Candy Man
Written by: JakePierce
Josh and Cindy dressed up in the same Halloween costumes every year. Josh dressed himself as Superman, which was ironic because he didn’t have a brave bone in his body. Cindy would dress as an elegant Cinderella, which suited her name.
Josh and Cindy had been together since high school and had been in love. Their freshman year, Josh had nervously approached Cindy in the library and asked,
“Hey, sorry to bother you, do you know what time it is?”
The blonde and stunning Cindy turned and looked up at the clock directly above her.
“It is 11:30”, she said.
Josh laughed to himself at how pathetic he was and lucky he was to be with Cindy as he zipped up the back of the blue Superman suit. Josh and Cindy were getting ready to go to the annual Halloween party at their friend Donny’s house. Josh had noticed that he and Cindy were slowly growing apart. They had stopped making love and found themselves quiet at their dinner table in their rundown apartment. Josh was confused and couldn’t understand why Cindy was growing more distant. Maybe it was his unemployment or the fact that wasn’t able to go to college because his parents couldn’t afford it. Josh thought about becoming a bus boy because he and Cindy would need some sort of secondary income. Cindy was a maid at the Marriot down the street and walked to work every day so they could save the gas money.
Josh was tall, lean and skinny. He wore dark rimmed round glasses that matched his black shaggy, uncombed hair. Josh was incredibly bright, he was the “Mathlete” in his high school and never settled for anything below a B+. He was going places. Cindy was impressed by his intelligence and his grades while they were dating, but he had to drop out. His parents were drunkards; especially his father who couldn’t handle life without the long glass bottle being at least half empty. Both of his parents were unemployed, which forced Josh out of school to try and handle a job. He worked the cash register at the McDonalds until his parents picked up and left him. Cindy’s parents, who loved Josh, gave them both enough money to start up in their new apartment. The dark days that were in the past were always brighter with Cindy around, but even now those thoughts of her being in his future for much longer were clouded.
They pulled up to the party in Josh’s beat up Suburban and found themselves being completely ignored by the guests. Nobody had remembered him; he wasn’t even a blip on the radar, he was invisible. They stood in the corner and watched Tommy Johnson drunkenly dance around in his underwear and his letterman’s jacket.
“I’m too sexy for my pants, too sexy for my pants.” He cried as he paraded around.
Josh and Cindy always got a kick watching people at parties. They would stand in the corner, almost always touching in some way and laugh and whisper in each other’s ears. Cindy would always have her old high school friends approach her and ask her how life was after high school. She ate up the attention. Tonight however, they stood underneath the overpass of some large wooden steps that circled up to the next floor, silent. He and Cindy weren’t touching, and weren’t talking. Josh turned and looked at Cindy, who sat quietly fidgeting with her thumbs. Josh turned his broad, fake shoulders and gazed back out at the living room. The room itself was like a compressed arena. In the center of the room was a large group of people socializing. On the ledges overlooking the center were people sitting on a number of decorated couches.
Josh suddenly felt a cold hand on his back. It was like the cold, rugged hand he felt the night his father told him he was leaving him. He turned, thinking it was indeed his father who had somehow come to the party that night to tell him how much of a screw up he was. He looked back and it was Derek, the kid he had sat next to him in Math class for two years in a row his Junior and Senior year. They had carried out long conversations on a daily basis about how stupid they thought Mrs. Davis, their Math teacher was. They even sat and ate lunch together most days.
“Oh sorry, I thought you were somebody else.” Derek said as he continued walking.
Josh stared blankly back out to the group of drunkards singing and dancing loudly. Cindy sat still, fidgeting with her thumbs.
