X-Kid

This Is Halloween

About an hour before the party at Alex’s house was supposed to start, Jack walked over to my house with his costume on, shuffling awkwardly as I opened the door. His skunk hair was pushed back with one of his sister’s headbands, making him look so silly, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Nice headband,” I snickered.

He pouted. “My mom said it would be easier to put on face paint and stuff this way.”

I had him follow me down the hallway to my room, leaving the door open. I had my costume laid down on my bed, packets of face makeup littering my floor. “Get started on your face. I’m going to change into my costume real quick.”

“Why can’t you just do that in here?” he wondered.

“I’m not changing clothes in front of you, Jack,” I mentioned.

“Come on! You’ve seen me naked!” He protested.

“SHUSH,” I exclaimed, looking over my shoulder nervously. “Not so loud. That was an accident. Now, stop complaining. I’ll be back in just a second.”

He stuck his tongue out at me, and I rolled my eyes as I walked across the hall to the bathroom, my dress in tow. The previous weekend, Jack’s mom had helped me sew a bunch of colorful patches onto my dress to make it seem like Sally’s dress in the movie. I shuffled out of my clothes, sliding on the dress before returning to my bedroom.

“Nora,” Jack whined. “I don’t know how to do my makeup.”

“Don’t look at me,” I defended. “I don’t know how to put on makeup either.”

“I thought you wore makeup,” he said.

I shook my head. “Nope. I don’t like it much.”

“Wow. You never makeup, but you’re still so pretty,” he commented with a  small smile.

I blushed. “Thanks. Now, let me see if I can figure this out.”

We sat on my bedroom floor across from each other, covering the other’s face with paint and make up. We made stupid comments and laughed, trying to ignore how close together our faces were. His brown eyes looked huge and watched my every move, all during the process of face decoration.

We finished and stood up, but we weren’t quite ready. I donned a red wig and helped Jack with his bow tie. “Nora,” My aunt called from down the hallway. “Your friends are here to get you and Jack!”

“Perfect timing,” I commented, grinning at Jack. He offered me an arm, which I took happily before we went to join everyone.

“You guys look great!” Luna assured.

“We have to take a picture together guys! We’ll put it in a friendship scrapbook or something,” Alex commented.

We all posed in front of my front door while my aunt took a picture on her phone. She promised to send it to me as we headed out in the direction of Alex’s house. We all looked utterly ridiculous, but had had a ton of fun putting all of this together, which was what mattered.

My feet were tired but the time we got there, but my eyes lit up with excitement as we came up to the front door. Plastic gravestones decorated the front lawn, jack o’lanterns filling up the porch with fake spiders and cobwebs covering the door. I could see Jack’s unmistakable grin out of the corner of my eye, which only made me smile wider.

Inside, there were streamers, Halloween themed music, candy, and a whole bunch of people in costumes. There were superheroes, princesses, slutty cats, and anything else you could imagine, though ours seemed to be the most original.

“Do you want something to drink?” Jack asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not your prom date, doofus. I mean, thanks, but I’m good.”

“I wanna dance!” Luna declared, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Me too!” Jack added.

“You guys go ahead. We’ll be out in a sec,” Rian mentioned, stopping Alex. Jack and Luna nodded enthusiastically before heading to the middle of where most of the crowd was.

Alex turned to us expectantly. “What’s up?”

“Dude, you look like a fucking dickhead,” Zack commented with a laugh.

“So? It’s Halloween. Pretty much everyone looks stupid,” Alex defended.

“Why didn’t you convince Luna to do something...cooler?” Rian wondered.

He shrugged. “It’s what she wanted. I mean, did you see how happy she is? She loves it. As her boyfriend, it’s my job to keep her happy, even if I look like an idiot doing it.”

I smiled proudly at Alex, nodding with approval. “Alex, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”

He looked at me curiously. “What do you mean?’

“Luna’s my best friend. She’s had boyfriends before, and none of them were really the greatest...but somehow, she found you, and you treat her like she deserves. So, thank you,” I explained. moving forward to hug him.

“Thanks, Nora. You’re far too sweet. If it helps though, I like how you treat my best friend too,” he winked.

A blush crept onto my cheeks and I laughed nervously before we all made it out to the makeshift dance floor to find Luna and Jack. Jack saw me and beamed, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to dance with him. He ignored my protests and we began to dance. His enthusiasm was adorable, and I found myself giggling.

Yet, I couldn’t shake what Alex had said. Or the fact that he had been so eager to work with me on our costumes, only to pick a fictional couple. I tried not to read too much into it, and instead focused on enjoying myself at the party. With my 5 best friends alongside me, I knew that that wouldn’t be hard.