My Fictional Boyfriend

Chapter 9 ~ Love Likes Surprises

I could almost feel the heat of summer. I was in the classroom with thirty-five other students, Biology teacher, and my boyfriend. The air-condition was not helping, I was still sweating. I was sitting in the desk near the closed window so he could lean on the wall while I am studying. He could still be with me. I was always longing for his hand to be in mine.

"Everything fine?" He felt I wasn't not comfortable.

I nodded then I replied discreetly, "Yep, but it is so hot."

"Should I apologize for bringing too much hotness here?" he said arrogantly.

I prevented my laughter, but I couldn't help it.

"Miss Gomez," my teacher called. She raised her thin brows and folded her arms. There was a projection behind her showing the PowerPoint presentation of her lesson.

I sat up straight, nervous because I wasn't really paying attention.

"Is there anything funny with what I am saying?" Her short hair bounced as she titled her hair to sneer at me.

I shook my head.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Nothing, ma'am," I said.

She glared at me but later on, he continued, "As I was saying a semi-permeable membrane..." Another perk of being a good student was that teachers would not get angry of you just because laughing in his or her class for no valid reason. You excelled their subjects, it's fine.

"Sorry," Marvin apologized.

"It's fine," I whispered. I got my pen and wrote at the back of my notebook, covering so he wouldn't read yet. I thought for the right words how to put it, then I let him read.

He read aloud, leaning closer to me. "I can bear to be in a place so hot if you're here beside me, than to a place where it's cool but you're nowhere to be found. It can burn like hell." He finished with a smile. He whispered to me, his lips touching my ears, "I won't let that happen." I looked at him; he was smiling sincerely, and I returned his smile.

"Ella?" Kate, my seatmate in this class, asked if I said something. I answered none.

After Biology class, our Literature teacher now caught my attention and mostly the whole class because of his new topic. "Love is not blind. Love is to be fully awake, to be aware for whoever or whatever they are but accepting them including all their flaws."

"Classic novels and fairy tales explain it," he gave examples, "Beauty and the Beast, the ever-famous Romeo and Juliet, Florante and Laura, etcetera." He letsl what he'd said sink in our minds. "Why do you think a handsome prince, whom most girls swoon at, fell for a maid; why would a pretty lady kiss a frog; why would a maiden take care of a beast; why would a perfect daughter fall for a boy her family hates? One answer, class: Love."

Candice, a girl I liked the least in this room raised her hand eagerly. She's like the typical bitchy it girl in highschool stories. "Is it also the reason why some students fall in love with their teachers?" The class laughed.

Mister Francisco cleared his throat, and nodded. "Can be. Love chooses the person you least expected. Sometimes, they are the ones you do not even think of. In other cases, they aren't even people; a mysterious beast, a frog, a sleeping lady, a maid, the guy from the rival of your clan, and yes, even a teacher."

I raised my hand without meaning it, "What about fictional characters? Can it happen?"

I thought he will disregard my question because I felt the class looked at me, weirding out, but he smiled, "Fictional people, huh? I am not sure, but as I have said, love doesn't care whoever or whatever he or she will be. Love likes surprises."

I remembered what Marvin had told me before about unexpected love is the best kind. I looked at him who is sitting on the floor beside my chair. He looked at me too.

Love didn't care if I was real and he was fictional.

~~~

I ate early supper with my little brother. "Yummy, Ella!" Michael raised a chicken leg and ate it.

Mom and dad weren't home yet. I arranged the rooftop of our house like I would have picnic.

"What are you doing, Ella?" Neri asked.

"I want to watch the sunset while reading." I brought a book with me, though I did not have plan to read. I just wanted to be with Marvin.

"Okay, I just made milk for Michael, he's already asleep downstairs. Just call me whenever you need anything."

"I think I won't, but thanks anyway." I smiled at her. She smiled back before going down.

I looked around but Marvin was not here. Before, I would be scared when I couldn't find him. But after that, whenever there would be doubts, I simply looked at the words on my palms:

He is real.

Every morning, the one I wrote the night before woule be washed off when I took a bath. So I needed to write it again after I put my clothes on or at school. He would kiss it. The process continued. When he was gone, I would look at it, close my eyes, and repeat those three words again and again.

I was sitting on the rooftop of our three-storey house, with a blanket below me, plants surrounding me, and the orange sky ready to set above me, I closed my eyes. And I repeated the line over and over.

He is real.

He is real.

He is real.

There was a hug that tackled me from behind. I opened my eyes and saw his arms around me. I rotated my head back to see Marvin smiled and hugged my stomach. He was wearing a plain gray t-shirt this time.

"What are we going to do here?" he asked me.

"To watch the sunset."

"Sunset?" He sat, crossed-legs, beside me.

"Yep. We are together for almost a week but we never watched the sunset."

"I hate sunsets." He looked down at my feet stretched in front of me.

"Why? Couples watch the sunset because they think it is romantic."

"Because sunsets mean goodbyes."

I stared at his neutrally sad expression while looking at my feet, he still did not glance up. Ever since we met, this is the first time I felt him so down. "But you're not gonna leave, aren't you?"

Finally, I caught his eyes and locked it in mine. He shook his head, "No, no, no, not yet."

"Yet?"

He did not respond.

"What do you mean yet?" I insisted the question he ignored.

"No one knows..." He shrugged.

"We will never let that happen." I assured him, but maybe myself more than him.

I fixed the blanket, folded it. We did not watch the sunset and went back to my bedroom instead, where we watch another movie.

"When that day comes, when you can't see me anymore, remember that I will always be in your heart and mind where nothing can separate us. Not even because of reality, not even because of the world you live in."

I rested my head over his shoulder where it fitted perfectly. Again, I closed my eyes and I held on to what he says.