Chapter 12
Saturday, May 6, 2000
Never have I felt this gutted before in my whole life! I was right. Mark did fancy Jenny. If only I talked to her or something, maybe I could still stand a chance. But no, I didn’t! I acted like this stupid, loved-up idiot while Mark was smooth talking the girl of my dreams away from me.
Okay, maybe I’m overreacting. They went out on a friendly date. So? Why is it bugging me? It was just a FRIENDLY date. Let’s face it. A date is still a date right? I was like, slapped on the cheek when I found out. It was so in-your-face. Yeah, Mark even looked so smug about it I wanted to murder him right on the spot. After the concert, I was talking to Jenny backstage. Yes! I was actually TALKING to her! I finally found my tongue! Well, Mark had to come and ruin the moment. I had just finished giving her a congratulatory hug and kiss on her first performance in front of thousands. She was looking so cute, blushing and everything. Well, she really did well in their 20-minute set. Not that I’m biased but she was great! She really did terrific, perfect, superb, great, marvelous, fantastic, splendid, outstanding, remarkable, phenomenal… gosh I could go on forever! Anyway, I was about to ask her if she was going to do something. Maybe she wanted to celebrate with me and the others. Well, as I’ve said, Mark came, giving Jenny a quick kiss on the cheek and saying he’ll pick her up at her room at 10. Seems like they had their own private party to go to… I found out later on that they had dinner together at a restaurant before the concert.
I am so angry at myself for being so slow! How could I have been so stupid? I better move fast before she totally falls for Mark. I wouldn’t know what to do if I lose her to Mark. I wouldn’t know what to do if I lose the chance to be with that someone who I’ve been waiting for to be with my whole life. Never have I met someone who made me feel this way before. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. I’ve never felt like this in quite a while. I’m afraid that if I let her go, I might not have the chance to find someone like her, ever again.
Jenny’s diary
May 7, 2000
Dear Diary,
As I’m writing this down, I’m on a plane heading to Malaysia. I’m dead excited! I’m sitting beside Bryan and he’s so quiet he’s actually scaring me. I asked him if there was anything wrong and he just mumbled something. I think it has something to do with me coz I heard him say “you”. I guess I’ll just ask someone to change seats with me if he has a problem with sitting beside me. Maybe I could change with Nicky, well, Mark is there beside him after all. Hey, it’s not like I’m chasing after Mark or something. Let’s face it, I can’t exactly pry away Shane from Linda and I would have to use a crowbar to tear away Kian from Tammy! And I can’t ask Mark if if I could stay beside Nicky, because we all noticed that Bry isn’t getting along with Mark since yesterday. Mark and I talked about it last night.
Speaking of last night, it was totally great! It was fun going out with Mark. As I said in my last entry, he picked me up at my room. We went to that restaurant and I had to order for the both of us since he had no idea at all what he was reading on the menu. Thank goodness I’ve lived in the Philippines for four years that I now know how to speak and read Filipino. Otherwise, both of us wouldn’t have a clue to what we were ordering! Well, everything went great, we had a very pleasant conversation, which was mostly about me coz he kept asking lots of questions. I also taught him a few Filipino words and I had quite a laugh hearing him try to pronounce the words and reading what was on the menu out loud. After that, we headed back for the hotel.
The concert was great! We performed for like 20 minutes as I’ve said. It was brilliant. We did an upbeat song titled “You”. I really like that song. I ended up sharing Linda and Tammy’s lines. Then we performed a cover of The Corrs’ “Don’t Say You Love Me”. I was really nervous coz I had to do lead vocals on that and there are times when I sing it I don’t reach the high notes. Well, I was really surprised coz I did get to sing it! After that we did a song that Tammy and Linda wrote which they entitled “If I”. It’s such a brilliant song. The first time I heard it, I actually cried. It’s something like, “If I swim across the seven seas to please you, if I reach for the stars to prove I adore you, if I move the mountains just for you, if I tell you I love you would you say you love me too?” It’s such a brilliant song. The last song was a cover of Mariah Carey’s “Without You”. We had to sing it quite low so that we could reach the high parts. You know how she sings! She’s like a bird or something! ? Then, as a teaser we sand a very short a capella of “No No” to introduce Westlife. It was so weird really. I was supposed to be in the crowd to watch Westlife with my mom and now I was standing on the stage, singing my heart out in front of all the Westlife fans. How weird. My mother was crying her eyes out when she watched me performing. She said she was so proud of me when we were backstage. I watched Westlife from there. They were brilliant. I watched them for almost 30 minutes then we had to go back to the hotel. For the whole 30 minutes my eyes were on Bryan. I don’t know why but I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Well, I got myself ready to “continue” my date with Mark. I finished in about an hour. Knowing that he wouldn’t be back in an hour or more, I just went out of my room and wandered around. I was sitting by the pool on one of those chairs where you sunbathe (I forgot what they’re called) when someone covered my eyes with his hand. I said Mark’s name and when I looked up it was Bryan. I could’ve sworn he looked kind of hurt and angry but then he flashed me one of those gorgeous smiles. I swear, I could’ve melted right on the spot. He sat beside me, and we were both just quietly watching the water from the pool. To my surprise, Bry held my hand. I was about to joke about it coz I was suddenly nervous. Mark came out of nowhere, and he said he was looking all over for me. We bid farewell to Bryan then we left. I asked Mark where he planned to go and he said he wanted to take a walk. We took a cab and I told the driver to take us to the venue of the concert. There were no people there anymore when we arrived, just some people carrying around the equipment that was used at the concert. Mark looked at me questioningly, and without a word I took him to the back of the venue and there he saw it. Well, he didn’t see much of it though so we went back early in the morning to watch the sunrise. I’m talking about the Manila Bay. There’s a long stretch of it where you can walk so I took him there. We couldn’t see much of the sea but hearing the waves crash against the walls were pretty okay and feeling the breeze was great too. He suddenly yelled at me to race him until we reached a car parked a bit far away. He was running off and he turned to look if I was catching up. I yelled for him to stop but it was too late. He ran into a coconut tree and fell on his bum! Instead of going over to help him up I couldn’t move. I stood there and then I was suddenly laughing at him. It was just so funny! He just laughed too, but I know he was pretty embarrassed. Thankfully he didn’t bleed or anything but when I saw him around 5 in the morning to watch the sunrise at the bay, he was wearing a baseball cap and shades. I took it off, saying it would be better to watch the sunrise without those and I saw he had a huge bump on the side of his forehead!
After that very embarrassing display, we just went back to the hotel for a drink. Well, I couldn’t drink yet, so I just ordered a glass of iced tea. I was still laughing when we were making our way back to the hotel but I eventually calmed down.
Anyway, we spent most of the evening there at the bar, talking and laughing about the stuff. Yes, including his little “accident” earlier at the bay. It was so funny really! I thought that only happened in comedy films.
Well, I eventually had to go back to my room coz I needed to get up early so we could catch the sunrise at the bay, and I was the one who was going to wake him up. Mark took me back, and we were standing at the front of my room when he was about to kiss me. I really didn’t want him to, so I thanked my lucky stars when Bryan came out of his room. I just said goodnight to Mark and I went inside.