With Halloween coming up, we’re all looking for a frightening time. But what’s spookier than witches, vampires and werewolves: getting ghosted.

Here are just some of the opinion section’s experiences where a date ended with a trick, and not a treat.

Emma Dinsmore – Ghosted after hooking up with my ex-situationship

Although it wasn’t quite Halloween yet, my fall equinox came with the jumpscare of matching with my ex-best friend-turned-situationship on Tinder. I have been known to do some dumb things in my life, and meeting up with him that night is in fact on that list.

We talked for a few days and he seemed really into me, calling me adorable and saying he wanted to see me again soon. 

Then he blocked me in the middle of a conversation where he was asking me about my day at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Moral of the story, if someone isn’t in your life anymore, it’s likely for a reason.

Olivia Langlan – Confused and friend-zoned  

So, this one isn’t exactly ghosting. The whole interaction left me bamboozled and it can’t really fit it into any category, so it’s not not being ghosted. 

Last fall, I made plans with someone for a second date—a good ole Grundle dinner. He was supposed to text me when he got back on campus, so I waited. And waited. And waited. 

Finally, I texted at 9 p.m. Not only did he “forget” but he detailed the elaborate day he had. It included playing multiple instruments in his room, ranging from guitar to saxophone at the time of the text. 

I guess he stood me up. He does get a gold star for creativity and general obliviousness though. I don’t think he ever thought there was anything to friend-zone. 

So, not really ghosting. But scary that I ever crushed on this man for sure.  

Morgan Milman – The blessing of being ghosted

I’m glad I got ghosted. 

It was my friend’s brother who I thought was cute, so I shot my shot. We started talking and Snapchatting all day long: a true Gen Z romance story.

Of course, this all had to happen during Valentine’s Day week. He wished me a flirtatious “Happy Valentines” and I flirted back. 

Three days later, he cut me off. 

I got ghosted by the baseball player who drove too fast on the highway at night—no use of a blinker in sight—and had racked up a Snapchat score of 400,000 in just a year. This is the boy who kept trying to have me sneak into his house at one in the morning to hook-up in our junior year of high school. 

I never went, thank God. 

Getting ghosted was the universe’s sign to me that he was bad news, my very own blessing in disguise.  

Claire Bing – The shortest rom-com ever

It was my first year in college. I was 18, armed with zero experience, and had an off-putting habit of asking new people a barrage of icebreakers along with a love for rom-coms and was desperate for a proper college romance. 

Any respectable rom-com fan knows that romance can strike at any time—so I made sure I stayed vigilant for any potential sparks. 

That was why I was so excited when I found myself sitting next to a super cute guy on the plane home for Thanksgiving. We struck up a conversation and talked the whole flight, and when we landed he asked for my number. 

My very own meet-cute. 

Over the break we talked on the phone for hours, sent pictures and texted updates. It didn’t matter that he sometimes wouldn’t text back until I double texted him, that he lived an hour away or that we had nothing in common—this was my rom-com.

When he ghosted me two weeks later, I learned the hard way that you can’t rush your own love story.