On The Stage

XV

"Vote with us!", "Equality, freedom, democracy!", "European standards of freedom and love!", "Vote for love!" - These were some of the many slogans of the promotional campaign for the national referendum. The slogans were not very sophisticated or creative, but the truth is that they didn't have to be. Andy Fetterson with rainbows painted on his cheeks, holding a small national flag in one hand and an equally small European Union flag in the other, literally stole the scene and distracted from any writing on posters or online ads. There was also some girl in the illustrations, but she didn't look as perfect and flawless as Andy himself. The boy really fit perfectly into the role of a person promoting some "social idea". Not only because of the way he looked, but also by the very fact of his currently suspended charity work. When I first saw the graphics promoting the 'yes' vote in the referendum I felt a strange stab in my stomach. It was quite selfish of me, as I had no desire to look at that wolf and his face was now literally everywhere. But then I decided that my annoyance with his existence was pointless. Andy had brought chaos into my life and no matter what happened to him afterwards and before, there was no question of any forgiveness. Except that it was over. The boy was no longer able to threaten me in any way or at least I thought so. At this point, him bringing up the story of the homosexual scandal would be like a shot in his own knee. That scandal would not have helped him in any way. The ammunition that Andy had been shooting straight at me and Kevin had run out. In this situation, the Albino wolf could only focus on his own future, which was probably painted in positive colors for him. He's famous, well-liked by society... maybe Andy will become a celebrity of some sort? In fact, I wish him to make his life as comfortable as he can and leave me alone.

I did not think long about Andy. I didn't feel like it and I wasn't really in a situation where I could sit with my head in the clouds. I was just sitting on a big brown blanket in a small garden at the back of Rayan's house. The weather was wonderful, the sun pleasantly warmed my face and hands and the gentle breeze essentially cooled the atmosphere, making it easy to enjoy being outside. Doberman invited me to join him, because today was one of those few days when his parents were not at home and his older brother had to take care of his sister. Abigail was sitting with her legs folded on the blanket and the apparatus she was connected to was right next to her. The girl didn't care at all about all the equipment and the tubes that were connected to her veins. Of course, she was used to it. But I couldn't stop observing all the equipment, wondering what could be wrong with the girl. I did not want to ask Rayan about it, because the boy did not talk much about his sister. Not because he was ashamed of her but because the subject made him suffer. I never invited myself to his house, but when he invited me I couldn't refuse. It had been a long time since I had seen Rayan's sister, who was now in a sense my sister-in-law. The girl had a framed white canvas on her knees, which was filled with more colors as her hand moved with the brush. The child was painting a tree in the garden and I was carefully watching the doberman's sister turn a piece of canvas into a truly avant-garde work of art.

I also won't lie that my gaze didn't land on Rayan himself from time to time. The boy was currently mowing the lawn with a medium sized mower, but while doing so he looked somewhat comical and sketchy at the same time. He had headphones in his ears and of course he was moving around the garden without a shirt. For the first few minutes I felt like I was playing in a video for a song called "Call me maybe", because every time Rayan looked in our direction I was abashed and turned my gaze away from his muscular torso glistening with sweat droplets. I felt embarrassed, which seemed silly to me, because officially me and Rayan were already a couple. Which of course everyone at school wasn't convinced about. We don't walk around holding hands, we don't whisper sweet nothings in each other's ear in the hallway. It's basically the same as it was before except that we were going to officially tell Elizabeth, Randal and Rebecca about it during our outing together on an island in the middle of the lake. The weather promised to be good, the evenings and nights were already warm, so we decided that this weekend we would take ourselves there. Rayan suggested we invite the cat too because he liked her a lot. Well, I still didn't know her well, but I thought that this trip could bring us closer together. In the end, like it or not, Rebecca helped me a lot. I don't know if she did it consciously or not, but the facts were that maybe if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be sitting on a blanket in Rayan's garden with his sister right now. It was a bit of a strange prospect that a girl I didn't quite know had helped me so much.