Naked and (Kind of) Afraid
Dipper's mind was all fogged up like a car windshield. He was trying his hardest to focus on Night of the Zombie Gnomes III, but his mind was far elsewhere. Maybe it was because he'd actually battled zombies just last summer and they were actually life threatening and terrifying, as opposed to the lack of horror this B grade movie evoked. Maybe it was because summer was almost over yet again and it would mean leaving fun, vibrant Gravity Falls for quiet, dreary California. But that wasn't even fully accurate since Mabel was the Princess of fun. Nah, it was because the Queen of Fun resided in Gravity Falls, that being…
"Dude, you in there?" Wendy Corduroy asked Dipper. "You look out of it."
Dipper, facing down towards the floor rather listlessly, jerked his head up and came eye to eye with her. Normally much shorter, laying on this bed was a great equalizer.
"Yeah I'm fine, just bored by the movie I guess." Dipper replied.
"But it's terrible movie Wednesday!" Wendy exclaimed. "You love terrible movie Wednesday!" Dipper just shrugged her enthusiasm off. "Alright, well I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick then if you're not even that invested in this…"
Dipper felt bad because he knew he'd made it kind of awkward, like he usually did. Sitting there all alone on the bed, he cheered up a bit as he realized he had the chance to do what… other boys did and snoop the room of his crush. This wasn't the first time he'd done it so he was able to convince himself that the top drawer just happened to be open and just happened to be the one with her bras in them. Just a year ago doing this would have made him revolted; now it revved him up in more ways than one. The power of hormonal changes in action. For whatever reason this time, even seeing the bras didn't excite him all that much. It would have been a total failure of a trip if he hadn't seen an envelope on the top of the dresser with a giant D on it. He peeked inside and saw something he couldn't believe. It was so shocking it almost took his attention away from the fact that he heard Wendy coming back into the room. Panicking, he stuck the envelope in his hat. Nervously Dipper sat through the final 28 minutes of the movie waiting for the other shoe to drop and Wendy to see the envelope gone or the envelope to explode in a flurry of paper mess and reveal his crime. Somehow neither occurred and Dipper left hurriedly to the Mystery Shack. It was past 11 that night, and shack was similarly silent and dark. The only light in the whole room came from the kitchen table, where Soos was busily working on Paper Mache artwork.
"Hey Dipper, your back late tonight?" Soos asked concerningly as Dipper was sweating bullets.
"Movie ran late…" Came Dipper's rushed response.
"Dude, you ok?" Soos asked.
Dipper then put the envelope from Wendy's house on the table. "I took this by accident… kinda" Dipper admitted guiltily. "Anyhow I looked inside and saw…"
"What did you see?" Soos asked. "Is it bad?"
Dipper gulped. "Well umm… lets just say she's wearing invisible clothes."
"I want invisible clothes!" Soos exclaimed obliviously.
"No Soos! I was trying to say she was wearing no clothes." Dipper exclaimed. "And for some reason… I'm not as excited as I hoped I would be when this happened."
"Why's that?" Soos asked.
"Well… I guess it feels like I was growing up as I saw that picture. I've imagined it before, but to see it with my own eyes… It changed me a little." Dipper said sadly.
Soos put his hand on Dipper's shoulder. "These things happen when you grow up Dipper. Sometimes you'll age in the blink of an eye, like I did when my dad left our family or you seeing nudity for the first time. Don't run from these moments, embrace them." Soos explained in the most composed tone Dipper had ever heard him speak in.
"Thanks Soos, that really helped." A relieved Dipper said as he sneaked another look at the photo. "It is a good photo…"
"Ok, but you should never let anyone else know about this photo though." Soos warned. "I mean, Wendy's wrath if she found out you had it would be hard hitting."
"Maybe the D on the envelope meant it was for me!" Dipper said self deprecatingly as he mockingly laughed. "Ok, lets not get my hopes up."
"Just keep this a secret and get some sleep dude."
Dipper then thanked Soos as he went to sleep and had nice peaceful dreams, if you know what I mean.
The Next Morning…
Wendy was getting ready for the day when she noticed something was missing.
"Say where's that thing I was gonna give Dipper?"