As promised, Luke picked me from school and dropped me back home before he drove off saying he still had things to do.
The house was quiet and empty as usual. On the kitchen counter was a bowl of candy with a note in my dad's handwriting.
-will be at the usual hotel if you need us. Be careful and have fun. Happy Halloween!
Love, dad :)
In my house we weren't too big on Halloween and that was why there weren't scary decorations everywhere.
I looked at the bowl of candy that was for the trick or treater's; at least mum doesn't skip that every year.
Even though there'd be a party, trick or treater's would still come. This wasn't the first party I was hosting during Halloween.
The doorbell rang and I rushed to get it. Chloe, Jane, Callum, the Sterling's and Red were all standing there. They were to help me set up for the party.
"Hey guys, come in." I opened the door wider and walked away.
On seeing Red I remembered the race of tonight and I groaned.
"Cal, I'll have to leave you in charge sometime during the party, I've got something to do." I told him.
He nodded and Red gave me a knowing look. Whoever this Anonymous guy was, was going down tonight.
Chloe and Jane went to the basement to get the stuffs for the party and at some point when setting up and all of us was in the living room Callum spoke up.
"So who is that Ace guy?" He asked. I could hear the anger in his voice.
"He's no one guys, we just went out for lunch today that's all." I answered without looking at him.
"Oh okay so you ditched us for some lame nerdy guy huh?" His voice went up an octave higher.
I groaned. "It's not like that Cal."
"Then what is it like? Because it's clear." Jane was the one who spoke now.
I dropped the string of fake spider web. "Guys just drop it alright? It's not what you think it is."
"We're not going to drop it until you tell us something Liv," they all had the same expression on their faces all except Red. They were angry.
"Alright fine, he's helping me with something alright?" I looked at every single one of them.
"With what?" Jane snapped.
"Jesus guys calm down. If there was something really serious I'm sure she'll tell you already." Red cut in.
"Stay out of this James," Cal snapped looking at him.
Red rolled his eyes and looked at me.
"Guys please calm down and let's get this party over with." I said and Cal walked to me.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, "sorry I just don't want anyone getting what's mine." He looked at Red.
I furrowed my brows, "I'm not yours Cal."
"Yeah right," he kissed me and I kissed him back wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him to me.
He grabbed my ass causing me to gasp and with that he slipped his tongue into my mouth.
"Get a room guys," Mark said and Cal took his hand from my body for a second before placing it right back.
My guess was he flipped him the bird. I smiled into the kiss and Callum pulled away.
We got back to setting up everything and by six we were done. I heard the doorbell but before I could get to it Cal was there.
"You," I heard him growl and I rushed to him.
Ace was standing there in his work uniform, hands in his pocket.
"You ordered pizza?" He asked, ignoring Cal and looking at me.
"Right, bring them in," I pushed Cal out of the doorway.
"Cal calm down," I placed my hand on his chest trying to calm him down.
Ace and some other guy walked into the house and I lead them to the kitchen where they dropped the pizza boxes.
We ordered fifteen boxes of the medium sized pizza for the party and I had kind of forgotten.
When all the boxes were in, Ace walked into the kitchen, the POS machine in his hand.
"Card or cash?" He asked.
"Card," I answered taking out my purse from my bag which was on the kitchen counter to get my credit card.
Callum came up behind me and wrapped his hand around my waist. I rolled my eyes at his antics.
Ace completely ignored Callum as he swiped my card.
"Your card declined," Ace said looking back at me.
"Sorry," I took the card from him and pulled from Callum's grip to go get my other card in the living room.
My dad blocked that card when he found out I was smoking and he just got me a new one before he travelled not even bothering to unblock the other one.
I hardly used the card that was why it was in the living room. I think I used it sometime during the week and dropped it on the TV stand where we usually kept all our keys and the likes of it.
I took the card and ran back into the kitchen. He swiped the card and Cal used the opportunity to kiss me.
I swear I wanted to push him away but I feared for his ego. After getting the transaction done Ace gave me my card back before heading out.
Closing the door behind me I turned to Cal, arms flooded. "What was that for?"
"What? I was just marking my territory," he said it as if I was just some mere object.
"I'm not your girlfriend Cal," I reminded him.
"I know," he pulled his lips into a thin line. "Sorry I just don't like the rumors going around."
"Me neither but you don't see me doing what you just did," I walked away from him.
He sighed and threw his hands in the air, following me upstairs to my room. Jane and Chloe were already seated doing their makeup.
"Come on Liv," he begged.
"I have to get dressed, I'll see you soon." I closed the door in his face and sat with Jane and Chloe.
Chloe did my make-up and when we were done I got dressed. When we were finally done, the music had already started so we went downstairs.
The doorbell rang and I rushed to it. Two small kids dressed up were standing at the door, bags in their hands.
I took candy from the bowl that I dropped just by the door and gave them. "Happy Halloween," I smiled and they walked away.
"You're looking really sexy right now," Cal said from behind me.
He was dressed as Aladdin and I chuckled at that, "where's Jasmine?"
"You were supposed to be Jasmine," he walked closer to me and wrapped his hands around my waist.
"Supposed to be," I placed my hand on his chest.
Before he could kiss me the doorbell rang causing us to scramble from each other. This time around it wasn't kids at the door, they were people from school.
I ushered them in and the party officially started.
At this point I really wished I wasn't having a race tonight because I really needed a drink. It had been just a few hours since the party started and almost everyone I knew was drunk or tipsy save for Callum because I needed one of my friends apart from me to be sober in case shit happened.
The party was at full swing with the music pumping through the speakers and people dressed up as something or someone were all over the place, either drunk or just dancing.
Today I made sure that the food and drinks weren't spiked in any way because that happened the last time. Luckily it was only a few of the drinks so we had to throw it all out.
Everything valuable in the house was moved to my father's office and it was locked to keep people out.
I was seated on the couch, water in my hand as I watched the party go on.
"You look bored," Cal said, lifting up my leg and sitting there now placing my legs on his laps.
"Kinda," I shrugged.
"At your own party, you're bored? Come on, let's dance." Cal pulled me up and I reluctantly followed.
He led me to the middle of the dance floor before placing his hands on my hips and dancing. I shrugged and danced with him, moving my body with the beat.
After like two songs I excused myself from him and headed upstairs. Once in my room I took my emergency packet of cigarettes and lighter from my bag and lit one, pulling it to my lips.
I always kept an emergency packet in the glove compartment of my car so after my brother threw mine out the window, I took this one from my car today when Luke wasn't looking.
Opening my windows I sat on the ledge with my leg propped up. I heard a knock on my door but before I could respond it swung open and someone walked in.
"Get out!" I yelled not even bothering to look at the door.
"Olivia," he said and closed the door behind him.
"Ace?" Now that the door was closed I could see him properly from here, the small light from my nightstand illuminating the room.
"What are you doing here? The party is downstairs," he motioned to the door.
I jumped down from the window, "I was bored. I wasn't expecting you here," I told him truthfully.
"I know," he shrugged, stepping closer to me. I could now see that his arms weren't covered leaving his tattoos on display.
"You're not covering your arms," I mentioned and he nodded.
"I'm dressed as me, the real me." His eyes ran over my body. "You look good," he said and I felt my cheeks flush.
"Thanks," I tried to use my hair to cover my face. "You're sure no one recognized you?"
"They're too drunk to process anything," he sat on my bed.
I sat beside him and took a drag. He took the stick from my hand and brought it to his lips, taking a drag and surprising the hell out of me.
He didn't gag or cough like I expected, it was almost as if he had done it before.
"Damn," he gave me back the stick. "You're really killing yourself."
"You smoke?" I couldn't hide my shock.
"Used to," as he spoke, the smoke formed an unknown figure around his face.
"When? How did you stop?" I really needed the advice.
His face dropped, "my uncle died of a heart condition. He was a smoker and it turned out that the smoke was killing his lungs."
"Oh my God I'm so sorry, I didn't know." My voice was lower now.
"La vie continue," (life goes on,) he shrugged.
I looked at the cigarette in between my fingers and with one final look I stood up, crushed the butt of the cigarette on my ash tray and threw it all into the trash, the tray included. I took the pack lying on my table and my lighter and threw them into the trash too.
Ace chuckled, "if I knew that would do the trick I would have spoken sooner."
My alarm rang reminding me of my race tonight. "Shit, I have to go."
Taking my bag off my bed I unzipped it and told Ace to move from where he was sitting. Unlocking the safe under my bed I took out a wad of cash and stuffed my bag.
"What?" Iasked when I noticed Ace was looking at me. I locked the safe back and stood up, taking my keys from my table and switching off my night lamp. "Are you coming?"
He stopped me when I was inches from my door, "you're just going to waltz through your front door?"
"Yeah," I looked between him and the door.
"You do know that you're the host and even if people are drunk, you'll hardly get past the kitchen." He was making sense.
"Right," I nodded. "Come on," I locked my door and changed direction to my window opening it wider.
"You do know how to do this right?" I looked back at him and his face was once again stoic.
Rolling my eyes I began climbing out my window, using the tree just beside my window as an aid.
Seconds after Ace came climbing down like a pro, he dusted his palms as he stood in front of me.
We managed to get into my garage without being spotted and when we got to my bike I gave him the spare helmet.
"Can I drive?" He asked, clicking on his helmet.
"Uhhm," I looked between him and my bike. I'd never let anyone drive my bike so this was uncharted territory for me.
With a heavy sigh I gave him my keys and watched as he got on, started the bike and looked at me. I got on too and slowly wrapped my arms around his torso.
I felt him tense but he loosened up soon enough and we were pulling outof my garage.