Skylar leaned to her tip toes, fingertips tugging on the box on the shelf in John’s closet. As the weight shifted forward, pushing their fingers backward, they grunted. Getting their palm under the box, they turned towards Emily.
“It’s über heavy. Why didn’t we ask John to get it again?”
Emily giggled. “Because John wouldn’t want you to see the scrapbook with his baby pictures.”
“But I thought we were getting the box of Halloween costumes for the haunted house.”
“We are. It’s behind the baby scrapbook box. You can take a quick look before you get the costumes.”
“Isn’t that an invasion of-”
“I’m surprised his mother hasn’t shown you yet anyway.” Emily blurted. She reached out and pat Skylar on the shoulder. “Besides, the scrapbook box also has some things we could use in prepping for our haunted house.”
“It does?” When Skylar looked up scrapbooks, Halloween or scary weren’t words associated with it. “Anyway, back up, I don’t want to accidentally drop the box on you.”
“Can’t you use your super human strength?”
“That doesn’t mean I won’t drop the box.” Skylar moved their foot back, tapping gently on Emily’s calf. “Or that I won’t accidentally elbow you with a little too much force.”
“Fine.”
As Emily moved back, Skylar made sure to activate all the muscles fibers, but they didn’t take the box off the shelf. Instead they also stretched their arms up and over in order to reach the box with the Cerberus heads.
“So, tell me more about this Haunted House.” A voice Skylar didn’t recognize drifted through the hallway.
John spoke quickly, ideas rolling off his tongue. Skylar gave the box a quick yank, but the gap between the top of the scrap-booking box and the ceiling wasn’t large enough. The heavy box came down, the corner of the cardboard grazing Skylar’s head as they tried to dodge and shrink their arms back to normal.
Skylar’s yelp and the heavy thud brought many footsteps to the closet.
“Are you okay?” John tugged on Skylar’s shirt and looked at their head. “Oh, it’s just a scratch.” Skylar blinked, focusing on not healing the cut because hovering over John’s shoulder was, well, Skylar didn’t know the guy’s name, but the important part was whoever they were, they didn’t need to know about the whole alien bit.
“Exactly,” Skylar brushed John’s hand away. “Just a scratch, I’ll be fine. But really, why’d you pack a box so heavy?”
“I don’t know.” John shrugged. “I’ll get you a band aid.” He turned and noticed his friend. “Oh, Skylar, this is Quinn. Quinn, this is Skylar. He’s going to write up some music for the Haunted House. Tell him what we’re going for.”
Skylar used big gestures to tell Quinn their vision for the haunted House.
Word count: 468
