Walking in Memphis in the Pouring Rain

I put on Chapstick for the millionth time that day. Most people use Carmex at my school, but I never find it anywhere. Besides. I’ve used Chapstick for my whole entire life.

Anyway, now for the reason why. My lips are always so chap during the winter, and I’ve read and heard from various sources that chapped lips are a turnoff. It’s not like the person who I want to notice me would notice (the way I want him to), chapped lips or not. Not to mention it bugs the hell out of me when I can’t move my lips to talk or sing because they’ve split open.

Hey, my name is Zachary Franklin Jones. Zacky if you ask anybody who knows me, Zack if you ask my dad, and Zachary if you ask my mom. But I prefer Zacky. I’m a typical Choir geek. I love it a LOT. I sing all of the time, and no matter how much people bash the songs, I love them all. I’m a geek in general, though, because I ace all of my classes, I really like math and English, and computers is pretty fun, too. Though science will always be the bane of my existence (I HATE it, even though I’m pretty good at it). I don’t have many friends, just a very select few. Most people avoid me, though, because I’m gay. Mmhmm, completely gay. Not like this is news, though. I’ve been gay ever since I can remember. And I can remember quite a ways back for someone who’s seventeen.

But, anyway, enough of me boring you with my extremely boring life. Let’s get back to the chapped lips winter day where I was trying to impress this guy. James Anthony Malgee. Jamie to anyone who knows him well. He’s one of my best friends in the whole entire world. In fact, he’s the only one I honestly trust. He stands next to me in Choir, and he has this amazing voice. But he doesn’t generally like to sing loud, he just falls in behind my voice. I have an alright voice, but nothing compared to his. His is fantastic.

After swiping my lips with the small tube of lip balm for the bagillionth time, Jamie took the Chapstick out of my hand. “Zacky, you’re going to run out of this by the end of the day if you keep it up.” With a slight chuckle and an evil smirk, he smeared the Chapstick over his own lips.

“Ewwww!!!” I exclaimed. I was lying through my teeth. I was going to have a small freak out moment once I got that tube back. His lips had been on it! HIS LIPS!!! He pocketed my small treasure.

I glared at him. “You know how bad my lips get in the winter.” I pouted just a little bit, but not enough for our Choir director. Mr. Milenski, to notice. He was a really cool guy, but he gets fed up with mine and Jamie’s talking sometimes.

“Shyeah, but I’m still keeping this until the end of Choir so you start obsessing over your vocal abilities and less over your lips. Besides, it’s not like any of the guys in here are worth impressing, right?” Giving another laugh, he glanced around the room. He was right. None of the guys in Choir were much to look at, but had crazy-funny personalities, and were VERY nice. Well, he was definitely something to look at, but I wasn’t letting him know that.

“That’s enough chat, Zacky and Jamie. Now, come on, sing the song!” Mr. Milenski looked at us with a small smile. He knew my not-so-secret secret that I was gay, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew I liked Jamie, as well. But, come on, who COULDN’T? Most of the girls in the school were crushing HARD on him, and quite a few of the guys as well. But none of them knew him like I did, none of them loved him like I did, and none of them could ever HOPE to be as good a boyfriend (or girlfriend [BLEHCK!]) as I could. I would be so much better….

Anyway, back to the story. We’re singing this great song called Flanders’s Fields, and it’s about people who died in WWII and how they want this to all be over and it’s so full of hope and sadness in equal parts, that it makes me cry every time. I bring my eyeliner to school every day now so I can fix it and NOT look like a mess everyday. We never sing it for very long, though. And for that, I thank Bob.

Walking out of Choir, Jamie finally handed me back my Chapstick. I immediately put some on my really chapped lips, and savoring the flavor that his lips had left behind. Maybe it was my imagination, but Cherry Chapstick has never tasted sweeter.