The Pollen-Heart Fantasy Project : The Original Twenty Chapters

Chapter II : Tomorrow's shadow

 March 3rd, 2025

It was a long ride to school that morning.  The radio was on blast to mask the silence throughout. Angels dad, Samuel Lopez, took him on his new truck he had leased about 3 years ago. He persistently tried to keep it as clean and dent-less as he could. It was his dad's baby.

His dad had a medium scruffy beard and a small beer belly. He was a serious person whenever he was sober, yet Angel never saw his dad close to sober in a long time.

 He gazed out the car as the morning sun rose from the peak of the west hill top. Its golden radiance surfaced over the early grey mist clouds with a bright amber hue. The truck turned on campus. Angel grabbed his stuff and broke out the truck before his father could say anything else.

 Series of kid's walked past him as the early bell rang. He walked through the heavily congested quad, and like bees, his stinky pheromones made a bubble of air as he walked through the crowd. The meaningless interconnections of social interactions between everyone. The Becky's, Chad's, Samuel's, Erick's, and Miguel's meandered among themselves in clique cohort. Angel hated it because he felt very out of place. He was just himself and he hated it. 

Miguel approached him with a handshake of solitude " Hey what's up Angel."  Smiling at his welcoming presence. The blue and grey buildings surrounded them as they persisted through, ample callings of administrators racking into their brains on how late they will be if they didn't hurry. They talked about their weekend in their mundane ordinary lives. Angel was happy to have a friend at all. Angel began to feel like people saw him as a boring person with no talent or personality, or at least that's what he thought. The rising sun made it hard too see what was in front of them. The frosty air from the night before kissed his nose and made his lips dry. 

Angel eventually settled into his first class, the dreaded Psychology class. 

Mr. Knoll sat in his chair fiddling on his computer before he began the class with a book on hand and as he placed his horn rimmed glasses on. He started " Good Morning, before we start I'd like to know how your guy's weekend went, but the majority won't answer me so I'll get straight into the lesson." 

Angel's mind was fixated on a special someone nearby.

 Emanuel Hernandez, a name etched in the deepest corner of his heart.

He was one of the juniors in the class and in the Varsity soccer team. He sat in front of Angel toward the left. Angel would describe him as a very good looking guy, but the most intriguing aspect of him was his puppy dog smile and the way the light made his eye's sparkle. Other than that he realized he didn't truly know who he was. Sometimes Emmanuel would turn from his seat and smile that creased perfectly from side to side. He would look at Angel with a certain glance leaving him with an overwhelming amount of overthinking which lands him in a deadlock of emotions  "Is he hitting on me?" "How straight is he?" "What if I'm just another dude to him ?" "I should've combed my hair today I look disgusting."

" Alright thank's to all who shared." The professor said after only one student said something. 

Now we will be reading a passage from "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", 'let's bring those out." Everyone dug into their bags and placed the book on top of there desk's with long heavy sighs. Mr. Knoll grimaced as he looked at another student's desk" Don't tell me you guys left them at home over the weekend, I barely handed them out on Tuesday."

Angel pulled his book out as he was caught staring at Emmanuel by Emmanuel. Angel froze and looked away as if nothing happened. " That face" he said as he blushed a shade of red similar to the fire's of hell. 

He quickly set his face toward the table. He steamed with embarrassment as it was clearly a sign of submission under his circumstances. Angel felt ashamed and guilty but he knew that he had to keep his secret well hidden, no matter the costs.