TB turns, ready to continue walking home, only to have the left lens on his glasses be covered by a gray... thing?
He removes it and finds a gray heart with a slight metallic tint, thin as paper. He frowns slightly. Much heavier than expected.
"What is it dude? Piss yourself?" Coiny calls out to him, already a couple feet ahead.
"What does that even...?" TB whispers, jogging up to him.
"You know what this is?" TB asks him, showing the heart.
"Uh. Air?" Coiny responds, giving TB a look.
"What? Don't you see it?" TB asks, gently flapping the heart.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're serious? You're not pranking me or something, are you?"
"That's what I should be asking you? You're shaking your fingers at me, asking if I can "see it", or whatever," Coiny tells him, shrugging, pulling out his phone.
"What to do when my friend starts hallucinating?" he questions audibly, typing quickly into his phone, the bronze case shining in the sunlight.
'Am I hallucinating?'
He tears the heart in half, like paper.
'I can't be hallucinating. That felt too real.'
"Hey, could you search up, 'I can see paper hearts, but nobody else does'?" TB asks him, peering over his shoulder to look at Coiny's phone screen.
Coiny enters it in, lips pursed. The pair walk without a sound as Coiny looks at his phone.
He breaks the silence, saying, "Paper Hearts Syndrome. A love related medical condition, where the patient (who must be 17 or older) will see hearts that look and feel like paper every time they have a romantic thought about their 'crush'. This about GB, or?"
"Just keep reading it!" TB replies, flushing.
"Uh.. The paper hearts can be discarded with no real consequence. They can be discarded like how you would discard regular paper, whether that be through tearing, burning, crumpling, or wetting, yada yada. Anything that makes the heart look different from its original form works."
"A relief," TB interrupts, remembering how he had ripped the heart from before.
"Waitwaitwait, here's the important part," Coiny says, lightly tapping his shoulder.
"The patient's 'crush' will be the only other person that can see the hearts besides the patient. And uh, knowing Golf Ball, if she sees you with hearts that nobody else can see–"
"–doing research would be the first thing she'll do," TB interrupts, eyebrows creased.
"Maybe this'll be the perfect opportunity for your pussy ass to tell her!" Coiny exclaims, slapping him on the back.
"No, I- I can't! You've heard her, ever since elementary school all she's done is say our relationship is fully platonic. I can't just mess it up because of my dumb feelings," TB tells him, rejecting any idea of confessing to her.
"I mean, she's stopped saying it, hasn't she? You got a chance," Coiny tells him, shrugging.
"How come this hasn't ever happened to you?" TB asks, ignoring his observation.
"I have a girlfriend, man. And apparently its something that affects," he peers at his phone. "One in a million people."
TB stares at him, dumbfounded.
"This isn't a phony website, is it?"
"Nope. Official medical website of Goiky," he responds, waving his phone at him.
"What am I gonna do tomorrow?"
"Just don't think about her too much," Coiny responds simply.
"She's gonna be there all day?? What do you mean 'don't think about her'?" TB tells him, gesturing to him with his hands.
"I don't know, I'm not a doctor," he replies, shrugging.
"How do I fix it?"
"It says here... Paper Hearts Syndrome will be cured if a) the feelings fade, or b) the 'crush' is aware of the patient's feelings. So you either stop liking her or you confess. Seeing as you've had a crush on her for literal years, I don't think the first choice is possible," Coiny tells him.
TB places both his palms on his cheeks, silent.
"Jesus Christ," he whispers, Coiny patting him on the back.
"It's your birthday, man. Enjoy it! You won't see her until tomorrow. Try not to think about it too much, you get me?"
TB doesn't say anything, only replying with a sigh.
They walk in silence until Coiny stops, having arrived at his destination.
"This is my stop," Coiny tells him, pointing a thumb at his house. "See you tomorrow?"
