Strings Attached

Chapter Four

"What's wrong with pizza?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing. It's just... with your uniqueness and all that, one would think you would have a less cliché taste," I said.

Theodore chuckled. "Well, first of all, I am not unique." I snorted. "Second of all, pizza is my Heaven here in Earth."

"Pizza is not a place," I said.

"And who says Heaven needs to be a place? For all we know, Heaven could be a thing or a person. Heaven is the representation of all your desires and passions, of the things you value or the people you love. Heaven is wishes that come true. Heaven is a representation of everything you love, and it mustn't be a place. Heaven could be a person or a thing, and my Heaven is a perfectly triangle-sized, cheesy slice of pizza."

To be honest, that had to be the weirdest explanation of what Heaven is that I had ever heard, but it also was one of the ones that made the most sense. I am not saying that pizza is literally Heaven, but Theodore was right when he said that perhaps Heaven was not necessarily a place.

Heaven could be many things. It could be the person you loved the most or the most valuable thing that you possessed. Heaven could be your biggest dream or your biggest wish. Heaven could be your greatest victories or your biggest achievements. Heaven could be many things, not only one, and that was what Theodore meant when he said it.

I understood what he had wanted to say, but I did not want him to know that. I wanted him to think that this was just a casual conversation, not a deep one. We did not have enough confidence to talk about deep stuff just yet.

"You are weird. I don't get how you can be the salutatorian," I told him.

"Honestly, I don't know that myself. It's like all this weirdness inside me takes a break while a teacher is lecturing, but then it comes back twice as strong, and there is nothing to do to stop it," he said.

That basically described me. I could focus on the teacher's lectures for a long time, and I could perfectly understand what was being taught, but that did not stop me from having weird thoughts every now and then.

People think that being weird makes you stupid, but that is not true. I was very weird, yet I did not consider myself dumb at all.

"Maybe there is something to stop that weirdness from coming out," I told him, growing annoyed of how accurately he described me. I hated it when people felt the same way I did because I did not want to be the same as anyone.

"What could that be?" he asked.

"You could shut up. Your weirdness would not be noticeable that way."

He smiled. "I'm afraid I cannot do that."

"Why not?" I frowned.

"There are so many things in my mind demanding to be said that I cannot keep them inside without exploding. I am afraid of exploding if I do not let each and every single one of these thoughts come out."

"And what thoughts are demanding to be come out right now?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Just one," he said, smiling.

"Which one?"

"Life is beautiful."

***

After finishing our delicious dinner, Theodore and I talked about how hard school was being lately and how we missed being able to read fiction books nonstop like we used to do in junior high, back when we had all the time in the world.

"Seriously, I used to read like five books per week, but now I'm lucky if I read one per semester," I said.

"I know, right? I used to be the same way, but now there's just no time." Theodore sighed and turned to see his empty dish. "The food was pretty tasty," he said.