A Lover of Rain

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

New year, new school semester, and hopefully a brand new life. After every revelation and pain I've felt last year, especially during its last few weeks, I want to use this time to be a better person by learning how to prioritize her own heart over others. If sitting down with Maya watching RuPaul's Drag Race against my will has taught me something is that, if you can't love yourself how in the hell are you going to love somebody else?

I finger-combed my shoulder length hair after blow drying it for ten minutes then sprayed on a no-wash hair treatment before running downstairs with my backpack to eat something for at least five minutes. I woke up late for school but it was a choice that now I'm paying for. I looked around while sitting on our chair munching down an oatmeal and banana, when I noticed a few of my friends had just finished preparing for their classes. Markie stormed down the stairs with her phone near her ear, her outfit for the first day of school looked like she's a fashion student: wearing a black turtleneck, leather pants, and heel boots.

"Fuck!" She screamed as loud as she could to her phone before putting it away on her shoulder bag.

"Good morning to you, too." I greeted her, still raising my brows from the way she's acting early in the morning. She cupped her cheeks for a moment, her red painted nails took my attention at first from how sharp her nails were like she's ready to stab someone with it. "What's wrong?" I asked before glancing at my wrist watch to see how many minutes I have to dilly-dally around the house.

"Hiro's not answering his phone for three days now, and the last time he answered he told me he was showing a friend around the city." Markie groaned before grabbing an apple on the fruit basket chilling on our countertop, "And he better be showing that friend the city, not anything else or I'll make him pay."

The last time I saw him in the supermarket, he told me he was with a cousin. This time he told Markie it's a friend. I wonder if it was the same person and my gut feeling has been right all along. Markie took off after nodding her head over to Maya and Shay who came down the stairs while clinging onto each other's arms. "May kasabay ka ba pumasok?" Shay wondered when she found me in the kitchen wagging my hands in the air to dry after I finished washing the dishes.

"Nope." I replied, quickly grabbing my bag to hitch a ride to school in Jacob's car. The dedication this man has on Shay, making sure she'll arrive at school safe by driving her to NEU even if he has to drive back to Cavite to attend his own class schedule, blows my mind every time. Sera's schedule will start at ten so she still hasn't woken up yet by the time we leave.

When I opened the gate, Jacob was waiting inside his car that he parked right in front. We were about to enter when a motorcycle being parked in front of the car caught our attention as its loud noise faded away when the rider turned the engine off. I looked at this guy from head-to-toe, cursing on the inside while judging his existence. Jae stopped in front of our house, looking the part of being a motorcycle rider by wearing a leather jacket on top of his black tank top. "I'm right on time." He said after removing his black helmet, he then pushed a few strands of his hair covering his eyes to the side.

Maya was standing still next to me, having a hard time to recover from how Jae showed up in front of our house. "Dumaan lang ako para isabay ka papuntang school. Do you want to take a ride?" Jae offered her another helmet, which Maya gladly accepted but before she could take it to put on her head–he deflected the helmet away from Maya's hand so he could put it on her himself. Maya stared straight into his eyes until she heard the safety buckle click before buttoning her white cardigan up.

I watched from the inside of Jacob's car as Maya sat behind Jae's back, shyly putting her hands around his waist for safety before they drove off. "When did he even get the time to apply for motorcycle lessons?" I mumbled an intended question that was supposed to be asked inside my head but accidentally said it out loud. Jacob stretched his arms to pull Shay's seat belt to buckle her up himself, smiling a little from hearing my frustrated cries at the backseat.