Stars and Hearts

Chapter Eight

  I felt pretty weak for a couple of days, but was determined to go to the party. I rested well and returned to work on Halloween day feeling great.

  I arrived just before nine o’clock and was immediately hugged by an ecstatic Suki. “Yazmin!” she squealed. “We’ve all really missed you. How are you?”

  “I’m fine,” I replied. “It was horrid and scary though. I don’t want to go through that again.”

  “Do you think you’ll be well enough for the party?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

  “Yay!” exclaimed Suki, grinning broadly.

  I leaned toward her and whispered, “Have you predicted anything about this party with your cards?”

  Suki laughed. “They’re still sealed. I wouldn’t dream of opening them without you. I was saving them for next time you came to my house.”

  “Aww! Thank you. How about tomorrow?”

  “That would be great! Three o’clock?”

  “Ok,” I said. “What are you wearing tonight?”

  “I’ve got myself a very cool sexy devil costume! How about you?”

  My heart sank. I’d been too ill to go buying sexy Halloween costumes. Now Suki was sure to outshine me.

  “Oh,” I said. “I was just going to wear my little black dress.”

  “Sounds good!” Suki replied. “With a witch’s hat?”

  “I haven’t got one.”

  “Monks department store has loads of Halloween stuff. We can take a look on the way home.”

  “Great plan!” I said, cheering up.

  Kalisha approached, smiling sweetly. “How are you?” she asked. “You gave us all a scare!”

  “I’m ok now thanks. I didn’t realise migraines were quite so horrid.”

  “They are,” Kalisha said sympathetically. “My sister suffers terribly. Hope it’s a one off for you.”

  “Me too.”

  “Nancy from publicity is ok now too,” Kalisha said. “She did have meningitis, but it was a less serious type - viral rather than bacterial. She’s much better now.”

  After work, Suki and I rushed to the department store and found a cheap witch’s hat.

  “That should go great with my dress,” I said, beaming at Suki. “I’m glad you suggested it.”

  I arrived home, ate a light salad, and spent the whole evening pampering myself – washing my hair, soaking in a long bubble bath and putting on my prettiest make-up. Suki arrived just after ten o’clock looking absolutely stunning in her red devil costume.

  “You look wow!” she said. “The actors are all gonna be swooning at us.”

  “Thanks! You look great too!”

  Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the party. Peter, the theatre manager, was on the door. “Hello girlies!” he said. “Tickets please!”

  We handed over our black star spangled tickets and excitedly rushed up the stairs to the rehearsal room. The large, dimly lit room looked amazing! It was full of spooky decorations – ghosts, witches, skeletons, devils, and spiders’ webs. A Zombie DJ stood in the corner playing dance music as coloured lights circled the room – truly magical! I was so grateful to be feeling well again – I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. We were amongst the first to arrive and we immediately headed for the buffet table, grabbing ourselves drinks and a paper plate each, which we piled up with salty snacks and crudities.

  We found ourselves a small table and sat enjoying our food and sipping our drinks as more and more people began to pile in. There were some great costumes – people had made a real effort. Some of the costumes were so good that we couldn’t tell who was beneath them.

  As a tall blonde man entered holding hands with an elegant black model type girl, Suki said, “He was on my list. Looks like another one I can cross off. Ah well, the night’s still very young!”

  Then Dirty Dudley arrived, dressed as a wizard. He looked so funny that I spat out a mouthful of grape juice all over the floor. He was carrying a silver wand, which he waved at half the females in the room – some sort of sex spell, no doubt. He raised his wand to Suki and I before realising it was us and dropping it mid wave. Then he proceeded to the buffet table and greedily stuffed his horrid big face with everything going.

  Soon afterwards, Tyrone appeared in a group of six, none of whom were wearing Halloween costumes. There were three males and three females. Suki and I held our breath. Were they all couples? We watched slyly whilst chatting to each other, trying to look disinterested. The group soon disbursed, making the couples thing seem less likely, but we continued to keep a sly eye on Ty.

  “Let’s dance!” Suki said, as some jolly bouncy song came on which she obviously liked. I’d never heard it before.

  “But we’ll lose our seats,” I said. “Can’t we wait till someone joins us so they can save our place?”

  “We’ll just leave our jackets on our seats,” Suki replied, pulling me out of my chair.

  “Oh go on then. But if anyone sits on my jacket I’ll murder them!”

  “Fair enough,” Suki replied, leading me by the hand to the dancefloor and dancing like a disco queen. I couldn’t dance - I felt too self-conscious. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to be able to drink some wine and get a little tipsy to give me the courage to dance with confidence! How ironic it was that I’d only recently reached legal drinking age and now couldn’t drink for fear of feeling so horribly ill again. The better Suki danced, the more awkward I felt, until I found myself standing in the middle of the dancefloor, still as a fecking statue, just watching her and wishing I wasn’t there.

  “Come on – dance!” Suki commanded. “Like this!” She began jumping from side to side and spinning and swishing her hair about under her sex goddess devil horns. I attempted to copy, but felt too stiff. I must have looked like a right idiot. Luckily, the next tune was Witch Babe by my favourite rap star Nutty Bonkers, and I started to really get into it and it felt great. I suddenly owned that dancefloor – it was my song. I was, after all, dressed as a witch myself. I was that witch babe Nutty was rapping about!

  Then Suki nudged me with her elbow and pointed left. Dirty Dudley was stood there in his Merlin costume perving us. The drunken bastard was staring fixedly in our direction. Ugh! Creepy or what? I felt a bit sick, quite frankly.

  “Oooh!” Suki squealed. “Do you think he fancies me, or you, or both of us?”

  “Probably both of us – filthy swine!” I snapped.

  “Let’s find out!” Suki said, bopping about. “You dance toward the glowing skeleton decoration and I’ll dance towards the pumpkin, then we’ll see who he’s looking at.”

  “Ok,” I answered, boogying towards the bones, laughing as I moved.

  And then my heart kind of almost stopped and I felt all self-conscious again. The dirty sod wasn’t looking at Suki – he was staring at me, a pervy grin plastered across his big, puffy face. Last time he’d seen me, I was projectile vomiting on the computer at work – and now he was perving me! Had my spewing actually turned him on? Was he some kind of a puke perv freak? Eeew! Skank alert! Could the man get any more disgusting? As I stopped and stared at him in disbelief, he started looking all romantic like our eyes had just met across the room for the first time. What was he on? How could he mistake my look of repulsion for a look of love? I almost wished I was back in hospital having a drip needle inserted into my hand again – it was considerably less unpleasant than this!

  Then I noticed Suki had disappeared and I panicked. I grabbed my handbag and rushed out of the exit. I needed the loo anyway, although I was unsure of its exact location. I fled down the winding staircase, my heart racing, worried Dudley Puke-A-Mountain was following me in his wizard get up. To my relief, I found Suki at the bottom of the staircase.

  “Quick!” I said, all of a dither. “Where’s the loo?”

  “Back there,” she replied, pointing at a big gothic door. “That’s where I’ve just been.”

  I rushed through the heavy door and found the
ladies loo on the right. Suki waited for me as I paid my visit.

  “I think Dudley was looking at me,” I whispered, as I emerged from the cubicle.

  “I saw,” Suki replied, looking a bit awkward, as she was the one who’d been stupid enough to have a crush on him only a week or two previously. She must have been mad! The more I looked at him, the more revolted I became. He looked truly disgusting. Why would she want to wake up next to that wobbly weirdo every morning? I worried about the girl - I really did.

  Apprehensive about Dudley, I let Suki climb the stairs ahead of me. I needn’t have worried. When we entered the party again, Dirty Dudley had apparently forgotten all about me and was swaying about with his flabby arms around some fifty-year-old floozy who looked thrilled to be with the famous git. She was looking around the room as if to say, “Look at me - I’m with Dudley!” Well, she could have the dirty old man. I actually felt a bit sorry for her. She looked a right prat looking lustily at an unwieldy wizard with her tongue hanging out.

  Then I noticed Kalisha and Rose had arrived. They were both sitting at our table – they must have recognised our jackets. Kalisha was dressed as a witch and Rose wore a black cat costume. I dashed over, Suki in tow.

  “Hiya!” I said. “You both made it then?”

  They turned to us, both were horribly drunk.

  “Been in the pub,” Rose said, before letting out a huge, revolting burp. “Oooh! ‘scuse me, LOL!”

  “We’re gonna grab ourselves a pair of actors,” Kalisha said, her head flopping about as she tried to focus on our faces.

  “You’re both married!” yelled Suki. “I hope you’re kidding us.”

  Then the two aging women got up and began dancing together, shimmying up and down, hardly managing to keep their balance. It was painful to watch. My heart skipped a beat as Rose spotted Tyrone, of all people, and made a beeline for him. OMG! Why Ty? Why not someone nearer her own age – like Dudley? Suki and I stood there, open mouthed, as she flung her arms around Ty and began dancing sexily. The whole room was in hysterics. Everyone kept pointing and laughing. Suki bravely approached them and gestured to Rose to sit down.

  Rose gave Suki an exasperated look and shouted drunkenly, “Hands off, little kid. You’re just jealous of my bloke. He ain’t interested in you – he wants ME!”

  Suki stepped away, her face flushed with embarrassment, as Rose continued to hang off Ty’s neck. It was one of the most disgusting sights I’d ever seen. Ty didn’t appear to want to stop her either. He looked like he was really enjoying the attention of the woman who was old enough to be his granny. I couldn’t believe it. Surely he didn’t actually fancy the grey haired bespectacled old bag! Then he accidentally knocked her glasses off. As he bent down to pick them up she slapped him on the bottom as the whole room roared with laughter. Then she whispered something in his ear and they headed for the exit. Were they going home together? Disgusting! Had I been drunk, I might have run after them and stopped them. But I couldn’t do anything – I was sober and everyone was watching. They’d both made fools of themselves and I didn’t want to be the third fool. I went back to the table and sank miserably into my chair, my witch hat falling forwards over my face. I pushed it back up onto my head and noticed Suki sitting down next to me, looking the picture of shock.

  “Surely they’re not …” I said. “I mean … he wouldn’t …”

  “Eeew! I hope not.” Suki answered, looking ill. “God, please no!”

  Then the Zombie DJ picked up his mic and announced, “And now for the highlight of the night! The great Dudley Mountain’s got a few old mates together specially for this occasion, and they’re going to perform a selection of spooky songs for you all! Please give it up for Dudley Mountain and The Matterhorns!”

  A curtain by the entrance door lifted and there they were – a bunch of long haired, middle aged has-beens. The sight of drunken Dudley in a wizard’s costume clinging to his microphone stand to stay upright, singing Devil Woman all slurred, out of tune, and out of time to the music should have made me laugh. But, instead, I wanted to cry. Where had Ty and Rose gone? Would he really shag a plain looking granny figure like her? I guessed that, if he would do such a thing, I was better off without him. But the party was over for me. I just wanted to go home and weep. Then Dudley announced he’d written a rap tune especially for tonight’s occasion. It was absolutely dreadful – basically just a load of sex words strung together with lyrics like skeleton, spider and bat added in an attempt to make it sound like a Halloween tune.

  All the drunken people in the room were practically wetting themselves in laughter as he screeched the opening lines “Yo little witch, come this way little bitch. Come hold my crystal balls and ride upon my broomstick.”

  I almost chucked up all over the floor. I hated the filthy one track minded bastard with a passion.

  “I think we should go,” Suki said, looking every bit as upset as I felt.

  I agreed. I went home and cried myself to sleep, thinking about Ty and Rose. Then I had a nightmare about them in bed together in which they suddenly turned into worm infested skeletons. I woke up crying. Mum came dashing into my room and told me the nightmare must have been caused by the aftermath of the hospital migraine trauma, coupled with Halloween. She sat by my bed reassuringly, talking about happy times in my childhood, staying there until I fell asleep.