Strings Attached

Chapter Nine

I did not know what to say. I did not know how to properly express my opinion. I only knew that Theodore had been right when he had told me that wires that had once been together could be put back together. Maybe they would never be perfectly connected ever again. Maybe two wires that had once been together would be put together with other wires instead of returning to their original state with their original wires joined with them, but just thinking that those wires could be reconnected was enough to give me hope.

I turned to see him and gave him the biggest and most genuine smile I could ever give to anyone and told him what I thought. I told him about how beautiful it was and how wonderfully he had joined those wires, and he listened to me intently, probably wondering if I was being honest or not.

"What you created..." I told him. "It's beautiful. You have given these wires a completely new meaning. You have just proven how something that was once broken can be fixed and turn into something even more beautiful than it was in the first place."

Theodore smiled shyly and lowered his face. "I just... I'm really glad you liked it."

"Is there a message behind it? I mean, does the alien head mean something to you?" I asked.

Theodore nodded. "It is meant to show how I felt when I first moved here." He smiled at me. "Living in a new house, going to a new school... I just felt like an alien. I felt out of place. I felt like an outsider, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to create something to express how I felt."

I knew the feeling. I had felt like an outsider my whole life. I felt like an outsider at school, where no one liked me or even knew I existed. I felt like an outsider at my own home, where my mom and Brianna were in their own little worlds, while I fell apart and tried not to let it show. I felt like an outsider at every place, at every time. I just was never a girl who could easily fit in. I was an alien, trapped in an alien world.

"I guess... Many of us have this feeling sometimes, that we don't belong. Maybe that's what really inspired me to build this... The feeling that I do not belong anywhere with anyone," he said, giving me a sad smile.

Once again, I could see the pain in Theodore's eyes, and I truly wished I could just take it away. It was painful to see someone as nice as Theodore going through that much sadness. Seeing him hurt was like seeing a dead flower: it left you wondering how something as beautiful and harmless could ever be destroyed by anyone.

I knew that Theodore had been hurt by someone. It was obvious by the way he walked around with sadness in his eyes, by the way he always seemed ready to be disappointed by others. It was because he was so used to the feeling that being disappointed once more would not surprise him at all.

"I have it, too, all the time," I whispered, touching the wires carefully.

"You shouldn't," he whispered. I turned to see him, and he was seeing me, too.

For a second, he looked firmly at me, but then he stopped. He turned to see the alien head and sighed, which disappointed me.

I did not know why, but I kind of wanted him to stare at me for a little bit longer. I kind of wanted for him to tell me that he understood how I felt, that he also felt abandoned and lonely, but he did not. Instead, he sighed.

"That Sonya girl... She's been inviting me to her house since last week." He turned to see me. "I don't know what for, but I was just wondering... Do you think I should go?"

I wanted to tell him not to go. I wanted to tell him that something inside of me told me that it was not a good idea, but I did not want for him to think that I was jealous or anything of that nature, so I did what I was best at. I pretended not to care.