chapter 1

"Reese's Cup!" I hated peanut butter, but if he wanted to call me Reese's Cup, he could call me Reese's Cup. "Did you hear? There's going to be a dance this year on Halloween." The annual Halloween dance had been cancelled five years ago because of a very unfortunate ruffie incident that resulted in lots of...well, ruffied up teens.

"Can't we just watch movies like every year? It's my turn to be in charge of the food," I started. I really didn't want to go to the dance. I wasn't going to be able to find a date and I was a terrible dancer and I just wanted to do what I usually did every year. I wanted to be with the same person I had been with since we were five.

"I'll be your date," he joked. I sighed, knowing he'd never want to actually be my date. He was always talking about girls and who he'd totally like to "go steady with." We sat in our last period Spanish class. He was on the student council and they had had their weekly meeting during lunch.

"Oh....and you do know Halloween is months from now, right?" He smiled at me and laughed. "We still have a month of school left before summer even starts."

"I thought you'd be excited. You used to love trick-or-treating." I did. He used to enjoy it too. We were like twins, if one twin could be white and the other Hispanic. He was taller than me now, a fact he loved to bring up, though it was only by two inches. I was 5'5" and thin, about 119 pounds.

Javier had been larger than I was since we were little in terms of weight. He also used to have a stuttering problem. He had been going to speech therapy since the fifth grade. He had ended up with all the nerd and I ended up with all the gay.

People picked on the both of us, but he was always there, sticking up for me. His braces came off and his acne cleared up and the speech therapy did its job. Now add two inches of height and he was more confident than ever.

"You have a couple of months to think about it," he said. "And if you don't want me to be your date, I promise to find someone up to your standards." I laughed this time and Senior Gomez asked for our attention.

After school I drove us to my house. It was a Friday so he was going to sleep over. I lived with my grandmother. My father had left my mother, and my mother had left me. My grandma was quite wealthy. She had married a poor boy who became a rich man. I wondered if that was why my mother was so irresponsible. Was it because my grandparents let her do and have whatever her heart desired?

Javier's mother used to work for my grandma. She cleaned up and stuff. She didn't anymore because she opened up her own restaurant. Javier worked there and I usually just helped out for free for something to do.

Our house was old and large. It was white and creaky and I thought it was extra spooky on Halloween when we watched our movies here. Javier's brother and sisters came some years too. He had an older brother named Carlos and two younger sisters, Eva and Lolita.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, pretty sure he would say he was. Javier wasn't embarrassed by the fact that he loved to eat. I didn't mind either. It made me strangely happy when he ate and I often times encouraged him to do so.

"Yeah, are we ordering pizza tonight?" I nodded as I pushed a bowl of potato chips in his direction.

We watched some films and I made him watch one of my favorites, West Side Story. He told me musicals weren't his thing, but I was sure he enjoyed it. "Do you want me to be your Maria?" he asked. We both laughed and he finished off the rest of our extra-large pizza.