Cindy's Time (Ongoing)

CHAPTER 9

"About time you lovebirds arrive," Nicko greeted Lorenzo and me as we set our things down in the cafeteria table.

"Sorry, there was a long line in the check-out counter at the library," Lorenzo apologized.

"Did you get the books we need for Theology?" Kally asked. I was about to answer but she has her eyes directed at Lorenzo.

"Yep. We also got a few extra sources," Lorenzo answered her. "I'll just buy some snacks. Cindy, you want anything?"

"I'm good, thanks." I looked at Kally a while longer, trying to make eye contact with her. Ever since our Batangas trip, she seemed to deliberately ignore me. We were not close or anything but I would have expected a little more interaction between the two us since we're groupmates afer all.

"How's the video coming up, Kally?" I asked her. It was again an attempt to figure out what's happening with her.

Our group decided to make a video presentation about Lolo Martin and Lola Cecilia's story. We filmed a few videos at their place and scanned some of their old photos.

She opened her laptop without even looking at me or giving any indication that she sees me sitting in front of her. "I'm almost done with it. I just need to finish up the transition effects and background music."

"That's great, then," Nicko interjected. "We're right on our schedule. We just need to integrate our Theology concepts for our presentation."

Lorenzo came back with a sandwich and Gatorade. "What did I miss?"

Kally smiled sweetly at him. Too sweet for my liking, if I'm being honest with myself. "We were discussing our video. You guys can see the draft video, if you want."

She clicked play on the video editor program. The soft strums of piano served as background music for the collage of photos. I can barely concentrate on what we're watching as my thoughts were filled with Kally's actions.

Looking back, we were quite okay. During our early group discussions back then, I could not feel this tension that now seems to be always present between the two of us. If I have to peg a specific date when that all changed I would immediately think of our Batangas weekend.

The weekend when Lorenzo and I admitted our feelings to each other. The weekend of the official start of voyage of the ship, as Nicko liked to call it.

The only explanation that I can come up with for the last few weeks is that Kally likes Lorenzo, much more than what the latter can care to admit. When I asked Lorenzo about this, he just laughed it off. He and Kally are much like brother and sister, he said, especially as both of them do not have any siblings.

Lorenzo has no romantic feelings for Kally, that I'm pretty much sure of. I don't think the same can be said to Kally though.

"What do you think, baby girl?" Nicko prompted me.

"Sorry, what?" I looked at the laptop screen and realized that the video was done playing.

"What do you think of the video?" my best friend repeated.

"Oh, uhm... It was good, more than good, actually. I think that we'll get that A for this project," I smiled at the group, trying to hide the fact that I barely saw the video.

"Now that we have the video sorted out, how would you like to divide these reference books between the four us?" Lorenzo asked.

"I think we can get two to three books each. Then each of us can just input anything we read important in a Google slides file," Kally suggested.