Evolution

Prompt: Teen Age Idol
Who did you idolize as a teenager? Did you go crazy for the Beatles? Ga-ga over Duran Duran? In love with Justin Bieber? Did you think Elvis was the livin’ end?

Evolution

“Who do you like better, the Beatles or the Stones?” asked someone named Rick.

“The Stones,” I said, like everyone else there, in a sulky, surly gathering of young adolescents, had said before me. At that moment, I betrayed all that I held dear: my past, my future, my integrity, my identity, Paul, and John. Way to go, Stones, and puberty.

My friend Cathy and I were typical fans, cramming all the statistics about them we could into our pre-pubescent brains, and dedicating our hearts and souls to them as only pre-teens can do.

Then that puberty thing hit, where I thought my nose was the size of Ringo’s, and that everyone stared at it and secretly laughed about it behind my back. Cathy liked boys, and I thought they were foreign matter that had evolved from a completely different strain of amoeba. I dreaded them noticing me.

So I said, “The Stones”, and Rick moved on to ask the next person. I breathed a sigh of relief, though I felt that the Beatles could somehow feel my betrayal, over there in Liverpool. But sometimes survival calls for betrayal. I did what I had to do, to avoid Rick noticing my nose.