chapter nine,
she's not interested

        CARLYN WINDSOR HAD found herself at yet another party. With Chad Meeks-Martin being the jock that he was, he'd managed to befriend a ton of frat boys. That, in turn, meant the friend group was invited to a shit ton of parties.

        Plus, it was almost Halloween, which meant even more parties.

        Carlyn was dressed in a astronaut costume — a last minute grab from Spirit Halloween. Unfortunately for her (and her friends), with it being Halloween, that meant a ton of costumes with the mask that haunted her nightmares.

When she'd first saw someone as Ghostface at the party, she was instantly in fight or flight mode. She was sent back to that day over a year ago, and the stab wounds in both her left shoulder and right side became excruciatingly painful.

After being brought back to the present by Chad, a few shots, and some weed, she'd managed to calm down enough. Now, her mind was all fuzzy in the way she liked. She tried her best to ignore the costume, but every time she made eye contact with the white mask, her heart stopped for a second.

She was mindlessly dancing with a random girl dressed as Carrie, giggling as they moved. She was on the more social side this party (due to the alcohol and the weed) and had complimented the girl on her costume, leading them to dance.

"Yes!"  Carrie cheered, clapping her hands excitedly. "You go, girl!"

Carlyn laughed, eyes flickering behind the other girl's head. She smirked at the sight — a guy dressed as a baseball player checking Carrie girl out. "Hey," Carlyn lightly poked her, pointing behind her. "I think he wants to dance with you!"

Carrie turned to see what Carlyn was talking about, smiling excitedly when she realized how cute the boy was. She then frowned and turned back to Carlyn. "Wait, but—"

Carlyn waved her off. "Go ask him to dance! He's cute!"

Zombie girl nodded. "It was nice meeting you!" she told her before she walked over to Baseball Boy.

Carlyn smiled as she watched the girl grip onto the boy's hand and drag him over to dance with her. Her eyes flickered over the crowd, trying to find the two boys she'd left somewhere.

Chad swallowed his shot before turning his head to his roommate. "Okay, go find Carlyn," Chad told the boy next to him. Ethan furrowed his brows but nodded. "And when you find her, ask her out."

Ethan's eyebrows shot up as his eyes widened. "What? No way."

Chad sighed and slapped his hand down on Ethan's shoulder. "Look, man, she likes you! She won't admit it to herself, but she does. So, maybe you don't have to ask her out, but ask her to dance or something. Make a move!"

Carlyn found them and quickly made her way over to them, holding her hand out towards the boy in the cardboard knight costume. He was pretty embarrassed of it, but she thought the effort behind it was cute. "Ethan, come dance with me!"

Chad, who was a shirtless cowboy, excitedly nudged his roommate's arm. "Go dance with her, dude! Go! Go! Go!"

Even in the lighting, Carlyn could see how Ethan got flustered. In turn, that made her cheeks heat up. Chad was desperate to get his roommate and best friend together and he made no effort to hide it.

        Carlyn kept her hand held out and wiggled it. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

Just as Ethan gave in and went to grab her hand, Anika Kayoko, Mindy Meeks-Martin's new girlfriend, popped in from the other room and tapped Chad's shoulder. "Hey, big guy, you're needed."

        Chad sighed, face falling as he immediately turned to follow her into the other room. Carlyn glanced back at Ethan, mood dimmed though her face didn't show it. She still grabbed his hand and hurried to follow after their friends.

        Anika took them to the back of the house where the stairs were — also where Tara Carpenter was found going up the stairs with a random guy.

        "Hey, partner," Chad called out, making the girl and the guy turn around. "Tara's good down here."

        "Sorry, bro, I didn't catch that."

Chad chuckled dryly. "Yeah, you did."

"No, Chad," Tara rushed back down the stairs to the boy. "It's fine. I want to. It's okay."

"See, Chad," the other guy leaned closer to Chad. "She wants to." With that, he gripped Tara's arm and pulled her back, causing her to fall.

"How 'bout you get your fucking hands off her?" Chad growled as he grabbed the guy's shirt and yanked him back down the stairs with ease.

While the two boys fought, Carlyn slipped away from Ethan's side and helped her friend up. "You okay?" she lightly questioned, worry clear in her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Tara assured her, turning her attention back to the fighting boys.

Carlyn nodded and let go of the smaller girl before heading over to her best friend. "Chad." She gripped his shoulder, stopping him from getting close to continue the fight. But the other boy just had to keep going, trying to egg Chad on.

"Listen to your bitch!" the other guy spat.

Chad went to lunge, but Carlyn tugged him back. "Hey," Carlyn's eyes narrowed. "Back the fuck off, dude. She's not interested anymore."

And then Carlyn had to do a double-take when Samantha Carpenter suddenly showed up, getting in between Chad and the other boy. "Sorry to interrupt," she turned towards the boy. "I'm just gonna tase you in the balls real quick."

Carlyn's eyes widened as she heard the taser and watched as the guy fell to the floor.

Sam stood in front of him. "Don't ever lay hands on my sister."

"Fucking bitch!" the guy cried out in pain.

"Sam?" Tara hissed, making her older sister turn around. "Are you fucking kidding me? You're stalking me now?"

        Tara shook her head in disbelief and walked away.

        "Holy, shit," someone spoke, pointing at Sam. "It's that psycho girl."

        Sam's jaw clenched before she sharply turned and went to follow her sister. The rest of the friend group all exchanged looks before deciding that they should also go after the sisters.

        They room the back entrance out of the party. "Tara!" Sam was calling out for her sister, who kept ignoring her. "Will you stop?"

        Tara looked over her shoulder as she kept walking. "I cannot believe you did that! You embarrassed me!"

"That guy was a dick! He was gonna take advantage of you!" Sam defended herself.

"So?" Tara finally turned. "If I want to hookup with an asshole that's my decision! It's my decision!"

"Okay," Sam rolled her eyes.

"It's not about you!" Tara continued. "I mean, you — you're out of my life for five years and the you can't leave me alone for five minutes!"

"Because you're not dealing with what happened to us! Have you even gone to see the counselor? Once?"

        Carlyn exhaled. The two sisters had had this argument many times. Tara was desperate to distance herself from what happened, and Sam was desperate to 'work through it'.

        Carlyn crossed her arms, shivering slightly. The material of her costume was thin and was doing no good to protect her from the cold. Ethan glanced over at her and quickly extended his arm where his jacket was resting out to her.

        Carlyn smiled at him as she gratefully took it and put it on, instantly feeling a lot warmer.

        "No! I'm not going to!"

        "Why not?" Sam pressed.

        "Because I'm uninterested in living in the past like you are!"

Sam furrowed her brows. "What's that supposed to mean?"

        "Hey, guys—" Chad tried.

        But Tara wasn't done. "It means I'm not gonna let what happened to us for three days define the rest of my life!"

        "Are you okay?" Ethan lightly asked when he noticed her mood shift.

        She nodded, offering him a small smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

        "So you're just gonna pretend it never happened?" Sam questioned.

        Tara took a deep breath. "What are you doing here, Sam? In New York? I mean, you're working two shitty jobs to help with rent, whatever, but what's your plan? I know what I'm gonna do! Okay, 'cause I — I'm gonna keep going to college, I'm gonna get my degree, and I'm gonna live my life. My life. Okay, I know. You just follow me here and you won't let me out of your sight."

        "Just trying to look out for you," Sam quietly told her.

        "I—" Tara ran her hands over her face. "I know. I know you are. But you can't do it for the rest of my life, though. You have to let me go."

"Hey!" a girl called out, walking up them with her friends. Suddenly, a drink was thrown on Sam. Carlyn gasped, eyes widening. "Murderer!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Sam screamed as Chad and Tara held her back. "You got a problem with me?"

"You should get away from her, she knows what she did!" the girl pointed at Sam.

"I didn't fucking do anything!" Sam tried to break free of Chad and her sister's hold.

"Do you seriously think we'd hang out with her if she was a murderer? Get the fuck out of here!" Carlyn demanded. "Now."

The girls walked away, laughing and looking at their phones. Carlyn rolled her eyes at them. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Ever since Gale Weathers wrote about what happened last year, Sam had been getting backlash. She was being accused of being the 'real' mastermind.

        As the group moved on, Ethan slowly stepped towards Sam. "Hey, I — I have some tissues if you want tissues," he offered, reaching into his pocket. "I have, like, three tissues."

        "Thanks," Sam muttered, grabbing the tissues from him.

        Ethan stood there for a second, waiting for Carlyn. She motioned her head for him to go after the group while she stayed with Sam. "Hey. You okay?"

        "Yeah," Sam grumbled. "I'm just sick of this shit."

        "They wouldn't be doing all this if they were there," Carlyn shook her head. "They think they know but they weren't in the house." She looked down at the ground for a second before looking back at Sam. "Um, we should keep going so you can change out of your clothes."

        "Yeah," Sam nodded.

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!
very boring first chapter