Talia Kane is alone. She doesn’t have any friends and she is usually excluded from everyone. She tried out for cheerleading and almost twisted her ankle in the process; she joined the track team and ended up passing out from the lack of breath, she even signed up for chess club and was confused with the whole concept no matter how many times her classmate explained it to her. Talia is not a part of any social circle. She’s an outcast.

Halloween was coming and, of course, the annual Halloween dance her school had was the most talked about topic of the month. The posters were scattered all around her school and everyone was in line for a ticket. At home, her mom encouraged her to do something with her life, something other than take up space and be mute. But Talia was unwanted.If nobody wants to be my friend, then why try? she said to herself. Though, when the news came out about the dance, Talia’s mom took the opportunity to try and influence her to go. “Please go, Talia. This is perfect for you; you can make friends.” Talia dreaded going, but after what seemed like forever, she decided to go. What if she did make friends?

In their unique and heavily complimented costumes all the students poured into the school’s gymnasium, prancing around and talking about how hard it was to purchase their expensive costumes and have them shipped to their door when someone could’ve walked into Party City and got the same thing for $26.99. After the stampede of people, Talia showed up; a little facepaint on the cheeks, some on the eyes and a little around her mouth made a decent homemade skeleton. The gym was slightly dark with a few orange and black streamers and easy stick on wall ghosts and witches, setting the perfect last minute decor that only the decoration committee would care about.

“Everyone’s dancing, what should I do?” Talia thought trying her best to dance even though she knew that she couldn’t. “Relax, it’s just a school dance.” Talia took in deep breaths and she headed over near the snacks table. After grabbing a cup of punch, she made her way to a seat and accidentally bumped into a guy, spilling some of the punch on the floor. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I was looking for the snack table.” The guy was wearing a Frankenstein mask and a black hoodie.

“I just went there, let me take you,” Talia answered while she escorted the guy to table.

“How are you liking the dance?”



“It’s ok, it’d be nice if I had someone to hang out with while the dance is still going on.”



“Well, how about me?”

Inside, Talia felt a wave of happiness rush through her. Someone wanted to hang out with her. “Uh.. sure. That’d be nice.So what’s your name?” Talia asked.

“It’s… Marcus..yeah. Marcus Haring.”

“Well, Marcus, who are you? I have to know what you look like.”

As she reached for his mask, he backed away leaving her confused.
“What’s wrong?”

“You don’t want to see me with my mask off.”

“Does he think he looks ugly?” she thought.

For the rest of the dance, it was just the two of them. Talia felt wanted and this person, whoever he was, wanted to be with her as they danced and exchanged laughs with each other. Even though Marcus didn’t want Talia to see his face, she brushed the incident off.

After the dance, Talia didn’t see the boy again. It was like a Cinderella story, except a girl was trying to the guy. “Where is he?” She looked everyday and she asked if anyone has seen him around, but no one knew a Marcus Haring. It had been three weeks and Talia gave up. She was alone once again.


___


“Mom, I have to go to the library to finish an essay.” Talia said.

“You can go, just don’t be out too late,” her mother answered

Talia approached the town library, on foot, and went to the nearest computer inside. Half an hour later, she printed the final copy of the essay and was out the door. She walked not even 10 feet when she heard someone say, “Hello.” The voice sounded familiar. As she slowly turned around, Talia noticed that Marcus was standing by a few bushes in the shadow of the building.

“Marcus! Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you.”

“ I had… something to do. It was really important.”

“Thank God I found you. Do you want walk with me? I was just going home.”

She stepped closer to Marcus and noticed he still had the Frankenstein mask on.

“Why do you still that mask on?”

“I told you… you wouldn’t want to see me with the mask off.”

“Marcus, we’re friends, right? Trust me, you probably don’t look that bad.” Talia

reached for the mask trying to pull it off his refusing head.
“Talia, don’t pull it off!”

The mask was off of Marcus’s face and in Talia’s hands.

Marcus’s clothes fell to the floor, as Talia stood in fear, tightly clutching the mask in her shaking hands.
There was no Marcus.