Henning and Eric were in Barcelona. It sounded good on paper, thought Eric. The two had decided to go to Spain together after graduation. When Henning suggested the idea of this fantasy, running away together and leaving that suburban town of theirs with the same houses with the same two-car garages every corner, Eric jumped at the chance to turn that dream into reality. Barcelona was a new city, a new start. Somewhere where they could escape the boring neighborhood that stifled their creative efforts, to a place where their brilliance could be recognized or, hell, even celebrated!
Well, that was the dream.
Eric sat down, cramped in their teeny-tiny one bedroom apartment, pouring over a Spanish textbook.
“Ugh! I can’t stand this shit!” Eric yelled out, slamming the book shut.
“Well, you can’t just be moping around the living room listening to Delibes and reading manga all day,” remarked Henning. The pitter-patter of Henning’s footsteps trailed off as he sat down on the couch, turning on the TV set. Something about the unfamiliar language playing on the TV started to bring Eric to tears, and he banged his head against the textbook.
“Don’t remind me,” replied Eric.
“¿Cómo estás?” Henning’s eyes never left the television as he smirked.
“Urgh–“no bien?”
Henning smiled. “Nada mal.”
“Whatevs.” Eric stood up to stretch, then headed to the fridge to check out something to eat. All he needed was some brain fuel to help continue with his studies.
Eric checked the fridge. Hmm. A head of cabbage and a half of a stick of butter. Not exactly the most fulfilling diet.
“Henning! Can you go and buy some food at the supermarket?”
“Why can’t you do it?”
Henning turned around and stuck his tongue out. " 'Cos. I'm watching my show."
Eric huffed. "How about we just go together?
Henning smiled. "Good boy!"
-
It was a picturesque scene down by the apartment building as the two made their way out. Children playing games on the concrete, with Eric spotting two children, around 8 years old, drawing in chalk on the ground as they sang an unfamiliar song in Spanish. A choking sensation was starting to grow in Eric's throat.
“¡Es la pareja gay sueca del piso de arriba! Pensé que nunca dejarían su apartamento,” Eric heard one of the children saying to the other.
"Huh?”
“I think they called us gay," Henning said as his eyes rolled.
-
A few blocks down from the apartment was a shopping center. All of the people, the stores, the environment all seemed to be streaks of various colors in Eric's eyes. The choking feeling was starting to get worse.
"Hey, you alright?" asked Henning, placing a palm behind Eric's back.
"Va? Oh, I'm fine."
Then, Henning slapped Eric on the back. "Well, that's good 'cos I have to do some…personal shopping."
"HUH? It's not like you're buying lingerie or something, stay with me!"
"Pssst, you're fine. Besides, you have your cell phone. Just text if anything's wrong."
Eric nodded. Henning walked away, laughing.
"Well, fuck. I guess I'll get our groceries," Eric whispered to himself. He picked up a shopping basket and went wandering around the market. Just great, Eric thought to himself. Walking around aimlessly and not knowing where anything was probably made him look just like a lost Sueco. He looked through the aisles. Baking powder…cooking supplies…CDs. Huh? CDs? Eric figured this was just a grocery store! Eric hurried down the CD aisle, basket in hand, ready to shop.
Then he remembered.
He had to interact with people. In Spanish, nonetheless.
Fuck.
An employee was standing right by the shelves upon shelves of CDs. Eric's heart rate was skyrocketing. He wanted to ask about artists, local bands, and what songs he recommended. His mind was full of ideas of what to say. But his lack of conversational skills, heck, even in his native Swedish, were betraying him.
"Y-yo…uh…any good music?" Eric ended up just stammering out in Swedish.
The employee stared at him. She looked at him, brows furrowed, only to mutter out:. "Siento… no hablar su idioma."
Meek Eric decided to go to a random shelf. He placed down his basket to flip through the releases.
Lame. Lame, so so lame. None of them looked interesting in the slightest. Eric pulled at his hair. There was a sharp pain in his heart. He looked at the people around him, all unfamiliar. At least in the suburbs, he could run into some uncultured classmate of his, who knew nothing about French New Wave or anytype of film movement at all, so that he could further reaffirm his belief of Henning and his intellectual as well as artistic superiority over the others at their school. It was really tearing at his heart strings, the nostalgia.
There was a lonely bench positioned between the entrance to the men's bathroom and the wall. Eric just sat there. Then, the tears started to flow. Fuck. He started bawling. Maybe he should text Henning. He took out his phone.
Eric: Didn't get much shopping done. Need help. Where are you?
Henning: I'm by the corner.
To which Eric replied: "What corner?"
He was probably making a scene, but Eric didn't care. He looked down at the ground and cried. And cried and cried and cried. It felt like minutes upon minutes until he heard a voice speak.
"Hey.”
Eric looked up.
It was Henning. He stood above Eric, holding a grey fuzzy thing behind his back.
Eric's face flushed. "Oh, hey, erm…"
"I'm sorry about leaving you." Henning spoke softly. "It was kind of a dick move. I should've helped, since you didn't know Spanish at all." Henning looked Eric in the eyes. Henning’s mouth then formed into a grin. "I did get you something though." As he moved his arms from behind his back, Eric started to realize what the grey fuzzy thing was. It was a Totoro plushie! Eric's body felt warm.
"Oh shit! This is amazing, thank you!" Eric grabbed the plushie and started to hug Totoro.
Henning rubbed his hands behind his neck. "Yeah, I was kinda concerned for you, Eric. Since you like anime and manga and all that, I thought I'd give you, I don't know, a plushie to comfort you."
Eric placed his chin on top of Totoro. With Henning by his side, maybe staying here won't be too bad after all.
Author's Note:
Sooo Eric has a Totoro plushie in the Come With Me by ceo music video. I like to think it was given to him by Henning to remember him by :P Also according to a Swedish magazine interview they lived together in Barcelona for a while, so that just brought on sooo many ideas. Who knows, maybe I'll write more about TTA's time in Spain together!