Hanggang sa Huli

11-B

"Hello?" Michelle greets as soon as the guy picks up the call.

"Hi, umm, I'm Irfan. Thank you for calling me."

She wants to say she didn't care what his name was, but of course she stops herself. She skips the pleasantries though and goes straight to her concern- which was her girlfriend. "Did something happen to Anntonia?"

"Umm, she's fine, I guess," Ifran says.

"You guess?" her brows furrow. "Can you tell me what the hell's happening, please."

"She called me earlier, said she wanted a drink but Nesa couldn't make it so... I didn't want her to drink alone so I met her here at her hotel's bar. And I think she's had a bit too much of alcohol now."

She stopped herself from cutting off the guy from his obvious rambling.

"She can't hold her alcohol," she tells him.

"Yeah, it seems like... I wanted to bring her up to her room so she can rest. But I don't think it's appropriate for me to just bring her upstairs, and Nesa's still at work so."

Michelle suddenly wonders how he knows about her when he answers her unspoken question with his next words.

"She, umm, she told me about you, that's why I know who to call. I figured, we can stay on the call and I can help her up to her room, if that's okay with you, that is?"

Despite the guy's annoying rambling, she's thankful that he means well. He wasn't as bad as she initially thought, but she wasn't going to all out trust him still. She still hasn't forgotten how much trouble his little post from earlier created.

"Yeah, I mean, yes," she nods, even though the guy couldn't even see him.

"I'll put you on speakerphone now," she didn't hear anything else from him after that and the next thing she hears is him speaking to Anntonia. "Ann, where's your keycard?"

"Why?" Anntonia's obviously drunken voice slurs. "I wanna drink some more!"

"Time for you go back up, it's already late," Irfan says.

"You can leave," Anntonia responds. "I'll be fine."

"Baby, time for you to stop drinking now," she finally speaks.

"Wha- Michelle?" Anntonia's puzzled voice asks. "Wha-"

"I asked her to call me," Irfan tells her. "She's on speaker phone."

"Ifran's gonna help you go up to your room," she speaks again.

"No, I'm not done drinking yet," Anntonia's stubborn voice comes through.

"Can we switch to video call?" she asks. Irfan doesn't say anything but after a few seconds, her screen's filled with Anntonia's blushed face. "Hi."

Anntonia huffs and turns to look away, reaching for a glass and drinks from it.

"Baby, that's enough, please. Let Irfan take you up to your room now."

"I can go up alone just fine," her stubborn as a mule girlfriend responds.

"If you don't go then I won't," Irfan tells her. "And I've got early practice tomorrow, Ann, I need to rest."

She doesn't know if Irfan was lying or not, but she was really thankful for this guy. He also said the exact right thing, because Anntonia, even in her drunken state, was someone who didn't like to be the cause of an inconvenience for other people.

And so without another word, Anntonia gives a curt nod and proceeds to stand up. A brief scuffle follows, and the next thing Michelle sees is the ceiling.