Average Joe (2018)

37

October 31st

"I look like an idiot," I told Darwin. I was staring at myself in the mirror. My face was slathered in white and black grease paint. I wore the suit I had from homecoming the previous year. Darwin had seen an excellent Halloween costume design on Pinterest of a guy with a skull painted over his face, and since I couldn't figure out what to go as, he insisted on buying the face paint, making me dress like an agent from Men in Black, and sitting me down in my desk chair while he slicked my hair back with mousse and used his thick fingers to rub the white and black paint onto my skin. Admittedly, he did a good job. The design on my face looked just like it did on Pinterest, but with my dark hair, the black-on-black, and the skeleton face, it just looked like I was working on my Tate cosplay from American Horror Story. "I'm rubbing this off."

"No!" Darwin protested. "Dude, you look terrific. Get over yourself. Are you afraid of Amelia not liking it?" I felt like my blush was visible beneath the grease paint.

"First, her name is Cora. Second, you will not say stuff like that in front of her, do you hear me?" Darwin chuckled.

"Yeah, whatever. Where did you meet her, anyways?"

"Bryan introduced us. Through book club." Darwin raised his eyebrow.

"You're hanging out with Bryan, now? That's new. It wasn't too long ago you thought the dude was straight up the anti-Christ." I shrugged.

"We're not hanging out. We're just in the same book club."

"Yeah, Tori mentioned that. When am I going to be able to join this mysterious book club?"

"As soon as you learn to read, Wise Guy." I looked at myself in the mirror again and sighed. "I look like those Joker memes." I turned to Darwin and did my best Heath Ledger impression. "We live in a society."

Darwin laughed. Tonight he was wearing baggy red pajamas that were made from that cheap spandex material that's used in most Halloween costumes. The design on the pajamas was meant to resemble Red Flame's armor. He also wore a flimsy plastic domino mask. Red Flame in all his glory.

"You look better than me," he said. "I wasn't planning on going this year, so I can't whip out my premium Red Flame cosplay tonight."

"Cosplay?" I asked. "You mean dress up?"

"I mean cosplay, Norman. You would know if you came to the conventions with me." For a cool-guy-quarterback like Darwin, he sure was a nerd sometimes. Darwin sighed. "This get-up would look better if Tori was here. She was supposed to be my Cold Front but she chickened out on me."

I paused as I began to adjust my tie. "She's not coming?"

"Nope." His expression dropped. "I think she wanted to be alone for a bit. Her parents' divorce is getting pretty ugly."

"Yeah, I heard." Mom gave two quick knocks on my door and then opened it.

"Wow, you boys are looking sharp!" I could tell she was trying not to wince at Darwin's outfit. "Are you guys ready to go?"

Tori, Darwin, and I had been going to this Halloween party for years. Last year, Darwin went as a gender-swapped Cold Front and Tori was his Red Flame. That same year, I went as a civilian who Darwin kept kidnapping, requiring Tori to save me. Every year there is some iteration of some kind of superhero. Mostly Red Flame. In fact, as me, Cora, and Darwin walked into the party, Darwin became almost invisible in a sea of red-clad heroes. My favorite iteration was a guy who dressed up as a Red Flame/Cowboy hybrid, wearing a stetson and carrying six shooters.

Cora looked nice. She dressed up as the bride of Frankenstein, going so far as to dye her hair black and put a fake gray streak in it.

"You look good," I told her in the parking lot.