When asked about his relationship with Girl, Theo liked to joke that she was a comet that hit the earth, a small point of light lost in the glare of the morning sun, and how in the end, like Icarus he fell, blinded by the force of her light. . Or sometimes, he’d change the narrative a little, to include a bit more of who she was. Of how they had met and clicked along brilliantly, of her great and intelligent mind, and the wonder she had for the world twinkling in the depth of her eyes. But always, the ending would be the same.
He fell.
He fell.
He fell.
Here he’d stop, scratch his ears before flashing the other person a rueful smile before gently steering the conversation onto another topic. And tonight, had been a series of endless ear scratching. For some reason, everyone knew about him and Girl but then again, who wouldn’t. Girl was famous around town.
“God, I don’t know why people throw parties. It’s a recipe for needless manual labour with no beneficial gains.” Theo groaned as he picked up another empty beer bottle and tossed it into the trash bag in his hands, “if we weren’t friends were so long Elle, I’d have kicked you out by now.”
“That’s only because you sit on the sidelines and choose to be a wallflower, Theo.” She kicked the horde of empty chip packets and candy wrappers into a corner before looking up and winking, “besides that’s what friends are for right?”
He gave a sarcastic grunt and started picking up the packets and wrappers she had kicked.
“By the way, why do you always do that?”
“Do what, Elle?” Despite knowing full well what his friend meant, Theo still fired back the response.
“You know what I mean, the ear thing.You said you were gonna tell me if I confessed to Rosa that I liked her.”
“Well, did you?”
“Yes, yes I did. And then I ran out on her but anyways, if you really don’t wanna tell me, that’s cool too. But, you’re buying me lunch for a week.”
“Hah.” He gave a short chuckle and pretended to think for a moment, the truth was he had wanted to talk about it for a while now. Yet there was always danger in speaking stories that involved two sides, that truth became a chiaroscuro of who told the story more convincingly than the other. But if there was anybody who would listen to him, it’d be Elle and some stories, over time had gathered too much weight in his heart.
“So judging by your thoughtful aftersilence, I’m going to take that as a yes.” She raised an eyebrow and he nodded in return.
Theo took a deep breathe and the words tumbled out, one by one, small pebbles rolling awkwardly off his tongue. “It’s a..a cigarette burn. I woke up with it one day, this small scar behind my ear. It ached a bit, that’s how I knew.” He paused and looked away from her inquiring stare, “I think she did it when I was asleep, yet I don’t know why she did it”
“That’s...really weird. Did you ever confront her about it?” Elle had moved closer, sitting beside him.
“How could I?” He gave a small, almost helpless laugh. “You know Girl, she wasn’t the type of person who would or could do something like that. Hell, when we were together she accidentally cut me with her knife when we were cooking, and after that she avoided the kitchen for a good three weeks.”
“Sounds overly sensitive and dramatic to me to be honest.” Elle pressed her heels together and spoke softly for the next part, “but that act made you feel violated didn’t it? Having a foreign unknown brand on your body.”
He exhaled slowly and nodded, ‘yeah, it really did. And that really wasn’t what bothered me the most, it was the disjunction between who I thought she was and this sudden new image of her. The surreal yet uncomfortable reality of what had trespassed. God Elle, it was like a slap in the face, except ten times worse.”
She put a comforting arm around him and squeezed his shoulder lightly, “but Theo, how are you so sure that it was her?”
“The thing is, we had slept together that night, our first and last, and then the next day, I woke up with that behind my ear.”
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