"You have to go to the Halloween party tonight!"

"Jesus Christ!"

Every pair of eyes in the classroom shot to me with my head down in the back. Warmth flooded my cheeks as I dug my nails into my palms, hoping that Ms. Baker would continue her lesson and drawn all attention off me. Instead, she rested her hands on her hips and narrowed her dark eyes at me.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Miss Colemen?"

I shook my head quickly and after a minute of intense staring from the petite teacher and the rest of my peers, she started reading from the textbook again. I slumped back in my seat in relief, but as usual it was flushed down the drain as Oliver repeated, "Halloween party. Tonight. You're going."

I waited until the last bell sounded and dismissed us to respond to him. "Which one? Why? How is that going to help us find your body or what happened to you?"

He scratched at the back of his head we headed down the hall to the front doors. "I go to them every year. Maybe they'll be someone or something there that jobs my memory."

"Then take your Casper the friendly ghost ass over there yourself and see. I'm not going."

"You are." he argued, eyes drifting from me to something straight ahead the moment we stepped outside.

My eyes followed and I groaned and thought about turning around to walk back into the school when I found Axel leaning against the passenger side door to his eye sore of a sports car. He shifted uncomfortably under all the eyes on him as my peers rushed passed, but looked relieved when he caught sight of me heading straight for him.

"I just can't escape you two." I grumbled miserably.

"You're going tonight." he said, nodding toward the phone in my hand. "They're fun, you need fun."

"Halloween is usually a bad night spirit wise." At least it wasn't a total lie, nor was it completely truthful, but he didn't know that. "I usually get slammed with multiple every year. I do not need to embarrass myself in front of an entire college campus full of hot frat boys, thank you!"

I hadn't realized we were close enough for Axel to eavesdrop until he responded to the latter part of my comment. "Hot frat boys, huh?"

"Shut up, Axel." I said in passing him, then paused and turned to look at him. "What are you even doing here? My dad is supposed to pick me up."

"Text him not to come." he answered as if it were that simple.

I snickered. "And say what? That the hot mechanic guy covered in car fluids showed up and wants to kidnap me?"

"Did you just call me hot?"

Did I just say that aloud?

"Axel, I need to go."

"To the Halloween party." Oliver finished with a grin.

I whirled around and pointed my finger accusingly at him. "I'm not going to the Halloween party."

"You are." Oliver responded in a sing-song voice.

"Halloween party?" Axel piped in, staring at my finger. I always seemed to forget that he couldn't see Oliver. I slowly lowered my hand to my side. "What are you talking about?"

I leaned back into the Jaguar and replied, "Oliver thinks I need to go to a Halloween party tonight because they're fun and they may jog his memory."

"I mean, it's not the worst idea." Axel sided with his brother. "He used to hit them every year."

I looked between the two brothers before throwing up my hands in exasperation. "You two are infuriating."

**

"I am not wearing this." I said it more to myself, but both St. James boys looked up from their current spots in my room and took in my costume.

Oliver was leaning into the wall beside my closet, currently a pile of clothes and hangers discarded nearby on the floor beside him. His brother was stretched out across my bed, rummaging through the old Vinyl collection I kept under my bed. Both pairs of eyes widened at my appearance, but it was Oliver who pushed off the wall and crossed the room to me. "Yes! You are absolutely wearing that."

I gestured toward the red bra and matching panties and fishnets. "I may as well walk around naked. I'm hardly wearing anything. One big gust of wind and it'll be gone."

Oliver sighs and shakes his head. "It's one night. It's Halloween. You want that idiot to regret ghosting you, right? Show him what he can't have."

"There's other ways." I reminded him and looked past him and into the full-length mirror as I neared it.

The costume was very risqué. It'd been laying in my mother's closet and a part of me was a little nauseous thinking that'd at one time she'd worn this skimpy outfit. But the other part of me felt as though the faux fluffy red wings that brushed my shoulder blades felt as if she had her arms around me. I needed the security and familiarity of this costume, especially tonight. Most kids wanted their birthdays to be acknowledged, but my birthday had been the day my mother died, and had no desire to mutter a single word about it to either of the boys.

"See what Axe thinks." Oliver urged with a look in his brother's direction.

I had a pretty good idea of his brother's opinion given he hadn't taken his eyes off me since he'd glanced in my direction. "Oliver think I should wear it."

"I think it's uh. . ." he trailed off.

"Yes?" Oliver encouraged his brother despite the older St. James idiot not able to hear his little brother.

I stuck my tongue out at Oliver with an I-told-you-so look. "Yeah, me too."

"No, Ophelia, it doesn't look bad." Axel tried to put his feelings into words as he stood, "The opposite, actually. I just don't think it's a great idea to go to a college party in that."

"Because men like to objectify women? I hate to break it you, buddy, but they'll do that no matter what we wear." I eyed him with a tilt of my head. "You're worried about me, aren't you?"

Axel snorted. "Don't flatter yourself."

"You're in denial."

In a quick, graceful movement, he had crossed the room to me and me all but pinned to the wall beside my dresser, one closed fist over my head and the other inches from my bare stomach. I could feel the warmth of his body against mine and was incredibly grateful he was still fully clothed. He lifted the hand at my waist and brushed a strand of my hair out of my eyes and leaned forward so the warmth of his breath tickled my cheek and sent a shiver through me. "Wear what you want. If you stay on guard and we get done what we're going to do, it doesn't matter."

To both my relief and dismay, my father appeared in the doorway and knocked at the door. Axel immediately pushed himself from the wall and offered my father a polite nod, but my Dad looked seconds away from breaking his neck.

"Did I interrupt something?"

I wished the ground would just swallow me.

"No, Dad." I responded, pinching the bridge of my nose. "We were just talking."

Dad looked between us with a shake of his head. "I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday before you took off for the night."

Axel's eyes shot from my father to me and he blinked, shocked. "It's your birthday?"

"I didn't know today was your birthday." Oliver commented, equally as taken back as his brother.

"Thanks, Dad." I looked to Axel, "We better get going though."

He rested a hand on my shoulder as I passed, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Both of the idiots trailing after me waited until we were in Axel's car to ask questions.

"Why didn't you mention it was your birthday?" Oliver asked.

I didn't meet his eyes, "Because I don't care."

"Why?"

"Just drop it, Oliver." I snapped. "I don't want to talk about it and you both better forget you heard it."

*

As soon as we'd pulled up, Axel climbed out and walked around the car to open the door for me. To my surprise both of the had been eerily silent the entire drive here, as if they'd actually taken my words to heart and didn't want to see me break. I appreciated that.

I looked Axel up and down with a curious eyebrow raise. "What are you supposed to be?"

He was in a white V-neck, leather jacket and jeans. He hadn't even bothered to dress up.

"I don't know. Maybe that glittery vampire dude from that movie you girls were so obsessed with."

I laughed. "You mean Edward Cullen from Twilight?"

"Yeah, that guy."

Before we could head up the crowded lawn to the house, he leaned in through the passenger side to grab a jacket from the back seat and held it out to me, locking the car over his shoulder.

"Stay near me, okay? We need to find whatever it is Oliver think we may find and if we don't, we need to get out of here."

"Yes sir." I saluted him with a small smile.

He rolled his eyes, "Behave yourself, Ophelia."

I waved off his words dismissively, "Bite me, sparkly vampire man."

It wasn't until I was almost to the front door that I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and found him shaking his head and laughing in amusement. My eyes left him and fell on Oliver standing in front of his brother's car, a smirk playing on his lips.

Then with no more than a quick wink, he disappeared. As if he'd never been there in the first place.