Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 10:37:38 -0700 From: dude sweet Subject: My Last Halloween We were in 8th grade. Many of the guys felt they were too old to `play Halloween.' Ray and I figured this would be our last year to be kids and be stupid and have crazy fun. Next year we would be in high school and spend most of our time trying to be cool; but for now, we were kids. We were both going to dress up as monsters so we could scare little kids and steal their candy. We weren't really going to steal their candy; we just joked about it to tease his little brother, Jimmy. My mom bought me a makeup kit at the 99 cent store. It had green and red and black. Plus she gave me permission to tear up one of my old t-shirts that already had holes in it anyway. She also told me I could use some of her makeup if I needed too. Usually she helped me with my Halloween stuff, but I wanted to do it myself this year. Well the shirt was the easy part. Add a few more rips, put on some red lipstick for blood, some black for dirt, and it was done. After I put on my face makeup I put on my monster shirt and looked at myself in the mirror. It sucked. I didn't look like a monster. I looked like a kid with crappy makeup on his face. But I didn't want to ask my mom for help. This was my last year; good or bad, it was to be MY Halloween. I got a double paper trash bag, extra clothes and said goodbye to my mom and dad. I walked over to Ray's house. Usually I ride my bike, but since we were going out to trick-or-treat and then I was going to sleep over, I walked. It was still very light out, but already some of the little kids were already out with their parents. Nobody acted scared of me, but I didn't really try to scare anybody either. His house was decorated with pumpkins and cobwebs and the porch looked really cool. He lives in a part of town where people have money to decorate and cool stuff. I rang the doorbell. Normally I knocked, but it was all decorated and I didn't want to mess it up. The door opens, but nobody is there. Then Jimmy jumps out from behind the door. "Boo," he yells. Boo, LOL. He is in a Sponge Bob Square Pants costume. I don't think that will scare even the little kids. But I jump back and pretend to have a heart attack from being scared. I lay there dead on the floor. "What are you supposed to be?" he asks me. Ok, yeah, I guess my costume really, really sucks. "A monster. That eats little boys." I grab his leg and pretend to eat it. I let him pull away and he runs away. I get off the floor and go straight into Ray's room without knocking or anything. He's my best friend for three years, so we don't knock. He's not in his room. I look around. He jumps out from behind the door. "AArrrggggg!" I jump. Ok, I admit, he scared me. He has a cool monster mask and monster hands. "Scared you," he taunts. "Did not. You just startled me." No way am I going to admit being scared. No way. "Yeah right," he says, pulling off his mask, his big grin spreading across his entire face. "Like it?" "Yeah, it's the best one I've seen." "Is that what you're going as?" Yeah I know, it's lame. "Yeah." "Want some of my stuff? I have lots of monsters." He has been a monster for every year that I have known him. He always has the expensive rubber monster heads that goes over you. This is the first time he also has the hands. Yeah I would rather use his cool stuff than my lame ass crappy makeup and t-shirt. Without waiting for my answer, he disappears into his closet. He has tons of stuff in his closet that he never even plays with anymore. After a few minutes, he has found most of his old Halloween stuff. "You can have whatever you want. This one is cool." He hands me his last years mask. It's an old gross man with stringly hair and a huge nose, with a wart! Very ugly. I take it in my hands and look it over. "Put it on," he encourages. I pull it on. He drags me to a mirror on the closet door. I look cool. His mom knocks. "Picture time boys." We both put on masks and join Jimmy in the living room. She takes her pictures of all of use, then one at a time, then in groups of two. She must have lots of film. "Don't be out late." "How late?" asks Ray. "10:00." "Mom, its Friday. It's Halloween. Please." He begs. Hey, whatever it takes. "Ok 10:30, but don't be late." After we both thank her, she puts candy out on the porch and leaves with Jimmy to take him around. We head back up to his room. He pulls out a robe thing. It's like a druid cloak or something. "Here put this on." I start to pull in on over my head. "No, take off your shirt first. It feels good. I promise. Well my shirt sucks anyway, so I pull it off, then pull on the robe. It's silky and does feel good on my bare skin. I put on my mask and pose in front of the mirror. "Hunch over, like an old geezer." I do. It looks very cool. He pulls off his shirt and pulls out another robe. He pulls it on and then his mask. He looks cool. We grab our bags and head out for scaring, candy and fun. It's still light out, so it's hard to scare people; but we get tons of candy. We don't walk anywhere. It's either running or galloping. Nobody can tell it's us in these masks, so we just act crazy, yelling most of the time. After a while, our bags are full and heavy. Plus he has to pee, so we go back to his house. Jimmy and his mom are home and we dump our candy all over the floor to show off our goodies. We pig out on a little, trade with Jimmy, then put it all back into our bags and go into his room. He goes to pee, I dump our candy into two piles. When he comes back in the room, he has an evil look on his face. "Did you like the way the robe felt on your skin? With no shirt?" "Yeah. It felt cool. Especially when we were running." "Yeah." He pulls his shorts from behind him and throws them over near his closet. "So want to go in boxers only?" He grins with his entire face. How could I say no? First, I really liked the way the robe felt on my skin. Second, he's my best friend and if he wants to try it, then so do I. Third, well third, I had an even better idea. I kick off my shoes, reach under my robe and pull off my shorts. I throw them across the room. Then I reach back under my robe. "What are you doing?" I don't answer him. I just pull off my boxers and hold them up, then throw them across the room. I am totally naked now under the robe. I try to grin at him with my entire face. "Cool," he says and reaches up under his robe to strip naked. "Ready to go back out?" "Yeah." Laughing, we pick up our now empty candy bags and go back downstairs. Our first test comes. His mom and Jimmy are in the living room watching TV, a sort of scarey something on Disney. "Can I sleep with you guys tonight?" asks Jimmy. "No." Both Ray and his mom answer at the same time. "Don't forget, 10:30." "I know, I know." We head out. We did it. We passed the first test. Naked Halloween! We spend the first five blocks running at full speed and enjoying the way the silk-like soft robes rubbed on our naked bodies. We let out a yell or scream now and then, just to announce our presence to the world. Together, we slow down. "Feels good." "No," I say. "Feels great!" We take time to laugh and take inventory of our bodies feelings. "We are naked," he says to me, as much as to remind himself. "Totally. And nobody even knows. This is a blast." We tear off, running another three of four blocks. Where are we running? I don't know. I don't care. It's the running that's important, not the destination. The running is fun. Being naked is fun. The robe is fun, rubbing all over our bodies. This is even more fun than scaring little kids. At our next resting point, we both take off our heads to catch our breath. We have stopped at a small park. It's finally dark and nobody is there except us. We sit on the bench. "This is the best Halloween ever," I exclaim. "Yeah. Best ever. You had a great idea, going naked." "Yeah well you had the idea first, I just added one more part to it. Wait, what I really did was subtract one part. The boxers." We die laughing. We goof around on all the playground equipment, the slide, the rocking horse, the spinning thing. We leave when we see some older kids coming to drink or spoke pot or whatever older kids do on Halloween. We run some more, carrying our masks. I realize that's it not the masks and dressing up that makes Halloween cool. It's not the candy, or scaring people. It's not even the being naked and feeling the robes on our dicks and naked bodies that makes it cool. What makes it cool is being with my best friend, sharing our experiences, and just being together.