The other half of the party had made their way to Skulduggery's house, as it was the biggest. They all filed in, Saracen bringing up the rear and staying surprisingly quiet. Gracious, Donegan and Ghastly sat on the couch and Dexter and Trip took the armchairs. Skulduggery, Fletcher, Ravel and Saracen stood.
"So, what's for dinner?" Gracious asked. He had woken up on the ride back.
"Something eatable." Fletcher smirked.
"Right now, I would eat anything..." he wailed.
"How about Chinese?" Ravel suggested.
"No thanks, I couldn't stomach that, too filling." Ghastly added
"How about Pizza?" Flectcher said.
"Yeah, pizza would do." Donegan nodded.
"Who's paying?" Ravel asked.
Dexter was just about to say 'thanks for offering' again to annoy him when Skulduggery spoke up.
"I'll pay" he said.
"No Skulduggery, that's not fair. You can't even eat any." Fletcher protested.
"I'll pay for it." Saracen said at last, "It won't be enough to apologise for how I acted this evening but I hope it helps."
Everyone nodded apart from Trip. The gang had left their suits at Skulduggery's earlier that day. Anton's was still there but there had been no sign of him all night.
"Hey, has anyone seen Anton since this morning? I didn't even see him bring in his suit." Dexter said.
"I brought it in," Ravel replied, "He's working late at the hotel and will join us as soon as he can."
"Well, we better get enough pizza for him too then." Saracen smiled.
He went through to Skulduggery's hat room to order the pizza.
"I hate him" Trip blurted.
"We know. But Saracen has had a thing for Adra since she got here. He only found out recently that you were her boyfriend and backed off, slightly." Dexter added.
Trip sighed. "I know, but I think Adra is falling for him...you know what's he's like with women. Adra pretends that she's not one of those women who fall head over heels for his charm but she's been really distant recently."
He looked down at his hands. Everyone fell silent until Saracen walked back through to the living room.
"Pizza should be here in a few minutes."
"Good, i'm starving" Gracious groaned.
"You're always starving, Gracious." Donegan rolled his eyes.
"That's cause I never eat a lot and when I do we travel all over the world and I lose it all again."
"Skulduggery, you need more chairs." Fletcher complained
"For one, Fletcher I don't need more chairs, I don't normally have this many people in my house, just myself and Valkyrie. And secondly, there is a perfectly good carpet below your feet.
Fletcher grouchily sat down on the floor. "I need a seat...my feet are killing me from too much dancing."
"Fletcher, you do know it's a Christmas dance, don't you?" Ghastly chuckled.
"Well, yeah. Although I didn't expect Annabeth to be so lively..."
"Are you going to call her?" Ghastly asked quietly
Gracious and Donegan were too busy telling Dexter and Trip about their monster hunting adventures, Saracen and Skulduggery were in a world of their own and Ravel kept looking at his watch to see when Anton would show up.
"I don't know," Fletcher sighed solemnly, "I'll see what happens tonight"
"What are you waiting for?" Ghastly asked.
Fletcher just looked at him with a sad and thoughtful expression on his face and Ghastly finally caught on. "You want to know how things with Valkyrie go first?"
Fletcher nodded. Ghastly patted his back gently. Just then the door rang and Gracious sprung to his feet and bolted towards the door. He opened it and came face-to-face with Anton Shudder, holding the pizzas.
"Surprise" He grinned
Gracious grinned and snatched up the boxes of pizza and went back to eat them. Anton walked in after him.
"So, delivery boy, do I pay you instead?" Saracen smirked
"No it's alright, I already paid the delivery boy," Anton said, "Keep your pocket money, Saracen."
Everybody was now turned towards Anton smiling, apart from Gracious who was already onto his second slice.
"Hey Anton, you didn't miss much." Ravel said.
"Good to know" Anton took off his jacket and threw it over Ravel.
"Actually, you missed me beating Gracious in a drinking competition." Donegan announced proudly.
"Wow, now that is something." Anton said, sounding genuinely pleased for him.
Ravel huffed and hung up Anton's jacket then went over to the pizza, as did everyone else. Apart from Skulduggery who still stood staring out of the window. When everyone had finished eating they all got dressed. They all changed into their fancy black suits and wore different coloured ties. Ghastly's was yellow, Trip's was purple, Saracen's was silver, Ravel's was gold, Skulduggery's was deep red, Fletcher's was black, Gracious's was orange, Donegan's was pink, Anton's was green and Dexter's was royal blue. They all got back into the taxi, after Fletcher took around 20 minutes to get his hair sitting perfectly and they set off towards Gordon's house.
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