A Close Second

Thirty Ninth

Dedicating this sweet chapter to JulieDura.
Proud ARMY and her stories really got me so hooked. I hope you can read some of mine too :((
Keep writing love.

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"That one."
"That's the big dipper." Sabi ko, pointing up the sky. "And the other one, right there is the little dipper."
"How about that one?" tanong ni Andrew sa akin. "Wait, it's moving."
Natawa ako. "That's an airplane, idiot."

We were star gazing. At the back of his truck, which he had filled with dozens of fluffy pillows. I was resting on his arm, na nakaakbay sa akin. It's been a week since my birthday and I felt the happiest in my entire life.

It was refreshing, It felt light. Just happy that I got to be with him.

Napatingin ako sa kanya, finding him looking at me. Hinawakan niya ang kamay ko, bringing it up to his lips again, and planting a kiss on it while he stares at me in the eyes. Nakakatuwa na malaman na ganito pala talaga siya kasweet. And it made me happy that I can express our own feelings with him freely now.

"I can lay down here all day, and just watch you look at the stars."
"Sabi mo star-gazing." Sabi ko sa kanya, reaching up my other hand to pinch his nose. "And you already have tons of my pictures in your phone, Mr. Stalker. Magsawa ka dun."

Thing was, I learned more and more about him the days that pass by. I've learned more about him during the past week, aside from what I learned about him the past month, and I don't think I even covered it all.

He has this tendency to be quiet. I now understood it wasn't because he was just deep, but he just liked to be quiet at all, he said it made him appreciate life more.

Yeah, forget what I said about deep. He was a little way into the earth's core.

I learned he liked to play video games, and then read—most of the time, fictions and fantasies like Harry Potter and such. That smile that was so rare to others, was not so rare around the people who he cares about most. I loved it when he laughed, it just looked so carefree.

He was a bit of a stalker too. I've found a lot of pictures of myself sa phone niya, which he tried to hide from me, but he already took my phone and had it filled with our pictures, so I felt it fair that his phone should suffer the same fate, and then I found out his secret.

I wasn't mad or creeped out. I found it a little sweet though, finding a lot of my candid shots in his phone. I even made one of his shots my profile picture in Facebook.

Kahit na parang kilala ko na talaga siya noon pa, I now realized that I didn't have an inkling of who Keith was.

No. I was just learning who he was really.

And as corny as it sounded, the more I knew him, the more I fell in love with him.

"Pinuno ko na yung phone mo ng pictures nating dalawa, so you could do the same, baby." Sabi niya, pulling me close to him, and kissing the side of my head.

Natawa nga ako, believe it or not, we have a lot of pictures, and I mean a lot. He's not that camera shy, especially if it's with me. I don't know if it's just because he's with me, or he doesn't want anyone else to know he can smile like that and allow someone to poke his nose like I do.

"This is nice." I whisper as I snuggle at his neck.
I felt him chuckle. "You would say."

We weren't exactly sneaking around anymore.

Tita Jodi and Tito Kurt were overjoyed with the fact that Andrew and I were official. Nanonood nga sila noong gabing yun and Tita told me that they had a little bet of what would happen: Tita bet that ImI'll be saying yes to Andrew habang si Tito naman was betting that I would be prolonging his son's agony a little more.