Losing You's a Thing That I Dread

Chapter 1: Archie

Monday, 07:52 AM

“You do know that’s my seat, right?” 

He saw Roxy take a deep breath before calmly putting her purple gel pen down. She slowly closed her notebook as if taking the time to compose herself. 

Then he saw her put her game face on and stared straight into her public enemy number one’s eyes - him.  

“Alam mo Archie, you have a talent for stating the obvious.” Then she rolled her eyes, shifted in her seat, stared at the empty white board, and decided to ignore his presence for probably the next eight minutes…

I can’t believe this girl. 

He paused for two seconds, debated whether to continue arguing with her then decided against it. 

Nah. There’s already too much on my plate.

He moved around her and started to pull the chair on her left.

“Uy teka, teka! Kay Z yan ah,” Roxy quickly pointed out with a slight hint of panic. “Aagawan mo talaga ng upuan yung kapatid mo?” 

“As if you care about my sister,” Archie mockingly whispered. He shrugged his bag off his shoulder, placed it on the desk and sat on the chair, pretending not to care about his new seatmate, who’s growing more and more antsy.

He took his phone out from his pocket, tapped on the screen and saw a new message from his sister.

Z: Already left for the doctor’s office na, Kuya. God, you worry too much.

Relieved, he quickly replied.

ARCHIE: Already dropped by Principal Perino’s office. Go take the rest of the day off na.

He exited the messaging app, and was about to pull up Instagram while waiting for the class to start, but he couldn’t stop himself from commenting on his seatmate’s antics. 

Wala eh.

For some odd reason, he just can’t help but notice her.

“If I make you that uncomfortable, why don’t you just go back to your seat?”

She immediately stopped squirming, cleared her throat, and opened her lips. 

He was eagerly waiting for her snarky reply, but then the bane of his existence appeared and put a stop to what could have been another exciting banter with the girl beside him.

“Roxy, halika na. Ako na lang uupo sa gitna.”

He heard her sigh before saying, “Sky, please. Hayaan mo na lang muna ako.”

“Pero sure ka? Itong gagong ‘to yung katabi mo the entire day?” 

What the hell’s going on?

He heard the concern in his half-sister’s voice. And he also started to worry - no, wonder! He’s in no position to be worried about Roxy.

Then it dawned on him that he was just insulted. 

“Hey! I heard -” 

“Archie, please?”

He was dumbfounded. There’s no other way to explain it. She stared straight into his eyes, and he saw a hint of exasperation in hers - par for the course at this point. 

But he also noticed other things.

Like how her eyes are a little red.

Mugto. Nangingilid yung luha.