The Ghoul You're Looking For

The Ghoul You're Looking For (English Version)

If there's something you should know about Jonathan Friedman, is that he absolutely loves, adores, and nearly worships the Halloween season —and yes, you read that right, season, because the celebration lasts from August to October in his world. And also, that he is a huge nerd. Not only in the "booksmart" way, but in the goofy —although slightly endearing— way. Mix these two aspects of his personality together and things get... Interesting. Let's put it that way.

As his best friend, I've grown used to his shenanigans. There was a year he dressed up as Count Dracula and refused to drink anything that wasn't red for the entire week leading up to Halloween. There also was the year he pretended to be possessed and ended up being tackled by one our terrified classmates; a jock twice his size. Let's not even mention the time he turned off the lights of the men's dressing room, closed the door with a slam, and played a recording of Freddy Krueger's song through a pair of speakers, making everyone either scream their lungs out or fall to the floor laughing.

He has visited my house dressed as Dr. Frank-N-Furter more times than I can count. Knows the entire script of the Beetlejuice movie front to back. Tried to grow a moustache so he could look like Gomez Addams, but somehow only ended up regressing to the worst years of his puberty.

There are too many examples for me to mention, but with these, I think you can understand perfectly well what kind of person he is. Insane, but in a good way. Annoying, but in a funny way. Sometimes embarrassing, sometimes amazing. Overall unique. But I love him. Not despite his weirdness, but because of it. I love him just as much as he loves anything spooky —which is a lot.

So, when the couple matching even for the Halloween school fair came around, and instead of receiving a random name I didn't recognize, I got a paper with a full set of clues as to who my mysterious partner was, I chuckled. It had him, no questions asked.

I knew my favorite nerd very well, and knew about his closeness to the teachers, particularly the ones supervising the event. He for sure had convinced them into pairing us up. These were one of the many benefits of being a goody two shoes, I suppose. You get professional help to manage your mischiefs.

The clues he wrote down were also extremely cheesy, and his messy handwriting was unmistakable. But I decided to play along, because I found it endearing:

"1- The ghoul you're looking for burns under sunlight and finds it deadly." (John was white as a paper sheet and became bright red after thirty minutes walking outside.)

"2- The ghoul you're looking for lives in an ancient castle by the lake." (His parent's house was built in the 70's and had a big pool on the back.)

"3- The ghoul you're looking for can be found up high in the northern tower, overlooking the land and mortals bellow." (John was an artist and spent a lot of time locked inside the arts and crafts classroom of our school, located on the last floor of the northernmost building.)

"4- The ghoul you're looking for is someone you already know." (Self- explanatory.)

"5 -You've got twenty-four hours to crack the code.

Good luck, my fair maiden <3"

God.

He's such an idiot.

Again, I love him.

Now, it was obvious to me after reading this that he'd made this challenge easy on purpose. He wanted me to solve it quickly. So I grinned, shook my head and walked towards the place we were supposed to meet at, pointed out in the note. And once I got there, I found the door of the classroom alredy open. John was leaning against the teacher's desk, sporting a Victorian suit that was split in half; one side shredded to pieces and stained with fake blood, and the other as fancy and expensive as it could be. All around him, hanging from the ceiling and the walls, there were cotton spider webs and paper cutouts of Jack-o'-lanterns. Over the tables, Papier-mâché ghosts. A plastic skeleton had also been kidnapped from the science lab, and was holding a sign that read "Congratulations! You've made it!" written in his shaky and wonky calligraphy. Everything looked incredibly nice.

"Just to make things clear, am I talking to Doctor Jekyll or Mister Hyde right now?" I asked, amused at the sight.

"Neither. It's just John." He smiled. "You got here earlier than I thought you would."

"I know you better than myself, doofus. Of course I did... Now, can you please tell me what all of this is about?"

He walked closer to me. It was then I noticed he was holding something in his left hand.

"Well... You always said you'd like to be asked out in a big way, so I... Did this."

"Asked out?" My eyebrows raised against my will. My jaw almost fell, but my smile managed to keep it locked in place.

"Yeah..." John gulped. "I was wondering if, for one night, you could be the Sally to my Jack." Right then I found out what he was holding; a black velvet box. And once he opened it, I saw the cutest, tiniest silver bat hanging from a chain. It was a necklace. "Would you go to the Halloween ball with me?"

I paused. Chuckled.

"Can you imagined if after all of this I said no?"

"It w-would hurt, but you can." He said hurriedly, and I could tell he was trying to keep his chill.

To reassure him, I draped both of my arms over his shoulders.

"I'd love to go with you." Then, I did something I never had the courage to before. I looked down at his lips. Bit my own. And he leaned forward, but didn't touch mine. Not yet. "Can I-"

"-Kiss you?"

Four years of friendship. All leading up to this moment. And we both managed to screw it up by talking at the same time.

At least we were able to laugh about it.

"Yeah." I whispered. "You can."

From that day on, Halloween also became a full season to me.