Your Wish Is My Calamity✔️

CHAPTER FIVE

AS WILLIAM SAT cross-legged with Orion on the floor, he pouted. "I seriously don't get it. How would he know whether I loved him or not? What does he think love is?"

"Well, maybe he just felt that–"

William cut him off. "I mean, we did everything together. Everything! And now that he's gone, it's like–" William's voice got quieter, "...none of those years we spent together mattered at all."

William didn't mean to vent to Orion, but the thoughts that he had kept to himself seemed to escape on their own.  Although William would never admit it, plenty differences between himself and Christian could have possibly led to their downfall. Christian was the type of guy that everyone wanted to talk to. He was handsome, charming, knowledgeable and funny. He had a big heart, and a cunning mouth, and because of all of these things, human connection came easy to him.

But William was different.

William hardly had any friends. He stopped talking to his parents when he moved out, and started to focus on his research, and the only two people he frequently interacted with were his twin sister Willow, and his boyfriend Christian. William was okay with this at the time because they were going seven years strong.

Their commitment of seven years made him believe that they would genuinely marry each other someday. This was what brought William peace, and made him content with having a small circle.

"Orion," William started as he turned to face him. "what do you think it means to love someone?"

"Huh?"

"Like.." William looked down at the carpet, "..how would you know if you loved someone? Or if someone loved you?"

William's cheeks began to burn, and embarrassment caused him to avoid eye-contact with Orion, because he had asked such a silly question. Not only that, but he had resorted to asking a star for relationship advice. It felt like he hit a new, and more desperate low.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't interact with humans much. Don't feel pressured to answer a question as stupid as that."

Orion smiled at him gently and gave the question thought. William's feelings of embarrassment evaporated from his body and relief settled in. Orion was the most non-judgmental individual he would ever meet.

"Every time you're with the person you love," Orion said softly, "you wish that you could freeze time forever. Love isn't just displayed by your commitment, but you're willingness to respect and understand one another in order to comfortably be with each other."

William took in Orion's words with consideration. Did he feel that way with Christian? William enjoyed his company and they chose to do most things together, but did William want to freeze time to be with Christian because he loved him, or because Christian was the only one he had?

William couldn't fully distinguish between these two thoughts, because he believed that the point of a lover was to make sure that you weren't alone.

But Orion's statement aroused an important question. If William had someone else, would he still go after Christian? And most importantly, since Christian already had someone else, would he want William back?

William concluded that whether or not Christian reached out after his social media post would determine how much love Christian still had for him.

William hummed. "You know, you're kind of wise. I think you're like, the wisest person I've ever met, and you're technically not even a person."

Orion shook his head.

"It's not wisdom," Orion added, "It's just..experience, William."

William was intrigued. Orion seemed to have different sides to him. There was the bubbly Orion who lit up William's house with positivity, the flustered Orion, who sometimes found it difficult to take compliments or handle intimacy, and the wise Orion, who had just shown his cards right at this instant. William had only one thought. How much was there to learn about him?

Orion cleared his throat, bringing William's attention back to himself. "By the way Will, I've been curious. What is it that you plan to do for a living? Are you still in university?"

William's mood instantly improved. "Yeah, I'm in my final year at Wilstberrow. I actually do research with Mr.Wanlow–he's our astrophysics professor, and I do think that he would help me network into a job after I finish university because I pretty much put the most dedication into the research." William gestured to a table with stacks of paper a few feet away, "I mean, I practically live in our research. I think you're fortunate to be able to–"

Orion smiled at him. He already knew all these things, but he figured it would be polite to ask.

"—to live in the sky because you get to live with the universe. I mean, technically we do too since we're.. in it, but to be up in space and able to experience some of the things that we cannot yet adventure, just sounds... amazing." William concluded, only because he was running out of breath.

Orion chuckled. "That's great! I can see that you really like what you do, which is such a relief. Not everyone gets to enjoy their life's work, y'know?"

William's mood dipped once more as he remembered one of the reasons Christian had broken up with him. Christian believed that William's heart was with his research and that none of his love was reserved for Christian himself.

Orion's eyebrows pinched together. "Did I say something...wrong?"

"No...it's just that–" William paused, "—sorry sometimes I get excited about my work, and that's part of the reason Christian broke up with me." William frowned. "I know how annoying it must be for me to keep circling back to him, but I didn't realize how much I talked about my research when given the opportunity to.."

Christian probably wanted to be with someone who spoke about their professional life way less than he did.

"Honestly, maybe I was the problem."

Orion shook his head. "You shouldn't feel ashamed about that."

"I shouldn't?"

"Definitely not. Don't hold back your joy to satisfy others. If I could talk about what I loved all of the time, I would."

William's eyebrows rose in curiosity. "What would you talk about?"

William had expected another positive and concise answer from Orion, but he didn't receive a single one.  The only "answer" he received, was Orion's soft smile as he got up to wash the dishes left over from lunch.

After spending a few days with Orion, it was quite clear that he was warm, caring, and genuinely someone who was nice to have around.

It made William dread his final wish, even if Orion managed to fulfill his purpose, and he had no clue what that meant.

Yet.