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. He held a plastic cup full of red juice in air, as if he were giving a toast. Flexing his other arm for the camera, Luke shot a mischievous wink towards the lens' direction.

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, blocking her clip-on tie from appearing on camera, as she bore her gaze down at me. Her face strained with tension as she struggled to keep an awkward smile for the final shot.

I initially wanted to take the shot just above their heights, but with the height differences between us all resulting in uneven headspace, it was just simpler to just lower myself towards the ground and go for a shot that made them look powerful. 

Just to be clear, the height difference between us all wasn't that significantly different. 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".

Filmmakers who aren't particular with how they capture scenes wouldn't have been bothered by the uneven headspace, but for me, the shot called for a precision of the most aesthetic caliber.

... I can be insufferable at times, can't I?

“Yup, that's a wrap,” I said while giving Mira 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 mixes. Last time, he had me stay on the phone with him until he finished exporting at four in the morning.”

After being called out so directly,  all I could do was nervously scratch the back of my head as I faced Mira's accusation head-on. “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 behind by the table.

Luke had scooted away from his seat, bringing the cup of juice he had been posing earlier with to his lips, gulping it all down in one long sip. He sighed happily as 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 we used on its side, inserting the legs inwards and closing it up like a briefcase.

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

Chris laughed, opening up his arms in a big and showy kind of way. “Why, what's the hurry?  You nervous about tomorrow?” Chris asked, wiggling 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.” After leaning the folded table against the wall and stacked his chair with the others, he quickly made his way towards the classroom’s exit.

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

“Oh, nothing.” Chris said, smiling brightly. He patted me on the back before heading off after Luke. Although he had likely intended for his pat to be a light, because of his monstrous strength, Chris had almost managed to knock all the wind out of me.

I turned to Mira, coughing slightly as I regained control of my breathing, but all she did was give me a shrug and a slight head shake, insinuating that she hadn’t a clue what that was all about 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 classroom key.

After being playfully scolded by my homeroom teacher for having had my shoot take longer than I had promised him, I gave my farewells to all of the staff and faculty before turning around to leave the office. It was I was reaching the exit that 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 I gave way for her to walk out first. Slightly shaken, as our close encounter had caused her short black hair to sway and block her view, the girl parted her hair from her face as she flashed her gaze towards my own; a captivating stare from a pair of bright jade eyes, shimmering under the afternoon sun that flooded in from the windows, had almost caused me to fully lose myself in the dazzling warmth that glowed 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. Like all the other guys, when it came to girls like Luna, girls that felt like they were leagues above you in just about everything, I struggled to keep the awkward at bay when 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 towards my camera that I kept dangled around from my neck. “Oh, did you just finish shooting another film just now?" she asked, 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 familiar with from my group; Considering us three had taken a couple of advanced classes together, and had been grouped together for class projects before, Luke was someone she should 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 look of interest gleamed across 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, whoo boy, I got much more than I ever could have bargained 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 could feel the 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 Luna so interested in my film and lead actor? 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, lingering 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. Heartache and any other ugly feelings aside, I would be happy in learning that one of my best buds could be ending up with the girl of his dreams.

As a friend and spiritual brother, I had to do my best and keep the chatting up, up.

“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. He's going to end up with some of the best scenes."

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.”

Not being able to help myself, I gave her a thousand yard stare. 

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 swore I could hear the hearts of one third of the boys in our year breaking in half right then and there. I suppose it was a good thing summer break had arrived, most of the boys would struggle to go through day to day life for the entirety of our two month break if they learned that their crush’s heart had already been taken by another.

I gave a small prayer in my heart to all of the fellas.

May you all march past the pain of unrealized infatuation and find the joys of love somewhere else. 

After my little sermon, Luna and I quickly traded contact info, her idea mind you, as 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 the passing of the seven digits over with, we continued walking together through the main school building as we made our way to the main entrance, chatting away about what classes we had chosen with our counselors for the next year to fill the air.

Our talks of dread over the English teacher in charge of the advance class came to an end as we spotted Luke and the others near the bottom steps of the entrance.

Luna's glance towards Luke 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 was heading in a separate direction from us. Though her goodbye was quick, it seemed to  linger for a while in the mind of one of us. Chris and I ended up having to snap Luke out of his daydreaming, it seemed that neither one of us wanted that lovey-dovey look on Luke's face to become a permanent trait.

Chris and I locked eyes, nodding to each other as 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 with him the details of my interaction with Luna.

“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 of 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, marching us forward until we where towards the edge of the city and in the direction of my neighborhood, passing 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 workers would be clocking out for the day. 

The lack of traffic had caused the empty painted crosswalk in front of us to give me a flash of inspiration. It had reminded me of a certain famous image, of a certain cover 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 it into a poster for the film or just making it the thumbnail for the hosting websites I'd end up uploading to; 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 recreate it.

I gave them small instructions on where to pose as I quickly set up the mini-tripod from my bag, tossed everything else onto the sidewalk, and set up my hybrid camera on the metal plate.

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 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 the 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 white pale. 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 gazes continued to move until their focus was no longer on me but behind me. 

All three of them lost their joyful smiles, disappearing from sight as they all drew closer and shot out their arms towards me. Reaching out as far as their hands could stretch, they were barely able to latch onto my camera. 

Their grip caused the strap to pull my neck slightly as I had started to turn my head to see what was behind me. 

Then, it happened.

First I felt nothing, then I felt everything, before, finally, it all cycled back to nothing.