Simon Seville had always been the smart one, always. Whenever there was a problem that needed solved or you needed help with your homework, Simon was the munk to go to. He was the intelligent one, the brother with the facts at his finger tips, the sort of person who preferred to spend his time with books or building models rather than playing video games or football.
He was not the sort of person to spend time brooding or sulking, after all there was no logical excuse for either of those activities. Nevertheless it seemed that he did precious little else nowadays.
This was what was worrying Theodore. He had known Simon all his life, since there was only five or six minutes between them, he counted that as a pretty good percentage. Something had upset Simon.
He had no evidence that could support this belief; he only had a brother's intuition and right now it was telling him that something was wrong. What's more if Simon was upset you could bet your bottom dollar that it was something important, and Theodore had a pretty good idea what it was.
Jeanette.
How long had it been now, two months? Three? How long had Simon had to live with the bitter taste of rejection?
They had seemed to be the perfect couple. They had so much in common, and, if he was allowed to say so, they made a cute couple. Alas it was not to be. He had asked her out, she had said she'd prefer it if they remained friends and then, as if to add insult to injury, she had started dating Scott.
That had been it; the final, ultimate betrayal. She had rejected him and chosen his best friend instead. Theodore just couldn't work out why. Jeanette and Scott had never seemed that close, nothing more than friends, and Eleanor had told him how Jeanette had described Simon as "Dreamy"
It was a decision that nobody could understand, yet good natured little Theodore was convinced that Jeanette had good reasons for what she'd done. She just wasn't the sort of person to go around openly hurting people, especially not people close to her.
The car continued down the main street, houses and other buildings flicking past the windows at a steady pace. As Simon sat staring blankly out the window, Theodore slowly but surely built up the confidence to voice his concerns. He just had to know if something was wrong. He hated it when people where upset, especially when they were his brothers.
As gently as he could he gave Simon a friendly nudge "Simon" he asked in a voice that fully showed his concern "Is…Is everything alright?"
Disturbed from his thoughts by Theodore's action Simon turned to face his brother "Yeah, sure" he tried to smile "It's just hard to be excited about going grocery shopping"
Theodore couldn't stop himself from letting out a soft giggle "I guess that's true" satisfied for the moment that his worries might have been misplaced, he shifted slightly in his seat, or rather their seat as all three chipmunks took up only a single seat.
This action caused him to receive a short dark look from Alvin, before he returned his attention to the PSP he was currently plugged into. Theodore was starting to wonder if Dave had made a mistake getting Alvin that thing for his birthday.
Still it seemed to be keeping him out of trouble, so it couldn't be that bad.
Simon split off from the main group as they entered the shop. He always went to the DVD section first; it had become something of a shopping ritual. That and he was deadly bored back home, he needed something to keep him entertained until school started again, something to take his mind off Scott and Jeanette.
As he scanned the DVD's with increasing disappointment, he realised he'd have no luck today. He should have been used to it by now. There were never any films that he liked in these kinds of shop. They were all Rom-com's or super violent action films. After what had happened with Jeanette he was having a hard time seeing anything funny about romance, and watching people having limbs blown off just wasn't his cup of tea.
Simon liked intelligent films, films with meaning and strong plots and themes; films that made you think and question the world around you. Failing that you couldn't go wrong with a good sci-fi. Yet there were none in sight.
He guessed he would just have to endure the last few days of the holidays in mind numbing boredom.
It was then that he saw him.
At first it was just a fleeting glimpse, an image out of the corner of his eye, but then his eyes slowly focused on him and he found himself almost unable to look away.
It was a young chipmunk; He looked to be about the same age as Simon, perhaps a bit younger. His fur was the colour of smooth milk chocolate whilst his eyes were a deep pastel blue. He wore a plain T-shirt; Blue like his eyes only a much richer and bolder blue. Around the edges of the T-shirt, the collar, sleeves etc, was a thin black strip that made it appear like he was wearing a black T-shirt underneath. The T-shirt still had short sleeves however that showed off his rather pale and unblemished arms. Around one wrist he wore a heavy black watch, round the other a bracelet of woven brown leather.
Simon quickly looked away, but it was too late. The damage had already been done. He could feel his heart beat increase and felt a soft warm glow envelop his stomach.
This wasn't right. He shouldn't be feeling this way.
He remembered the first time he'd seen Jeanette, as her locker door had slammed shut and he saw her standing in the hallway like a tall blue flower in the otherwise desolate school building. That was the only other time he had had this feeling; a feeling that nothing could go wrong; the feeling that he had just found someone who was capable of making him happy beyond words.
He tried not to think about it, about this could mean. He loved Jeanette; even if she'd rejected him he still loved her.
He tried his hardest to focus his mind on the atrocious selection of DVD's and Games.
He couldn't help it. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't help but look up again. As if by fate the other Chipmunk glanced in his direction at the same time and their eyes met for a fraction of a second before both looked away.
Simon could have sworn he was sweating now
He felt so wrong. He was straight. He knew he was. He had to be. Then why was he feeling this way.
Was this nothing more than the result of love starvation? After all he had never had a girlfriend. Theodore had one, Alvin had had several, Scott was going out with Jeanette, but Simon had nobody. Was that all there was to it? He wanted, no needed, somebody to love and hold and at this stage he just didn't care who it was.
No, there was more to it than that. If that had been the case then why hadn't he had this feeling before? If he had been love starved and desperate then surely he would be feeling this way towards nearly everyone he looked at, yet it was only Jeanette and this boy.
He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. He wasn't use to 'not knowing' he had always had the facts at his fingertips. He felt so helpless, he had never imagined how bad it felt being in the dark.
Becoming desperate, Simon dared a third quick glance up only to find the chipmunk was gone. Simon was again surprised to find the icy fingers of panic clutching at his spine. Where could he have gone? He couldn't leave now, He didn't have any answers. How could he possibly carry on with unanswered questions? If there was one thing in this world that Simon could honestly say he hated, it was unanswered questions.
To his relief, a quick scan of the immediate area revealed that the boy had in fact only moved a little further down the DVD stand.
Deciding to take a risk, Simon advanced to where the chipmunk had been standing. He convinced himself that he was only going there to see if there was a better selection of DVD's there. Why he really moved, he had no idea but he did it anyway.
As he feared it was the same tat that he'd already looked at, worse still as he stood scanning the DVD stand for anything remotely interesting a calming and seductive aroma filled his nostrils.
There was nobody else in this part of the store. There was no one else it could have come from. It had to be him
Once again he caught the other Chipmunk in the corner of his eye. He was moving back, getting steadily closer and Simon could feel his heart rate increase with every step. Was he going to say something? Should he say something?
Was it possible that this young, though it pained him to admit, handsome Chipmunk was feeling the same way he was?
There was just no way to tell. If Alvin were here instead of him then he would probably find a way to fix this whole mess. But he wasn't Alvin, he was Simon.
His brother may be a chipmunk Casanova but he wasn't.
They both continued to browse the display stand in silence. After all they were strangers. They'd never met before so what on earth would they have to talk about. In fact Simon could safely say that he knew nothing about this guy at all, which only made the feeling in his stomach more unpleasant. Why was he feeling this way about someone he knew nothing about?
There had to be a way to find out, a way to be certain, without saying anything of course. Simon's brain was working overtime trying to figure out a plan. After all coming up with plans was what he did best.
As the chipmunk shuffled ever closer, Simon decided that discretion was the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat. He would make to regroup with Dave and the others making a brief holding action at the book stand. If he was pursued then that would be close enough to the answer he was looking for.
He tried to act as casual as he could as he made for the book section. He loved books after all. Unfortunately he had to force himself not to cringe as he looked at the meagre offering of titles, none of which looked appealing. Still he kept his mind on the prize, he wasn't here for a new book; he was here to find out if he had in fact just fallen in love or not.
As he stood there, despairing at modern popular literature, he noticed a small furry figure in a blue T-shirt walk past then pause to examine a book a few paces further down the stand.
Now Simon's mind was in overdrive. This was really happening, he could hardly believe this.
He was no longer paying attention to the books. His mind was filling with images of the two of them embracing, running his paws through the soft brown fur, feeling the warmth and closeness as their bodies hugged closer, the soft sensation as he slowly traced kisses along his neck.
What was he thinking? He shouldn't be feeling this way, he shouldn't be thinking like that. What about Jeanette?
Well he supposed that if Jeanette really cared about him she wouldn't have rejected him, and she wouldn't have gone out with his best friend only a few days later.
No it wasn't Jeanette he was worried about. It was rejection.
What if he did talk to this guy and he rejected him, or worse still mocked him? He wouldn't be able to handle that.
The truth was that he was afraid, afraid to take a chance, afraid of what might happen if he was wrong, afraid of rejection.
He had been rejected once and was still sore from it. He couldn't go though that, not again?
He couldn't go through with it.
He turned and hurried out of the book section and back to the DVD stand, partially relieved that the other chipmunk didn't seem to follow him this time.
Perhaps he had been wrong all along. After all there were perfectly reasonable explanations for all the things that had happened so far. He must have been jumping to conclusion.
Almost in desperation he scooped up a DVD. It one he'd seen before, a long time. It was a mediocre film at best, not one of his favourites but he guessed it would pass an evening.
On the way to the checkout he almost froze on the spot. There he was again, standing in exactly the same spot where Simon had first seen him, and, for no logical reason that he could see, Simon found himself trying to hide the DVD he was going to buy.
Why was he hiding a DVD? Did he really care so much about what this boy thought about him? He didn't even know him yet he was trying to make a good impression.
He paid for the DVD as quickly as he could. He had hoped that escaping the DVD section and returning to Dave and the others would make him feel normal again.
He didn't, instead he suddenly felt just as sad and depressed as when he had heard Jeanette say "Just be friends" The warm glow in his stomach was gone, replaced by a large heavy lump.
Luckily for him it seemed that Dave, Alvin and Theodore were completely oblivious to the gloomy look on his face.
After all how could they possibly know the enormous sense of regret that was steadily building inside of him? They were all concentrating on the large shopping trolley that seemed to be getting fuller and fuller as the moved down the aisles.
It wasn't until he dropped his DVD into the trolley that they noticed his expression. One final surprise for Simon that day was that it was Alvin who noticed it first.
With a strangely concerned look on his face he pulled one of the headphones out of his ear and lowered his PSP "Hey Si, you OK?"
Simon nodded but in reality he wasn't sure. This feeling he had had, he'd never had anything quite like it before. He doubt he could explain it to Alvin, he could hardly explain it himself.
Deciding that it was best to leave it at that, Alvin replaced his headphone and returned to his game. If Simon didn't want to talk then it would be pointless trying to force the matter. Besides he'd have much more fun trying to grill the truth out of him back home.
As they continued with the shopping Simon kept his eyes peeled, hoping to see the other Chipmunk one last time and maybe say something to him.
Alas it was to no avail. He could see neither hide nor hair of him, which only made him feel emptier than he already did.
It would seem that he would never find out why he had felt such a strong and overpowering desire for someone he had never met and would most likely never see again.