call out my name [2gether]

CH 29

THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST (III).

"Pear, are we dating?"

The girl startled with a jolt and looked up from peeling an orange, her eyes huge, just like a deer caught in the headlights. A stray drop of fruit juice shot out in between her sticky fingers, leaving a fresh, citrusy arch of scent wafting through the air. A couple of yellow drops stained the white hospital sheets and Tine wrinkled his nose at that.

"What?!" Pear asked with a shrill voice, dropping orange peels all over the floor as she moved around in her seat. How badly had Tine hurt his head? First that one very awkward kiss in Sarawat's body and now this.

Tine instantly laughed silly, mouth square and eyes crinkling into crescent moons, cheeks flushed. Whoops. He had been so focused on the rather pressing matter of whether he was indeed dating Sarawat or not, that he did not even stop to think that Pear could not actually read his thoughts. Silly.

"Sorry, sorry!" The young man raised one hand in front of his fair face in an apologetic gesture, the wide grin still on his lips, flashing white bunny teeth. "I was a little caught up inside my head. What I meant was, am I really dating Sarawat?"

Easy question, right?

Pear inhaled sharply, choking on the orange slice that she had been munching on and looked away quickly, suspiciously averting her wide gaze from Tine's imploring eyes as she coughed into her tiny fist to clear her throat. What the heck! Sarawat should have taken care of his own business properly. Pear did not even know what she was allowed to say and she was obviously bad at avoiding head on confrontations, just look at how it went with Sarawat the last time he had pressed her for details about Tine. So what the hell should she tell Tine now?! It was quite clear that Sarawat and Type were against revealing too much information about all the weird, supernatural shit that had been going unless Tine remembered things himself.

"Why do you ask?" Pear tried to parry sneakily, lacing her voice with a bossy tone and hoping that Tine would just leave it at that. The half eaten orange was now forgotten, lonely balancing around on a plate in her lap.

The young man sitting on the hospital bed shrugged his wide shoulders, looking down at his hands that lay atop the white sheets. He looked rather lost and deflated, now picking at a loose thread that was sticking out of the covers. It was not like he tried to find faults here, Tine was perfectly happy with how things had somehow turned out to be. Well, he could have been without the accident though. And maybe the yearlong coma. Anyhow, he was over the moon that Sarawat was showering him with so much attention and care. But still, something just did not feel right with this whole situation and it kept bothering him. Like a tiny pebble stuck in his shoe, it was slowly grating on his nerves. Besides, it was not like he had much to do at the hospital anyway so he kept mulling things over and over again, digging that downward spiraling hole for himself.

Sarawat had told Tine that he loved him but then again, they had only spent two weeks getting to know each other anew and been what, one year apart and maybe dated even less before that? It was not completely unthinkable that he had said it in the heat of the moment, Tine mused.

Okay! Stop right there. Tine needed to get a hobby to keep his mind off of these things or he would just keep overanalyzing everything to death. Maybe Type could at least set him up with a cell phone or something?

"It's just so strange." Tine gave Pear a puppy eyed look, looking all sad and confused. "I don't remember anything about how we started dating. Sarawat acts as if we're together but no one else seems to know about this? What's going on, Pear?"

The girl swallowed dryly, her mouth suddenly all parched. What the hell should she say? Pear stuffed an orange slice into her pink mouth, to give herself some time to think.