Chapter 81 - A night out
After Karito hung up, I looked at my phone to see if I had gotten any text messages yet. Nope, I thought. "Mark.", my jelly boyfriend said to me, grabbing back my attention. "What do you think?", he asked me, laying the clothing out on the table. He had picked out a nice pair of jeans, one of my "I 3 NY" shirts, and a black hoodie to wear over it. After looking at the selections he made, I told him, "I... I wouldn't have picked better options if I tried!", with a hint of excitement in my voice. "Awww... Thanks, Mark!", he said, before giggling a little bit.
As he put on his clothes on his pink, transparent body, I picked out my own wardrobe. After picking out another T-shirt, some pants, and some underwear and socks, I sat down next to him. "Are you sure you want to go out? There's no stars out here in NYC...", I explained. As he put on his socks, he replied, "You know Mark, that doesn't matter to me." He turned over to look at me. "All I care about is this star riiight here...", he said, placing his hand on my thigh. Surprised, I looked up at him. He was wearing one of the most happy grins I've ever seen.
I felt myself beginning to tear up again. He reached out, giving me a hug as I put my socks on. "Let's.. let's go...", I whispered. He backed away, wearing an overjoyed look. "I can't believe this is happening!", he said, standing up. I stood up, and grabbed one of his hands, holding it with my own. "Neither can I!", I shouted in excitement. He leaned over, giving me a kiss on the cheek. I could tell how intensely he felt from his lips touching my skin. His face was completely heating up. He walked to my side, walking us towards the open door.
We sat down onto the couch, putting our shoes on. He looked at his shoelaces in complete confusion, before looking over. As I picked up my showlaces to tie them, I could see from the corner of my eye that he was mimicing me. I looked over at him, wearing a smile. "Just follow what I do, okay?", I told him. He nodded his head, paying close, focused attention to my feet. I slowly tied my right shoe first, since that was the closest to him. He followed me through every step, not getting confused at all. When I stopped tying my right shoe, I looked over to find that both of his shoes were tied already. I couldn't help but giggle. "What's wrong?", he asked. "You really do learn quick huh?", I replied, making him laugh.
After tying my other shoe, I stood up. He stood up next to me, yet again holding my hand. "Are you ready?", I asked him just to be sure. "More than I've ever been in my entire life.", he replied. We walked over to the front door, opening it and closing it behind us. The streetlights lit up our front yard, and the street in front of our house. As we walked down, you could hear the occasional dogs barking. We even walked past a house that only had a chain-link fence seperating us from the homeowner's doomhounds.
My jelly boyfriend flinched as the gigantic beasts ran towards him, only to be stopped by the fence. "Ugh... These fucking dogs...", I groaned. "Every time I drive by to go to work, these stupid mutts always bark at me. The owner really does need to learn to train these..." My jelly boyfriend ran over to me, shivering as the dogs continued to bark at us. "M-M-M-Mark... I-I'm scared!", he shouted. I placed my arm around him, leading us away from the dogs. "It's okay, Jelly... I'm always here for you.", I reassured him. He wiped away one of his tears, whispering to me, "Th-Thank you..."
We walked pretty much everywhere we wanted to - We walked to the docks, watched the fisherboats for a while, feeding the ducks with bread we bought from a gas station about 10 minutes back. I remember the cashier giving us a really weird look, but I knew that neither of us cared, since everyone was going to get to know us anyway. After we visited the docks, we went across the bridge leading into Manhattan, to watch some of the street performers.
As we entered Times Square, I see his eyes light up. "Whoooa...", he said in shock, seeing everything lit up, grabbing more and more of his attention. A lot of people began to gather around us, amazed at the bright pink, tranparent figure wearing clothes. I gripped his hand, telling him, "I'm not going to leave you, no matter what happens."
"Maybe I should do something like this someday...", my jelly boyfriend told me. "You think so?", I asked in surprise. I had never thought of the practicalities before... He could perform shapeshifting for the crowd, and do the usual things, such as take pictures or write autographs. This new bill that affected the whole country shocked people across the world, so of course they would want to meet him...
The problem is, there could be people looking to hurt him as well, or even worse. I shuddered, trying to get the feeling out of my head. "Are you okay, Mark?", my jelly boyfriend asked me, after feeling my hand shake. "Yeah... I'm all good.", I replied. In times square, we visited several stores, bought several things, such as a stuffed bear, a new phone, and some new clothes for my jelly boyfriend. "That phone is expensive...Don't get it wet, alright?", I told him. "Pshh... even if something did happen to it, I could probably fix it within a week, tops.", he jokingly said. I tried to come up with a rebuttal, but that actually sounded like something that would happen.
"Alright, let's head back.", he told me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see something that definitely grabbed my attention. Something... green. "Mark?", my jelly boyfriend asked me, curious as to what I stopped for. I looked up at the display monitor on the tall building, which was projecting CNN onto it. On the screen, I could see Osmos in court, facing a judge.
Uh-oh..., I thought to myself.