The moment I heard from Marshall about love, I knew that if I couldn't understand it, it was because it made no sense. According to Marshall, "Love is what you feel for someone when you feel butterflies in your stomach"
Well he had to know nothing about anatomy or zoology in order to believe it is possible to have butterflies in your stomach. And even if it was possible, it would definitely be something unpleasant. But I didn't interrupt him, so he kept going
"You feel love for someone who you want to spend your life with, like you're inseparable. It's when there's just something about someone that you just can't get enough of. Someone who you enjoy making happy, and who makes you happy"
I still didn't get how love works, but he kept on going...
"There are many things that can make you love someone, like they're kindness, or their ability to understand you, or their appreciation of you're talents, or simply their overall personality"
"Uhh... I still don't get it" I remember saying
"Mmm... well, is there anyone who fits that description?"
Everyone kept staring at me, waiting for my response
"Well... people in Adventure Bay are kind to pretty much anyone, I honestly don't think anyone fully understands everything I do or like to do, and everyone appreciates my talent because I use it to help others, but no one realy does it to me in particular, they are all just greatful for everything we do... so, no. I guess I don't love anyone" I said with a serious face. I can't be bothered of not having what I don't understand
Yet everyone looked at me with disbelief
"If you say so, but there's really more to love that just those things... there are many factors you should consider...", he continued. By the look on Marshall's face it seems like he doesn't know what he's talking about either
Although, going back to what he said... factors? "Now we're talking!" I said exited. If there is a specific amount of factors to consider, I can just write them down and attempt to use them later. "Alright, give me all the factors so I can annotate them" A that point, my tail was wagging in exitement. On one hand, this whole love thing seemed ridiculous so far, but on the other hand, there was finally a challenge for me. An opportunity to learn something that everyone seems to know so that I don't seem ignorant to others
"Uh..." Marshall seemed to hesitate on his response. "You see, Rocky, love is kind of... more complicated than just a few written notes"
"Oh, well if you guys learned it, I certainly can. I know a lot of stuff you would never understand" I said confidently, without realizing I had just insulted all of my friends at once
Marshall was getting irritated, and that's not even common for him since he's usually at a happy mood
At that point I was just trying not to get him mad at me
Marshall being mad at you is actually worse than it seems. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, he ignores you. And I don't even know if he does this on purpose, but every now and then he glares at you. Not with hate, but is kind of a glare to remind you of what you did to get him like that. The worst part is, his glares really have an effect on you. It's like a trick that makes your conscience feel heavier with every glare. The only good thing is that it doesn't last forever, since he usually continues to talk to you a couple of days after what you did
So since I didn't want to carry the weight of a guilty conscience for several days for a comment I didn't think through, I decided to leave
"You know what? I think this whole love thing is a little confusing for me, so I think I'll just leave for a while" I said nervously as I exited the lookout
And since then, I still haven't found a definition of love
But today is a new day, even though it's been a year since the last time I tried to understand the apparently complicated subject that is love
Today I woke up motivated. I'm prepared to learn everything and exactly what love is
"You know what, Rocky? I think it's time you finally find the answers you were looking for" I say to myself while rubbing my eyes and getting ready to get out of bed
Pretty much as soon as I open my pup house door I regret stepping out of bed. I stayed up reading last night and the repercussions were starting to show, as I felt incredibly tired. The morning sun shone brightly over my face, forcing my eyes to adjust to the light. I stood there for a few seconds, contemplating whether I should go back to bed
However, that feeling of regret went away as soon as I saw Chase barking to pull out his megaphone and wake up the rest of the pups in a... lets just say 'not very gentle' way
"Dodged a bullet there" I think to myself as I cover my ears to then hear the deafening sound of Chase's already loud voice speaking over the megaphone
Soon after that I hear groaning coming from every pup house as drowsy pups come out of their pup houses
"Hey, dude" I hear from a very familiar voice. It was my coworker and best friend in the entire world
"Hey, Zuma" I say back to the chocolate lab
"You know, Wocky, thewe's this place neaw the beach whewe people thwow out mechanical stuff. I've seen all sowts of stuff, like dwones, jet skies, and that kind of thing..." He says while still half-asleep
"Sounds interesting"
"Yeah, I thought you would say that, so...well, I thought you'd like to maybe come with me latew and see if we can use anything. I wanna see if we can build a jet ski. I know I've alweady got my own, but with that one I always have to wowwy about not damaging it and twy not to get it diwty, so I thought we could build one...if you want to, that is" he said looking down and making little circles on the ground with his paw
"Sure! You know I love recycling" I said with a smile, making Zuma look back up happily
"Cool! Well, we can go after bweakfast if we don't have any missions" I hear him say with a soft smile before going towards the lookout for breakfast
"Well, I guess I can just learn about love later. Right now I can focus on something I'm very familiar with: recycling" I say to myself as I too make my way into the lookout
~ at the site ~
"Well, this is it" I hear Zuma say, smiling while looking at all the mechanical trash thrown out
"Well, you know what I say, don't lose it, reuse it!" I yell excitedly, running towards the mountains of metal
"Dude, look! A jet ski! And it's in pewfect condition!" I hear Zuma yell, pointing towards a... jet ski?
"Is that what you call a jet ski in perfect condition? That thing is half destroyed! We're gonna have to patch it, change most of the wires and check if there are any good ones left, and probably replace the motor if we want to get that thing going" I say while doing a quick analysis of the current status of the half destroyed jet ski to know what to fix
"Well, yeah, but you'we the genius! You'll figuwe it out!"
"Alright, but I'll need your help"
"On standby fow you, dude"
And so we worked on the half jet ski for a couple of hours between silence and some casual conversation before I got an idea
"Zuma, can I ask you something?"
"Suwe thing"
"What is love? I know Marshall already explained to me last year, but he's really not good at explaining this kinds of things!
"Oh... well... I'd say love is when you genuinely enjoy someone's company, and they make you happy while you twy to make them happy"
"Mmm... would you care to explain?"
"Well... it's kind of like a welationship of mutual gain"
"Huh... if you put it like that it sounds really simple. Are you sure that's it?"
"Pwetty much, dude"
"Interesting... but, how do you know about this? Do you have any experience with love? Like having a so called 'crush'?"
"I guess you could say that, suwe"
From looking at the damaged jet ski for so long I forgot about Zuma being there with me. I was so caught up in the work that I almost missed seeing the sun's last rays of sunshine before going into hiding being reflected on Zuma's face
But now I was so caught up in that beautiful image I didn't notice myself drooling and staring. Luckily for me, Zuma was glancing at the almost completely fixed jet ski, so I had time to put myself back together and continue the conversation like it never stopped
"Anyway, would you care to tell me who that is or was?"
"Who?" Zuma glanced to me then back to the jet ski
"Well, for lack of more appropriate terms, your 'crush'"
"About that, I'd wather not tell" With the suns last rays of the day I could just barely see Zuma blushing lightly, so I decided to drop it
"Alright. I respect that. But at least tell me, what was it like being in love with someone else?"
"I don't weally know how to descwibe it. It was pwetty much just fantasizing about how it would be to be togethew"
"So was your love ever corresponded?"
"Not weally"
"Oh... so was it rejected?"
"Well, the thing is... I nevew weally told him" as soon as those last words escaped Zuma's mouth, his face expressed regret, he tensed up and started blushing madly
"Him? I thought males only enaged in relationships with females"
"I MEAN HEW!" Zuma shouted so loud almost everyone in the beach nearby heard him
"I mean hew" he said once again, this time more softly and quietly
I could sense something was going on with Zuma, but this suddenly seemed to make him uncomfortable so I pretended like I didn't notice it
"Um, alright. Anyway—" as I am trying to change the subject, I am interrupted by the sound of Ryder's voice through both our pup tags
"Paw Patrol, to the lookout!"
As I hear Ryder's call I instinctively turn around and head to my truck to drive to the lookout
"Dude, awen't you fowgetting something?!"
"What?"
"Um, I don't know, maybe the thing we spent houws wowking on?"
"Oh, right" I say as I get out of my truck
Finally, we carried the almost complete jet ski into my truck and drove to the lookout
"Who knew love was that simple. A relationship of mutual gain... that actually makes me wanna be in love, even if I still got some questions unanswered...
Wonder if I'll ever be in love?"