LOUIE (COMPLETED)

10: Ron, I want you to go

"He's not here, Ron!" said one of Louie's classmate. "Just got out five minutes when you arrived. Been looking for him, eh? Why? He's got a money on you? Needed to be paid?"

Laughing, to conceal another disappointment, I shook my head. "Not showing himself to me since the audition time. Is there any possibility they are starting to practice now?"

"Not sure! Hey, are they already?" she calls someone but that man shakes his head. "Do you have a number of one of his theater friends? Maybe they will tell you where he is."

Going down from their classroom is much heavier than when I went upstairs earlier. I look back, hoping I just happen to not properly see him but again and again, he's out.

When I've gone back on my phone, it just dawned on me his old messages: Louie asked to see me the day after when Jude and I are in front of the closed shop. Another one is the first day of audition, he asked if I wouldn't want to join, maybe I can just join them and watch those whoever wanted to audition.

All of those messages were answered nothing. He texted me that night the same moment I was immersed talking to Jude and I was too busy getting away of Jude and that brother of Ailee to think about his text for the next few hours.

I suppose they've got a new members now and probably starting to practice. I've never been into one so a hunch of where they are are not sure. The gymnasium is deserted, some enclosed spaces are the same, either. The only way for me to know is to bump into someone else, that's entirely with him.

The day lasted and no sign of Louie, nor his friends showed up. On my way to the coffee shop, I'm thinking about it that I forgot about the possibility of seeing that Jude again. Damn... did he just admit you need to do a dirty work in order to get fame? Gaano ba kababa ang tingin niya sa akin?

Yes, I was desperate to earn but not too desperate to shatter the dignity my parents gave to me, and to the shame I still have growing up.

A tall man is leaning on the same wall I'm leaning onto that night and for a second, my heart raced and almost hid my face but it's not Jude's built... It's Hux!

"What's up?!" I said, chuckling after embracing him. That surprised him but not totally fazed. "How did you know I'm here? Working?"

"Does it matter?" he chuckles. Hux grew some stubbles while scrutinizing the shop. "Would you mind having few minutes to catch up? When you gonna time in?"

Instead of answering him, I pull him inside and the face of the temporary person behind the counter softened upon seeing me. However I said I needed few minutes before timing in. He didn't agree but can't do anything. Still got thirty minutes on the time.

"So?" I began. "Surely, you didn't hear me that night. Congrats! Tell her the same!"

Hux jaw clenched and turned red. "Yeah. Thank you. Still surreal, you see. To think and contemplate... I'm getting married."

"When?"

"Just this summer! Last week of May! Thought she's gonna say no."

"Come on! Why would she?" I chuckled, almost hitting his arm. This feeling, for a moment, freed me from worries about Louie. "Anyway, what's done is done! What's important is now, you're getting married! When? Have a specific date already? Or..."

"Still tentative. But probably as soon as possible." his eyes are gleaming with the bright future ahead.

We continued our conversation about his upcoming marriage, while at it, I'm stopping the urge to brought up what had happened these past few weeks. Should I tell him? Of course he would be worried and concerned, he's been here before I came, especially when the original people in my house still alive. Yet the elation in face is too much that breaking it to watch it sunk like forgetting to take a last step on stairs, I didn't do it.