The Music Project (boyxboy)

six

        We drove to the park separately. I parked a few cars away from his. I carried Annie's old-fashioned umbrella and Linden Blisser's mechanical tool box. I'm not sure 'mechanical' is the term for someone who fixes equipments and instruments. Linden Blisser carried the cylinder phonograph and a folded tarpaulin clutched under his arm.

        He wore a sleeveless t-shirt (obviously cut with scissors) , and a pair of not-so baggy jeans. He looked descent and friendly. With those blond waves of his short hair and those green eyes. Leafy green eyes. If I was adoring him or anything, I didn't know. I just felt like noticing his features. So you guys would know.

        Linden Blisser unfolded the tarpaulin over the grass under a tree and set the phonograph beside where he sat. I sat across from him and watched as he looked inside the toolbox. He had a wooden box set beside the phonograph where the rest of the disembodied part of the recorder was kept. Neat.

        There was a bench a few feet away from us where a couple was making out. There were lots of kids running around and parents sitting over a sheet of cloth or tarpaulin or something, taking pictures of their kids. There were also old folks in wheelchairs and walkers. It was a crowded place.

        I could see the gleaming and sparkling lake beyond the four-feet high fence and the mountain beyond it. There were also trees around us. Just a few, though.

        It wasn't sunny but it wasn't cloudy either.

        He handed me a screw driver. I took it. "You see those screws?" He pointed at those wires with with flat metals on their edges. There were screws connecting the flat metals onto something I'd never seen in my entire life. Well, except in these past three days of working with him. "Unhinge them all."

        So I did. After about an hour. What's left of the cylinder phonograph was just a rectangular wooden box with a hole at the bottom right side.

        "Finally," Linden Blisser declared. He was smiling victoriously.

        "Cool." Disassembling the thing was done.

        "I'll go grab some sandwiches by the stall over there. I'm starving," he said and left.

        After approximately eight minutes, he came back with two hotdog sandwiches and two bottled softdrinks clutched under his arms. The guy like clutching things under his arms. He handed me a sandwich and one of the bottled softdrinks. He sat where he sat a while ago.

        "So, why do they call you Sparkle?" He asked.

        "I kind of forgot the legend," I lied. I didn't like telling people.

        "Come on. I know you still remember," he insisted while he ate his sandwich. He had this eager look in his face like he really needed and wanted to know.

        So I told him. "There was this gay senior from when I was a fresh man who was a die-hard fan of the Twilight saga. He read the book and watched the movie. Bought posters and all. Then, on the day of my try-out he said I looked familiar. Then he screamed and said, 'Edward Cullen's in school!' Since Edward sparkles when hit by sunlight, he called me Sparkle. So, yeah. That was it."

        Linden Blisser laughed. So hard he nearly choked. "So you got your nickname from a book-slash-movie. Awesome."

        I turned away. "Not really." I hated my nickname.

        "Come to think of it. You kinda look like Edward Cullen," he said.

        "Oh, shut up. You watched that cheesy flick?"

        "Yeah, all four of them. But really, you look like Eddy. You have this unbelievably pale skin and pale blue eyes minus the brushed-up spikey blond hair." I have brown hair and bangs. "You kinda look like him."

        "Then I'll get a sun tan tomorrow," I said. "And maybe wear a pair of contact lenses."

        He laughed again. "Good luck with that."

        "Dude, you laugh a lot." It didn't come out nice because he was annoying me. He's kind of intimidating right this second.

        "Sorry," he mumbled.

        I kept quiet. I thought about how could Linden Blisser take my personality. I think I'm kind of have manic depression. The way I react to certain things sometimes defines it. One moment, I like talking, then the next, it irritates me so I find a way to shut whoever I'm talking to. I think Linden Blisser noticed that already and just didn't know what else to do but to adjust.

        I watched the kids play catch. I saw myself and Cornelia Farrow in two of those kids. We used to play catch when we were children. It was fun, having her around. She had this big brown eyes that were so bright and full of funny ideas. I remember how her muddy brown hair got dirty and literally muddy. I guess, she was turning into a boy why her dad removed themselves from the neighborhood. All because of me.

        Since the day she left, she never talked to me even if we saw each other at school. Friendship over.

        The skies turned dark. It was going to rain but I didn't want to tell Linden Blisser the obvious. He was watching the crowd deteriorate as they noticed the sky. Thunder rumbled and it rained.

        "Oh, fuck!" I grabbed the umbrella and opened it.

        Linden Blisser was dripping wet when I looked at him. He had this ideal look in his eyes. He was smiling. "Come on, lets enjoy the rain."

        He pulled my arm and grabbed the umbrella and set it over the two wooden boxes so the insides wouldn't be wet.

        "Let's play catch!" I said. And I didn't know I was laughing when I saw him laughing as he ran away from me. He couldn't run that fast since he just got his cask removed from his foot this morning. It was funny, watching him run imbalanced.

        So I caught him. Then dashed away. When he couldn't catch me, he said ,"Hey, I give up!" He stopped running. I stopped running.

        "Okay, slowpoke," I said. As sudden as it was, I felt the coldness of the pouring rain and soft gusts of wind. I put my arms around me and shivered. Fuck. I was freezing. "It's freezing!" I shouted even though it was obvious with my shaking body. Linden Blisser wanted to laugh but just smiled. He was cold, too. I could see it with the shaking of his jaws as he walked towards me.

        I turned to leave, to get the umbrella and gather our things. But I felt his cold hand on my arm. I turned around. He said, "Hey." His eyes were staring deep into mine. Those persistent green eyes. He touched my face and kissed me and our bodies were together. If I kissed back, I didn't know.

        I pulled away and left for the parking lot. I didn't know that he was following me until I rushed to open the door of my car, leaving all our things unattended under a tree. I was going to slide into the driver's seat but he pulled me before I even got one foot in.

        He said, "Theo, wait. Sorry. I didn't mean to--" freak me out?

        "Why did you do that?" I asked. Totally horrified and confused.

        He looked like he didn't know what to say, leaving his mouth open for a short moment. "I like you. And I thought you like me back."

        "You are so unbelievable! Why did you kiss me!"

        "You kissed me back," he said.

        But I was already in my car, turning on the ignition. I left him there. Alone.

        Fuck.