Curving His Straight Line

Chapter 4: The Assignment

The night was so deep until I felt a hand sneaked up to my stomach. It was Pears and he whispered my name…

“Dion…”

I slowly faced him and there, our eyes met. Bit by bit he pushed his face towards mine until we were about to kiss-

“Dion!”

I woke up in Pears's loud voice. Damn, it was a dream.

“We’re late! We played too much last night that we forgot we still have classes today!” He said in a nervous mode.

Shit.

Hurryingly, we decided to get in the shower together again to speed things up. I know it wasn’t normal for some but we were able to normalize it for now. I don’t know if my mother or sister knows anything about it or that if they will care, whatever.

Going downstairs, my mother has prepared us our breakfast but she was nowhere to be found.  My sister Chloe has already gone out to her school too.

Pears and I decided to just take our breakfast with us and it at our school but still when we arrived, we already missed our first subject. I came to Gary to ask what did we miss, well, besides Pears, Gary is the closest thing I got to call a friend, but he’s a bit uh…

“Gary.” I called him.

“You missed Mr. Ronin! You two are going to fail his subject oh no!” Yeah, he’s the clown of the class that’s why he’s so friendly.

“And you will fail too if you won’t tell us the things you did.” Pears butted in.

“Alright, we have an assignment.” Gary told us.

“Let us copy.” I humbly asked him.

“I’m going to need something in return.” Gary questioned us, yeah aside from being the clown he uh, how do I say this, he loves to eat?

“We brought some foods with us, you can eat lunch with us in the cafeteria.” I assured Gary which made him smile triumphantly, much to Pears’s displeasure.

“What!? That’s our food!” Pears claimed.

“Sshh.” I shushed Pears and gave him a “Let it go” look, then let out a smile to Gary.

Gary is a good guy, I just don’t get why Pears doesn’t like him as much as I do.

At the cafeteria, the three of us were at a table.

“Who prepared this?” Gary initiated the conversation.

“My mother.” I answered him.

“And why are you sharing it with Pears?” Gary further asked which made him a target for Pears’s deadly glare.

“Because I am living in their house now.” Pears answered arrogantly.

“Really? Why?” Gary asked joyously.

“Uh, you don’t really need to know the details.” Pears told him.

“Grouchy.” Gary muttered. “How about I lend you my notes after class at your house? And we can have some fun!” He suggested.

“Sounds good.” I replied but then Pears pinched me and whispered…

“Hey, aren’t we supposed to go to the park after classes?” This angered me a little seeing he prioritizes seeing Celine over our study.

“Why? So, you can see your fantasy girl again?” s**t, I said that wrong, didn’t I?

“Wow.” Pears stood up looking ashamed and left. I let him go though, because Gary was still with me.

“Is there something wrong?” He asked.

“No, nothing. Let’s eat.”

When we got back to the classroom, Pears was already there and was ignoring me. Then after class, he went out early, is he still going to the park? Sigh.

I brought Gary with me back to my house and my mother was there.

“Hi little DJ, how’s school, and oh, who do you have here?” My mother greeted me.

“Ma this is Gary, one of our classmates. We just need to do some homework.” I introduced Gary to my mother.

“Hello there Mrs. Mother of DJ.” Gary hailed my mother amusingly.

“Oh, hello Gary, by the way, where’s Pears?” Mother asked us.

“He uh… went somewhere else.” I answered.

“Okaaay. You guys do your thing now.” Mother replied, signaling us to go upstairs.

“Uhm ma, where were you earlier?” I asked her before leaving.

“I… just had to get something, why? Didn’t you wake up on time?” That early ma?

“No, I was just asking.” I smiled and finally proceeded to my room with Gary.

Gary lent me his notes and I started copying. I let him play some video games while I do so. After a while…

“Still not finished?” He asked.

So, I decided to get some food to keep him occupied. I was slightly shocked when I opened our fridge, it’s just a bit full of groceries than usual. Anyways I took some chips and gave them to Gary, much to his contentment.

After I was finally finished with what I was doing, we played a bit until Gary decided to go home, because his house isn’t very near ours. I accompanied him to our doorstep and waved goodbye.

I stayed outside for a while, looking for signs of Pears. Minutes passed until I saw him walking in but he literally walked past me, still pissed? I followed him inside though. He greeted my mother as he was entering, at least, he was acting normal except to me.

Once we were inside our room, I broke the ice.

“How long are you going to ignore me?” He was looking so sulky at me, sure we had some little arguments in the past before, and we were always able to fix it.

“Why? You seem to be enjoying your new friend.” Wait? Was he jealous?

“Gary? Pears, he’s a good guy, and we needed to copy some homework.” I explained to him.

“You chose him over me.” He grumpily responded.

I took what I was doing earlier and showed it to him.

“I made two copies, for us.” That’s why I needed a longer time to finish the assignment earlier.

In a sudden, he surprised me with a hug.

“Still, you have to promise me I’m your only best friend and you’ll always be by my side.” He said while I was still in his lock.

He was jealous after all, which explained his behavior previously and why he has bad blood with Gary.

“I promise.” I assured him.

From then onwards, I understood the assignment, the purpose of me in Pears’s life. As someone who has been through the darkness in life – the death of his parents was his storm in his life but I was the rainbow. I am the moon on a dark night, I am the sun on a sunny day, always ready to shed him some light.

It was the promise of a lifetime, and I tried to hold on to it for as long as I could, I did.

It was a calm night after that day, and another day until it was the weekend.

“What are we going to do today?” Pears asked out of a sudden.

“I don’t know, what do you want?” I responded.

“You.” What!? Did I hear that right?

“Me?” I said while trying to conceal the redness on my face.

“I mean you, do you have any plans?” He cleared himself. How many times do I have to embarrass myself?

“Oh… I… don’t know, play some video games?” I suggested awkwardly.

“How about I help in the laundry?” He recommended.

“No, you don’t need to do any of that.” I immediately shut off his idea, I know my mother wouldn’t let him do any of that stuff.

“I just don’t want to be a burden to your family.”

“Pears, you’re not a burden, my mother took you with us sincerely out of her heart, I’m sure.” I told him, but… I was wrong though.

“Let me at least organize the dirty clothes.” Pears left our room eagerly.

I sighed so I fix our bed and decided to follow him. Just as he said, he was at the laundry.

“Let’s just play come on.” I told him but he wasn’t answering.

He seemed to be holding something, no he was reading something. On his feet was one of my school shorts and oh, s**t.

It was my letter to him.