The Costume Mixup

Kai gets a text from Freya on Friday: "party tomorrow, costumes optional, but encouraged lol." He reads it twice, decides "optional" means he can skip the costume, and moves on with his evening.

He only reads the first half of messages lately, so he misses what comes next. Freya's second text arrives ten minutes later. It says: "actually nvm, everyone's definitely dressing up, it's kind of the whole point."

By Saturday afternoon, Kai has completely forgotten about the second message. He shows up at Freya's house in jeans and a plain t-shirt. He's holding a bag of chips, his only contribution to the evening.

Freya opens the door dressed as a very convincing pirate. She's wearing an eye patch and carrying a plastic sword. Behind her, Kai can see at least six other costumes. There's a dinosaur, two superheroes, and someone dressed as a very large slice of pizza.

"You didn't get my second text," Freya says, more amused than annoyed.

"There was a second text?"

"I said everyone's definitely dressing up. It's basically a costume party, not an optional-costume party."

Kai looks down at his plain outfit and back up at the room full of costumes behind her. "I have chips," he offers, holding up the bag like it might somehow fix the situation.

Freya laughs and pulls him inside anyway. "We'll figure something out. My little brother has an entire box of old Halloween stuff in his closet."

Twenty minutes later, Kai reappears from the bathroom wearing a bedsheet with two eye holes cut into it. It's the same outfit his little brother wore three years earlier. It isn't elegant, and it definitely isn't a pirate costume, but it's something.

"A ghost. Simple, but effective," Freya says, handing him a plastic cup. "Ten out of ten for commitment, considering you had twenty minutes and a bedsheet."

By the end of the night, Kai has been asked five separate times what happened to his face. He decides the wrong outfit might be more memorable than the right one would have been.