Carlos was fuming green flames from his ears. But he didn't know why. Well, he knew why. He was jealous.
He had been walking over to the radio station to talk to Cecil about giving an interview on tomorrow's show—something about the currently glowing state of most of the trees downtown—when he saw Cecil walk out of the station holding hands with a man that he had never seen before.
Carlos is not the type to get jealous. He and Cecil weren't even a thing! Sure, Cecil kept talking about him over the radio—things like his perfect hair or the fact that Carlos hadn't brought up any weekend plans. Of course he hadn't offered up any ideas to hang out on the weekend; he and Cecil weren't even dating! Obviously, since Carlos did absolutely not have a crush on the radio host.
Obviously.
Cecil saw him and excitedly grinned, giving Carlos a short wave. Carlos sighed, and waved back. Putting on a smile, Carlos walked up to the pair.
"Carlos!" Cecil exclaimed. "How are you? How has your perfect hair been recently? I just realized how much I missed seeing it around."
Carlos looked quickly at the man still holding Cecil's hand. He was smiling this super annoying smile that made Carlos look immediately back at Cecil.
"I'm good," Carlos said. "Um, I was just going to talk to you about something, but I seem to have forgotten what it was."
"Oh, well, that's okay. Maybe you'll remember it."
Carlos nodded, muttering "maybe," before the unknown man quietly cleared his throat. "Uh, Cecil? Want to introduce us?"
"Oh!" Cecil shouted, lifting both hands slightly into the air excitedly, bringing the other man's hand with them. "Earl, this is Carlos, the community's favourite scientist. Carlos, this is Earl Harlan. He works over at Tourniquet."
"Nice to meet you Carlos."
"Pleasure," Carlos said, shaking Earl's hand, as he had released Cecil's and held it out to Carlos.
Carlos dropped Earl's hand, and the man turned back to Cecil. "We should probably get going."
"Oh, okay," Cecil said, somewhat dejectedly. "We're going out to dinner at Earl's restaurant. He's going to cook me something, which I do not know what it is yet." Upon saying this, Cecil looked pointedly at Earl, who leaned toward Cecil and kissed his cheek, saying, "That's because it's a surprise, silly!"
Carlos felt sick to his stomach, and he knew why this time. He was completely and utterly envious of Earl Harlan.
"Okay," Carlos said quickly. "I'll see you later, Cecil."
Cecil and Earl bid Carlos goodbye and he watched them walk down the sidewalk, hand in hand, silently cursing himself, Earl Harlan, and everything else, too.
Sighing, Carlos shoved his hands into his pockets and resumed walking down the sidewalk back towards his lab.
Imagine Person A refusing to acknowledge their feelings for Person B, but when they see them with someone else they instantly get jealous.