Free All Hallow's Eve: The One Day It's BAD to Be Good by Carolyn McCray

afternoon? “I was just trying to do something good.” Then the waterworks started. “I was hoping we could all just be a family.”
    Cecilia couldn’t take much more of her mom’s self-pity. She knew her mom’s heart was in the right place. It was just hard to care, given how much of a cleanup of the kitchen Cecilia would have to do. From previous experience, she knew exactly how hard it would be to remove the smoke and soot from everything.
    “I know, Mom. But how about you just go back to your room? I’ll finish up and let you know when dinner is ready.”
    “Oh, Cecilia, honey.” Unfortunately, as her mother rose to give her a hug, she knocked over a glass of wine. The red liquid splashed all over Cecilia, staining her sundress.
    “Mom!” she yelled, unable to control herself. “Just go back to bed!”
    Head bowed, her mom shuffled out of the kitchen. Once certain that her mom was out of earshot, Cecilia finally let the tears, which threatened to come out all day, stream down her cheeks. Sobbing, she clutched the edge of the sink. This was so unfair! She looked down at her delicate yellow dress, ruined by the deep burgundy merlot.
    Cecilia used a wet dishrag to wipe it off, but it only smeared the stain more. She threw the towel down. Cecilia didn’t know why she even bothered. Even if somehow she magically got the dress cleaned, where would she ever wear it?
     
    * * *
     
    Jeremy paced his room. The smoke alarm hadn’t gone off again, so he supposed his sister had thrown their mom out of the kitchen. But after Cecilia was done with that crisis, Jeremy knew his big sister would be after him next. And he was not waiting around for that.
    He had way bigger plans.
    Finally, a knock came at his window. He opened it, and Evan climbed though.
    “Jeez, you took long enough!” Jeremy chastised.
    Evan dusted himself off. “What’s so important that it was a 9-1-1 text?”
    Jeremy fanned out two Diana Dahmer Halloween concert tickets. “Oh, just these?”
    “What?” His best friend stepped back, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “How… how did you get those?”
    Jeremy relished the shocked look on his friend’s face. “Remember that last pool game you ditched to turn in your history paper?”
    Evan snorted. “Yeah, then Father Haskell extended the deadline until Monday because no one else had theirs ready.”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jeremy hurried on. “But the point is that I won the game and the guy didn’t have the cash up front so, voilà!”
    His friend reached a hand out, and Jeremy turned the tickets over to him. “Wow, the artwork on here is just amazing! They’ve even embossed them. They are going to make great souvenirs.”
    “Souvenirs?” Jeremy recoiled from the notion. “Screw my Diana Dahmer collection. We are going to the concert!”
    “No way!” Evan exclaimed, looking flushed at the idea. “Our parents will kill us!”
    Jeremy shook his head. “Our parents won’t even know.” Heck, his mom probably wouldn’t notice if he disappeared for a week. Cecilia, though… But he had a plan for even her. “We’ll just leave messages on our moms’ voice mails saying that we’re staying at each other’s houses tonight.”
    Evan still looked skeptical.
    But Jeremy was not giving up. “Your mom is probably going to be relieved. I mean, when was the last time she was home for dinner?” His friend’s face clouded over. “That’s what I thought. Plus, from Uncle Pax’s phone call earlier, they are working on a big case, and Cec has her hands full with Mom. Nobody is going to care that we are out for the night.”
    “If we get found out? My mom. Your uncle. Death. Slow and painful, dude.”
    “I’m not staying here,” Jeremy snapped, but then recovered. With more cajoling, Jeremy continued, “I mean, I am going, and I really want you to go, too.”
    Jeremy couldn’t risk scaring Evan too much—not if he wanted his friend to join in what Jeremy really had planned for the