"Florante and Larry and The Last Days of Summer"

Chapter 9

I leaned against the wall by the window staring at the sky. There were no clouds to obscure the view. The sun was perched in a sea of blue. The whole world stood still. For a moment I thought the world was perfect. For a moment I thought that the world was only inhabited by Larry and I. For a moment I thought, I was not alone. He straightened his back and retrieved something from the drawer.

"Florante, look here."

I traced his voice. A light flashed. A beeping sound ensued. A photo came out. He fanned the film he was holding against the still air inside his room.

"You sneaky little shit, give it to me!" I grinned.

"Come and get it." He challenged.

I sprinted towards him and grabbed him by the waist. He struggled to free himself. I did not let go. We were both laughing as we wrestled. I tried to yank the photo from his hand. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And I could not remember when was the last time I laughed that hard.

"Larry, you better give me that photo right now. Or else..."

He leaned in closer to my ear and whispered in a hushed tone that clouded my head, "Or else, what Florante?"

I pulled him from the ground. Larry's body was as light as a feather in my arms.

"Put me down! Ha-ha."

His feet dangled as he struggled desperatelyy to set himself free. I lost my balance and we tipped over on his chenille bedspread. I landed on top of him, hands pinned against his chest. He did not wear his contact lens today. Up close, Larry's eyes were an infinite contrast. One was deep ocean blue. The other a shade of brown like autumn leaves. Either way, I couldn't stop staring. He was a riot, that kind of chaos that could wipe out the clarity in my head. He gently placed his hands at the back of my head that was about to explode. We were so close. His hair smelled like watermelon. His fingers caressed my hair so gently. His eyes wandered in my face like it was a forest he got lost in. The whole world listened to the sound of our hearts' beating. The air around us grew denser and denser and denser. The tip of my toes sunk on the bed. I remembered the guy who've never known shower on the cover of a book about black holes. He described a dense region in space where light itself could not hope to escape. This was it. Our faces drew closer and closer in a collision course. My mind blurred like there was a blackout going on in my head where all my neurons were bombarded with so many information they could not process at once. Every atom in my body was sucked in, dying to be one with Larry. There was no escaping this singularity. His lips parted in anticipation and so did mine. He kissed me ever so softly that my heart melted right on the spot. I kissed him back. We were kissing. Lips, tongue, teeth and all. The door slammed open and his dad appeared cradling Mr. William Shakespaw in his arms like a baby. We turned away from each other instantly.

"Why do you guys look like you've seen a ghost?" Ricardo furrowed his eyebrows.

I cleared my throat and Larry faked a cough. Mr. Shakespaw yawned. His pointy ears twitched involuntarily. He stared at our direction, judging us with his green eyes.

God, I hate this cat.

"You guys wanna go for a swim?" inquired his dad.

Larry seized the moment to break the tension and said "Yeah, that'd be cool dad. We'll be downstairs in a heartbeat!"

"Florante?"

"Yeah, cool, dad. I mean sir..." My brain was all over the goddamn place. I dusted non-existent planetary particles off of my pants and pretended none of these happened. Ricardo shut the door close as he left. The sound of his footsteps echoed faintly downstairs. Once again, Larry and I were left alone. I wanted to hide in the corner.

"Hey, sorry about that," he stuttered.

"That was an accident. No need to apologize." I acted coolly. He searched for the truth in my face as though what I said was a lie he did not want to believe. I was a goddamn lier and I was good at it. So good I even convinced myself.

"Yeah, what else could it be? ha-ha." He let out an ingenuine laugh. And somehow, I felt guilty for causing it. Larry's laugh had always been genuine. The most honest thing in the world.

We sat there in his bed in awkward silence. Funny how things could change so fast. Just a minute ago, sure as hell I was someone else, another minute more has passed and I was back to being me again. The regular Florante.

"We're cool, right?" He inquired. I could not look at him in the eyes so I looked for house lizards I could talk to on the ceiling but there weren't any house lizards in this goddamn mansion so I told the mattress on the bed, "Yeah....we're cool."

We did not talk much in the pool. We did not swim. We did not eat the grilled burger Olivia prepared. All I did was avoid Larry's eyes, and his mom's and his dad's and his cat's. And all Larry did was try to find me, pull me back to earth from whatever galaxy I flew out of after we collided up in his bedroom. At 5:00 pm, Larry walked me to the main entrance of the subdivision. We passed by boys our age who rode their bicycles in the park. Larry waved at them but I did not bother to look if they waved back. Storks flock overhead in V-formation. Their elongated shadows casted on the ground. The chilly wind blew and the leaves of trees swayed with it. Gradually, the dusk faded the blue from the sky like a distant memory.

"Thanks for coming over Florante. See you on Monday?" he said with a weak smile.

"Yeah."

I lied.

We did not see each other on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday and the following week after that. I did not go to the library or visited the Molave tree where we often meet at lunch.