Chapter 18: Halloween

Halloween fell on a Friday that year and Peter had been invited to join the festivities at the Graham home. By the time he showed up at six, it was already getting dark. Robby Jones’ rattletrap pickup truck was parked out front, threatening to rust apart in the road, so Peter pulled into the driveway, parking behind Lauren’s minivan. He went to the door and rang the doorbell.

The door opened to show Jimmy already in costume, accompanied by Goldie. The retriever gave a pleasant bark and scampered away, and Peter said, “Trick or treat!”

“Trick!” decided Jimmy with a smile, who then let the guest in anyway. Peter followed the boy into the kitchen. Inside he saw Robby sitting at the kitchen table drinking from a glass of some odd orange-ish concoction. Heather was kneeling on the floor in front of Holly, adjusting the little girl’s outfit.

“Hi, Peter!” the tyke said with a big smile. “I’m a fairy princess!”

Peter smiled. Holly was wearing a short blue party dress with about ten layers of lace petticoats underneath. She was carrying a short plastic wand with a star on the end, and a silvery plastic tiara. She also had stars and moons painted on her cheeks. “And a very pretty one, too!” he replied. He looked over at Jimmy. The eight-year-old’s outfit was a little more involved but not by much. He was wearing dark pants and an orange-and-black sweater, a black cape, and an orange-and-black scarf, along with some obviously fake glasses. A jagged red scar had been painted on his forehead. “Harry Potter?” he asked.

Jimmy grinned. He was heavily into the Harry Potter books and movies and knew every single spell and curse. Pulling out his wand, which looked very much to Peter like a drumstick painted black, he pointed it at Peter and cried, “Expelliarum!”

“Okay, you got me. Where’s your mom?”

Heather answered. “She’s upstairs getting dressed.”

“Why, is there a party?” he asked.

“No, I just wanted to be pretty for my family and friends,” answered Lauren, coming down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Holly spoke up first. “You look very pretty, Mommy!”

Peter looked his lover over and had to agree. In keeping with the holiday motif, Lauren was wearing a long black jersey dress, very tight and form-fitting, and cut low enough in the front and back to raise considerable doubt about the presence of any foundation garments. She was wearing black stockings or hose, black heels, and large gold loops in her ears. Peter could also smell perfume. “Wow! If he’s the trick,, “ he said, pointing at her son, “Are you the treat?”

Lauren smiled at this. She hugged Peter and whispered into his ear, “You’ll just have to find out later.”

At that point the doorbell rang, and Robby scampered out to the living room to answer it. Peter followed at a slower pace, to discover that some early ghosts and goblins were already on the prowl. The first people out were the young mothers with small children, some still in strollers, out in groups before it got too late. Robby handed out small packets of candy from a punch bowl on the buffet, explaining the procedure to Peter as he did so.

Peter laughed. “Robby, I’ve done this before, you know.”

“Hey, I’m just following orders.”

Peter wandered back to the kitchen, leaving Robby to deal with the next group. Both Jimmy and Holly were drinking the orange drink in a punch bowl. “Hey, what is that stuff?” he asked.

“Pumpkin juice!” answered Jimmy.

“Pumpkin juice?”

Lauren smiled and filled a cup with some and handed it to him. “It’s very popular at Hogwarts,” she explained. Then in a lower voice, she said, “It’s actually just orange soda and pineapple juice.”

Peter tried his and found it very sweet and carbonated. It would be perfect for children. He made a face. “It’s awful.” He went to the pantry and rooted around on the top shelf for the bottle of vodka he knew Lauren kept there. Her eyes widened as she saw what he was up to, but she smiled and refilled the mugs and then held them out to him. Peter poured a shot into each mug, ignoring Robby and Heather when they tried to barge in with their mugs.

Lauren stirred her mug with a fingertip them sampled it. “That’s pretty bad,” she announced.

Peter sipped his. “Yeah, but by the third or fourth, you won’t care!” Lauren nodded and sampled it again. It might not even take that long. “What’s the plan for tonight?” he asked.

“Well, these two go trick-or-treating with Heather and Jimmy while you and I hold down the fort. Then afterwards, they’re going to a Halloween party.” She pointed at the two teens for further explanation.

With that, Heather announced that they were ready, and she and Robby grabbed their coats. It was cool out, but not cold, and both children were wearing long underwear under their outfits. They grabbed some bags for candy and headed out the front door, Holly holding Heather’s hand, Jimmy bounding ahead, and Robby following behind.

“How long are they going to be out?” asked Peter. He was standing behind Lauren and was rubbing his hands across her rump. She didn’t seem to be wearing panties either.

Lauren laughed and pushed him back. “Behave! It’s not like we’re going to be alone!” As a pointed reminder, the doorbell rang with the next group of spooks. Later, she explained that she expected the kids to be gone for at least a couple of hours. In addition to the trick-or-treating, the teens were going to take the kids over to the fire house for the annual Halloween party and costume judging. They would be back sometime between eight-thirty and nine.

“Curses, foiled again!” he replied dramatically. Still, there were several moments when children were absent long enough for him to snuggle up to Lauren and allow his fingers to do the walking. Lauren protested at first, but after several servings of Peter’s version of ‘pumpkin juice’ wasn’t complaining at all. By the time the four youths returned, Peter had been able to determine that Lauren wasn’t wearing a bra, was wearing stockings and not hose, and wasn’t wearing panties either. On several occasions Lauren had gone to the door and served out candy flushed and breathing hard.

While Heather went downstairs to change and Robby went upstairs to the bathroom to change, Lauren supervised the sorting of the ‘loot’ in the kitchen. Peter supervised this as well, though Jimmy complained that the supervision consisted of picking out the good stuff. The sorting ended just about the time the two teens returned to the kitchen.

Robby was first, cleaned up and wearing jeans and a nice shirt. “No costume?” asked Peter curiously.

Robby shook his head. “No, it’s just a party, nothing fancy.”

“Where’s it at?” asked Lauren.

“I don’t know,” answered Heather, coming up the stairs and into the kitchen. Both Robby and Peter gave the girl wolf whistles as she entered, and Heather grinned and pirouetted before them. Heather was roughly the same size and shape as Lauren and had borrowed the little black dress the older woman had worn while barhopping with Peter in Brockton. If anything, it looked to be even more form-fitting and tight than on Lauren. She was wearing black fishnet hose and high heels and had a pointed witch’s cap on her head. While her normal makeup was done with a very light touch, tonight she had vamped things up a bit, with a dark red lipstick and plenty of mascara. She looked gorgeous and exotic.

It took a second for Robby to tear his eyes away and answer Lauren’s question. “It’s at Buddy Gilette’s, over in Bay Shore.”

“Since when do you hang out with Buddy Gilette?” asked Heather. Gilette was part of the ‘in-crowd,’ very popular, handsome, with rich parents, and lived in a ritzy suburb and drove a fancy black Trans Am. He and Robby were definitely not part of the same crowd.

“I don’t, but Rocky Bullings does, and he invited us.” Rocky was a friend of both Heather and Robby’s.

“Does this Buddy Gilette know you’re coming?” asked Lauren.

Robby nodded. “Yeah, he heard Rocky invite us and yelled over for us to come.” He shrugged and smiled. “Come on, we’ll get to see how the other half lives.” He led Heather out to the foyer and helped her into her jacket, then grabbed his and led her out to his truck.

“No drinking!” called out Lauren as they left.

Back in the kitchen, Lauren finished candy duties with her children, and sent them off to bed. She refreshed hers and Peter’s ‘pumpkin juices’ and followed him into the living room. They talked briefly until the pajama clad children ran downstairs for good night kisses, then she led them back upstairs and tucked them in. Fifteen minutes later she had returned to the living room.

She found Peter sitting in an armchair, sipping his drink and gazing out the front window. Lauren came around and sat sideways on his lap. Peter instinctively wrapped his arms around her and asked, “So what’s next on the schedule?”

Lauren smiled. “Well, I figure that Robby and Heather will be gone for two or three hours. I say we give the Daring Duo upstairs a half hour to fall asleep and then maybe we can sneak downstairs for a bit. Hmmm?”

“You’ve put in a reservation?” he asked, setting his drink down and running his hands along her sides.

“Let’s just say that what Heather doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” She bent forward and lowered her lips to his.

The Gilette house wasn’t really a mansion, which was what Heather thought it was as they got near it. It was simply something upscale in an upscale neighborhood, a big house on a big lot with a big price tag. Neither teen was familiar with the area, and even though it was in their school district it was on the outskirts. As they drove down the street searching for house numbers on homes that were set so far back it was impossible to read them, they noticed a house at the end of the block all lit up and with a bunch of cars parked in the driveway and on the road. Several were even parked helter-skelter across the front lawn. Robby found a spot halfway down the block and parked.

A stereo inside was blasting out hard rock loud, and Robby had to hang on the doorbell for a bit before their presence was acknowledged. He supposed he could have simply opened the door and barged in, but that seemed a bit brazen. He wasn’t a close friend with their host, Buddy Gilette. Buddy was a senior, a year ahead of both he and Heather, and moved in the rarified strata of the movers and shakers among the student body. Partly this was because his family had money and he got a very healthy allowance; this got him the decent clothes and the fancy car and plenty of money to take girls out with. He was also tall and slim, ruggedly handsome with a Fu Manchu mustache, and on the basketball team.

His younger sister, Cheryl, opened the door and let Robby and Heather in, and it was then that the two teens began wondering just what sort of party they were at. Cheryl was a year behind them, and Heather remembered that the girl’s birthday was in mid-December; she was still only fourteen, at least for a few more weeks. Regardless, she was wearing skintight jeans and a sequined blouse that was completely open, showing that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.

Cheryl’s eyes were slightly glassy as she greeted them loudly and invited them in. “Come on in! The party’s just getting good!” She held up half a six-pack by the plastic retainer. “Want a beer?” Without even waiting for the answer, she peeled off two beers and handed them over, then peeled off the last for herself. Popping the top, she tilted her head back and chugged about half the can. In the process her blouse opened up even further, exposing one of her small and pert tits completely. She didn’t seem concerned, draining the beer in a second swallow, then said, “Well, come on!” She turned and stumbled back down the hallway, leaving Robby and Heather in the foyer.

“Jesus Christ!” muttered Heather.

Robby shrugged his shoulders at his date, not knowing what to say, then popped the top on his own beer can. While neither teen was a teetotaler, neither were they completely innocent, either. Robby handed his beer to his date and took off his jacket, then helped Heather off with hers, hanging them both on the same hanger and stuffing them in the overflowing closet. Taking her by the hand, he led Heather down the hallway in the direction Cheryl had gone.

The first room they came to was the living room, and they didn’t go in. The lights were dimmed, and the stereo was in the corner blasting away, and two couples, one on the couch and the other laying on the floor, were involved in some pretty heavy kissing and necking. Neither Robby nor Heather wanted to intrude, so they kept moving on.

Continuing through the house, they passed through the kitchen, where somebody was mixing a bottle of vodka into a punch bowl. He grinned at them and said, “The fun’s downstairs. Come on!” He carefully lifted the punch bowl and led the way down a set of steps into what was obviously a family room.

Down in the family room, dim with about a half-dozen candles lit, their host, Buddy Gilette, was holding court, in his own inimitable fashion. He was sitting on the floor, leaning back against some pillows, and around him were three girls and two other guys. Most were in some stage of undress, well into some form of drinking game, and a joint was being passed around. “Come on in!” he ordered, just as the girl next to him peeled off her t-shirt, leaving her in bra and panties.

“Uh, thanks, we’re going to look around first,” replied Robby nervously. He pulled Heather back and went back upstairs. Heading upstairs, Heather mentioned she needed to find a bathroom. The one off the foyer had a teenager vomiting into the toilet, so they went upstairs and down the hall.

The first door they opened showed not a bathroom but one of the bedrooms. In fact, the bed was occupied. A pair of naked teenagers was screwing vigorously on top of the bedspread. Heather and Robby stared incredulously at the sight for a minute before they were noticed. The guy on top of the girl, Jack Bowman, looked over at them and said, “Hey, either come in or stay out, but close the door!”

Beneath him, a girl neither Robby nor Heather recognized but knew wasn’t Jack’s regular girl, said, “Yeah, come in and join us.”