Groom Wars

51. To Tame Love

After the elimination match, Cadmus guarded Adriel's stall while the boy showered. He heard the soft sound of running water. Listened to the pitter-patter of droplets on the tiles. He could imagine the boy showering, the watering sliding down his dark golden skin. Cadmus' face warmed, and he let out a slow breath, cursing himself for thinking such thoughts.

Cadmus remembered kissing Adriel ages ago when they had played Romeo and Juliet for a school play. He remembered how their teachers had argued about removing the kiss scenes, but after running some tests, the upper-year teachers had decided with six votes to four that neither boy liked each other, had sexual thoughts for the same sex, or had any sexual ideas for that matter—Adriel had despised both genders equally, and Cadmus had been apathetic—it had been decided to leave the kiss scenes as they were, and monitor to boys for any changes in their behaviour. If, by chance, any boy was noticed developing an attraction for the same sex, they would be counselled and stripped of their impurities.

But, like the teachers had suspected, the boys had entertained their general dislike of each other throughout the process. The only time Cadmus had felt a slight change was when he had seen Adriel dressed as a girl, and at that moment, he had felt the character "Romeo" possess him, and he had thought of Adriel as his Juliet. The beautiful girl that had stolen his heart at first sight. He had wanted to protect her, love her. The feeling had only lasted till the play finished, then they had returned to being strangers.

In the two and half hours that the play lasted, Cadmus had felt love. The real, pulsing, and all-encompassing emotion. But, after the curtains were drawn and the players changed into their regular clothes, the feelings vanished, and Cadmus had left the stage as Cadmus, returning home to a dimly lit mansion with only servants to meet him. His parents had been away on business.

He had eaten dinner alone, sketched characters, and worked on the script for a comic he had wanted to submit to the Globe and Mail in exchange for some pocket change. His parents had always given him anything he wanted, but he got a particular joy from spending money he earned from his own hard work that nothing else could compare to.

Cadmus' house was always quiet, except for the scratch of his pencil on paper, servant's footsteps in the hall, or the sound of Cadmus playing the piano, violin, or exercising.

Instead of being met by a cold-faced chauffeur, Cadmus remembered how Adriel's father had kissed Adriel's forehead and carried Adriel to their car on his back; the man's daughters crowded them, and they journeyed to the parking lot, their voices creating a grand symphony. Cadmus had imagined that when the family got home, they all sat at the same table for dinner with that same joy, ecstasy, and love.

And he had hated them for it.

A few days after the play, the boys from their school were told to write essays about what they had learned from the experience, and a few of the boys had jokingly answered, 'Adriel should get a sex change', only to be punished by their teachers.

Cadmus had learned that love made people irrational and made them operate at a fraction of their normal capacity. Cadmus had concluded that he would never fall in love as he prioritized rational thinking above all else.

After reading the essays, their teacher had said, "For some remarkable reason, our two leads, after experiencing the joys and woes of star-crossed lovers, have decided that love is a disgusting, futile, horrid, putrid emotion and never want to experience it. But, my dear pupils, that is not what I wanted you to learn from this experience. What you are all supposed to learn is empathy. Empathy for your classmates, for opposite genders, for the same gender. And you were also to realize that it is okay to express yourself and tell others what you're thinking.