Halloween is one of the most exciting holidays for a kid—finally: a day when you can go to school wearing basically anything you want to!

One little 10-year-old boy named Evan decided he wanted to dress up as superhero Tony Stark—aka Iron Man. He totally nailed the costume too. All the details were there: The goatee, the side part, the glasses, even the facial expressions. Pretty sure it’s one of the most creative Halloween costumes we’ve seen this year!

However, on the bus ride to school that day, a few boys teased him about how he looked, telling him that he looked “stupid.” The words were so hurtful that the first thing he did when he got to school was washed off his face makeup and call his mom, Jill, asking her to pick him up. He was so upset that he didn’t even want to stay for his Halloween party.

“Got a call from Evan at school 20 minutes after he left on the bus. Apparently some kids on the bus (who weren’t even wearing costumes) told him he looked stupid. Evan got to school and immediately went to the bathroom and washed his face,” Jill wrote in a now viral Facebook post.

“Here’s what my little Tony Stark looks like now,” she wrote, with a sad-looking Evan.

“We both have swollen eyes from crying and are on our way to try to find ice cream. Kids need to understand that WORDS hurt,” she concluded.

We want to cry just looking at him, especially compared to his confident poses while he was in the Iron Man costume.

The good news: There’s a happy ending. After chatting with Mom at Starbucks, he decided that he wasn’t going to let some bullies ruin his Halloween. He let her re-do his Stark makeup and go back to school just in time for the party.

After the series of updates, Jill received an abundance of support from all over the world. People wanted to send him cards, even money. She posted her address so that people could send him cards, and said that any money sent will be donated, but really appreciates the gestures.

If anything, she really wants people to have one takeaway from this: That while she’s grateful Evan wasn’t physically hurt, sometimes verbal abuse can hurt even more.

“Always have talks about bullying, especially this time of year when kids are dressing up and letting themselves be even more vulnerable. The messages of pure love and support from around the world have shown Evan (and us) that there are far more kind people in this world than there are bullies,” she said.

We’re so glad Evan was able to still enjoy his Halloween—and man, that costume is truly everything!