This is my entry for the 2013 Halloween contest.
"I guess they didn't waste any time. I got the invitation a couple weeks ago. Halloween? Really? Who plans a Halloween wedding?" They both laughed at that and he shrugged.
"It sounds like a good time. Fun fun fun for all ages."
"Did you see that coming? The two of them together? Married?" She tilted her head tossing her hair over her shoulder. "First it was Julia and Paul getting together, then we lost Dave to that woman he brought to dinner twice, Jenny and Mara both married off and gone, now these two. I guess it's just the getting together with each other that makes me go, huh. We've all known each other so long I can't picture it, like it's almost incestuous, like kissing brothers and sisters."
"Well, I saw it coming. He's had it in his head for a while. Why do you think he hasn't dated anyone else since that hag, what was her name, the short one. Not everyone here only sees us as brothers." He punctuated that with a wink. "Kissing cousins maybe." She gave a small yelp from the kick under the table.
"He's been waiting to swoop in on her when the time was right." He moved his hand through the air like a bird to emphasis his joke. From there he ran his hand through the dark hair. To Juniper's envy that's all it ever got for styling.
His usual perma grin showed his amusement at her annoyance. It surprised him, she was usually the one in the know about these kinds of things. She could always see it for everyone else but not for herself.
The happy couple holding hands turned to wave from the doorway of the restaurant like sickeningly sweet school kids. A quick wave back at them and she turned her eyes to Donovan. He'd been watching the sweetheart cuteness too, with an expression that came as much from the display as from the response across the table. He rolled his eyes which could have been taken as humor for the PDA but was really a reaction to her. She always amused him.
She sat across from him stacking up the plates to push them aside when they were alone at the table. The group of friends that gathered for dinner every Sunday had gotten smaller and smaller as everyone's lives shifted from the carefree college kids to real life grown ups. Now they were starting to pair off together, not just with other people but now getting together with each other within the circle of friends.
"Juniper, will you go with me? We don't have to do a couples costume or anything." The mischief in his eyes says he knew how it sounded and he added the pleading tone for effect. "No really, you have to go with me. If I don't pick you up and keep you as a captive audience, you'll find some way to sneak away early or flake out entirely and not show up." His easy smile softened the truth. "I know this wedding is a whole list of things you hate. But they are both our friends, and you love them like a brother and a sister. It will hurt their feelings if you're not there," he said in a rare moment of seriousness.
"I don't hate..." Donovan quickly interrupted as he was ready for a number of different arguments and was entertained by her first choice. "Juniper Pearl Carter, I know you. I know you better than you'd like to admit. Shall I list the things about this you hate? Let's start with crowds in general, Halloween in principle, wearing a costume, the sappy public displays of affection, cheap cold food, a whole evening of small talk, shall I continue?" He swatted her elbow with the hand he'd just ticked off points on and made a face in response to the indignant expression across the table.
"But I like weddings." Her posture softened at the thought, her gaze drifted away as she twirled a curl of hair off her shoulder. She hid her dark eyes by looking away, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right on all counts.
"Yeah, maybe you like them for the open bar." He scoffed and pushed back from the table, his long legs unfolding. They'd been to weddings together, they'd been to lots of things together. Together with a group or alone with each other. He knew how she worked.
"That's nice too but not the only reason." She shifted her weight to turn away from the table and reached for another curl to twist. A nervous habit but she liked how it made her hair look like the natural loose curls were tighter.
"Why then? Tell me why do you like weddings?" She was always one of his favorite people to tease because of the way they played off each other and together.
"I like to flirt with the dirty old men and their being drunk helps." She caught him finishing his beer and laughed at him when it almost ended up spit out on the table. She was playing with him but it was also the truth, not the only reason but one of them.
"You don't wait for weddings to do that and you don't need them drunk at any age." His voice sobered even if his expression still laughed. She could flirt her way into most anything, he'd seen her do it. She didn't go anywhere with it most of the time, she was just having fun. His mind wandered away for a moment.
Those tits, ahh look what she can do. No don't look, don't get caught. Again.
He chastised himself, he should be more respectful. She was a lady and she was his friend. What do the ladies like them called - boobs, they preferred boobs.
Ahh look what she can do with those boobs.
He shifted in his seat because just thinking about her tii...boobs could do that to him.
Juniper shifted in her seat a little thinking that might have been a dig at her dating history. The two of them had seen a lot happen in each others lives over the last few years. As the circle of friends got smaller the closer they became with those that were left. Sometimes it embarrassed her when she thought about the depth of personal details he knew, things only the closest girlfriends are supposed to be in on. He was definitely not a girlfriend but somehow had always been a safe confidante. Safe in that way a woman can talk with gay, married or inappropriately old men. He was definitely none of those either.
Donovan had also confessed to all kinds of sin, usually under the influence to some degree but she suspected the drunk was only a screen to hide behind, can't blame much on only a couple beers. He would often ask about the woman's perspective on matters of dating and love. By the end of these discussions she usually ended up saying the same thing, that if she knew what to do she'd be doing it in bed every night, wrapped around a man with the biggest cock imaginable with no time for his problems.
How did they end up so far into the 'friend zone' without ever doing anything about it? It was something they never talked about.
"I don't know what to be. A fireman? A cowboy? A cop?"
"Why don't you go as the entire 'Village People' and sing YMCA. Go look in the costume shop, they'll help you figure out what you want to be when you grow up. I gotta go, you ready?"
"Just get a dress, make yourself pretty and I'll pick you up." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders pulling her to his side as they made for the door. At his height her shoulders landed under his armpit when she didn't have heels on. This left a large space open below his ribs where she often gave him an elbow shot. He always exaggerated the force of it and usually played it up with sound effects. That day was no different.
"I'm always pretty." She responded to his fake hurt with an exaggerated pout, flipping her hair at him as they walked down the sidewalk. Waiting at the stop light to cross the road she gasped as he reached out taking a fistful of hair to point her face up to his.
"Don't flip your hair at me," in a playful growl "or I'll use it as a handle and you've just told me I'm nothing better than a bratty brother." This kind of joking sexual threat was not unheard of between them and others of the group but never the hair pulling. Her eyes shot open wide, darker than usual in the street light.
A thought raced through her mind,
