STORY 03 — THE QUARTERBACK MIRAGE

At eighteen, I learned what beauty could do. The high school quarterback stepped out of the locker room in sheer blue briefs as if it were an ordinary thing to do. He reciprocated my stare with a polite, unbothered smile. It was a moment both holy and forbidden. That glimpse and the subsequent bromance helped shape my visual grammar. It taught me that masculinity carries its own mythology. That power is softened by vulnerability. And that strength held inside can carry the weight of translucency.