Curving His Straight Line

Chapter 5: Burning the Fire

I immediately grabbed the letter from Pears’s grasp.

“Dion…” He said confusingly.

“This is nothing.” I said defensively.

“You thought you were-“ He was about to speak when I stopped him.

“No just please don’t talk, forget about it.”

“We should talk about this Dion.”

“No! Okay, no, it was a stupid letter.”

“Do you really like me?” He asked, and I only wished I could say how much I do.

“Pears, it’s a… I was confused, okay? It’s a little crush, a dumb puppy love. Drop the topic before we stop being friends.” I said a lot, didn’t I?

“Okay, okay, let’s forget about it, I’m sorry.”

I went inside my room and stashed the letter inside my bag, I can’t believe I forgot to take that letter out of my pocket that day, maybe because I was so traumatized.

“Hey.” Pears followed in.

I looked at him to whether he is still going to bring up the issue.

“What are we going to play today?” Then a smile, a smile that makes everything okay.

It was that easy for him to settle with whatever situation we’re in, or maybe he just can’t afford to lose me as a friend that’s why he didn’t push the subject. For me it was hard, like putting out a very angry fire inside my heart.

As I thought that it was working, denial of my feelings just made it more powerful.

That night while he was taking a shower, I snuck outside our house to finally burn the paper so nobody would ever find out about this stupid feeling, but the letter wasn’t the problem, I was.

It was my only time without Pears in the vicinity, because for the whole day we were with each other, and if I’m going to be honest, I’ll say it’s getting a bit annoying. I know I was excited for him to move in with my family but too much of everything is just… too much.

Because it became clear to me now that he wasn’t interested in me more than a friend, yup I know he didn’t specifically say a thing about not liking me like that but he was so at ease at burying his thoughts about the letter, so?

I don’t know what came into my mind but I pushed her to go for Celine. Thinking maybe this way, I’ll be able to let go of my feelings for him more conveniently.

It was another day at the school when I told him he should finally introduce himself to the girl, the lucky girl.

“Really?” Pears was having second thoughts.

“Yeah, I mean, she could be our friend too, besides from Gary.” I calmed him.

“Why? Are you getting tired of me?”

“No!” But honestly, I was getting a bit tired of Pears, he’s literally with me 24/7. “Our dynamic is good Pears but I just think that we could use some more friends, don’t you think?” I falsely explained to him, while concealing my real agenda.

We went to the park that day with Gary, and maybe it was God’s will, Celine was there.

“Go, ask her to play with us.” I encouraged Pears.

He took a deep breath and walked towards the lucky girl as I the unfortunate one, looked at him.

“You like him, do you?” Gary asked out of a sudden.

I was startled by him. “What!?”

“It’s the way you look at him. I just noticed that it looked like those in the movies.” In just a short time that we have been spending time with Gary, he already observed my feelings. Pears became okay with his company with my promise that he’ll be my best of best friend.

“Plus, the way you just let him stay in your house, I mean, he must be really special to you.” Gary added.

I wanted to deny what Gary thought of that time, but I needed someone to leash out to that time.

“Please don’t tell him.” I asked Gary to kept it a secret.

“He doesn’t know yet?”

Sure, Pears could be insensitive at times, but it was me who asked him to forget about it.

“He did, but I told him it was nothing, not big of a deal.” I explained.

“And you’re fine with him talking to his crush?” Yeah, Pears already told Gary he like Celine.

“Maybe I need this Gary, to finally erase him out of my mind.” I told him.

“You’re torturing yourself brother.” And Gary was right, but maybe I need to be tortured to stop my attraction to Pears, does it make sense?

“Hey, this is Celine and Betty. Uhm girls, this is Gary and Dion, I mean DJ, because only I can call him Dion.” Pears arrived with Celine and another friend.

Celine is pretty, I guess? Her eyes are full of soul while Betty, Celine’s friend I presume, she’s the nerd type, yup, she wears glasses.

It was sore to the hearts and eyes, I got to be honest.

“Hi beautiful girls!” Gary greeted them with full energy while I gave them a smile.

That afternoon, the five of us played as I tried to be okay. I know it was my idea, but now I am the uncomfortable one.

Instead of our normal rock, paper, and scissors, now it’s a quick show of hands and odd one out.

We tried to be in that situation though, Celine and Betty are both nice people, so aside from me getting hurt, there was no other problem of hanging out with them.

After some days, we were at the park again one afternoon.

“Let’s buy some cotton candy.” Gary tempted us.

Betty decided to go with him, they seemed to be getting along well, hmm. I wasn’t planning on going with them but then I saw Celine and Pears having fun… so, I decided to leave them alone.

After buying some cotton candies, we went back to where Pears and Celine were. As I laid my eyes upon them, Celine was on the ground with Pears assisting her, and then he kissed her wounded hand, probably from running into the ground.

At that time, there was only one phrase that was running through my mind…

That was my place.

Gary came into the rescue, he must have noticed my gaze at the two.

“Oh, Actually Betty, DJ and I have something to do we almost forgot, you three have fun for now and see you tomorrow.” Just by then, Gary pulled me while my head was still floating, we walked to his house, and it was my first time here. I greeted his parents Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson.

He let me in his room.

“What happened back there? The way you looked at them, like you were about to cry, good thing Betty was eating the cotton candy that she didn’t notice.” Was I really about to cry?

“It’s just, he did that for me, back when there was no Celine.” I explained to Gary.

‘You’re really in a tight spot right now brother.” He patted me on my shoulder.

“Why are you so kind to me?” I just asked him.

“Duh, because we’re friends and uh, I don’t know if you remember this but uh, there was this one time when I cracked a musical joke in the whole class and nobody laughed, except you.” Oh I remember, and it was a bit awkward for the both of us though, but I really find it funny, maybe the other kids just weren’t able to understand the humor.

I believe it goes something like this, Gary said that he kept on hearing some music on his printer, and when he checked, the papers were jamming, lol.

It was these small little things that even us weren’t aware of that can make a big difference.

“I got your back brother.” He assured me.

“Thank you, really.” The two of us spent time together by watching a film titled “His Unobtainable Mate”, he’s a fan of romance yup, until I decided to finally go home.

It was a long walk and it gave me time to think what should I do to fix the mess I’m in right now. Instead of putting out the fire inside my heart, it seemed I was burning the fire even more, making it stronger day by day. Damn, Pears.

Once I got home, my mother greeted me as usual.

“You’re finally home little DJ, Pears said you were with Gary, right?”

“Yes ma, we just watched something, in his house.” I answered

“Alright, Pears brought one of your friends today too, they are upstairs in your room.”

What!?

I rushed off to my room to find them playing in my bed, s**t, I wished Gary was with me right now.

“You’re already here Dion, what’s up? I brought Celine here so we could play, I figured I will be lonely here because you were with Gary, by the way, want to join us?” Pears greeted me but I was just staring at them.

“Where did you two went? Betty said just went off after buying cotton candies.” Celine asked.

“Uh… actually, I’m so tired, I need to… to change my clothes first.” I excused myself and got some clothes and immediately proceed to the bathroom.

There I let the shower poured onto me while tears flowed along. I didn’t even get to wear off my clothes I was just so full on what was happening. After a while of bathing, I knew what I needed to do.

I came out of the bathroom and bumped into Pears.

“Oh, Celine went off, because it’s about to get dark too…” But I just kept on walking and ignored him.

“Uhm… Dion?”

I kept on walking and entered my mother’s room.

“Hey, little DJ, are you hungry? The dinner is already cooked, I was just resting a bit.”

Then I asked my mother.

“Can we send Pears back to his house now?”