"Jude," dad called as I grabbed my car keys. "I haven't seen your costume. Come back."

               "Dad, come on, it's just a costume," I said, but went into the living room.

               "I know. But while you're still having fun with dressing up, I want to see," dad said, and smiled at my costume. "So you're...oh, what's the name? I looked it up after you and your friends picked your theme."

               "It's-" I started.

               Dad held up his hand. "No, don't tell me!" He thought for a moment before his expression brightened. "Ezio! He was the assassin in the...second game? And a few others? Right?"

               "Yea," I said, looking down at my assassin costume. "Nate was Bayek and Landon was Jacob. Mom has the pictures."

               "And now you're heading to Staz's for the rest of the night?" dad said.

               I nodded. "Yea, I told him I'd come over after the party. I just wanted to stop here and grab a jacket. Staz wanted me to come in costume."

               "Have fun, and text me when it starts to get later," dad said.

               "I'm not a baby," I said, leaving the room. "See you later."

               I left the house and drove myself to Staz's. I went up and knocked on the door, his dad pulling it open. Staz was next to the bowl of candy, and he smiled when he saw me.

               "Hi Jude," he said. "Happy Halloween."

               "Hey," I said, going into the house. "You been giving out candy all night?"

               Staz nodded happily. "My dad said he'll greet people so I don't have to, and I can put the candy in their bags. He even lets me have candy while we wait."

               "Not too much, though, Staz. You'll make yourself sick," Mr. Montgomery said. "Nice to see you, Jude. Staz said you and your friends were going to a party."

               "Yea, we went for a few hours. Landon had to get back to his family, and Nate's brother was bringing him to another party, so we left a little while ago," I said.

               "Jude, do you like my costume? Nero and I went to the store together to get the stuff for it," Staz said, fidgeting with a piece of candy.

               "Hey Arnold, right?" I said, looking at the blue sweater and the plaid shirt sticking out from underneath.

               He gave a wide smile, excitedly slapping his hand to his leg. "Yes! Nero went as Gerald. But he went to a party."

               "Show Jude the pictures the two of you took before Nero left," Mr. Montgomery said.

               Staz took his phone out and I sat next to him as he swiped through the pictures. I nodded when he was done.

               "That's awesome, Staz," I said. "You did a great job with the costume."

               "I asked Ian and Dante to dress up with us, too. Dante is Stoop Kid. I didn't remember the episode, so I went to his house and we watched it together. Ian said no," Staz said.

               "Well, he's just older, Staz," Mr. Montgomery said. "Don't take it personally."

               "But I asked him," Staz said in confusion. "And he said no to me. So he meant it personally."

               "No, he..." Mr. Montgomery stopped and sighed. "He's just too old, that's all. That's why he said no."

               The doorbell rang and Mr. Montgomery pulled the door open. A small group of kids chorused out "trick or treat", and Mr. Montgomery smiled and complimented their costumes. Staz gathered up candy and counted out how many pieces he gave each kid, making sure they all got exactly six pieces.

               The kids called out their thanks and left. Staz sat back down and held out a piece of candy to me. I took it and tore the wrapper off, biting into it.

               "I like looking at the costumes," Staz said.

               "Yea? What's your favorite that you've seen tonight?" I asked.

               Staz thought hard before his face cleared. "We saw a little girl dressed up like the Star Wars girl. And she had this lightsaber that lit up and made noises!"

               "Oh, yea? That's cool," I said. I didn't know shit about Star Wars, and Staz didn't appear to know much either, but he seemed excited about the lightsaber.

               "What about you? Did you see any good costumes?" he asked.

               "There was this guy at the party who lost all his hair to chemo. He was Saitama from One Punch Man," I said. "That was pretty clever."

               "Oh," Staz said. "I don't know who that is."

               "Just a bald guy who punches really hard," I said. "It's an anime thing. Not a good show, so don't bother with it."

               "Okay," Staz said. "Can I hold your hand?"

               I put it out to him and he took it in his. He handed me another piece of candy, which I helped myself to. I didn't really care for candy, but eating it every once in a while didn't bother me.

               "Jude, do you mind answering the door for a few minutes? I'm just going to call Nero and see if he needs a ride home tonight," Mr. Montgomery said.

               "Of course," I said.

               He thanked me and left the room, holding his phone up to his ear as he disappeared. Staz was twirling a piece of candy in his free hand.

               "I did splatter art for Halloween," he said.

               "Splatter art?" I asked.

               He nodded. "It's splatter art, not scatter art. I splatter paint on paper. It's Halloween themed. Orange and black, and red for blood, and darker colors to make it creepy. I saved a piece of it for you. You can make it scatter art if you want to."

               "Nah, I think the splatter art thing sounds pretty cool," I said.

               "I drew a bat, and then did splatter art on the picture," he said. "I made it for you."

               "Thank you," I said, leaning over slowly and kissing his cheek when he moved towards me.

               "Thank you for coming tonight. I want to watch a Halloween movie after," he said. "Not a really scary one, though."

               "Whatever you want," I said, running my thumb in circles over his hand. "That's why I'm here, Staz."

               "I'm glad you're here," he said. "Can I kiss you?"

               "Always," I said, and leaned forward.

               As we shared a kiss, the doorbell rang. But I didn't break away from Staz's lips. The door could wait.             

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A.N.- Here have the absolute lamest thing I've ever written in my life that's extremely out of character because I haven't written the boys in 5ever. The scariest gift I could give you: a rushed Halloween special. Happy scary day!