Obsession Ch -4

Ch – 4, Roses and then some:1

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"blah, blah" - normal conversation.
'blah, blah' - thoughts.
"...'blah'..." - words that are stressed.
BLAH, BLAH - exclaimed words22

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“Hey, Petey boy. Aren’t you a bit early to school?” came a voice from behind Peter. “Are we up to something?”4

Peter turned to see that it was Claire with his new robot project in hand. 5

“Oh no ‘Milady’ Claire, nothin’ at all.” answered Peter, knowing full well what Claire’s response would be. Claire already didn’t like being called Claire, which obviously made him sound more girly. But he had been ‘Claire’ from the day, good old’ Miss. Tinkle, their elementary school mathematics teacher had called him that by mistake. He had been stuck with it since then. Very few knew him by the name Clark. But calling him ‘Milady’ was what made him yell at everybody, which was exactly what he was expecting, now. One, two, three – there!:6

“Peter! You son-of –”7

“Cool down, mate. Ever heard of the word ‘teasing’?”8

“Huh, Er, whatever”, said Clair, scowling and punched him lightly on the shoulders. “Anyways, why are you so early? You know, these couple of days, you have been more early that usual. Is something the matter?”9

“No, nothings’ the matter. Just not getting much sleep. You know, happens sometimes,” answered Peter, properly this time. “So, what were ‘you’ doing?”10

“You know the science competition’s coming, mate? Yeah, and this robot-,” said Claire, lifting the robot in his hand, “I am developing this thing. It’s going to be the best robot the human civilization has every seen!” proclaimed Claim, confidently.11

Peter chuckled at that. “Okay, mate. Well, I was planning on going to the café. We still have forty-five minutes, you know. Wanna join?”12

“Sure thing.”13

“One sec, though. Let me leave my stuff in the locker. You know, it’s a pain to carry these things around. Wait here, it wont be a minute”, said Peter, and raced of towards his locker which was on the floor above that one. 14

Peter reached his locker and opened it to place his stuff inside. But when he opened the door, for the second time in that week there was something inside his locker that he had not placed there. 15

There was big bouquet of white roses this time.16

Peter sighed, exasperated. Surely, this was some kind of prank. There were people who admired him and more than a couple of people who had crush on him. But they neither had the guts nor the means to do this kind of thing. Well, at least, they shouldn’t have, but it seemed that they did, after all. 17

Peter bent down and picked the flowers, carefully. He didn’t have the heart to just throw them away. ‘May be it has a time-bomb in it?’ he thought. 18

He sighed again, and searched for a note and found one. It was a printed paper. 19

“Dear Peter, 20

You don’t know me. You did a long time ago, and you will again, soon. But for now I can’t do much more than express my feelings for you through these roses.21

I know that you feel suspicious, but I’m sorry you feel that way. 22

For know, 23

All my love,24

Yours and yours alone”25

Questions ran through Peter’s mind. ‘Long-time ago? Is she a childhood friend? Some stupid fan? I will know her soon? Is this some kind of prank?’ His mind raced. ‘Yes, surely. This is just some stupid prank played on me.’ he concluded. 26

But then, he couldn’t understand why his heart felt lighter all of a sudden. 27

“Pete? What took you so long?” came Claire’s voice from round the corner. Then he came near and saw what Peter was carrying. 28

Before Peter could say anything – “Are you seeing a boy in secret? Because I know that Rachel doesn’t feel about you like ‘that’. And it certainly is not any other girl around here. So who is he?”29

“What?!?” squeaked Peter, which was very ‘un-peterly’. “Being Bi doesn’t mean that I would cheat on my girlfriend, you know!”30

“Calm down, Peter, I was only kidding. I know if it’s anyone who wouldn’t do such thing, it’s you,” said Claire clearly amused by the situation. “But how do you explain this? Some brain-dead fan girl, or may be some roooomantic nit-wit? I can possibly think that any sane person would send ‘you’ these flowers. Nopes, I can’t,” 31

Claire continued to tease. 32

“Shut up, Claire. Let’s just go, okay?”, said Peter embarrassedly. Peter kept his book bag inside the locker along with the flowers, with which he didn’t know what to do. If he had been alone he would have placed those flowers in a stand or something. Those thing were beautiful, after all. But now, now it didn’t matter; he was with Claire. That kid would surely kill him just by teasing, calling him a romantic or something. He didn’t need that right now.33

He almost closed his locker, when he heard a hissing mew.
'Oh no! Caesar' thought Peter, and hurriedly opened his bag again. His new cat was making a sound which was an equivalent of human's shouting. 34

"Oh, I am really sorry, Caesar. Er, I forgot that I had a new cat. He-he," said Peter, weakly. His cat gave a look that was questioning him silently. He just shrugged, and picked up the cat and snuggled it against his left side. Caesar relaxed against him, giving a contented purr. 35

Peter and Claire started to walk to the café. 36