One November morning upon entering the school grounds, there was a massive line of students waiting with such anticipation.
The commotion of students really struck my curiosity. I walked over to ask exactly What was going on? One of the girls was really excited and clapping. "They're in. Homecoming pics are in."
"What! NO WAY!" I got excited and just to the end of the line. I've been really anticipating these for a while and have been anxious about how these turned out.
When I finally received mine, I wasted no time opening up the packet. I pulled out an 8x10 photo to take a look. Was that really how Lilly and I looked together? We looked so...cute. "awww".
Lilly and I already planned to split these whenever they arrived. I was excited the moment I saw her in the hall waiting for first our class. "Lookie Lookie." I pulled one of the photos from the envelope to show her
"Ooh the pictures."Lilly did a little clap of excitement. "Let me see?" She took the photo I had pulled out. "Awww." Lilly studied it longer than I did. Her eyes widened in shock. "Whoa. I am showing some cleavage." She muttered lowly to herself.
"You're what?"
She blushed. "Nothing!" She passed the photo back to me quickly. "Just saying they looked really good."
"Right! I like them, too." I put the pictures back in the envelope. "I'll need to get another envelope to get your half in."
She giggled "okay, goofball."
We both strolled into the class and found our seats. The whole time in class I was trying to figure out what Lilly was talking about. She muttered a new term I have never heard before. Cleavage? What was that and why was Lilly a bit embarrassed by it?
In another class, many of the students were passing around and sharing their photos. I went ahead and took mine out to examine it again. What the hell was Lilly talking about? None of us were blinking. The stain in my shirt didn't appear. Nothing looked transparent with the flash. Everything looked fine to me. Hmm?
One of the girls that sat in front of me and noticed I was looking at pictures as well. "Hey I wanna see. Who did you go with?" She asked curiously.
Her asking me caught the attention of another classmate. "Wait! Alfie, you went to homecoming?"
Just like everyone else during this hour, I ended up sharing and passing around the photo. Comments ranged from:
"Awww. Is that your girlfriend?"
"You 2 look so cute together!"
"Hey I have that girl in math class!"
"Bro, you're looking sharp."
"No. We're just friends." I kept repeating to my classmates.
Some were even teasing me that it was really making me blush. The more I kept looking at that picture, the more an idea started to linger;
"Would we actually make a couple?"
During lunch, Victor was teaching me how to draw Anime style pin-up girls. Even though I wasn't as great of an artist as Victor, I started becoming interested in making these as some of the boys in school will pay good money for requests.
Just the other day, Victor made $25 for turning some well known character into a pin-up style nurse in a very suggestive pose.
I kept erasing my rough lines trying to figure out a pose, but it wasn't working out for me. I had become distracted by something. "Dude, not meaning to sound stupid, but I got question?"
"Hmm?" Victor simply raised his eyebrows but maintained focus on his work.
I completely put down my drawing pad feeling frustrated. "What the hell is a cleavage?"
Victor paused completely. The glasses on his face slid down the bridge of his nose. "For reals?" He just shook his head. "Pinchi wey (stupid idiot),It's something you've drawn many times now."
I was still lost. I've drawn a lot of things many times by then.
"That!" Victor pointed to the recognizable"Y" shape drawn that marked the crevice between the breasts. "That's the cleavage."
"Oh!". (Oh is right) "I didn't realize there was an actual name for that area." It really was a New word for me that it became embarrassing. "Give me a break, man. You already know Spanish is mostly spoken at home. It's not a common English word."
Victor hit his head in disbelief. "Dude, This is why you really need to pay attention in school."
I just closed the drawing pad and pushed it aside. "I didn't realize there was such a subject in the school curriculum."
Victor laughed. "There isn't. You just got to listen to what some of the girls and guys talk about in school. You'll learn more from them than a textbook."
Bear and Boss joined us at the table after having a few rounds of slap boxing. They wanted to see the progress Victor was making on his drawing lesson.
"Whoa. That's looking really nice." Boss whistled as he took a look at Victors page. "What did you come up with, Alfie."
I raised up my closed drawing pad. "Caca! (Shit!)".
"Isn't that the girl from Xenogears?" Bear asked trying to figure out the character.
"Yeah. Elly." Victor said proudly. "Oh, and get this." He pointed me out with his thumb. "this idiot didn't know what cleavage was."
Boss and Bear started to laugh in disbelief.
"C'mon man. Seriously?" Bear chuckled.
My eyes narrowed and started to shoot daggers at them as my face turned as red as boiled shrimp. I couldn't produce any words at that point so I just raised my middle finger high for all of them to see.
Bear's attention suddenly shifted away from. My curiosity followed the direction he was looking at and it was CC walking across the courtyard with a girl I haven't seen before. She had golden blonde hair that shimmered in the sun. There were waves at the ends that would bounce with every step she made. Her skin was very and a curvy figure.
CC noticed Bear and I looking at them and she casually waved at us. Her friend looked over as well and waved once she noticed Bear. We both waved back instantly.
The smile on Bears face was very reminiscent to mine during the summer when I met CC.
Has Bear developed a crush on that blonde girl.
"I see a beauty has caught your eye, my friend." I exclaimed in a poetic manner.
He smirked and nodded."Yeah. That's Betty." Bear had a very cloudy and mesmerized look on his face. "We have choir together."
"Oh." It had hit me that they were part of that Musical medley during the homecoming rally we saw him in. "Is she single? If she is, go ask her out, bro. She's cute."
Bear really fumbled for words."I don't, man. I think...or maybe she has a boyfriend or something. And...yeah I don't know." He let out a deep sigh
"How do you know unless you ask? You have to at least try."I paused immediately realizing that what I said was advice I should be taking as well.
He groaned and rested his head on his arms looking like a grumpy bear. "Forget it! I'll probably be rejected."
"Hmm." I lowered my head into my arms and sat in silence and defeat just like he did. I knew that timid behavior far too well.
It's truly difficult when you long for something and have no way to express it.
That night, I was seperating the pictures while listening to one of the mixes Lilly made. The more I was seeing these pictures and sorted them out, the more I was having that lingering feeling. I had a childhood crush on Lilly a long time ago and I had never expressed it. Now looking at these pictures, was I becoming infatuated with the idea of being in a relationship? And in a relationship with Lilly?
That cute little smile. Her hair pinned up revealing her neckline. That soft porcelain skin that was peaking at her chest, the cleavage.
I slapped myself for looking there. "What the hell am I thinking?! She's my friend." Lilly had always worn tshirts and some with a lower plunge, but she's never revealed such a low area that I could recall.
The pictures were just sitting there still needing to be cut. I tried my best to ignore the image all together as I continued to cut, but seeing the way we were posed with her hand pressed up at my chest, I couldn't help it any more.
These thoughts were driving me insane. Should I confess to Lilly? What if she doesn't like me that way? The words I muttered to Bear earlier started to echo deep in my mind.
~"How do you know unless you ask? You have to at least try."~
It was becoming more apparent on what I needed to do.
I think I was going to ask Lilly out.