We’ve been to a lot together, I thought. Our friendship was
bounded by laughter and tears… We stood together, with and for each other…
Not because we don’t see much of each other anymore, not because we managed
to get ourselves something that resembles a life, not because we met some
great people, we throw everything out… No… true friendship goes beyond
time and space.
The problem was how could you seat five utterly busy people at the
same time… plan it at least two weeks before… reasonable… but I rather
to be a bitch and told them that we are to meet, have dinner, talk, and get
ourselves drunk two weeks before. “No excuses, quit your day job if you have
to or I’ll hunt you dead!”
But of course I lost my phone where all their numbers are stored…
so much to their relief… so, I thought it would no longer push through
without me bitching them out.
But then, a call… “Hello, could I talk to Lexan Orantes?”
asked the anonymous caller. Nick! I thought almost on a jump… “Whose
calling?” I asked back. “Kim,” he said. I jumped.
Matt couldn’t make it. He had used all his work leaves and that
it would be his job if he doesn’t show up. Jojo, was in Puerto Galleria for
some team building thing that the company he was working for
organized—balls! So it would be Mary Anne, Kim, and me… We decided to meet
at Power Books, Megamall… 8:00 p.m. sharp, I don’t have a phone!
I was there a quarter before eight… I went around Power Books, no
sign of them yet. Then, there was Michael Buble at Tower Records. You know
those tables where you could listen to the album…? And the desk was near the
entrance and I could see who is coming in and out—this is the way to wait,
Buble singing for you. I really don’t care if neither shows anymore.
“You
give your hand to me, and then you say hello, and I could hardly speak, my
heart is beating so… and anyone could tell you think you know me well, but
you don’t know me. You don’t know the one, who dreams of you at night,
wants to kiss your lips, wants to hold you tight, oh I am just a friend,
that’s all I ever been but you don’t know me…” (Track three, “You Don’t Know Me”, Michael Buble)
Nick… Argh!!!!
Mary
Anne came sporting a black ensemble of hang-on-there top, girlie pants, tight
sweater, and Mary Jane shoes. She said she had been waiting for an hour
already and had two cups of coffee—she came early. She had been messaging
and calling Kim but no reply. She also complains how far Megamall was from
Quiapo where she was staying. I just couldn’t help but find it so funny.
I
went back listening to Michael Buble as she try still to contact Kim but to no
avail… we walked around the mall, I needed to find an A.T.M. as I only have
two hundred and forty pesos with me.
I
bank with BPI (Bank of the Philippine Island) and though I’m pretty much
satisfied with their services and banking convenience they offer, I have one
minor complain. One couldn’t use other bank’s ATM unlike say Citibank or
Equitable. Well, you could, that is if you have no problem being charge
minimum of three dollars per transaction. Well, they are affiliated with
Maestro and Cirrus… Anyhow, I knew there is a BPI teller over the other end
of the mall (we were at Power Books which is in the other end), the next
floor. We went and did locate one but it was off line. Just in time, Kim
finally called. He said he fell asleep and that it would take an hour before
he could get to us. He suggested we take our dinner without him. I’m not too
solve with the idea since my point of organizing this get together is for us
to talk and catch up on each other—we couldn’t do that in a bar or some
place happening because it would be too noisy. But then, I was starving
already and so was Mary Anne… quick decision—Kim is so buying us coffee!
I
only have two hundred and forty in my pocket—not wallet ‘cause I don’t
have one. No A.T.M. on sight, or at least, we can’t find one… I thought we
do Triple V over the bridge. I’m not into anything continental anyway, I
still prefer Filipino… I do love pasta but I don’t define anything as a
meal—breakfast, lunch, or dinner—that doesn’t come with rice. I know
Tokyo Tokyo is so like a happening fast food right now, for some reason
Manilenyos are crazed over sushi and tempura. But I still prefer sinigang na
baboy over anything. Mary Anne shares my passion. She ordered kaldereta, I
have sinigang, four cups of rice, and two sugar rich coke.
Mary
Anne and I, although we get along very well could only share one page of the
newspaper. That page would be the page where Doctor Margie Holmes’ column,
right next the ads for penal enlargement and discreet treatment for gonorrhea
and syphilis would be. So as we feast on our dinner, we were talking about
blowjobs. That is how intelligent our conversation could ever be without
ending up agitated. Not that Mary Anne is only a bimbo and without a working
brain. She is very smart and one that speaks her mind—she is too a Gemini
after all. But she was young and she hadn’t fully transformed herself to a
well verse-open minded person that she is… I was as she was when I was
young.
Anyhow,
she likes doing sixty-nine. She is usually at her best whenever in that
position. I don’t like giving heads all that much. And if I do give a guy a
blow job that would be mainly because I feel oblige being that my partner have
done it to me. And with sixty-nine, I rather you do me first and I’ll do you
next.
We
decided to meet Kim at Starbucks at the stripe. He came wearing a tight shirt
from Celsius showing his trim body, clear rimless glasses, and his hair
shaved. He looked very good, so far from his baby fat everywhere teenage self.
He said for months he spend grueling days at the gym and now, he committed to
a diet that I would rather kill myself to do than live to a hundred.
Starbucks
at the Megastripe was crawling with people—call center people whom I find
rather funny to hear with their tough American English match with perfect
American twang. We decided to
boot having coffee and head, to Kim suggestion, Side Bar at El Pueblo, a block
or two away, and get beer instead.
Oh,
by the way Kim had braces on his teeth now… Not a problem, not specially
mine… he did have problems with his teeth before… I just thought that a
teeth brace is equivalent to bad kisser.
I
really don’t remember which was the last time Kim and I saw each other… It
was either when my grandmother died—which I think wouldn’t be counted as I
was still in daze all through out the wake—or was it the drinking session at
Zake’s (another friend who still is trapped at the time warp called Dagupan
City) one Christmas I was home…
Anyhow,
what I understand back then, was that Kim had a relationship with his
landlady… landlady caught him cheating and dumped him… That was when he
realized he so love her… went crying and pleading… landlady took him back
and the relationship lasted until recent months…
I
don’t know but I keep my paws off when it comes to Kim’s relationships. So
unlike with Matt’s in which I try to really meddle, giving unsolicited
advise—even talking him into dumping Beth, who was nothing but good to him.
Well, that was the thing with Beth, she was nothing but good; she deserves
someone much better. She deserves to be love through and through and not just
be stick on to because of a debt. Now, Matt had been following my advice as I
found out through Mary Anne. Matt got himself a fuck buddy. The problem was
that Matt seemed to be falling for her already… uh-huh… Mary Anne suspects
she was the reason why Matt had used all his work leave already.
“The
last time I heard,” Kim said, “Beth was delayed.”
“Oh,
no…” I gushed.
“Any
thoughts of marriage?” I asked.
“I’m
only twenty-three and having the time of my life,” Kim said.
“You
realized, for I heard before you were about to get married?” he did plan to
marry Ms. Landlady.
“Well,
I’m only twenty-three and is in the prime of my life…” he answered.
“I
do love my boyfriend right now,” Mary Anne answered. Her boyfriend whom I
have not met yet but was told that he was ten years older than her. “But
marriage have not come up yet… I have lots of things I wanted to do
yet…”
“In
your relationships, were you faithful?” I asked. I know I heard Kim had
cheated with Ms. Landlady when they started dating but after that?
“I
am,” Kim said, “although, my relationships now only last for a few months
only…”
“Me…
I wasn’t but now… I love my boyfriend…”
“I
remember Sheryl,” another friend of ours who now is married and a mother,
“when I asked her the very same question, she asked me back: define
faithful?”
We
miss Sheryl.
Of
course, it’s inevitable that I would be asked about my love life. You know
how my love life is people… I told them the same… and the verdict was that
I’m a closeted relationship person, which I don’t deny, and that the
advice was for me to let my guard down. They refuse to believe I have
self-esteem issues—someone who has no problem damning the world wouldn’t
have any problem with self-esteem. They added I should start believing that
love would happen to me…
Then,
why Nick haven’t called yet!?
After
four rounds of beer for the two of them—I only have two, I really can’t
drink beer—we called it a night and decided to set a night again for us to
see… Kim would only be available by April. Mary Anne would then be in
Caloocan, reviewing for her licensure exams. Where I, hopefully, be sun
drenched over sunny Boracay.
