I love you, hang ups and all.

SIXTEEN

>> OFF POV >>

After the call with Gun, I set and alarm for 1 hour. I wanted to surprise him by being earlier than usual. Who would've thought that I'd be the one receiving the surprise when I saw him happily chatting with Oab at the hotel lobby. Did this guy planted a GPS tracker on Gun?!

I wanted to eavesdrop at their conversation but Gun already saw me and gestured me to join them. I am never the type to be bothered with my outfits. However, I felt misappropriately place when I stood beside Gun and that Guy. I felt like a third wheel as they were both wearing beige short and pink toned polo while I was in my paint-stained loose shirt and tattered straight cut pants. 

"Papi, you're early." He had a huge grin on his face.

"Look who's talking." I teased trying any uneasy feeling.

"Let's go na. Oab's joining us for breakfast." he said to my disappointment.

"You go ahead and have fun. I still have a lot to work on." I didn't bother telling him that I prepared breakfast and have been waiting for him. I felt that he'll just be bored if I make him accompany me. Bitter much?

"I just dropped by to check on you. Go ahead and have fun. I'll be going ahead." I added. He had a big question mark on his face but I didn't address it and just said my good bye.

P'Porsch's place was the farthest and roughly had the same wall size as P'Push so I decided to work on his wall first.  

I was quite surprised to see him sitting on the patio facing the beach while he had cigarettes with his coffee.

The funny thing about P'Poorsch and I was that we used to belong opposing gangs. I could still remember having busted his nose a couple of times while he snatched the girl I was courting.  When we met again for the inital meet up there were no awkwardess. Neither of us held any grudge against ech other.

"P, I thought you left yesterday." I greeted.

"I thought you were picking up Nong Gun." he replied.

"He's meeting up with a friend." I said.

"Sit down for a while." he pointed at the empty chair beside him.

"No thanks, P. I still need to finish your wall." I said trying to avoid any discussion.

"You're going to sit and relax. I'm not letting you destroy my wall." He already knew that I was trying to supress my anger.

As I sat beside him, he placed his pack on the table separating us. Out of old habit, I took one and lit it. It's been a while since I smoked. Fuck, I missed it. I woud still be a chainsmoker if not for fear of being burned alive.

After my 5th stick I felt much calmer and was able to resume with my work.

By lunchtime, P'Porsch had forced me to accompany him to eat out as he felt pathetic eating alone. We went to another local favorite of his. We took one of the tables  outside, where the smoking area was located.

While waiting for our order, we smoked and laughed about our rebillious past. It's interesting how we could talk about it as we could ust casually talk about it. At a point, our topic veered towards my work then to art in general. It turns out he's also an artist like me but we mostly works with marketing agencies.

P was showing me some of his works on his phone when I  lit my 2nd stick. It was just in time for Gun to stop in front of me with Oab walking closely behind him

He had a startled look as if to say, "You're smoking, Papi?"

"Nong, I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" P called out. For some reason, Gun and P also knew each other but they never really say how they met.