Category: Fake Love

Category 11: Free

 The sky is clear packed with stars, the moon close to ripe, and the water glitters. They were on the boathouse, the only place he's ever been able to breathe a full lung of air at a time. He knows, rationally, that tomorrow morning he'll have to spend a few hours bleeding his ears out listening to his mother gush about the wedding plans, they just spent three days full of his mother talking about the *wedding*, but for now he enjoys the peace and stillness now that everyone's asleep except for him and the girl beside him. They are alone on the boat house, the night's chill chasing their friends away.

The way the sea reflects the sky is really something. He relaxes, beer bottle loose between his fingers. It's nearing a pretty daring eleven at night on a weekend and everyone is asleep. He places his beer bottle down on the floor and leans back on his arms, appreciating the night, accepting peace under the stars.

The ocean looks welcoming, and the wind feels encouraging so he opened his mouth and dared to share some of his secrets to the girl lying down beside him,

"You know sometimes I imagine stuff, I stare off, the longer I can stare off without blinking the longer the imagination I have going on in my brain"

Peach opened her eyes and stared at him. Eyes calculating. Thinking. Wondering. Romave blames the beer for the fuzziness he feels that causes his heart to be engulfed with warmth. 

"Noong gabing 'yun, anong inimagine mo?" came her soft, almost hesitant but curious whisper.

Peach remembers the night before he disappeared. She remembers how insistent he was to have a staring competition, he won ten seconds into it. Tinawanan siya ni Peach nang makitang napaka-seryoso niya sa laro, she fooled around, did funny faces to distract him, to will him to blink but he didn't, and she laughed. Pero natigil ang pagtawa niya nang makitang nangingilid na ang mga luha ni Romave ngunit pinipilit parin niyang hindi kumurap. Now it all makes sense why he did his best to not blink.

"staying"

It shouldn't hurt, but it does. Romave turned his gaze back to the sea and took a sip from his beer. At least the bitterness will take his focus away from the girl beside him staring at him with a pained gaze. 

Staying. Thousands of what if's ran in Peach's head. What if nanatili siya? What if pag gising ko 'andun siya? What if bumalik siya agad? What if hindi umabot ng dalawang taon? What if... sumama ako sa kanya? No matter how many what if's there are, none of them will be answered. They were both too young and naïve to have dealt with those what if's have they chosen another path.

"Ang bata pa natin 'nun, wala pa tayong alam" she said instead of asking the what if's.
Romave scoffed, "You did, you knew what you wanted in life and I only ..." he sighed, and left the words unsaid. Let the ocean's crashing surf drown it. I only wanted you. 

Peach stares at him, and for a moment she let herself truly appreciate the changes his physique had undergone. The first time she met him, he was scrawny and lean, his jaw wasn't as structured as it is now. His shoulders weren't as broad. He's a man now, gone was the teenage, scrawny boy she helped two years ago. But his eyes, they're the same. Those black eyes still speak to her soul,  still keeps the secrets only itself knows of. Those pools of ink still devour the light when he's angry. Peach remembers staring at those eyes when they were watching the stars two years ago, he was smiling, pointing at constellations and when their eyes met, Peach finally knew what it meant to stargaze.

"I used to hate the sea" 

Peach was brought out of memory lane when he spoke. 

"Bakit?"

He didn't answer right away. He frowned and smiled. One that didn't reach his eyes. 

"You saw that family portrait by the fireplace?"