she wore young shorts that day, thighs teacup-colored- new to sun, lower legs golden as pie crust.
-- maalen
I never asked her, but I think she did not intend to garner so much attention
That first warm Saturday in May, when everyone was hanging out in the park, and she showed up with those legs, which I think were new to her, for sure new to us. We knew Janie from when she was 8 and awkward with pigtails and braces. Now, here she was, almost 6 feet tall with shorts that seemed to belong to her former self, or maybe her little sister. There were white and very short. To teenage boys they appeared to be miles above her knees, just below her waist.
We were guys and did not know not to stare, so that is what we did. Mike, who was never at a loss for words, made a low whistle noise and when she looked at him he just shook his head. Even he didn't know what to say.
Janie blushed for a second, then told him to screw off. We spent the rest of the day doing normal stuff- walking to the 7-11, chasing little kids off the swings and the monkeybars, telling lies about our drinking and mostly pretending not to notice Janie's figure. No one sat next to her for fear of what might happen.
She knew what was going on although at that age I thought she didn't notice.
The next weekend she showed up in baggy sweatpants, so I guess there was the answer.