"Who frowns while eating cake?"

I looked over at Emily. At least I thought it was Emily. She and her twin, Lily, were dressed like twins from some old horror movie. I could usually tell them a part because Lily has a mole under her left eye, but they both had the mark now.

"People who keep getting fooled by pretty cakes," I mumbled, poking at the mess of chocolate brown, red, and gold on my plate. It happened every time. I knew I didn't like cake, but whenever I saw a fancy one, I had to try it. Every time, I was disappointed. The people at Cake Me Up, the bakery branded on all the napkins, were talented, but not even they could get me to appreciate cake.

Liah laughed from across the table where she sat next to Vik. "I told you not to get any."

"All the cookies were gone." There was a whole spread of double chocolate chip that disappeared as soon as Mr. Sloan set them down.

"The cookies were delicious," Emily/Lily said, taking a bite of her cake. "But the cake is way better. Heaven."

I tried another bite of my own and nearly gagged. Pushing the plate away, I chugged the rest of my soda to wash the taste of fondant out of my mouth. Suddenly, someone plopped down in the chair beside me. Corey had a plate full of cake, but my eyes went to the two golden macarons.

When the cake was being cut, Myisha let everyone know the macarons were hers, since there were only four of them. Corey having them only confirmed my suspicions. They hooked up. Why else would she give him her cookies?

"You want one?"

My eyes shot up to Corey as he put a forkful of cake in his mouth. "No."

"You sure? Because you're drooling."

I narrowed my eyes at him and he went back to his cake.

As we ate, Myisha opened her gifts. She grinned and squealed and thanked everyone as she held up name-brand purses and limited edition vinyls and so many gift cards. I felt a little guilty when she thanked Liah and me for the sweater Liah bought.

"How is it so late already?" Liah stared at her phone, frowning. Myisha was done with presents. Now she stood by the exit, handing out gift bags as people said their goodbyes for the night.

Vik resembled a puppy the way his face fell. "You have to go?" He must've realized how that sounded and backtracked. "I mean, we weren't done with bowling."

Liah's silver painted lips spread in a smile. "We'll just have to finish the lesson some other time."

Watching the two of them made me giddy. The same way the romance books I read did. Witnessing two people fall for each other made me happy. And hopeful that, after filtering through the Dameon's of the world, I'd find someone, too.

• • •

"I thought Vik was gonna crap himself asking you out on a date," I said. We were in Liah's car, nearly home. Corey sat in the back, on his phone. Was he thanking Myisha for her cookies?

"It's not a date." The way her face practically split in two said otherwise. "We're going to hang out and bowl. He's cool. Plus, I can talk Marvel with him, since someone always tunes out my theories."

"Those movies are boring." I whipped around to face Corey, surprised we actually agreed on something.

"You're literally dressed like Spider-Man."

"This wasn't my choice."

"Blasphemous!" Liah shook her head. "That's why I'm making you walk."

I thought it was a joke until she pulled over. "You're being for real?"

"You see that?" She tapped the clock on the dashboard. "If I'm not home in three minutes, I lose my car privileges."

I couldn't argue with that. She usually picked me up before school and we'd go get coffee. It was the best way to start the day and completely reliant on her being able to use the car. Corey and I climbed out. I waved to Liah as she sped off way above speed limit.

It was almost eleven. The street was dark save for a few streetlights that gave off an eerie blue light. No kids were out trick or treating, there was no music spilling from houses having parties. Holidays on weekdays were never as fun.

"How's your head?" Corey asked out of the blue.

My fingers found the lump on my forehead. I'd avoided mirrors and other reflective surfaces, so I didn't know how bad it looked, but it felt huge. "Still hurts."

"And you're cool? No dizziness or anything?"

"No..." I looked over at him, his eyes squinted at me as if he could see my brain if he tried hard enough. "Why?"

He turned away, eyes on the sidewalk. "Just asking. You know, concussion symptoms could show up hours later."

"I don't know that." Now it was my turn to squint at him. "Why do you know that?"

He lifted a shoulder. "No reason."

Did he...I paused on the sidewalk. Corey stopped too, his brows knitted in confusion. "Did you research concussions?" I couldn't contain the smile the take over my face, especially when he refused to look at me, like he was embarrassed. I placed my hand over my heart. "You did! Were you worried about me?"

He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his hoodie. "I was worried about having to tell your mom and brother that you died because you couldn't walk down two steps."

"It was four steps."

"And you didn't make it past the first one."

"Technically, I made it past all of them."

He laughed before turning and continuing down the street. I didn't follow, my eyes on the ghostly skeleton that hung from a tree. The house was decorated like a haunted grave yard with tombstones and skeletons crawling out of piles of dirt. That's when I realized what street we were on.

I'd passed that street every day that month, watching as it slowly transformed into a street of spooky houses. They did it every year, and every year it was bigger and better. I usually dragged Liah to walk the street with me, but, between working on the musical and everything, I'd forgotten about it. Now it was late and the lights were off. I missed it.

"You know him?" Corey came back to join me, looking up at the skeleton.

"I didn't get to see everything lit up," I said, ignoring his joke.

"That one is still lit." He pointed to a house on the corner that still had its lights on, a giant inflatable ghost in the middle of their lawn. One small bright spot.

"Yeah. The entire street probably looked amazing, though." With a last look at a skeleton escaping it's grave, I continued down the street.

I thought Corey was right behind me until I heard him jogging to catch up. "You got a pen and paper?"

"Why?" I asked, already grabbing the small backpack I used as a purse to get what he needed.

"Most of these houses have doorbell cameras." He pointed to a few of them. "I could ask them to turn the lights on."

"That's not going to work. They're probably all asleep." Even as I said it, I handed him my sketchbook and pen. I was a little curious. "And they might turn the light back on tomorrow night."

Corey had already flipped to a blank page of my sketchbook, writing a message down that I didn't get the chance to read before he ran up to the first house. He held the note in front of the camera, waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

It became clear that the residents were asleep or didn't care to turn the lights. Corey made his way back to me on the sidewalk. "There's still nine houses--"

There was a scream and suddenly the lawn full of zombie skeletons filled with fog and creepy green lights. It actually worked. I looked at Corey in amazement. He looked just as surprised as the skeletons came to life, clawing at the dirt. Corey ran off to the next house.

One by one, he convinced home owners to turn on their lights. Some houses started up their decorations before Corey even got to them. Their neighbors must've called them to help Corey out. Within minutes, the whole street was lit up with strobe lights and fog and spooky music.

My face hurt from how big I was smiling when Corey came to join me in front of a house that had a vampire theme. "We got about five minutes," he said, handing me the sketchbook and pen.

I wasted no time going from house to house, taking pictures and video of the decorations. Corey took a picture of me posing with Dracula and I was lucky enough to catch him on video, being scared by a zombie popping out of a grave. Myisha's bowling party was cool and all, but this was the highlight of my Halloween. It was wild that Corey, of all people, made it happen.

He looked like he enjoyed it, too. The only time he laughed around me was when I'd done something embarrassing. It felt nice to laugh with him. We ran around taking selfies with ghost and monsters, and giving each house a ranking. One neighbors even gave us some candy they had left over.

Our time was up when the first house cut their lights. Others quickly followed suit. We were at the end of the street. The last house on the corner was still lit up. A zombie-fied bride and groom stood in the middle of the lawn. A creepy rendition of the wedding march played. Since it was the last house, I wanted to officially commemorate the night with a picture.

I tugged Corey into the picture, perfectly framing us and the zombies on my phone screen before snapping the picture. Just in time too, because the lights went out as soon as we were done. The street was once again dark and silent.

We continued the walk to our neighborhood. I thumbed through the pictures I'd just taken on my phone. When I came across a picture Corey had taken for me, I turned to him. "Thanks for doing that back there."

He shrugged it off, all modest. "After that fall and having to deal with Dameon, you needed a win."

When he put it like that, my night sounded terrible. Then I realized what he said about Dameon. "Were you watching me and him?"

"Dameon is a dick that never shuts up."

My jaw fell. "You couldn't have told me that before I went off with him?"

He cocked a brow. "Would you have believed me?"

My mouth snapped shut.

"Exactly."

Thinking back on that agonizing half hour I spent with Dameon dampened my elated mood. Liah had Vik, Corey had Myisha and her golden cookies. I got an insecure basketball player. "How do you do it?"

He kicked a rock, sending it skittering down the sidewalk. "Do what?"

"Find people to hook up with."

His shoulders went rigid. Did he think no one noticed the winks and flirty smiles Myisha was giving him all night? "What are you talking about?"

"You didn't leave my house covered in body glitter."

He didn't bother denying it. "You don't have any problem catching a guy's attention."

Did Corey Michaels just call me attractive? I folded my arms across my middle, afraid some winged beast might fly out.

"You just have to get better at picking which ones to give your attention to," he continued, eyes straight ahead. "Not everyone deserves your time."

I wasn't expecting actual advice from him, but if I learned anything that night, it was that Corey was full of surprises. He made some valid points, too. I was doing things on a first-come-first-served basis. Just because a guy was nice to me, didn't mean I had to pick out a wedding venue.

Between Travis, Vik, and Dameon, it was clear I let good looks cloud the rational part of my brain. I was desperate and it showed. Liah was right. I tried too hard. Falling for any guy with a nice smile wasn't working for me. I needed a new plan. I needed to enlist some help.

"How about you pick someone for me?"

His head snapped to me. "What?"

The idea was perfect and the words came spilling from my mouth faster than I could think about them. "You know the guys at school. You could tell me which ones I should avoid. Like you did with Travis and Dameon. Set me up with someone."

He stopped. At that rate, we weren't making it home until two in the morning. "Why the hell would I do that?"

I stood in front of him. "Why the hell not? You're already in my business with your updates of Harlow's Life with my brother."

He shook his head, walking away. "Not doing it."

Ugh. He was so annoying. I stomped behind him, kicking random rocks, hoping they'd hit him. They all missed. When we got to the street corner where we parted ways, he turned to me. I was supposed to make a right. His apartment was on the next street. Instead, he stared at me. His hands were in his pockets, mines were folded across my chest.

We stood there under a streetlight, eyes locked, for who knew how long. It was freezing, my hands were numb and my nose was so cold I didn't know if it was running or not. But I refused to back down. If anyone was going to break first, it was going to be him.

He huffed out a sigh and I bit back a smile.

"I'll do it."