Love Is Black And White

6. Green Philosopher

Every story about love has three main characters: the lover, the loved one and the obstacle between them.

Some obstacles are very common in the literature, such as social differences, distance and the antagonist, a third person who also wants the loved one. Usually,  the antagonist is unworthy of this love. So we hope the loved one realizes this and, finally, falls in love with the lover.

I thought an 'unworthy' would be the obstacle of my story. And Chad was the perfect one. But he was in the wrong story.

One night, Chad lost his role as an antagonist. It was just another party, but it ended up drastically changing my young life, and consequently this story.

"So, meritocracy is unrealistic." Will was talking to Jade. "We cannot talk about it while there's so much social inequality out there."

Jade frowned. "Okay, but that doesn't answer my question." She said, laughing.

Will looked at her confused. "What was the question?"

Jade smiled, "I asked about your plans for college."

"Oh..." Will raised his eyebrows and then frowned.

Jade and I laughed at him. This was so typical of Will.

Will and I were childhood friends. He was a talker who wanted to be a politician. He used to involve politics in everything, starting with his necklace with an afro comb, as the symbol of the Black Power movement. Will never took it off, it was a big part of himself.

"Hey, guys," Kyle greeted us. "Hi, Jade." He smiled at her.

"How are you doing?" Jade asked him.

Kyle took a deep breath. "Each day getting more disappointed with humanity." He replied, smiling.

"Oh, good for you," Jade said and laughed.

Kyle was my other friend, the one who liked philosophy and had deep thoughts about life. He was a storyteller like me. But music was his way of telling them.

They were all the friends I had in high school. Not many, but if I had to choose between them and a thousand other friends, I would definitely choose them. 

"Hey, babe, Anna is looking for you," Chad spoke to Jade, ignoring the presence of the rest of us.

As soon as she heard it, Jade nodded and went looking for her friend.

I could tell Chad was a good looking guy, but that seemed to be all he had. As I said, he was the perfect unworthy.

After Jade left, Chad turned his attention to me, "Lion!" He shouted in a drunk voice. "What's up?" 

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Yeah... I'll be outside." He said to Will and me.

"I just heard about you and Amber." Chad spoke annoyingly close to my face, with his arm on my shoulder. "I gotta say, I thought you were like... Jade's gay friend." He laughed. "So, I'm sorry, bro." 

Trying to end the conversation and get my personal space back, I raised my eyebrows and feigned a smile.

"Dude..." Will said, looking at Chad. "You don't have to apologize because you thought someone was gay." He spoke calmly. "It's not an offense."

Chad stared at him in silence for a few seconds. Then, he took a deep breath and raised his eyebrows. "Okay, see ya." He said to me.

When he was gone, I looked at Will. "You don't take a break, huh?" I said to him and laughed.

Will shrugged. "Society needs me, Leon." He spoke with conviction.

After that uncomfortable moment, we went outside with Kyle. He was in front of the house, leaning against a car and thinking about life, with his green and natural philosopher friend.