Prologue

With the final shutter of the camera and the printing of a single picture, my little impromptu film shoot came to a close. It marked the end of the school year, the beginning of summer break, and, soon to follow, the start of our senior year.

“Is that a wrap Mr. Director sir?”

Standing, or rather, still posing on the other side of the camera, were the actors of my film. My best friends.

On the left, wearing a lab coat and holding onto a mannequin head was Chris. A goofy smile plastered on his face as he repeatedly stuck his gloved fingers into the dummy’s nostrils.

Sitting next to him, in center frame, was my other friend Luke. Luke held a plastic cup full of red juice in air, as if he were giving a toast. He had taken the opportunity to flex his other arm for the camera, sending a mischievous wink directly towards the lens.

Last, but certainly not least, was the person who had asked the question. All the way to the right and leaning against the table was Mira. She had her arms crossed, which ended up blocking her clip-on tie from appearing on camera as she looked down at the camera. Her face strained with tension as she struggled to keep an awkward smile for the final shot.

I initially wanted the shot taken above their height but, with the height differences between us, it was just easier to just have myself get lower and make them look more powerful in the shot. Just to be clear, the height difference wasn't that significant. Mira, for example, was only slightly taller than me at a height of 5'8" compared to my height of 5'7". For further reference, Luke was 6'0" and Chris came around at a decent 6'2."

“Yup, that's a wrap,” I said while giving her a thumbs up.

“Finally, I can put my arm down,” said Luke. 

“Honestly it should have been a wrap ages ago but you just had to get a silly shot for the credits,” said Mira.

“Well, yeah. I always like ending my films with a fun image.”

Chris came over and rested his arm over my shoulder. “Another Noel production complete, right?”

Mira scoffed. “Yeah right, he still has to do his edits and mixing. Last time, he had me stay on the phone with him until he finished exporting at four in the morning.”

I scratched the back of my head. “Well, it gets kind of lonely editing all by yourself. It's nice to have company.”

The sudden clamoring of a chair drew our attention towards the person who had stayed by the table.

Luke had scooted away from his seat, bringing the cup of juice he had been posing with to his lips and gulping it all down in seconds. Sighing happily, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, crushing the small plastic cup and stuffing it into his pocket. Luke proceeded to turn the foldable table on its side, inserted the legs inwards before closing it like a bookcase.

“If you ladies are done venting your gripes, we should get going," said Luke.

Chris laughed, opening up his arms. “Why, what's the hurry?  You nervous about tomorrow?” Chris wiggled his eyebrows as he teased.

Luke’s cheeks turned pink. “No, it's because they’ll be locking up the school soon, everyone else has basically left already. It's the start of summer break after all.” He quickly headed towards the classroom’s exit as he leaned the folded table against the wall and stacked his chair with the others.

“What’s happening tomorrow?,” I asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Chris smiled brightly, going after Luke after patting me on the back. It was likely meant to be a light pat from Chris but, because of his monstrous strength, it had almost managed to knock the wind out of me.

I turned to Mira, coughing slightly as I regained control of my breathing, but all she gave me was a shrug and a slight shaking of the head, insinuating that she hadn’t a clue either. 

We followed after them, making sure to lock the door on our way out. Mira went off ahead to join the others while I left for the front office to return the key.

As I was turning to leave the office, after returning the classroom key to my homeroom teacher, I bumped into her.

Being just a few inches shy from crashing into one of the most beautiful girls I've ever known, I felt myself sweating all over. As for her, our close encounter had caused her short black hair to sway in the air as her gaze, a captivating stare from a pair of bright jade eyes, shimmered in the afternoon sun. I almost lost myself in the dazzling sunlight reflected in her irises.

Her name was Luna, and she had been the girl most of the guys in our year had a crush on. Sad to say, I counted myself among their numbers, and like the rest, I was just as awkward, when it came to interacting with her.

“Afternoon Noel.”

“Yeah, good afternoon to you too- wait, I mean afternoon to you too. Because you, you know, didn’t say good.”

She laughed. “I guess I didn’t, but obviously I meant it.” Her eyes drifted down to the camera dangling from my neck. “Oh, did you just finish shooting another film just now?" she asked while tilting her head slightly.

“Yeah, I just used this bad boy to get a picture for the credits. I filmed Luke and the others with the one I got in my bag.” I mentioned Luke because he would have been the only one she would have been somewhat familiar with. Considering us three took a couple advanced classes together and had been grouped together for class projects before, Thus, Luke was probably someone she could recall through name alone. 

Though, her reaction was a bit different than what I had anticipated.

At the mention of Luke, her mouth shifted, a sudden interest gleaming in her eyes. “Is that so?”

My sixth sense for gossip took over, overpowering my clumsy attempts at small talk was the burning desire for further information.

“Yeah, I made him the main character in my rom-com.” I watched her face for any hint or reaction and I got much more than I bartered for.

She pursed her lips into a soft smile, bringing her hand to her cheek. “A rom-com, with Luke as the protagonist? That sounds very interesting.”

I felt dots starting to connect in the back of my mind. Why did Luke agree to be part of my film as an actor when he usually prefers not getting involved? What were Chris' comments from earlier getting at? And why was this girl so interested in the film and lead actor of my film? 

Were they finally seeing me for all my worth as a director? They must be as excited as I am for the rough cut I’ll have ready by tomorrow. 

That was, admittedly, the first idea that popped into my head. It lingered in my mind far longer than it should have.

No, my sense for the dramatic flare had been leading me in a different direction than what was likely the actual reason for her interest.

I knew that any further probing could directly lead to a Luke plus Luna confirmation, yet I had to press on even if it meant having to deal with some slight envy in the corner of my heart. Though I would be happy in knowing that one of my best buds might end up with the girl of his dreams.

“If you're interested in Luke’s acting or the film itself as a whole, I can send you a link of the rough cut when it's done.”

A slight tint of pink swirled around her cheeks. “Would you really, I’m definitely interested in Lu- I mean the lovely premise of your film.”

I gave her a thousand yard stare. 

But I haven’t even told you the premise, just the genre.

This was the cold bucket of water that finally washed out any remaining delusions of mine when it came to my grandeur as a filmmaker.

I also felt the hearts of a third of the boys in our year breaking in half. I suppose it was a good thing summer break was here, for most of them wouldn’t be able to go on for those two months if they realized that their crush’s heart was already taken by another.

We quickly traded contact info, giving each other our number meant I could just send a quick text with a link rather than sending an email that could be lost in spam. With that over with, we then made our way to the school's main entrance as we chatted about what classes we had chosen with our counselors for the next year.

Our talks of dread over the English teacher in charge of the advance class came to an end as we spotted, at the bottom of the steps of the school's entrance, my friends that I had left the classroom earlier with.

Luna glanced at Luke which caused the both of them to turn a rather pretty shade of pink.

Ah, young love… Wait, I’m young too dammit, where’s my love story?

Luna waved goodbye to everyone as she went her separate direction from us, her goodbye which visibly lingered longer in the mind of one of us more than the others as we snap Luke out of his daydreaming.

Chris and I locked eyes, with a nod, we locked our arms around Luke’s shoulders.

“You know, Luna seemed awfully interested in the film just now, despite not knowing anything about it. Well, except for you being the lead that is.” I cocked my eyebrow at Luke as I shared the details of my interaction with Luna with him.

“If you'd like,” Chris added on, “you could split off from us. In case you want to walk a certain girl home?”

Mira watched our little bit with a blank expression. “Why would Luke and I split off? Especially since we’re gonna have a huge gaming sesh at Noel’s place.”

“Not you and Luke,” I answered. “We’re talking about Luna.”

“Me and Luna? But why? I'd still rather walk home with all you guys together.”

Whether it was because of Mira’s cluelessness or just her naiveness, the gist of our conversation just wasn’t clicking in her mind. Thus, the chance for Luke to have gotten closer to his beloved came and went.

Mira led our group forward, leading us towards the edge of the city and in the direction of my neighborhood. On our way there, we passed over a dozen businesses, homes, and crossings on our twenty or so minute walk.

We eventually came to a stop, or rather, I forced them to come to a stop at the final street-signal intersection that led directly to my neighborhood.

 It was a rather empty part of the city at this time of day, far after the time parents would have been filling the streets with their cars on the way to pick up their kids from school but still early in the afternoon before all the nine-to-five worker would be clocking out for the day. 

The lack of traffic had caused this empty painted crosswalk to give me a flash of inspiration. It had reminded me of a certain famous image, of a certain famous British band from way before my time.

What did the image of the band have to do with my film? Absolutely nothing, and yet, imaging myself making a reference to it and turning into a poster for the film or just making it the thumbnail for the hosting websites I would uploaded to, obviously I couldn’t just let such a fun opportunity escape me.

I filled the others in on my scheme and, although their reactions to it were more lackluster than I had anticipated, they agreed to do it.

I gave them small instructions on where to pose as I quickly set up the mini-tripod from my bag, tossed the bag onto the sidewalk, and set up my hybrid camera a few feet away.

I set the camera to a twenty second delay and got in position at the very end of the line.

From left to right it was me, followed by Mira, Luke, and finally Chris.

From the front of our line I heard Chris ask, “Are we supposed to be looking at the camera?”

“No doofus, we’re supposed to be looking at the sky,” said Luke

“Actually, I think we're supposed to look out for traffic,” joked Mira, causing her to snort from laughter.

“We’re just supposed to look cool,” I said as I tried my best to stifle my laughter from Mira's lame joke.

We heard the flash of the camera and huddled over towards it afterwords. I hung the camera’s strap around my neck once more as I printed out the picture. The moment it finished coming out, Luke grabbed it and started waving it around.

 He probably thought it was like old-timey camera photos where the picture appears faster with more shaking. Who was I to ruin his fun and lecture him about modernization of cameras?

“Whoa, I’m starting to see it."

“Yeah? Well let us see it too,” said Mira.

“Hold on, I want to get a good look.”

“Guys, we should probably get off the street now,” I called out to them, though it seems that they currently too engrossed with the photo to hear me.

Chris laughed. “Funny how now you have time to look at pictures.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think he’s talking about how you didn’t bother sticking around to see how the classroom photo ended up turning out,” Mira said, not a hint of tease in her tone.

Perhaps it was the fact that she had no ulterior motives behind her words that caused Luke to get more embarrassed than he normally would have.

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about, right Noe-”

As Luke turned to me, which I was prepared to greet him with a teasing smile, the color of his face went from a deep red flush to a ghostly pale white. The others followed his gaze, turning to look at me.

Yes their eyes landed on me, but they only stopped for the briefest of moments. For some reason, their eyes ended up continuing to move until they were all staring directly behind me. All three lost their smiles as they shot out their arms towards me, their hands reaching out, barely able to grab me by my camera. 

Their grip caused the strap to pull my neck slightly as I turned to see what was behind me. Then, it happened.

First I felt nothing, then I felt everything before cycling back to nothing.