quinceañera

i've only been to a quinceañera once in my life. it was not mine and i was not fifteen. i was probably around seventeen when my lifelong and then inseparable friend, ev, invited me to his cousin's party.

i met ev at the cute little french school in guadalajara (in mexico, not spain) when we were around three-and-a-half years old. he had extremely straight, shiny, dark hair, which he later dyed royal blue in high school, and very squeezable cheeks, which he still has, under his beard. he loved dinosaurs and slimy goblins and had a birthday party at guadalajara's first mcdonald's, which was so avant-garde at the time.

after many years apart, we reconnected in los angeles, when he came to visit with his family. we were delighted to discover that we were both avid listeners of the smashing pumpkins and other similar bands. we were moving back to mexico and ev, with plenty of encouragement from my parents, convinced me to go to his high school. soon after that, i myself turned fifteen, for which my parents gave me a very special gift: a pair of silver eight-hole doctor martens.

so here we are, around seventeen and at a quinceañera, dancing exaggeratedly like we've always enjoyed, mouths halfway open, arms flying everywhere. ev tells me in a serious tone that we have to talk. oh my god. the talk. this is going to ruin our friendship. he's totally going to tell me that he likes me. wow, it really took him a while to realize it, but it was bound to happen. now i'm going to have to tell him that we're just friends, but it'll never be the same again. i ineffectively try to avoid the talk and it eventually makes its way to my ears, but wait! what just came out of ev's mouth? did he just say that he's bisexual? i love it! i give him a big hug and tell him how great that is.

how embarrassingly enormous was my ego? huge. and how horribly wrong was my gaydar? very. ev is now a super talented artist in the gay art scene (http://ivanlozano.net).