maria has such soft lips

if it were that easy, we'd all be doing it. be doing what? monty wondered as he held the crumpled paper. what did it mean? who's sloppy hand had written this cryptic note? he needed to find out. he needed to know what wasn't easy and then do it. he had found the note lying in a ball behind the bleachers during recess which he most often spent alone. he liked hanging out back there because that is also where maria matthews made out with her boyfriend cody. maria developed breasts in the 4th grade and cody had his left lobe pierced. it made sense to the 7th graders. but what didn't make sense to monty was why maria would want to kiss someone with such a pathetic mustache? cody's mustache wasn't anything like uncle leonard's. sure, from far away it looked like a proper enough mustache to pass - but up close it looked like dried chocolate milk. rancid. I mean, he understood why aunt linda liked leonard's stache - it was thick and wild and mean and monty could totally comprehend the desire to shade one's lips under it. but cody's? it was lame. it looked like a lazy caterpillar with no intention of ever becoming a butterfly.

maria has such soft lips - the exact color of his number 2 eraser tip he had noticed one day in english class while writing a thinly-veiled poem about maria titled "mary's lips". monty did not have a mustache or an earring or a razor carver kick scooter with trucks. what monty did have was a burning desire to be monty and nobody else. if only maria was into short honest boys with curly hair who wouldn't reach their full physical potential until age 28. couldn't she stick it out with him hand in hand? it would be worth the wait. that much he could promise. as for the rest? monty was confident he would figure it out in due time. he wouldn't grow a mustache until it was a proper one like uncle leonard's. that much he knew for sure.