigh. "Actually, I'm not that mad about the Armando thing, to be honest. Maybe I should but I'm not. What angered me the most was that you didn't even try to talk to me after what happened."

Captain kept staring at the table; he took his time before giving me a brief glance, and only when he saw I wasn't mad, he raised his head and faced me. His lips were painted with a crooked, nostalgic smile. I wasn't angry, I really wasn't. I just wanted things to go back to the way they were with him.

"I'm sorry, Johnny," he repeated.

I was about to say that it was okay, that he was forgiven, that everything was fine but another idea came to my mind. "Captain," I called him and he looked at me. "If you really are that sorry, don't be. You can make it up to me. I told Buch that I wanted to get in touch with Armando again but he said I shouldn't. But he didn't tell me why. He only said that it had something to do with you."

"What? I don't min..." The look in Captain's eyes turned to disbelief. "Buch says a lot of things."

"Buch also said he used to date you."

The expression on his face was priceless. He got red, blushing, and started to look nervously at the sides. "He told you that?" He was embarrassed but you could tell he was trying to appear cool about it. "Man, that sister can't keep a secret."

I leaned forward across the table. "You know, Buch even showed me the place where you had your first date picnic," I was buttering him. I had to make him talk. "It was quite something, really. I never thought about you two dating but when he told me everything, it made sense somehow."

That seemed to take him by surprise. "You think so?"

"Yeah, but let's not change the subject. You are here to tell me why you don't want me to see Armando."

Captain started to fiddle with his fingers, perhaps searching for the right words or the best way to deliver them. He stayed like that for a few seconds before taking his phone out of his pocket. "Tell you what. Come with me and I'll tell you."

"Come with you?" I was confused. "Where?"

He gave me one of those looks. "What have I been telling you all month, Johnny? Today is the 31st, the Halloween Party is today. Everyone important is going to be there and we are the Booze! We need to be there too."

I looked at the sky. I had completely forgotten about the party. I was excited about it but when the whole thing with Armando happened I got distracted. I wanted to go but admitting that would only make it harder for him to tell me.

"Dude, I'm not going to a party." I lied, pressuring him. "You paid someone to date me, remember? Now tell me, you owe me that much."

Captain was quick, he replied almost immediately: "You owe me too." Now it was my turn to give him one of my looks. Captain explained. "The guy who was here with me when you arrived, who do you think he was? He was my date. I was going to take him to the party with me but he got jealous of some texts he saw and... when he saw you, he thought... you know what. You and me. So, I lost my date for the party. You owe me."

"What?" I was confused. "Well, just find another date."

"I'm not Buch," Captain complained. "I can't find a date just like that. You owe me."

I opened my mouth ready to complain but even I must admit that the guy did leave just as I was approaching the table. "You owe me first," that was all I was able to come up with.

"Then we are square," Captain smiled.

"Square?" That made me a little bit mad. "You paid someone to date me, lied to me, and took an awful lot of time to apologize. I'm sorry I scared your date away but I wouldn't call that square."

Captain stayed quiet for a second. I looked at his phone, lying on the table, and was able to see the invitation to the party. I had to admit, a lot of people on social media seemed to be hyped about it. Especially considering how amazing the venue was.

"Okay, you are right, we are not square, I'm sorry" Captain leaned against his chair. "But tell you what, let's make this a win-win situation. Come to the party, I'll pay the cover as an apology and, when the party's over, I will tell you everything about Armando. What do you say? Besides, it will be fun and if you don't go, Buch won't go. Come on, you can't leave me."

"Oh, so you are saying that you only want me to go to make Buch go?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Captain complained. "But I promise we will talk about Armando, okay?"

The promise of hearing his story, of understanding the reason why it was a bad idea for me to talk to him, was appealing. Besides, Captain had been telling us to go to the party for a month, and even though I wasn't as social as them, I did like to have fun once in a while. Plus, I could use the distraction.

I was debating it in my head when the waitress approached us and asked me if I wanted something. I said no with a quick movement of my head so she turned to Morgan and gave him the bill.

"Here you go, Morgan," the waitress smiled at him.

That was weird. I turn towards Captain. "You come here often?"

"I like it here," He shrugged it off but, for a second, his eyes went not to the taco place but to the sushi restaurant across where Buch worked at, making a sad smile, but a second later, it all disappeared. He took out his wallet and laid the money next to the bill. "What do you say about the party? Are you in?"

I sighed. "Okay, let's go."

"Let's go," he repeated with a smile, standing up.

"But, aren't we going to wait for Buch?" I said pointing at the sushi restaurant. I couldn't see the red-haired boy from where I was but I knew he was there.

"Already talked to him. He is going to my house after work," Captain explained, showing me the text he had just received. He stood up and put on his jacket, starting to walk around the mall. He was wearing a red jacket with a yellow shirt underneath. It was an unusual combo that contrasted with his dark skin, I would've never thought about it but for some reason, it really worked and he looked great. Captain had always been good at fashion. That made me think...

"I don't have a costume," I said out loud. I put my hand in my head. With the whole Armando thing going on I never even bothered to look for a costume. Now I had to improvise, look for an open store, a...

"I have an extra costume," Captain said, walking through the mall. All the pumpkins were staring at us, every spider on every cobweb too. "I bought one but then I changed my mind. Are we the same size? I don't know but it'll have to do. You are lucky, Johnny."

Captain led me to the parking lot where his car was. It was weird but when you are young there's nothing like having a friend with a car. The possibilities are limitless.

"So, how about we go to my house to try out the costumes?" Captain asked, he was no longer holding back his excitement, which was spreading to me.

"Let's go, just let me text my mom about it..."

When we got to Captain's place, his parents weren't home, only the twins were there. Yeah, Captain had two little siblings, a boy, and a girl, both about 13 years old. They were annoying as hell.

"Morgan!" They both said as soon as they saw us come in. "Johnny! You wanna play? We have a new game about..."

"Not right now," Captain cut them. "We are going out and need to get ready."

The look on their faces was so sad it almost made me reconsider but it was already 5 in the afternoon so we needed to get ready if we wanted to make it in time for the party.

Captain lived close to my house - about three blocks away. Same neighborhood even. But his bedroom wasn't inside his house. He had turned an old shed in the backyard into a room and he was living there, a little more independently but still with his parents. It wasn't big but it was what he liked.

As soon as we got in I threw myself on the bed and watched as Captain looked inside his closet, looking for the costumes we were going to wear. I put on a playlist and started to mention several things Buch had told me from when they had dated. Captain seemed a little uncomfortable with me knowing all that but he didn't protest. Then I asked him about the date I had pushed away at the taco place.

"What about him?" Captain asked, pulling out a bag from the closet.

"I didn't know you were dating someone new," I mentioned. "Usually when you do you tell us about it. Why didn't you say something? Was this different, special?"

Captain chuckled at that. "I don't know why I didn't tell you about him but no, nothing special."

That had to be true, he didn't even seem bothered by it. "Sorry for scaring your date away."

"Don't worry about it, Johnny," Captain put another bag on the bed. "He wasn't that big of a deal and I'm used to having my heart broken," he said trying to sound cool but really it came off a little forced. Maybe there is something else he isn't telling me.

"The costumes are in those bags? What are they?"

"It's a surprise," Captain gave me a bag. "Just go and try it on. I will put my costume on too."

"What if it doesn't fit me?" I asked but noticed Captain wasn't listening to me and was texting on his phone. "Hey!" I said. "What if it doesn't f... my God," I moved towards him and tried to take his phone from him.

"Stop it!" Captain complained but, a few moves and I was able to take the device from him. "Hey, I am listening to you."

"Really?" I gave him a look of disbelief. "What did I just say?"

"You..." Captain froze. "Okay! I wasn't listening! Happy?"

"Very," I said, looking at the screen of his phone. "And why the hell are you always texting Buch? Isn't seeing him daily at school enough?"

Captain didn't reply, just rolled his eyes and took his phone back.

"I said: what if the suit doesn't fit me? What then?"

He raised his shoulders ironically. "We don't have time to find another one so we will make it fit, don't worry about that, just go ahead and try it on."

I walked into the bathroom, turned on the light, and looked at myself in the mirror. I had always been like this. All excited about a party but inexplicably nervous the hour before it started. My mind made me think of every possible bad outcome.

I shook my head and opened the bag. I wasn't sure what I was expecting. Mummy, vampire, angel, skeleton, pirate... but none of those things were inside. No. I took off my clothes, standing in nothing but my underwear, and took the costume out of the bag. It was white and blue and black.

I put on the shirt. It felt stiff and funny. It almost looked like a regular white shirt only it had black and yellow decorations. It was a little too big but nothing too bad.

Then I put on a pair of pants. They felt stiff too. I tried to make them fit but they were a little too big for me. I grabbed my belt to help me keep them in place just to find the pants had no slots for it. Then I noticed it had suspenders attached to it. They weren't adjustable so when I put them on my shoulders they were too long and it made the pants go a little too low, showing a good part of my underwear.

Then, I saw a white and black tie. I put it on as best as I could and then, finally, I put on the hat. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I could finally tell what I was.

"I'm coming out!" I said, knocking on the bathroom door.

"You already did!" I heard but it wasn't Captain's voice.

When I stepped into the bedroom I saw Buch had arrived in the meantime. "Ha-ha, very funny," I said, walking towards him and hugging him. Part of me felt a little awkward about seeing him after all that had happened on his bed but Buch didn't seem to be troubled about it, not one bit. That made me relax. So, maybe fooling around with friends wasn't such a big deal.

"Oh, sister!" Buch said as soon as he saw my costume. I was holding the suspenders to keep the pants from showing too much. "You are such a handsome little sailor! I want to take a look at your boat."

That made us all laugh. "And you are dressed as a cowboy," I said to Captain who was wearing the entire outfit, from the stuffy boots to the Texan hat. I could see why he had chosen that instead of the sailor suit. He looked astonishingly well, like straight out of a perfume commercial from Arizona.

Captain gave a little twirl and even showed us the fake guns he had as part of the costume. "Black cowboy, that's right."

"And you are..."

"Redhead Zeus," Buch replied. He was wearing a white toga with red decoration on top, he had sandals and even a little laurel wreath. The red details on his costume matched really well with his hair. "Look at my lightning," he said, showing us several cardboard pieces shaped like lightning, painted electric yellow. "You like it?"

"Surprisingly original, and etnic," I replied.

"Don't listen to him, everything is politics with Johnny," Captain dismissed me. "You look incredible Buch, it really shows off your personality, I like it a lot."

"Really? Thank you, sister," Buch flexed his muscles. "Okay, we are ready to..."

"Guys," I interrupted them, showing them my suspenders. "Would you mind helping me with..."

They picked clips to keep them in place, bending them until they fit. When I looked at the mirror again the costume looked better than ever. "Okay, I'm ready."

Buch nodded and we all walked to the car. The streets were flooded with little kids asking for tricks or treats, their parents by their sides. Several houses were ornamented with pumpkins and spider webs. It was really quite something.

The place wasn't far away and with Captain's car, we got there pretty quickly. Even before I saw it, I knew we were at the right place. Pink and blue neon lights shined on the sides of the building, sparkling through the night. The entrance was decorated with several signs people were using to take photos along with a red carpet for good measure. It was almost 9 pm. A little early, but the place was already packed. Wings, costumes, and make-up were all part of the scene. Tonight, everything was fair game. Tonight, it was Halloween.

I looked through the window and spotted several people outside the place. In my mind, I had the idea that the party was going to be at the school gym or something, but this place looked like something else. A lot of older people were there, guys above 18 and in their 20's. I got a little nervous.

"You okay, Johnny?" Captain asked, looking briefly at me before parking the car.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just that..." I looked through the window. "Those guys seem older. A lot older."

Buch gave me a warm smile. "Don't worry, Johnny. It's okay. I've dated older guys and let me tell you, they are just like us, only stupider." That made me smile. "Really, let me tell you a secret: people, teens, and grown-ups, never know what they are doing. No one ever has a clue. Never. Think about that and it'll all be better."

"Yeah," Captain helped him. "Besides, look at that guy, he's dressed like a dog. Do you think that's scary?"

I looked at where he was pointing. "That guy is not dressed as a dog! He is dressed as a hound."

"He is? Well, it doesn't matter. My point stands, hounds aren't scary."

I leaned forward. "Unless you are a fox," they all gave me confused looks. "In the old days, people used hounds in fox hunts. Hounds are kind of scary. They..."

"Okay, sisters" Buch intercepted, "let's not think about that. Positive thoughts, sisters, positive thoughts. This is a party, a Halloween Party and we are going to rock it. Do you know why?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we are the frinking Booze. We have a wild west black cowboy, a respected sailor, and a mother fucking Greek God."

"Redhead Greek Good," Captain added.

"A mother fucking redhead Greek God," Buch smiled. "And we are going to have the night of our lives. And yeah, they have a hound and we may be foxes in this hunt, sisters. But let me tell you this is no ordinary hunt, oh no. Tonight..."

I stepped out of the car, getting what Buch was saying. They got out after me and we looked at each other. We were all smiling.

"Tonight, the foxes hunt the hounds."