Cupid's Diary

An Accidental Love

A strange feeling of loss surged into Clarence's heart while he stood there clapping with everyone as they cheered for Althea for another achievement in their class. "Congratulations Althea". Clarence greeted while offering a handshake. Althea shook his hand with enthusiasm and replied, "Thank you! Good luck also on your event". Clarence only smiled and sat back on his seat as their professor arrived in their classroom.

Around 4:30 PM, an hour after the bell rang. Clarence walked hastily on the hallway painted with gold by the sun as it started to set. He saw his english teacher Ms. Castro and she greeted him. "Going home late again Mr. Gomez?" Clarence hollered as they passed each other on the crowd-less hallway. "Yes ma'am, I need to be ready for next week". Ms. Castro waved and smiled with her red painted lips and hollered back. "Well good luck!"

On the way to the library, Clarence could hear the chatter and laughter of students going on about their plans for the weekend and where to hang out. Clarence has always liked studying, and he prefers to study alone, but as he arrived and entered the silent room, he saw a familiar looking woman studying next to his usual seat.

"You're here again?" Clarence asked while sitting next to the woman. "I should be the one asking you that, your grades are perfect already, get some break". The woman said while continuing to study her textbook. "But it's not enough for mom and dad". Clarence replied. "Don't be too hard on yourself". The woman said unconvincingly. Clarence whispered under his breath. "Yeah sure". Then he opened his book to start studying.

Clarence is an excellent student with good academic performance that dominates in and on outside campus competitions. But despite this, he is feeling pressured by his parents expectations. His father is an outstanding architect whose designs and structures are famous throughout their city. While his mother was a physics teacher at a prestigious university, she resigned when she married Mr. Gomez. The background of his family and the expectations of people have pushed him to excel in everything, despite the hardships and pressure. But it is not what he is worried about, it is that one thing that his parents want but he just can't attain.

Even though Clarence doesn't like to socialize, much more to be in a place with boozed strangers, he sometimes goes to an infamous bar on fridays to grab himself a drink. He opened the door and the wind chimes clang as he went in. Wind chimes are not something you would usually hear at bars, but Clarence's favorite bar has old Asian furniture and decorations making this place ancient compared to bars nowadays.

Clarence sat and ordered his usual light drink. Beside him is a drunk girl in a red tank top and black long pants, passed out on the table. He couldn't recognize the girl until she suddenly approached him. "Clarence? Clarence is that you?" The girl questioned while slightly bending forward towards Clarence to check his face. The girl leaned her body towards him before Clarence could even respond. He finally recognized the girl and asked. "Angelica are you okay?" But Angelica only wept on Clarence's shoulder. Clarence felt embarrassed but also felt bad for Angelica. He knew that it was probably about Angelica's boyfriend again, so he only awkwardly patted or more like hit Angelica's back.

"Ouch! Ow! That hurts". Angelica complained. "What are you doing?" She whined while suddenly grabbing the drink Clarence ordered. Clarence instantly grabbed the glass back. "That's enough, let me take you home". Clarence ordered. Angelica frowned and struggled against Clarence's grip. "You know what..." She exclaimed while pointing Clarence with her finger on his forehead and trailed all the way down his uniform dressed chest. "Whatever!" She added.

Clarence had to take Angelica to her condo with a taxi, but when they arrived he saw Angelica's stuff piled outside on the doorway. It seemed like Angelica didn't pay the rent to stay in the condo anymore. So Clarence had to take a 45 minute ride to take his drunk friend to her sister's place. In the middle of the ride, Angelica woke up and bombarded Clarence about how pissed she was about her now ex-boyfriend. As soon as they arrived, Angelica's sister properly thanked Clarence then took Angelica in the house.