Halloween

                "But David is coming home that weekend," he said, "so I tried to tell my mom and she said he could stay in the guest room."
                Jonathan was telling them about a party. He hadn't invited any of them to it, but he was telling them anyway. He sighed and directed a cigarette (clove cigarettes: great after sex, Micah had told them) between his black fingerpainted lips.
                The girl was struck by something terribly funny. "Wait, your boyfriend’s name is David?" she said. "That’s great. David and Jonathan!"
                The girl couldn't tell if Jonathan was smiling or if it was just the facepaint. Stu laughed, though. "I hadn't thought of that," he said.
                Felix fumbled nervously. He held a very long, very black cigarette holder. "What the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?" said Stu.
                "I'm Audrey Hepburn," said Felix.
                "Oh."
                "Audrey Hepburn in 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s," he said. "Where the hell is Jason?"
                "Jason’s coming?"
                "Well he said he was."
                "Come here, Felix," the girl said. "Your tiara is slipping."
                Someone yelled from inside. "Pastor Stu, he said, you gotta get Tommy to stop with the suicide techno in there. No one’s dancing."
                "No one ever dances," said Jonathan.

                Inside it was darker. A laser light was making designs on the empty dance floor. The girl hung onto Jonathan. "She used to be my best friend," he told her, striving to speak over the music. "Until we kind of, you know, tripped and fell in love."
                "I have a friend like that," she said, "Kind of."
                "Who, Felix?"
                The girl laughed. "No. God no."
                Jonathan smiled. "Well, don't let it ruin things."
                "I don't. I mean, we don't. I mean, we're not like that. He knows that we're….we're not like that."
                "It just doesn't work," he said.
                "Yeah. I mean, it’s just that we know how each other's thinking, you know? Like with other people, you have to try to listen to them?" the girl paused uncomfortably. "This one time I hid this knife he kept in his room, and he went and found it right away. I mean, the first place he looked was where I'd hidden it."
                "Now she studies drama over at UIC," Said Jonathan.
                "What?" said the girl.
                "My friend. The one I never see anymore."
                "Oh." The girl fidgeted with her cat ears headband. The Great PretendEars was the brand name. It had been the brand name that had attracted her. "You don't see her anymore?"
                "No. It doesn't…it just doesn't work that way."
                "Oh." Another pause. "So she studies drama?"
                "What?" Jonathan had been looking in the other direction.
                "She studies drama?" repeated the girl. "Just like you, eh?"
                The painted smile frowned. "I’m a Catholic Studies major."

                The girl in the cat costume tapped Felix's shoulder. He was talking to Micah. She could guess what about. Micah had a one-track mind.
                "Can we go soon?" she said.
                "What?" said Felix over the music.
                "I'm tired, I want to go," she said, louder.
                "I wanted to see Jason," he said. Micah winked at her.
                "Hey," he said, "What did you mean outside?"
                The girl looked puzzled. "What did I mean when?" she said.
                "Outside. Before. The thing with David? David and Jonathan?" said Micah.
                "Oh."
                "I didn't get it."
                "Well…..David. Like King David. In the Bible."
                "The what?" Micah strained to listen.
                "The Bible," the girl said. "King David. Jonathan was the name of his best friend."
                Micah nodded and smiled, though he hadn't heard what she said. She turned to Felix. "I don't think he's coming!" she said.
                "What?" he shouted.
                "Jason! I don't think he's--" Trip-hop was pounding into her skull. She pointed to her wristwatch. Felix said something to her, drowned out in the music.
                "I can't hear you," she said
                "We'll leave in half and hour, okay?" He turned back to Micah.
                "That's a great costume, you know," Micah told him.
                "Yeah? Really?" said Felix.
                "I lent him the cigarette holder," the girl said.
                "It's a really great costume."

                They drove home in his station wagon with the one jammed window. The rain stung on the girl's face. She wrapped her cape around her, the CD player nestled in the folds by her crotch: it kept it from skipping. Looking up, she stopped the disc. "Can you hear that?" she said.
                "What?" he said.
                "That," the girl said. "That high-pitched sound."
                He listened. "I hear my muffler is sad and dying," he said.
                "It’s like a mechanical tone."
                "It’s probably just your ears ringing."
                "Yeah." She turned the music back on.
                "Maybe it’s the mother ship calling you home," he said.
                She relaxed against the window. "Hey," she said. "What do you think a Catholic Studies major studies, anyway?"
                "I don't know," he said. "Catholic stuff. Saints. Why the pope wears that goddamn stupid hat." She was concentrating on something.
                "What’s wrong?" he said.
                "Nothing."
                "Just tired, mmm?"
                "Yeah." She closed her eyes.
                He looked at her. "Are you asleep?"
                "No," she said. "If you listen to it, it’s like it fills your entire head."
                "What?"
                "The sound," she said, "The high-pitched buzzing sound. If you concentrate. It’s like a mantra, if you listen."
                "Dammit," he said, "I don't think this car’s gonna make it on the expressway."
                Her eyes glazed, and closed again. She concentrated.