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Friendships and Loud Conversations
Balthazar couldn’t help but feel more then slightly awkward sitting at the table with Pedro, Claudio, and Ben. The three were so outgoing and easily able to talk about whatever it was they wanted, Balthazar, however, was not.
This whole idea of these four guys going out to eat had started first with just Ben and Pedro joking around, then Claudio joined in saying that he was up for it, Balthazar just nodded along because, at the time, it did sound like a good idea. Past Balthazar, however, didn’t take into account the fact that he never felt all that confident when he didn’t have any instrument around him to rely on.
The group had been sat at a table which was off to the corner of the restaurant, which Balthazar was secretly glad about. He was able to sit in the corner of the table and just watch the conversations – not attempting to say anything because he didn’t feel like he had anything good to add.
“-and I’m telling you, Pedro, that a flamingo is the most majestic creature. Have you seen them before?” Ben was ranting some more about his bird fetish, which wasn’t all that surprising, without Bea around, though, no one really fought him that much. Today, however, Pedro was fighting against him just to be of some entertainment.
“I don’t know, Ben.” Pedro said, “I can’t think of a handful of better birds then flamingos.”
“Like the Penguin.” Claudio added in, smirking.
Ben made a sound of disgust, “That’s even worse than the kiwi.”
“Penguins waddle around and do a bunch of penguin things that a flamingo would never do.” Pedro said, putting up his hands and swaying from side to side as though he was waddling.
Balthazar smiled a bit, Pedro is such a dork.
“That’s because a flamingo has more class then to waddle around all day.” Ben rolled his eyes, “You disgust me that you even could think that a penguin is better than flamingos. Floyd would be disappointed.”
Claudio laughed, “Didn’t Bea throw Floyd across your flat?”
Pedro nodded having been there the day that it happened; Balthazar only heard about it later, “She said that Ben was obsessed with it. Which she proved to be true when he ran towards it screaming bloody murder and started to cradle it, whispering a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t hear.” Pedro laughed, “You would think that plastic flamingo was his first born child or something.”
“She nearly broke Floyd’s neck!” Ben cried, “I couldn’t believe her. I didn’t think she would be jealous of a bird!”
“Well, you have to give her some credit, Ben.” Claudio said, grinning at the fact that there were some surrounding tables listening to their conversations because of the volume, “You have some creepy bird fetish that no one can understand.” He looked over at Pedro and then back at Ben with a smirk, “I heard something about you giving Ursula a list of birds or something that you wanted her to photograph while she was away for her gap year.”
Ben glared at Pedro, “You told him?”
Pedro laughed, putting his hand on his friends shoulder, “You have a problem, Ben. I’m just trying to get you help.”
“I do not have a bird fetish!” Ben pushed Pedro’s arm off of him, “I have an appreciation for them. They are unique creatures who do not get enough credit.”
Claudio rolled his eyes, “You have a fetish, Ben. I’ve heard enough to know that you do.”
Ben rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”
“Did you just give up an argument about birds?” Pedro asked, looking shocked, “This must be the first time in history.”
Balthazar tuned out the conversation, feeling completely left out. Sure, he didn’t have anything to say, but he also felt like he wouldn’t be able to say anything even if he wanted to. The other three were also bringing a lot of attention to the table, which was bothering Balthazar because he did notice a few glances thrown his way. He just wanted to curl up into a ball and hide for a few hours. Why couldn’t the food come faster?
Without realizing what he was doing, he started to tap his fingers on his lap as though he was playing the piano, practicing one of his newest songs he was working on. He looked around the restaurant, noticing that there were a few birds hanging from the ceiling, but he couldn’t interject into the conversation long enough to point them out.
Why did I agree to come here? I don’t fit in this crowd at all. Balthazar thought to himself, I’d rather be at home working on my music that would be much more comfortable.
Suddenly, he felt something touch his hand. He jumped and realized that Pedro had taken his hand and was giving him a reassuring smile. Something about that small gesture had made all of Balthazar’s worries fade away.
Ben and Claudio were now trying to decide if Batman and Iron Man could both technically be considered superheroes since they were technically just two really rich men. Pedro had dropped out of the conversation at that point to see how out of it his boyfriend was.
“You okay?” Pedro asked quietly.
Balthazar nodded, “I’m fine.” He gave a soft smile as Pedro absentmindedly traced shapes on the back of Balthazar’s hand.
Before Pedro could say anything, Balthazar nodded to the waiter coming, “Food.” He pointed out.
“Ben, Claud, dinner is here. Shut up.” Pedro told his two friends as the food was served.
Balthazar smiled as Pedro leaned over and gave him a kiss, “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Balthazar said happily, starting to feel a little bit better about coming, especially because the food looked so good.