This is the beginning of a little slice-of-life project. It is part of a larger sequence of similar stories with recurring characters. Each story is will be narrated by a character introduced in the previous one, so you get to hear from Dylan next. Enjoy, and stay tuned for updates.
“Eh? What? Where? What did I do?”
That was my typical, all encompassing retort. You see, I was rather drunk and distracted at the time. Dylan always managed to drag me into discussions when I would have rather continued building towers out of fries. But he liked tugging at the edges of my psyche to see what would spill out. I really did not mind it, either. My tower was getting cold and soggy anyway.
“You are in love with the whole world at once. How do you do it?”
There it was; a pointed question meant to drag me out of my head and onto the forefront. Everyone at the table was listening now, focused on the exchange as much as their own state of inhibition allowed. Centre stage among a fellowship of hazy minds... I never thought it suited me, but my opinion was overruled by the popular vote.
My friends and I had a routine exchange, fair if somewhat unusual: they sneaked me into interesting places and facilitated my underaged drinking, only to later watch me trade views with our resident psychologist. He thought I was an adorable anomaly in human behaviour. I thought he was the smartest person in existence. Dylan was staring at me, impassive and patient as ever; clinical restraint only made his amusement more obvious. I thought about the topic for a second.
“Easy. All I have to do is accept the fact that my love will forever be unrequited. The world can never fully reciprocate. At some point, I must have instinctually come to terms with the reality of our relationship. Now I just appreciate the good times without cumbersome expectations.”
The truth, laced with just enough dry humour... at least it set him back momentarily. He raised an eyebrow, stared a moment longer, and burst out laughing.
“I would like to see you have such a mature outlook when you fall in love with a single human being. Until then, kid, it’s all theory.”
I liked it when my friends called me ‘kid’ or ‘kiddo’; it was a nice change from the school setting. I was the youngest in my class as well, but that never kept me form feeling too old. Hardly surprising in a micro-society of platitudinous intrigues and drama. Among present company though, there was a perfect balance between extremely silly behaviour and intellectual stimuli. And, as the kid in the group, I was just a bit too childish not to take the proverbial cheap shot.
“Well, Dylan, I think I’ll stick with loving everyone I meet. Once you start randomly singling out individuals, there’s always the risk of accidentally attaching yourself to a rabid manatee with all the personality of a Brussels sprout. Incidentally, how is your ‘honey dearest’ Andrea...”
I got about that far before receiving a face-full of ketchup. Approximately five minutes later, we were escorted out of the shoddy little grease pit by a broom-wielding owner. Five minutes after that, Zack set a sleeping hobo on fire... mais ceci est une autre histoire.
