Unspoken - 17. Halloween!

‘You’re not serious. You can’t expect me to wear this!’ I signed, sharpening my movements to indicate vehemence. I had just changed into the costume that Bryce and Nicolo had somehow chosen for me, to take Bryce trick or treating his first time. Dave and Clara, with their two boys Justin and Jamie, were due to join us in less than half an hour, to go as a group. If I had to guess, I’d think this was a prank in revenge for denying joining the boys in knocking on the doors to get more free candy. They begged more than once over the last month but I kept up my denials. Nicolo told me to trust that he and Bryce had picked out something appropriate, but I could not believe they considered this monstrosity to be appropriate. I glanced to my left, at the tall mirror on the wall between my dresser and the bathroom doorway, to once again see myself wearing a frilly pink tutu and a pink spandex one-piece, with ballet slippers. I could not even fathom what had possessed me to put it on in the first place, much less step out of the bathroom. Bryce and Nicolo, the bastards, were on the bed, leaning on each-other trying hard to keep their laughter from dropping them right to the floor. I trotted over and kicked at Nicolo’s shin, signing ‘this is not funny.’

“Y-yes it is, dad.” Bryce heaved through slightly receding laughter.

“Si, si,” Nicolo began, “but yes, it is uno scherzo. Here is your real costume,” he giggled out, removing a clear envelope from behind his back. I yanked it from him, glaring, before glancing down. This one at least was much better. It was a tiger outfit, a zentai costume with cat ears on a headband, and the tail attached at the bottom of the zip just above the buttocks. It was footed, surprisingly, but I’d be wearing shoes anyway so that was irrelevant. It was in a kids size, I sighed to myself, of course it would be.

I huffed, and tromped, stomping my feet as heavily as I could, into the bathroom, slamming the door. As soon as it closed, I doubled over in laughter myself, having barely been able to keep it together. I knew what Nicolo was thinking when he agreed to purchase it; it’s been a while since we’ve had anger-sex, and it’s likely he was trying to provoke it. Regardless, it made me so happy that Little Bryce was coming along well enough to pull a practical joke on me about my size and looks.

Nicolo and I always handed out candy, but we never decorated or dressed up for Halloween, so with Bryce being a new addition to our family we went out. Not so far that we dropped as much on decorations as some other houses, but a couple hundred or so. We’d been ecstatic when Bryce asked us to go trick or treating, so when he said he wanted to pick out our costumes, we both agreed to that immediately too. Nicolo helped Bryce pick out mine, and I helped pick out Nicolo’s. I’m glad he found something amusing for me, because I totally led Bryce to an amusing one for Nicolo.

I changed swiftly, intent on burning the fucking ballerina costume as soon as possible, and slid on the tiger costume. I had to admit, never having worn a zentai suit before, that it actually felt nice. It was skintight but not overly tight, and despite being skintight it wasn’t ridiculously revealing, as I expected. Probably the striping. I exited the bathroom to find Nicolo alone. Bryce had seemingly gone to change into his costume, and Nicolo had taken the opportunity to change into his. I fought to stop myself laughing at the sight of him. He glared at me.

“Ti sei arrabbiato con me per la ballerina e poi mi hai messo in questo?!”

I nodded, laughing. ‘You look great!’

Bryce, without knocking, burst in the bedroom. Normally he would always knock, but today was different. He was dressed in a soccer uniform borrowed from Justin.

Bryce descended into laughter again upon seeing Nicolo.

For his costume, we’d picked out a bodybuilder. It was a fleshy colored zentai, with a black ‘brief’ area, and fake puffy fabric muscles. Nicolo was already well muscled, so the addition of the fake muscles left him looking deformed. The pale tone of the costume was also a stark contrast to his hands and face, where his Mediterranean tone shone through. He looked objectively ridiculous.

“Per favore, tell me you have another costume for me?”

Bryce, who had managed to get his laughter under control, shook his head. “No, papà, but the fake muscles are removable. You’ll look better if you take them out.” He hopped back onto the bed and started kicking his feet as he spoke, still sporadically giggling.

Nicolo stalked into the bathroom to get them removed, and I walked over to Bryce, leaning over the pull him up and give him a hug.

I pulled back, and mimed at him to follow, and we made our way downstairs to wait for Nicolo. Flopping on the couch, I poked at the pumpkin shaped candy tote with my tiger foot, and Bryce nodded. Simple things were easy enough to communicate, but he was continuing to pick up ASL ridiculously fast. Turns out he has a memory like a steel trap.

‘You excited?’ I signed.

“Yeah,” he nodded enthusiastically, “never been trick or treating before!”

We knew this, but Bryce being Bryce, he’d mentioned it probably twenty times just in the last two or three days. Being honest with myself, I think Nicolo and I were just as excited. Trick or treating was only just catching on in some parts of Italy, the practice being imported. Italian celebrations of Ognissanti, or All Saint’s Day, was held on the first of November, and the entirety of the Bucello followed the tradition of Giorno Dei Morti the day after, spending time cleaning the graves of their relatives. He’d never properly celebrated Halloween. It’s been more than ten years for me too, so yeah, I was fucking excited.

Nicolo made his way down the stairs just as the doorbell rang. Bryce rushed to answer, and Justin and Jamie were followed inside by their parents, Dave and Clara, and another two boys from the neighborhood the same age as Bryce, Jamie, and Justin. We greeted them as the kids admired their costumes. One, we guessed it was Jamie, was wearing another soccer uniform. The other was wearing a ballet outfit, tights and all, but with shoes instead of slippers. Dave and Clara were both dressed as vampires. The new boys were introduced as Kyle, who was guised up as Robin Hood, and Ethan, who looked like a Spanish Conquistador. Both lived farther out in the neighborhood and were on the school soccer team with Justin. They were excited to meet me, apparently, so my situation must have been explained to them.

We exchanged pleasantries, keeping an eye on the five hyper boys, as small talk was made, while the boys then chattered amongst themselves. It wasn’t long before the boys were insisting we head out, and we playfully but not genuinely hemmed and hawed resistance, but we were dragged out.

It was Nicolo’s first Halloween, but more importantly to the both of us, it was Bryce’s as well. We were determined to give him all the experiences that a child should have, even if we embarrassed ourselves in the process. Seeing the smile on his face made it all worth it.

Ah, it dawned on me. That’s why I put on the horrid ballerina costume. To see Bryce smile.