'Thanks, Freddie.'

I gave Spencer a small nod as he lifted his sister and started walking back to the doors of Bushwell Plaza. I could hear Lewbert screaming about too many people dripping lots of water in his lobby. That idiot. What does he expect? It's raining really hard.

Yes. In fact, it's raining a little too hard. But I still stood in the showers of nature speechless and chest gloated with what seemed to be eternal pain. I inhaled deeply, hoping it would get rid of the heavy feeling. My cellphone had been vibrating in the pocket of my pants for maybe hours now. I knew it would be mother telling me to come back inside. I could solve math problems in minutes and would easily figure out that staying in the rain for too long would give me a bad cold, but my mind was too occupied with thoughts, it almost seemed as if it no longer coordinated with my body.

Well, a picture of me with hypothermia attacks was lingering somewhere at the back of my brain though. It's probably trying to make its way out of the crowd of Carlys, Sams, and Carly and Sams.

Phew. I have only adjusted to all this for only a couple of weeks enough for a normal person to adjust to thoughts of his bestfriends in a pit of love and fear. However, the problem was, I wasn't a normal guy trying to digest that kind of thought. I was the guy who at least tried and somehow pictured to be with one of them. Maybe that's why I'm still trying to disintegrate that bridge that supposedly connects my heart and my brain. So the trucks of emotional intervention wouldn't be rendered successful.

I must say, I'm doing a pretty good job at that. Or maybe not to some.

'Mister? Are you cold?'

There was a little girl looking at me from under her tiny umbrella. I barely noticed earlier while I was deep in thought. She was tugging at the sleeves of my shirt as she tried to get a reaction from me. I tried my best to give her a smile, and then I shook my head.

'I think you are.'

She rested the trunk of her umbrella on her shoulder and began removing her red scarf off her neck.

'Here,' she said as she handed her scarf to me. It was so small. It was probably only enough to cover my hand. I pushed her hand gently back to her and shook my head with a smile.

'Mister, you're like my mom,' she gave a lopsided smile.

I knelt with one knee in front of her and helped her tie her scarf around her neck properly.

'Why do you think so?' I asked her probably out of curiosity I didn't know I still had right now.

'Because you don't want help, even when you're crying,' she said with one hand on her hip.

I didn't know what to say. I felt like I should thank the kid for the concern, but that side of me that had the Samness in it wanted to strangle her for being a smartass.

I could hear an elderly woman calling for a certain Ruth. I looked at the direction of her voice and saw Mrs. Cobb, who lived at 7H, waving at the little girl.

Little Miss Smarty beamed at me, took something from her pocket and shoved it in my hand before she ran toward her mother. I, on the other hand, suddenly had this extra thought in my head, which pretty much annoyed me.

Kids knew nothing. Yeah right, Freddie. Is that why they only state the obvious?

I unclenched my fingers to reveal a swirly lollipop on my palm. It's funny though. This lollipop looked very familiar – red and white swirling from the middle and a smiling purple nosed clown just under the candy part of it.

Yep. It was the very lollipop I just thought of staring at one day at school.

Ah, coincidentally, that was Day 1 of 156.

Or maybe it I wasn't just randomly looking at the candy. I was eyeing it because someone so nice just had to place it in my locker, among my books, when it was evidently half eaten. Thanks to that person I grew an entire colony of ants in my locker. Who could've done it? Oh I don't know. Maybe PUCKETT!

I inhaled deeply as I tried to calm myself and not accuse Sam since I didn't have evidence. Well, not that I needed evidence anyway; I just thought that fighting back isn't my thing today especially if lowering the candy on a stick I was just staring at will reveal the image of Carly Shay, happily talking to a couple of students.

So, indeed I lowered the lollipop and stared at her with a dumb smile on my face. I was there, staring in peace when Rip Off Rodney came whispering into my ear.

'Do you really think you have a chance?'

I sighed with annoyance and turned to him, 'Why? You think I don't? Not that I think I have since I've been barking that tree up since I could remember.'

'Yeah,' he agreed with his lips pursed. 'You've been barking for years and they just seem to be in a hopeless love affair…for years.'

'Wait-what?'

Clearly, I wasn't following. I wasn't sure who he meant until Sam came barging through the door and just snatched Carly out of the crowd of students she was having a sensible conversation with. Carly didn't even complain. She just beamed at Sam as if she just took in a jolly pill.

'I thought you were smart, Benson.'

Rodney shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head where the web show hosts stood.

When his point finally got into my head, I felt myself smirk, or maybe, forced myself to smirk.

'You kidding? I mean I've been watching since and they're bestfriends.'

I pretended to be clearing my locker of ants while I snuck stares at the two. I, myself, began to doubt what I truly believed when Carly began playing with Sam's ear.

'Dude, believe what you want,' Rodney began while shoving his books in his locker, 'but haven't you ever wondered why most of the boys who were around them since middle school haven't tried asking them out?'

'I'm not following.'

'Because most of us thought they were together and now, after a couple of years, we actually think they would be rather impenetratable with that little circle of two of theirs.'

'Hey! I'm part of that circle!' I exclaimed with a loud shut of my locker.

'Whoa, dude. Take it easy. If you want my point proven, I suggest you actually observe, and not gawk!'

With a knock on my forehead, Rodney left. The guy actually rendered me confused. Deep inside me, though, I felt I should observe. I was a fool though. I didn't observe too attentively since a part of me then wanted to believe that everyone was wrong if everyone was thinking the two are more than just bestfriends.

But that day. I had something in me that changed. I believe that was the day that I had my non-conventional eye opened. That's what I like calling it – the "Eye that Saw Beyond the Conventional".

But most people would just call it the Gaydar.