ALL THE STRINGS ATTACHED | COMPLETED

14.

THEODORE.

"When did you start living alone?" I asked, after eating a mouth of pasta.

Not bragging here, but fuck it's so good. Daniel, on the other hand didn't seem quite fond of the food in front of him. Either he doesn't like it, or he's letting his thought run wild again.

I think it's the latter.

"Around 21. I mentioned before if you recall, my parents didn't like me being a batista. They wanted me to have a job that was more.. worthy of a status if I might add."

"How is being a barista someone that's not worthy in society? It's an awesome job!" I paused to think for a bit before continuing, "Hang on, we had this conversation before."

"Yes, but that was before you figured out who I am. Till now, I'm not even sure if I did the right thing in getting close to you again.." he drifted off.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "We are not going back there again. Focus on the present, Dan."

"Right. Sorry, it's become a habit."

I smiled at the man in front of me, who was picking at his pasta. He looked so lost, it almost seemed too cute.

Am I a sadist or something?

"So what happened after I knocked out? Other than your parents disapproving of you bring a barista?"

"Are you really sure you wanna know?"

"I'm not gonna go bolting out the door, if that's what you're worried about. And I didn't recall every single last detail. Might help if you fill me in."

He stopped swirling is fork in the pasta and placed it down. "There was a reason why I never bought you home," he started.

I decided not to interrupt and just nod my head. It's true though, I have never seen his parents before. I thought it was just me not regaining my memories fully. Turns out, there was more to his story.

He went on to tell me how homophobic his parents were, how he didn't dare break the image of being the good son that he was meant to be.

His parents were also very religious, which was one of the reasons why he didn't dare bring up the fact he was dating a man.

It hurt to know that he was afraid of some many different things, but it hurt me more to know that he had been dealing with all this shit alone.

There was one loophole in his story that had yet to be explained.

"If you didn't tell them about me, how did they find out?" I questioned.

He slumped back into his seat. "At that point, they were pushing me to continue my studies and become a teacher, something that I was considering to give up.

Church and worship was becoming something that suffocated me because all they were saying was that it was a sin to engage yourself in anything but heterosexual relationships. I, no matter how I tried, couldn't understand how it was a sin.

And then there was you. You were going on about kids and all, which didn't help one bit. Then, the thing between us happened and you lost your memories.

A part of me knows it wasn't on purpose but I put the blame onto myself. All the stress just accumulated and one fine day, I exploded."

His eyes reflected how sad and hopeless he was while recounting what happened. I couldn't bear to see him sad any longer so I went over and hugged him while softly patting his head.