October 31st. Tuesday, 10:18 PM.
Malakai stepped out of his room to get a drink from the kitchen. As soon as he turned the corner to walk to the kitchen,
"BOO!!"
"What the fuck are you wearing", Malakai said, unfazed by the scare attempt. He didn't even flinch.
"It's my costume", William replied, spreading his arms. He was wearing a white sheet over his body with two holes punctured for his eyes so he could see. It was the most basic Halloween costume you could get and the most boring thing to be: a ghost. It was a costume, nevertheless.
"What a great costume", Malakai sarcastically said, clearly unimpressed. He continued to the fridge to see if there was a drink.
"Aren't you going to go?" William asked, looking at Malakai getting a drink.
"Oh shit, you're going to that party"; Malakai remembered that William got told there was a secret Halloween party. A second year told William that a Halloween party takes place at this secret location every year. It was a big Halloween party that select people knew about. The location was only told to people who were invited, so if you knew the location, you could turn up. No one would stop you at the door and ask for an ID or proof of an invitation.
"Yeah, Ben and Lu are coming too", William replied.
Malakai picked his drink and closed the fridge. "What about Ray and David?" Malakai asked, opening his drink.
"Ray doesn't feel like going. That gave David an excuse not to go, but I feel like David didn't want to go anyway. When I told him about it, he didn't look excited," William rambled; it was clear he was excited about the party. "So, are you coming or not?" he eagerly asked Malakai.
Malakai looked at the time, "We have classes tomorrow, you know that, right?" He said.
"Okay? What time are you planning to go to sleep?" William asked, knowing Malakai's questionable sleep schedule.
"I'm going to sleep early today," he replied, smiling. It was obvious he was lying.
"You're drinking a soda in front of me", Willaim said, pointing at Malakai's drink.
"Caffeine doesn't work on me", Malakai replied, sipping his drink. "And I wasn't going to finish it; I was gonna drink some now and save the rest for later".
"Dude, just come with us", William pleaded. Malakai gave him a look that showed he couldn't be bothered. "It'll be fun. Just come, dude". Malakai knew he could put his foot down, and William would give up, but a part of him was curious about this party. A second year did invite them, so it had to be good.
"Aryt, look. If Lu or Ben have a good costume, I'll go", Malakai proposed.
William grinned like he had already won, "I guess you're coming then".
"Huh, why?" Malakai replied. As soon as he said that, the front door opened.
"Yo, we're ready!" A voice called out. Two people started walking into the main area.
"You fucking tryhard", Malakai annoyedly said, looking at Lucas's costume.
"What?" Lucas replied. Lucas's outfit was good. It was a mixture of a skeleton and a clown. He had a torn, worn-out suit with painted blood stains on it. His face was also white due to face paint; he also drew a scar near his mouth with red paint to make it look like his mouth was slit. His blue eyes were white because he added contact lenses. The costume also came with a top hat, which matched the outfit well. Just for an extra touch, he even painted his hands. His left hand was normal with painted blood stains, and his right was painted like a skeleton. His pants and shoes were also splattered in red paint to look like blood stains. A lot of effort went into this costume.
"That looks so cool", William said, admiring his costume with stars in his eyes.
"How long did that take?" Malakai asked, secretly impressed by the outfit but not showing it.
"The whole day, dude," Lucas replied, trying not to move too much to ruin the costume.
"Where's your outfit?" Malakai asked, shifting his gaze to Benjamin.
Benjamin wore a white polo shirt tucked into his grey trousers with a brown belt, finishing off with white trainers. Benjamin popped his collar,
"Hi, I'm Franklin Saint", he said with a wave.
Malakai's face lit up, "Oh my days. No way", he reacted with a beaming smile.
"I built this shit!" Benjamin said one of Franklin Saints lines out.
Malakai laughed, "You ain't him, bro", he joked, repeating a meme. He went to give Benjamin a handshake and then pulled him into a hug. All this happened, and Lucas couldn't believe it.
"HOW DID HIS COSTUME GET A BETTER REACTION THAN MINE?!" Lucas shouted in disbelief.
"Snowfall is one of Mally's favourite shows; I knew he'd react like this", Benjamin said. Malakai finished Snowfall two weeks before and told Benjamin that Franklin Saint is now his favourite character in any TV series.
"I thought One Piece was his favourite show?" Lucas replied, confused. He remembered Malakai mentioning Snowfall to Benjamin and Ray but didn't get involved in the conversation as he hadn't watched Snowfall. However, he constantly hears conversations about One Piece between his friends.
"That's my favourite anime, but my favourite show that isn't an anime is Snowfall", Malakai replied like Lucas should've known.
"Mally, you should've dressed up as Luffy (The main character of One Piece)", William said, joining the conversation. Malakai and William were both caught up to One Piece.
"I don't have the outfit", Malakai replied. "I don't think my skin tone matches Luffy anyway", he said, holding up his hand to show his complexion.
"You could pull off Trafalgar Law; your skin colour is similar", William replied.
"No he can't, he's too short", Benjamin said.
William and Malakai turned to Benjamin in excitement, "How you know about Law? I didn't know you were that far", Malakai asked.
"I've been binging it ever since you landed here", Benjamin replied. For context, Malakai and William have watched One Piece for a long time, and they convinced Ray and Benjamin to watch it. Ray is nearly caught up as he was hooked early, but it took Benjamin a bit of time to get into it. When Malakai came to America, he constantly heard Malakai and William talk about One Piece in class. Even during lunch, he would hear Ray joining their conversation as he was catching up, so he felt left out. Since then, he's been watching at least five episodes or more a day.
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Malakai dapped Benjamin. "You should've told us", Malakai said.
"I wanted to catch up and then surprise you, but I let it slip", Benjamin happily replied.
"How many episodes have you got left?" William asked, joining the conversation.
"Like 300", Benjamin answered.
"300?!" Lucas couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How can you watch that many episodes and still have 300 left?" The guys couldn't convince Lucas to watch it. He saw the episode count and gave up; he didn't really like anime anyway. Same with David.
"You're missing out on peak", William said.
Lucas shook his head, "I've got better things to do with my time", he said. He caught a glimpse of the time. "Forget that. Are you coming?" Lucas annoyingly asked Malakai, who was in his famous grey pyjamas.
"Now I am. I made a deal with Willy. If any of you came in good outfits, I'll come", Malakai replied, glancing at the clock.
"It's a good thing I went through all this effort", Lucas said, looking down and admiring his own outfit.
"Bro, the only reason I'm going is because Ben is dressed as Franklin Saint. Your outfit is too much", Malakai laughed. That diss caused William and Benjamin to join in on the laughter.
"Fuck you. If you are coming, hurry up, you prick", Lucas replied with a tinge of anger in his tone. Malakai's comments were getting to him a little, but this was Malakai's speciality, annoying people.
Malakai laughed, "Aryt aryt", he said, walking to his room.
"If his outfit isn't good I'm punching him", Lucas mumbled, while Benjamin and William were still laughing.
After about 10 minutes, Malakai left his room with his outfit. All the boys looked at him with disappointment.
"Where's your outfit?" Lucas asked, cracking his knuckles.
"You're looking at it", Malakai replied. His outfit was black trainers, black socks, black joggers, a black hoodie, and a black ski mask around his neck, which he had yet to pull over his face.
"Who are you trying to be?" William asked, thinking this might be inspired by a character in a scary movie or something.
"I'm going as myself", Malakai replied with a sense of pride on his face.
Benjamin laughed, "Bro thinks he's scary", he giggled.
William also laughed, "You're shorter than me. You're not scary, dude", he added.
"Bro I don't care. I don't have an outfit, and I ain't buying one", Malakai replied.
Lucas looked the most disappointed; he just stared at Malakai with bored eyes. Was this guy worth punching? Malakai met his eyes and gasped, he had an idea.
"Lu, you got any white contacts left?" He asked.
"Yeah, you want to use them?" Lucas replied. Malakai smiled, and Lucas got his answer. "Don't take too long to put them in", he said.
"I ain't a pussy, it's just contact lenses".
11:22 PM
The four boys were walking to the party.
"Do you think they'll let us in the party this late?" Benjamin asked.
"What party closes at 11? We're fine", Malakai reassured them. The reason he was reassuring them was because two people weren't particularly happy.
"If we aren't allowed in, we all know whose fault it is", Lucas said.
"Why you mad?" Malakai asked Lucas as he was clearly being passive-aggressive.
"Because it took you 15 minutes to put in two contact lenses!" Lucas snapped back.
"It was my first time", Malakai said, trying to defend himself.
"I thought you weren't a pussy", William joined in on attacking Malakai.
"I ain't. It's just my eyes kept closing whenever my finger went close. That was some involuntary movement, I can't control that. My body was reacting to it like it was dangerous", Malakai waffled on.
"You sound like a pussy to me", Lucas replied.
"Bro, next time, I'm doing it in 2 seconds", Malakai replied. "It doesn't matter anyways. I look sick", he said, widening his eyes and looking at his friends.
"You don't. Your outfit is wack", Lucas said.
"Why are you hating?" Malakai asked.
"Because I'm your biggest hater", Lucas replied.
While those two argued, Benjamin asked William, "Where is the place? Are we close?"
"Yeah, it's down there", William pointed down the street. The street the boys were on looked deserted; it was like an alleyway. The location sure was secret.
Sniff Sniff
"Euughhh. What's that smell?" William said, covering his nose. Malakai and Lucas's attention shifted, and Lucas instantly picked up on the smell. He covered his nose, and his eyes squinted.
"What smell?" Malakai asked, looking at them.
"Can't you smell it?" William said, turning to him.
Malakai sniffed the air, "Oh, that's strong", he said, covering his nose. "That's weed, no?" he asked.
"Yeah, it is", Benjamin answered, also covering his nose.
"This is weed?" William questioned.
"You've never smelt weed before?" Malakai asked him.
"No", he answered, shaking his head. Malakai looked towards Lucas, and it seemed that this was new to him, too. He could've taken the piss out of Lucas, but he left him alone.
"If the smell is this strong, that means this is a party party", Malakai said, putting his hands in his pockets. After a few more steps the boys reached their destination. They all stood before a black door that looked like the back door of a building. Music was leaking through the door, so they knew this was the place. The smell was also stronger, but it was a bunch of weird smells, not just the smell of weed.
"Go on, you wanted to come here so bad", Malakai said to Lucas, waiting for him to go in first.
Lucas didn't respond; he was just curious. He walked towards the door, opened it and stepped inside. It looked like he stopped in the doorway, so the three pushed through the door to see why he stopped, and they instantly saw why.
"What the fuck”.