One November morning, upon entering the school grounds after practice, there was a massive line of students waiting with such anticipation.
The commotion of students really struck my curiosity. I walked over to ask what was going on. One of the girls was excited and clapping. "They're in. The homecoming pics are in."
"What! NO WAY!" That contagious excitement passed on to me, and I jumped to the end of the line. I've been looking forward to these for a while and have been anxious about how they turned out.
I had the packet in my hand and wasted no time opening it to have a look.
And now the moment of truth.
Was that really how Lilly and I looked together?
Aww.
We looked so...cute.
-----
Lilly and I already planned to split these whenever they arrived. I was excited the moment I saw her in the hall waiting for public speaking.
"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.
"Aww." Lilly studied it longer than I did. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Whoa. I am showing some cleavage." She muttered lowly to herself.
"Your what?" I asked, puzzled.
She blushed, not realizing I had heard her.
"Nothing!" She quickly passed the photo back to me. "I was just saying they looked really good...the...the pictures."
"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 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 who sat in front of me turned around and noticed I was looking at pictures as well.
"Hey, I wanna see. Who did you go with?" She asked curiously.
Her asking had 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:
"Aww. 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 to the point that it was making me blush than ever before. 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 an artist as he was, I started becoming interested in making these. Turns out, 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 a question?"
"Hmm?" Victor simply raised his eyebrows but maintained focus on his work.
Getting frustrated, I completely put down my drawing pad. "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."
"That!" Victor pointed to the recognizable"Y" shape drawn that marked the crevice between the breasts. "That's the cleavage."
"Oh!" (Oh is right)
Now I know why Lilly was blushing.
"Wait! There's an actual name for that area?" It truly was a new word for me. Not knowing what it meant was embarrassing.
"Yes!" Victor continued to confirm in disbelief. "Seriously?"
"Give me a break, man. You already know we mostly speak Spanish at home. It's not an everyday 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 have to listen to what some of the girls and guys talk about in school. You'll learn more from them than from 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 Victor's page. "What did you come up with, Alfie?"
I raised 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 laughed in disbelief.
"C'mon, man. Seriously?" Bear chuckled.
My eyes narrowed, and I 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 didn't know. They also carried the photo packets being passed around.
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 fine and she had a curvy figure.
CC noticed me and Bear 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 Bear's face was very reminiscent of mine during the summer when I met CC. Starry-eyed, silly smile, and blush forming on his cheeks.
Has Bear developed a crush on that blonde girl?
"I see a beauty has caught your eye, my friend," I exclaimed poetically.
"Yeah," Bear responded lazily. "That's Betty."
"Oh?"
Bears' mesmerized look on his face showed just how smitten he was by her. "We have choir together."
That's where I've seen her before.
It had hit me that they were both part of that Musical medley during the homecoming rally that Lilly and I saw him in.
"Is she single?" I asked curiously. "If she is, go ask her out, bro. She's a cutie."
Bear blushed brighter and fumbled for his 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.
"C'mon, dude. 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.
Poor Bear.
I knew that timid behavior far too well.
It's truly difficult when you long and yearn for something and have no way to express it.
----------------
Sitting in my room that night, I was separating the pictures while listening to one of the many mixes Lilly made for me.
The more I saw these pictures and sorted them out, the more I had that lingering feeling from earlier.
I had a 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 with Lilly?
The way we were posed with her hand pressed on my chest. That cute little curl of a smile. The way her eyes twinkled with the flash. The way her hair was pinned up that revealed her neckline. That soft skin that was peeking at her chest.
Cleavage!
I gasped and slapped myself for looking there.
What the hell am I thinking?! She's my friend.
Lilly had always worn band t-shirts and some with a lower neckline, 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 altogether as I continued to cut, but I couldn't help it anymore.
I growled and laid back into my pillow with my hands on my face. 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 what I needed to do, what I felt I had to do.
Tomorrow morning, I was going to ask Lilly out.