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“Morning, Alec. Did you do your homework?” Liz asked, grinning cheekily at me. ‘Don't chat, just give it to me. She'll be here in a minute and I still need a few points,’ I hissed back.
“All right, here you go. Don't stress, it's just a few lines, that's all. And she's smoking a cigarette downstairs with Martin. So you have plenty of time.”
“Thanks. I'm sorry if I used the wrong tone. I'm just a bit stressed,” I tried to apologize to her. But Liz wasn't even listening anymore and was chatting with others from the course.
Liz and I are in the same degree program and best friends. We are always there for each other, no matter what. And that's even though we've only known each other a year.
“Right, let's get started. I suggest we cover chromosomes again today, because some of you had questions about them. And that's an important topic in biology...” our tutor started to explain, but I didn't listen. Genetics wasn't exactly my favorite subject. But I had to go through with it if I wanted to study biology to the end. “Liz, you know that guy on TV that I thought was so cute. I got his address. Would you like to come with me sometime? Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll be on the street or something,” I turned to Liz to distract myself a little from my boredom. ”What, you have his address? How? I don't know. Do you think that's such a good idea? He's sure to be smart and will realize what's what straight away.”
“Oh nonsense. Other people meet stars by chance on the street.” I tried to convince her. ‘Well, I don't know. I'd be...’ ”So I see you want to explain that to us, Liz. Well, come on then. You can bring Alec with you, to correct you if you get it wrong,' our 'nice' tutor suddenly interrupted us. 'Great, just because you're always coming up with crazy ideas,' Liz spat, standing up.
The day went by pretty quickly. After we finished, I ran to the subway to get home quickly. My sweet Flo was supposed to be on TV again today. Unfortunately, I had to stay at university a little longer than usual, so I had to hurry today.
Flo, whose real name is Florian, has the leading role in a very successful series. And I try to watch it as often as possible. So far, I have hardly ever missed an episode. My biggest wish is to meet him in person one day. Unfortunately, it doesn't look particularly good for me there. He is very successful and rarely has time because he is always busy. That's why the chance of meeting him in town is very slim, even though we live in the same city.
I'm not in love with him, but he is damn good-looking. And it can't hurt to get to know him.
As soon as I arrive home, I turn on the TV. Fortunately, I'm home a little earlier than I thought. So at least I can quickly grab something to eat on the way up. As soon as I arrive upstairs, it beeps out of the speakers on my laptop. My God, who is bothering me again? Everyone knows that I can't be reached at this time, I think, and get a little annoyed and irritated as I turn on my computer. It's Steffi, who else could it be? She'll never learn that I'm not on the computer at this time of day. So I quickly write back to her that I won't be in the chat for a while.
My favorite TV series is finally starting. And five minutes after it begins, he is already on screen. Immediately, I start raving. I no longer know what it's about, because I only see him. Although I'm actually in love with a fellow student, I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I see Flo on the screen. And so it goes every evening...
Two weeks later:
“Hey Tim, I hope you have a good vacation. If you have time and feel like it, we can go for a drink sometime,” I called to my crush before he was at the door. ‘Okay, I'll see what I can do. I'll get back to you.’ And just like that, he was gone.
“Hey Alec, did you notice that he was watching you the whole time again?” Liz suddenly asked me. ”Nah, not really. Well, but his answer wasn't exactly promising, was it? I don't know what to do, Liz. If only I knew whether he's gay or not. It's driving me crazy.”
“Well, Alec, there's only one thing for it: ask him yourself,” Liz said in a rather serious tone.
“Are you crazy? He'll know immediately what phase it is. What if I just imagined everything? Then I'll look like a fool. Well, let's see what else comes up.
But let's talk about something else.”
And so Liz told me that she was going on vacation with her boyfriend for two to three weeks. After all, we now have almost two months of semester break. Of course I thought that was a shame because I thought I could go out on the town with her. Well, but there was probably nothing I could do about it. Personally, I could have gone to my parents, but that would have been too stressful for me in the long run. My parents had both taken early retirement and eventually started to get on my nerves with their nagging. So I decided to stay in town.
The first three weeks weren't particularly spectacular. I met up with a few friends now and then and watched a lot of TV, mainly because of Flo. I didn't even meet up with Tim once in all that time. And at some point I started to forget him. Instead, I thought about Flo more and more often. Somehow I still wasn't in love with him, but I thought about him all the time anyway. One night, I was chatting again when my cell phone rang and it was Liz. She told me she was back in town and wanted to meet up with me. So we arranged to meet the next evening.
So we met at our favorite bar the next evening. She told me in detail about her vacation and how great it was, but somehow I wasn't quite with it. I kept thinking about Flo. And every time someone walked by the window with a hairstyle similar to his, my heart started beating faster. At some point she noticed that I was somewhere else. “Hey, say, what's actually going on with you? You've been acting weird the whole time. Are you even listening to me anymore? Alec, I'm talking to you,” she said, poking me in the side. Only then did I realize that she wanted something. ‘What's going on??? Did something happen that I don't know about?’ And so I started to explain everything to her.
“Well, somehow I haven't thought about Tim much in the last three weeks. We wrote to each other briefly from time to time, but I wasn't excited at all when he wrote. You know how it used to be when I got a message from him. I almost went crazy. But now it's over. I don't think about him at all anymore. But I think about Flo all the time. I'm not in love with him, don't worry, but I can't stop thinking about him. And I've decided that I'm going to go to where he lives, whether you come with me or not. I just have to give it a try.«
“Alec, what do you expect to achieve by this? You said yourself that he's into women. And besides, he's only on the road anyway. The chances of meeting him are pretty slim. Or do you want to ring his doorbell? I think it's a really stupid idea,” Liz tried to dissuade me from my idea.
“I don't care what the chances are. Whether I sit around at home or see something of the city doesn't matter. At least I'll get some fresh air. Now let's change the subject. You know I'll do it anyway and won't let you stop me,” I spat at her, whereupon we really changed the subject.
The next morning, the weather was beautiful outside and almost twenty degrees. So it was a perfect day to stop by my sweet Flo's place. I jumped in the shower, got ready, packed some provisions and a city map, and went to the S-Bahn. Now it could finally start. In my mind, I already imagined how the meeting might go. What should I say to him? How would he react to me? Would he be annoyed that yet another fan of his was showing up in front of his apartment?
At some point, I arrived at the right station to change to another S-Bahn. There, things went on immediately. I was only thinking about Flo. It didn't occur to me that I probably wouldn't meet him. So I continued on, feeling cheerful. When I arrived at the end of the line, I first had to look at the map to see how to proceed. Unfortunately, there was neither a tram nor a subway or suburban train station near Flo's house. So the only option left was the bus, because I didn't want to walk. That would have been over seven kilometers, which would have been a bit too much.
So I started to check all the bus stops to see if there was a bus that stopped near his house. And as it usually is, it was the last bus that I looked at on the timetable. Great, and it left three minutes ago. So I had to wait for the next one, which wasn't due for another half an hour. That got off to a good start.
After half an hour, my bus finally arrived and I was able to continue. After about half an hour, the bus finally arrived at the right stop. I got out and took my map to check again exactly which way I had to go. Slowly but surely, my heart and pulse rate increased and I clearly felt my excitement rising.
After a ten-minute walk, I arrived at the house where he lived. It looked a bit older, from the 1960s. Just a typical apartment building. Opposite the house, there was a bench by a wall, where I sat down. To make it less conspicuous, I rummaged through my bag for a book and pretended to read it with interest, although I was actually just watching the street and the entrance to the building. But then I started to think that it would look pretty stupid if he suddenly came and I got up and went to meet him. But what else could I do? If I kept walking up and down the street, it would attract just as much attention. So I decided to stay here.
Slowly but surely it began to get dark. I had been sitting on the bench for almost six hours. I was really getting frustrated. So I packed up my things and went back to the bus stop. But after only a few meters, I heard someone groaning and calling out. It sounded like someone was trying to scream for help. I looked around and listened more closely. It came from the property behind the wall. I was sure of that. Unfortunately, it was too high. I couldn't climb up. So I looked for a passage. I found one after a few meters. I looked around the corner to see what was going on. And what I saw shocked me. Three skinheads were beating and kicking a defenseless boy who was lying on the ground and could hardly move because of the pain. Fortunately, I hadn't taken part in my karate class too long, so I stormed at the three of them while throwing my bag on the ground. The three of them turned to me in shock, because I was screaming at them to leave the boy alone. After they had composed themselves, they positioned themselves so that they could attack me. Fortunately, though, I was faster. I kicked the first one right in the face, so that he was hurled backwards. The second one got a powerful kick in the stomach and also flew backwards. Unfortunately, I was too slow to avoid the third one. So I got his fist right on my lower lip. However, he slipped and so he did not hit me with all his might. Nevertheless, my lip started bleeding immediately. After I had caught myself, he immediately got a kick between his legs, causing him to start screaming. Then I reached into my pocket to get my pepper spray, which I always carry with me. One by one, all three got back up and were about to attack me again. Fortunately, my pepper spray canister has a lot of pressure and thus has a long range. Since all three were standing next to each other, it was easy to spray the spray in all three of their faces. Immediately, they started screaming and slowly began to retreat.
After I made sure that all three had disappeared, I went to the boy lying on the floor. I asked him how he was doing and wanted to turn him over when he slapped my hand away and said, “I'm fine. Leave me alone, please. Thanks for your help, but I can handle it on my own.” But I didn't believe him. Although he resisted, I managed to take his hood off his head and I almost had a stroke. “F F Flo???”, I stammered. I couldn't believe it. The boy who had been beaten up was Flo. I just didn't believe it. After I had gathered myself, I bent down to him and immediately took my handkerchiefs out of my jacket. Then I started to clean the blood off his face. He looked pretty bad. There were bruises all over his face and his lips were split in several places. After I had cleaned him up a bit, I asked him if he could get up. He didn't say anything the whole time. You could tell that he was embarrassed that someone he didn't know was helping him, but who knew him. “Yes, I said I'm fine. I'm not a little kid anymore. You can go now. I'll be fine. Like I said, thanks for your help, but you really can go. Oh, and it would be nice if you didn't tell anyone about this,” he said, quite annoyed. ‘Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, but at least let me help you,’ I tried to reason again. This was not how I had imagined our meeting.
“No, damn it, I'll be fine. Now go,” he snarled. I thought to myself that it would probably be better. I'd better try again later. I didn't want to antagonize him before I even got a chance to meet him.
But as soon as I had walked five meters, I heard him scream loudly, “Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh And my shin hurts like hell, too.” ‘Okay, Flo, I'll take you on my back and bring you home. Are your parents there already?’ I asked, while I loaded him onto my back. ‘No, they're both on a four-week cruise.’ ”Okay, can you get your key for the door? And can you unlock it if you're on my back? Because I don't think standing it's not a good idea, “I asked him. It struck me how gentle his hands were, which he had wrapped around my neck. Suddenly I realized that he pressed his body like a little child who is afraid, to my back. ‘I'll manage,’ he stammered and then put his head on my neck.
After three minutes we were already in front of the building entrance. I turned a little to the side and he unlocked the door without much effort. “Ok, which floor do we have to go to?” I asked him while I was already climbing the first steps. “Fifth,” he said without raising his head. After another ten minutes we were standing in front of the apartment and he also unlocked this door without any major problems.
After I had looked around briefly, I spotted a sofa on which I carefully set Flo down. Then, without him resisting, I lifted his leg and freed it from his shoe. Then I carefully took off his sock and felt his foot. “Well, nothing's broken, but you shouldn't move your foot today or tomorrow. Do you have any ice anywhere? You should definitely cool it. Then the swelling will go down faster,” I said, looking him deep in the eyes. And that's when I noticed that he had tears in his eyes. He said, ‘There are ice cubes in the freezer in the kitchen.’ But I wasn't interested in that at all right now. I stood up and then squatted down next to him so that our faces were at the same level. Then I took his hand and began to stroke the back of his hand, which he allowed me to do. As I did so, I looked deep into his eyes and said, “Hey Flo, it's over. We're going to be okay, all right? They're not going to hurt you anymore. But if you want to cry, you can do that.” And with that, I suddenly hugged him. I didn't know what had suddenly come over me, but to my surprise he let go of my hand and put his arms around my neck and then began to sob. He kept asking, “Why me?” But unfortunately I couldn't answer that question myself. I had already thought about why. But I couldn't find an answer.