This Town; Jean and Marco's story

From When We Were the Children Playing in This Fairground

Marco's point of view
{10 years before}

I saw this boy at the playground. He had a long face... almost like a horse. He was sitting alone at the end of the slide looking at something in a puddle, "hey mister! You should really mo-" I was sadly too late and another kid went down the slide and knocked him into the puddle. I ran over to him to make sure he wasn't terribly injured, "sorry I was a little too late on telling you that another kid wanted to use the slide" I said extending my arm out trying to help him up. He pushed my hand aside and got up by himself; he began to walk away but I decided to follow him. "My name is Marco by the way, Marco Bodt, what's your name?" I asked trying to make conversation, "I'm Jean Kirstein, and for the record I didn't need your help getting up" he replied looking back at me. "Wow you must be really tough!" I said fascinated by his manliness, "I literally just met you and you already sound like a pushover" Jean said giving me a small friendly punch, "I don't really like dorks like you but I guess you're different" he continued smiling a bit.

From that day on we would usually meet up at the park and go on quests where we'd hunt down these giant monsters that we liked to call titans. Jean and I were even able to get more kids to play with us but we would usually end up wandering away from the group a bit and play together. This lasted all throughout elementary school but things change over time. Soon, Jean and I were the only ones who would go back to the park and play together, sadly, things changed in 7th grade and we separated. I guess we kinda grew apart and forgot about one another until senior year of high school when we were out in the same class again for the first time in years. I would think of Jean from time to time but I doubt he even thought about me. I still keep the plastic sword I got from Jean on my birthday for when we went out to slay some titans. I kinda liked to watch over him from a far to make sure he's been doing alright, I'm very thankful that I kept up these kind of stalkery habits because I was able to help Jean on the end. I never really knew how I felt about Jean when we were younger, I mean like of course we were definitely friends but I don't really know if I had romantic feelings for him. He did kiss a small cut I got from falling out of a tree saying that it makes the pain go away, it's sad that he forgot that over time but at least I've been able to kiss some of his pain away. Jean and I would also hug... a lot but it was more of a bro thing, I knew I was gay, I just never told Jean because that's awkward to say when you're 10 and you just figured that out. All I can say now is that I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful boyfriend in my life, he means the world to me and I would never change a thing from the past even though there was pain because in the end I was able to find myself and realize that I truly do have the best boyfriend a guy could ask for and an amazing life.