When I wake up, my phone is spammed with notifications all from midnight. Missed calls from Jenna, Hayley, Lynn, and Gerard. Also, a spam loaded with texts. All of them are people spelling out HAPPY BIRTHDAY one letter at a time as well as others sending verse my verse happy birthday song. All the missed calls are accompanied by voicemails. I start listening to them. The first is from Jenna.

"Happy birthday, Frank!" she says on the phone. I'm pretty sure she's with Amelia and Cody. "I know it's only been like two months of knowing you but you're one of my best friends already."

"Same!" Amelia says in the background. "Glad to have you there behind me in math because I'd be sleeping the whole time."

"Happy birthday, Frank!" Cody screams.

"Anyways, hope today is awesome and I'm excited to see you tonight!" Jenna says.

"Love you!" Amelia screams before it ends.

I smile to myself listening to them before clicking on Hayley's. It pauses for a moment before she and as well as Brendon start singing happy birthday to me. Not the traditional one but some pop remix. Also, the two of them are in choir so they have harmonies going on and it's quite an epic duet. "Have a great, man!" Hayley says when they finish.

"Conquer the world!" Brendon cheers.

The next one is Lynn's. "Hey, Frank. I'm sure you're getting spammed right now but I'm still going to wish you a happy birthday. I'm glad we have class together and I really enjoy hanging out with you. We'll have a lot of fun tonight so I'm looking forward to it. Hope you have a great day, bye."

Last is Gerard's. "Hiya, Frankie. Happy birthday. Everyone else is probably calling you right now so I'm just going to say I'm looking forward to the morning and tonight. You can come to my house and I can do your skeleton make up." He pauses for a moment thinking. "Well, I hope today is better than days in the past. You deserve the best. Anyways, I'm going to stop now. See you in the morning, love ya."

I smile warmly and then open up the texts, reading them all then replying thank yous. I pack my bag and head downstairs. My parents don't acknowledge me, nothing out of the ordinary. I just walk out the door and they don't say a word.

It's a bit cold now, the brisk air stinging my face but it's almost refreshing. I make it to Gerard's house and knock on the door. His father answers. "Little early for trick or treaters," he says.

"Uh, n-no. I'm Gerard's friends?"

"Yes, I know, Frank?" he laughs.

"Yeah.

"Well, come on in," he says. I step in and take off my shoes. "It's your birthday, right?"

"Yeah," I say again. Why am I being awkward?

"Well, happy birthday. Cool that it's on Halloween." He shuts the door.

"Definitely."

"Yeah, Gerard's favorite holiday. Well, I'm sure you know the way up there."

"Thank you," I say, grabbing my bag and going to his room. "Knock knock," I say, opening the door.

"Hey, you!" he cries out. "Happy birthday." He has his face paled white with his eyes reddened eyes and heavy eyeliner. He also has wax over his teeth molded into large fangs. I smile at him. He's also dressed very nice. A black dress shirt tucked into his belt and he has tight skinny jeans on, making him look really fine. And a blood red tie but he seems to be struggling to tie it. "Like what you see? he smirks.

"You bet," I reply, walking over to him. I take hold of his tie and he raises his eyebrow at me. "Do you know how to tie these?"

He glances down. "I tried, I really tried but this is the best I got."

"Want me to help you?" I ask. He slowly nods. I untie the knot from the fabric and yank it free. "Jeez, looks like you were trying to hang a noose." He laughs at my comment, moving away. "Wait, hold still there. Do you want me to choke you?"

"Maybe I'm into that," he mutters. I let go of his tie and step back when he starts laughing. "No, no. I'm kidding, Frankie." He catches my hand. "Please, help?"

"Well, hold still then." I even out the fabric on both sides of his and start warping the front up and pulling it through. My heart is beating faster. I'm really close to him. I could kiss him again. I mean, we have before. Just once out of a dare but it was still the best thing for me. I want to kiss him again or at least hug him tightly and never let go. But that's not the case here. I don't think Gerard feels the same way about me unless he really isn't joking about his little comments? But he does that with the others. "There, now you look fabulous," I tell him.

He glances in the mirror and smiles. "Dude, thanks," he says with a smile. "Where'd you learn how to do this?"

"Uh, up until high school, I went to Catholic school," I admit.

"You did? You're Catholic?"

I glance at him with a half smile. "No, didn't you hear me? You send your kid to Catholic school, they'll come out anything but Catholic." He laughs lightly. "So my turn?" I ask.

"Totally. Come here." I take a seat on his desk chair and he starts painting my face. When he finishes, it looks better than last time. He also contoured my face to enhance my facial features. "What do you think?" he asks.

"It's incredible, that's what this is," I say. "Thank you so much."

"No problem," he replies. "Here's the jacket." I slide it on and Gerard zips it up from me. "Beautiful. Okay, you ready to go to Cody's?"

"Hell yeah," I reply. The two of us walk downstairs.

"You leaving now?" his mother calls.

"Yeah, have a good day."

"Wait, did you eat?"

"I'm eating over there!" he calls back. "Bye!" We walk out and start heading over.

"You know, this is the first time people ever wished me a happy birthday," I say.

"You're joking."

I shake my head. "Nope, my parents don't care enough and I didn't really have friends in school. Maybe one or two of them would mention it, a random classmate and a teacher but that's about it." Gerard looks at me sympathetically. "You guys actually cared and made a big deal. During the first minute, you all made more effort than anyone has in my life combined throughout all the years."

Gerard reaches over and puts his arm around my shoulder. "Well, sucks for them because they missed out on the greatest person they could meet." I smile at him and the two of us continue talking, Gerard doesn't move his arm.

Their house is completely decked out. Fog machines on their driveway and ghosts floating outside on their yard. Jack-o-lanterns dimly glow on their porch with tea lights. Skeletons are climbing out of their grass and spider webs are all over the house. Thankfully, no spiders are there. Houses with jumping spiders are the reason I have aneurysms.

When we get to Cody's house, we see Jenna wearing a shredded white gown covered in fake dirt smudges and blood stains. "Hey!" she calls out with her neck dripping with dried blood. "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you, Jenna," I say. "Dead bride?"

"You bet."

"Where's the groom?" Gerard asks.

"I killed him," she mutters.

"Oh, well then," he replies.

The two of us go upstairs and see Amelia putting makeup on Cody. "Hold still, you goof!"

"You expect me to hold still when you're putting a pencil in my eye?" he replies.

"Yep, now don't move. This will look awesome."

"Hey, guys," Gerard says.

"Hi," Amelia replies, without turning to face us. She just concentrates on Cody.

"Hey...help me," Cody whispers. Amelia is wearing an all black dress with leggings. She has a kitty ear headband and a clip-on tail with whiskers on her cheeks. Cody is dressed in white clothes with mummy wrappings over him. It's covering one of his legs entirely and partially the other one, loose around his torso and draping over his shoulders and neck.

"What's the matter? Can't handle guyliner?" I ask.

"Okay, I'm not emo like you guys, I-"

"Quick moving!" Amelia says. "Egyptians have eyeliner."

"Yeah but not when they're dead!" he replies.

"There, I'm done, you happy?" she says, capping it. Cody flops on the ground sighing. "You're such a drama queen, rubbing off from Gee."

"Hey! I'm a sass queen, thank you very much," he says, putting his hands on his hips.

Amelia giggles at him. "Oh please, like you aren't dramatic."

"You got me there," he admits.

"Okay, I take it back," Cody says, looking in the mirror, "this does rock."

"Told you," she replies. "And happy birthday, Frank."

"Yeah, happy birthday!" Cody adds. "You guys hungry?"

"Oh, no thanks," I say.

"I already ate at home," Gerard adds. I look at him confused but he simply smiles innocently at me.

There's a lot more people with costumes than I anticipated. Nobody doesn't anything at my old school because it's "lame" but the majority of students dressed up. Even all my teachers. The English department collectively turned the entire English hall into the Harry Potter world and they all dressed up as the characters. Apparently, they do something together every year. My English teacher I think is one of the older wizard teachers who turns into a cat. It's been a while since I've seen the movies.

When school gets out, Gerard and I head back to his place to hang out while the others get ready for company. The two of us continue working on our project together, which is surprising coming along. At 5:45, we walk back over to Jenna and Cody's house. There's a lot more people than I anticipated, a lot of adults. Their parents have their friends over on the main floor as well as the basement. But the upper floors are our domain. Lynn is a ghoul with her attire still on point. Very elegant dress and tights along with her makeup nicely done and hair in a tight bun. Of course, there are black smudges over her eyes and her purple lipstick aesthetically smeared but she still looks like a model. Hayley is a little pumpkin with a cute hat and dress. Brendon and Gerard coordinated to be vampires together. Paled face, fangs, black capes. Patrick is a devil. He has a red jacket on along with red war paint and devil horns.

It's not a crazy party like the stereotypical teenage parties with the red solo cups. It's just the same friend group from school dressed up and hanging out. We watch a couple horror movies while eating pizza and drinking pop. Then around 10:30, well after the doorbells stopped ringing, we eat the leftover candy. Not like the fun-sized candies. These are the big candy bars, king size. While there is the good old Kit Kats, Reeses, and Crunch bars with M&Ms and skittles, they'res also Godiva chocolate sets we have. Cody's mom bought several boxes just for us. I never had Godiva and everyone nearly died when I said it. But Gerard and Cody were right to say it's life-changing.

Around midnight, Jenna and Amelia beg us to play hide and seek. The only rules, no going outside, to the main floor or basement, or their parents' rooms/offices. Jenna is the first one to start counting, up to 30. As soon as she turns around, the lot of us sprint out of her room. Gerard and Cody run up to the next level and Patrick books down one of the hallways. "Come on, follow me," Amelia says, grabbing my wrist and leading me into a different wing of her house. Safe bet, Amelia is an expert of this house after Jenna and Cody. Maybe Gerard and she are equal experts. But Gee's with Cody right now.

Amelia leads me into a room and shuts the door quietly behind giggling. We're in a guest office it seems. "Where?" I ask.

She points below. "Get under the desk." I slide over and crawl underneath the desk. There's an empty space behind the frame which conceals my body. Amelia shuts off the lights and shines her phone flashlight. Crawling over to me, she scoots close and pulls the chair in. "I've been waiting to use this for weeks," she giggles.

"Their house is epic for this."

I can tell she's nodding, despite her phone light turned off. "Yeah, it's the best but since it's so big, as soon as you're found, you have to help search for the others, unless you hid together, then you look for anyone left. But only for five minutes, because they can look for the other person. So if they haven't moved their spot in five minutes, they'll be found."

"That seems intense."

She laughs when her phone starts buzzing. "Shhh!" she hisses, silencing her phone. "Also, silence your phone, they're probably going to try calling you too. Trying to hear where you are." Amelia declines the call.

I take out my phone and put it on silent. Seconds afterward, I get a call from Hayley. "Looks like they found Hayley already."

"Hayley can't keep quiet when the others are looking for her. She starts laughing. Also, Cody is terrible at hiding. Mainly since he's a klutz so he trips and makes a lot of noise."

"Sounds like Cody."

"Definitely. And Lynn is a contortionist or something because she can hide in places you don't believe are humanly possible. She just bends her legs behind her neck and tucks her head into her shoulders. It's terrifying and she comes out when she physically cannot stay in the space any longer. Patrick is very quiet but he will easily give in after a few times of walking by. Either we start eating food and he wants some or he just chimes into the conversation. Brendon, it's 50-50. Sometimes he's good, other times we see his head popping up. Jenna grew up in this house so she knows every nook and cranny there is."

"What about Gerard?"

"Oh, he's scary. He constantly moves positions, specifically ones he somehow knows we just checked. He's never in a spot for more than five minutes. Hell, he's admitted once he left his spot while we were in the room looking for him. But he'll start texting picture of us he took 2 minutes ago and when we check the place where they came from, he's already moved."

"Okay, that's honestly really terrifying."

"We never find where he hides, he just gets cocky and we catch him on the move so we don't know where he usually goes-" The door swings open and the lights come on. Amelia and I cover our mouths and freeze.

"Why are you following me?" Jenna laughs. "Go look somewhere else!"

"What's the point is looking elsewhere when you might look int he same place," Hayley says.

"But you searching in here with me means you're also looking in the same place." The chair slides out and Jenna glances down. "I see you, Amelia!"

"Oh, drat!" she cries out, a little more obvious. She sits up, moving into the light and hiding me still. "I've been waiting so long to use this for weeks!"

Jenna laughs. "Well, not bad. I found Hayley, Brendon, and Patrick already." She extends her hand and Amelia climbs out. "Anyone else?"

"Like I'd share a hiding spot?" she remarks.

"Eh, you got me there. Let's go find...who's left? The two emos, Lynnie, and my stupid brother."

Amelia pushes the chair back into the desk nonchalantly and the girls leave the room, shutting the light and the door. I lean back, clasping my hand over my mouth while laughing. Jenna didn't see me, only Amelia. My phone lights up and I receive a new text from Amelia.

-Five minutes, Iero. Then I'm coming for you.- Looks like I won't be able to stay here long.

I slowly push the chair out and climb out from under the desk. They seem to have moved somewhere else so I peek open the door. I must say, I applaud her family because it dawns on me now none of their doors squeak when opening. I shut the door behind me and bolt up the stairs. As soon as I turn the corner, I see Cody. I fall back when I see him but he trips over his feet.

"Dammit," he mutters.

I wave my hands in the air. "No, I'm not found yet, you?"

"No," he says with a mischievous grin. "Moving on," he says. I crawl over behind the couch and lean up against the wall. Cody starts running down the hall but he bumps into a table, knocking over several books on the floor. "SHHH!" he hisses.

"Someone's upstairs!" Amelia cries.

"Shit shit SHIT!" Cody sings, stumbling around before falling over behind the table.

Amelia and Hayley come upstairs and sigh. "Cody, you're hiding behind a glass table," Hayley sighs.

"I tried!" he sighs, defeatedly climbing out and fixing the table. The three of them return downstairs, the girls in the front. Cody turns around and we make eye contact. I'm in perfect view of the stairs, I'm just in the shadows and also wearing all black. But Cody knows I'm here and he holds up five fingers. Another hiding spot. Great. Well, I'm off to a good start and it's only round 1.

Their footsteps fade away and I climb out of my hiding spot. It's too risky to go down a level so I move further ahead and find a closet with spare pillows and blankets. This might work, I could crawl underneath the bottom self and bury myself. I step in then slide the door shut. It's dark now but I burrow underneath the blankets and manage to conceal myself in an inconspicuous manner. My phone lights up again and it's a text from Gerard. -You still hiding?-

-Yep, you?- I reply.

He sends me a picture. It's me. Standing in the hall in front of the spare closet where I was not even a minute ago. My heart starts pounding in my ears. It's angled upward. "Gee?" I whisper.

It's silent except for my low breathing. A hand slides over mine and I jump. "Shhh, darling. You'll give us away. The others can't find out." I cover my hand with my other mouth and squeeze Gerard's hand. "I was worried you would sit on me and start screaming," he snickers

"I almost started screaming right now," I whisper. Gerard adjusts himself, sitting right next to me, closer than Amelia was with the desk. But the desk was big and spacious. This is a closet and its space was already filled with pillows and blankets. Of course, he's closer to me.

"We're the few left," he says. "I swear to god, Cody almost got me caught."

"How?" I ask.

"Because I was laughing so hard at his fail."

"I was too but I was behind the couch. He saw me so I had to move after he was caught."

"Right, the five-minute rule, you're still safe."

I smile, still squeezing his hand. "How long have you guys played this game?"

He sighs, thinking back. "It's been a few years. We never outgrew the game. Sure, we have jobs and drive cars but we still play hide and seek."

"As long as everyone is happy and safe, there's no real problem." Gerard leans his head against my shoulder and takes a deep breath. "Hope I don't smell bad," I joke.