I never really liked Halloween, to be honest. It’s not because of how scary or dangerous it could get. It’s about the lonesome feeling I would get, seeing everyone in my neighborhood be busy with their decorations, going out to be with friends, and with their trick-or-treating every year. My family didn’t really bond over those things, both my parents were busy around that time of year and as an only child… well there’s only so much I could do to keep myself entertained. However, that completely changed for the better in high school. I was able to make a group of friends in senior year and one of them suggested that I should come to a Halloween party with her at her cousin’s house next weekend on the 18th.

And being the reluctant person I was… “What?! No way, are you kidding me? I’m just gonna be standing there like a weirdo. Most likely with no costume either!” I protested, fiddling with the strand of my backpack. 

“Come on, two weeks. You have two whole weeks to pick up literally ANY costume. Didn’t you complain just a minute ago about never being invited to anything?” Alyssa scoffed, narrowing her teasing eyes at me. It almost made me shiver. “I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock and we’ll be there for a few hours, we’ll be fine I promise.”

I simply groaned. There was no way that she would remember to pick me up or so I thought.

BZZT, BZZZT, BZZZZZZTT. Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I looked over to my calendar and- oh my god it’s been exactly two weeks, TWO WEEKS since she asked me. I guess she wasn’t the one to forget, huh? I pursed my lips and picked up the phone, gosh why couldn’t she just have texted me? She’s probably dressed up and here I am sitting on my bed with a sweater two sizes too big and in the middle of watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre after my parents left to go get groceries. Could you believe that they even wanted me to go to this party?

“Told you I was gonna show up, now come down here.” Alyssa happily hummed into the phone.

Part of me wanted to run and hide into my closet and pretend this was a dream. Another part of me was fearful of letting her down and another part wanted to just lay down and scream until my voice was officially gone. Let’s just say it wasn’t about going to be easy getting to the end of the phone call. “Yeah, uh... Give me a few minutes, okay? I’ll be there with you in a moment.” I remarked and quickly hung up, not even hearing if she was alright with waiting. I didn’t mind, I was already running around my room searching for anything to slap on and call it a night. Now, I could’ve done many things, I could have been meta and say I was going as myself or be one of those people who just stuck a piece of paper to my shirt with a label. It wasn’t too bad of an idea, but it felt sloppy and I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself even more. While going through my closet a thought popped into my head. How about a ghost? I mean all I needed were some white sheets, right? I have those on my bed already. So I was quick to pull one of them off. “Darn,” I whispered, coming to a realization. I needed to cut holes into it so I could see. That didn’t look too appealing in my mind... 

A few minutes passed and after being hesitant with cutting off some of the fabric I put on the “costume” and stared at myself in the mirror. “This is absolutely ridiculous,” I muttered. The cuts were all messy and I looked like a toddler. I checked my phone and was getting worried about the time. I needed to cover my eyes, but how?! I rummaged through my room once last time, there had to be something to cover my eyes. That’s when it hit me. No seriously, when I was looking through the drawer in my bathroom a pair of sunglasses fell down and hit my foot. 

“That's it!” I gasped in relief as I hastily got a hold of the pair of sunglasses and tried them on. Oh, it was perfect, no one could see the poor craftsmanship and I could still see. Plus it made it easier for me to walk around with this big sheet over my head. I got my phone, earbuds just in case it got awkward and wrote a note to my dads saying that I would be coming home late. 

Alyssa was practically about to leave the scene until I came bursting out of the door with my pitiful looking costume and locked the door. It took some time however, the darn sheet was stuck in the doorway.

 “A ghost?” My companion laughed slightly, I could feel my cheeks warm up. 

“Well... yeah, what’s wrong with the classics?” I argued in return as I went over to her car and saw her costume through her open window. She came as the yellow power ranger from the Power Ranger Zeo series, she always had a knack for 90’s shows. 

“Wait, wait, don’t go into the car just yet, I want to take a picture!” Alyssa gasped as she got out of her car. “This is your first Halloween technically and I don’t want your dads to miss it either! Come on.” All she heard from me was a groan as I slumped against the car. “Come on you big baby! Go pose somewhere.” She pouted and I reluctantly stepped away from the car and looked for a place to pose. I wasn’t feeling very creative, but I didn’t want to end up looking like a stiff mannequin. I went over to the tree to the right of the house and peeked my head out from behind and that was the series of a twenty-minute photoshoot. Yes, I did start to get into it after a few photos, okay? It felt nice being able to save these memories to look back on later. I even went to get my skateboard and rode it down the sidewalk to get the sheet to start flowing in the pictures! Afterward, we made our way to her cousin’s party. 

The party was great and all, but what I mostly remember was when Alyssa asked me if it was okay to post a couple of photos up on her Twitter and Instagram. It took me a few seconds to say yes in the end. What’s the worst that could happen right? It only took a couple of days for it to go viral and no one even knew who began the trend under those cool sunglasses. I don’t mind, everyone is having fun acting goofy and cool with their own sheets as Halloween day is creeping upon us. Some even use patterned ones to spice it up. I guess the life lesson here is that it doesn’t take climbing up a mountain or going through devastation to learn that there’s more to life outside of my comfort zone. The results of that for me though are fantastic, I wouldn't have it any other way.