Strings Attached

Chapter Nine

"What's up?" he asked casually.

Sonya smiled. "Nothing much." She turned to see me and raised one of her eyebrows. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Christina," I said, faking a smile. "Nice to meet you."

Sonya shrugged and turned to see Theodore. "Theodore, you should've gone to the game! The boys are playing incredibly! Diego scored two goals!"

I flinched at Diego's name. I still could remember how painful it had been to be dumped by him.

"Sounds cool," Theodore said. "Maybe I will go to one of the games someday."

"Sounds great! Basketball games are the most fun! You and I should attend one together!" exclaimed Sonya.

"Yeah, maybe," Theodore said as he turned to see me. "What do you think, Chris? Should we go?"

"Actually, I was talking about just me and you," said Sonya. She glared at me, and I felt the urge to punch her beautiful face.

"Um, well, that'd be... interesting," Theodore said.

"Sure, it'd be!" exclaimed Sonya. "You and I would look really good together, like fire and grass!"

"Fire and grass?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah. Our hairs, silly!" exclaimed Sonya in a 'duh' tone.

"Oh, right..." Theodore looked uncomfortable. He probably did not know how to gently ask Sonya to leave.

"I don't think fire and grass are a good combination," I said before I could stop myself.

Sonya turned to see me and raised her eyebrow. "What?"

"What she means is... fire and grass do not look good together. You should get a guy who has black hair, so that you'll look like fire and ashes."

"Yes," I said. "Fire and ashes would be a better combination. A fire that is too wild will leave its remnants behind... A fire will always leave ashes, which is why they would be a good combination."

Sonya stared at us as if we were the weirdest people in the planet, but then she simply shrugged and turned to see Theodore once more.

"Okay, whatever you say." Sonya faked a smile. "See you on Monday." She turned around and started walking out of the cafeteria.

"That was interesting," said Theodore.

"It truly was," I said, smiling and seeing how Sonya left the room, probably as confused as I was the first time I heard Theodore talk.

***

"What do you think?" asked Theodore as he showed me his recent creation.

It was a sculpture made only with old wires, many of which I had already seen on his night stand. There were green, blue, black, and yellow wires, all of which were strategically joined to form an alien head. It was the basic design: and alien with a triangle-sized chin and a really big head. Its eyes were big and black, and, though I did not really like aliens, I considered it a beautiful piece of art.

I would have never guessed that Theodore had that much talent. Just seeing that alien in front of me made me understand that his wire obsession was not only that. It was something he truly was passionate about. He was a true creator. Theodore stared at me expectantly, and I am pretty sure that I my jaw almost dropped in admiration. I would have never thought that old wires could actually be used to create something that beautiful. I could not believe that Theodore could make something as bizarre as an alien head look that wonderful and magical.