Wonder

with his mouth hanging open and his hands on his face. That was the
face I was making on the inside. And then I thought of those pictures
of melting ghost faces I’ve seen somewhere, where the mouths are
open wide and they’re screaming. And then all of a sudden this
picture flew into my head, this memory, and I knew what Summer
had meant by “bleeding scream.” It’s so weird how it all just came to
me in this flash. Someone in homeroom had dressed up in a Bleeding
Scream costume on Halloween. I remember seeing him a few desks
away from me. And then I remember not seeing him again.
Oh man. It was August!
All of this hit me in science class while the teacher was talking.
Oh man.
I’d been talking to Julian about August. Oh man. Now I
understood! I was so mean. I don’t even know why. I’m not even sure
what I said, but it was bad. It was only a minute or two. It’s just that I
knew Julian and everybody thought I was so weird for hanging out
with August all the time, and I felt stupid. And I don’t know why I
said that stuff. I just was going along. I was stupid. I am stupid. Oh
God. He was supposed to come as Boba Fett! I would never have said
that stuff in front of Boba Fett. But that was him, that Bleeding
Scream sitting at the desk looking over at us. The long white mask
with the fake squirting blood. The mouth open wide. Like the ghoul
was crying. That was him.
I felt like I was going to puke.