Invisible

Chapter 1

"Welcome to Philippines. Thank you for flying with us."

There it is again. The mellow sound of the flight attendant's voice spoke and echoed through the speakers in the plane. After a long time, I finally got back in the country where good and bad memories happened.

6 years before...

"NICOLE!!!"

"Shit!" I cursed as I rubbed my buttock after I collided to the floor in astonishment. Ugh. What the hell? It's so early!

"NIC LET ME IN!" what the? Darren? Psh. It's so early and he's already shouting outside the room. I sighed in exasperation over how my best friend is such a pain in the ass at times.

"Get out of the house, Darren. It's freaking early and it's a Saturday!" I screamed as I went back to bed, attempting to get back to sleep.

"Nic, please!" he screamed from outside, knocking so hard against the wood of my door. "NIC OPEN UP!"

I forced my eyes to flutter open as I walked to the door, grumbling along the process. If he didn't just mean a lot to me, I would have slammed his face against the wood he's banging.

"What now?" I groaned as I opened the door, only to meet Darren's smiling self. "What the hell do you need from me..." I paused as I looked at my clock at the side table. "... at exactly seven am in the morning?"

"You wanna do all day movies today?" he asked, his small eyes sparkling as he asked. "I got a new pile of new movies at home."

I rolled my eyes. "Damn it, Espanto. You woke me up and made me fall down from my bed just to ask me if I want to do an all day movie marathon?!" I asked him and he nodded happily, obviously ignoring my angry state. I rolled my eyes again. "Fine, wait for me downstairs and join us for breakfast, since you're here."

After bugging me to move fast, he finally agreed to go ahead to wait for me in the kitchen, where my mother is. I closed my door and went to the bathroom to freshen up and went to my closet to pick out some presentable clothes to wear for the all day movie marathon that he wanted to do for today.

Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Lean Nicole Aguilar, 16 years old. I live with my mom... only. My dad... well, I don't know where he is. Anyway, the man who woke me up an hour earlier than my usual wake up time was my best friend, DarrenLyndonEspanto. Okay, so we're both Filipinos, but our parents once decided to move here in Canada for a reason that I don't know, so we just went with it.

I descended the stairs and went to the kitchen where they are. But I stopped by the door as I heard them talking. #Eavesdropping!

"So when do you plan on going back to the Philippines?" my mom's voice spoke from the insides of the kitchen.

"We don't know yet," Darren replied, "But I think she's planning to spend summer there this year."

I went in, "Who's going to the Philippines?"

"We are," Darren smiled to me as he moved to the other stool, making me seat on the stool where he was on.

My eyes widened. Okay, so hearing someone special in my life that he'll be going to a country miles and miles away from where we are, that's unbearable. And yes, you've read it right. I don't know where or when it started, but I really like Darren. I mean, who wouldn't like him? He's cute, he's sweet, he's caring and I think every positive word in a Dictionary isn't enough to compliment him.

"What?! But, how about me?" I asked at the two of them. "I don't want to be alone in here."

"Don't worry, darling." My mother said, putting some fresh waffles on my plate. "We can book a flight to Philippines if you want to."

"Uh, no. I mean, I don't want to go to that country coz I am so happy here in Canada." I told them. "Not even the thought of my favourite auntie makes me wanna go home." Okay, so let me clear things out. I don't hate the country; I just like it here more. I mean, I'm settled in here so I don't want to do some adjustments.

"What?" Darren gasped dramatically as he ate his own waffles. "I mean, come on, Nic. Philippines is awesome! I mean, yeah I haven't stepped there once but have you tried to Google the country? It has a lot of wonderful places!"

"I just like it here more." I said. This is home.

-

After telling my mother a farewell and an "I love you", I went to walk with Darren as we headed to his house. Along the way, we saw my other best friend, Parry Freight.

"Hey Darren," she darted her gaze to Darren's hand which was holding mine. "What the hell is the meaning of that? Are you holding my best friend's hand as a sign of what? Affection?"

"Why? You're jealous?" Darren playfully asked as he let go of my hand and putting his arm around me.

Parry rolled her eyes. "Uh, no way," she said, faking her disgust. "Anyway, I gotta go. I'll see you guys around." She smiled and we gladly reciprocated the smile before getting along to watch.

"Oh, hey, Nicole," TitaMarinel smiled as we entered their house. "Nice to see you. What brings you here?"

"Darren dragged me for an all day movie marathon, Tita." I told her.

"Oh," she smiled. "Okay. If you want something, you can tell me. I'll go get you guys some popcorn. The TV is all yours."

"We're going to watch in my room, mama." Darren said.

"No, you go watch in the living room." Tita ordered. "Take it or leave it."

Darren rolled his eyes in defeat. "Fine." he said. "I'll go get the DVDs and some pillows."

And so we set the DVDs up and the player. TitaMarinel brought us a big bowl of popcorn and we started the movie marathon. We laid on the blanket that was on the floor with a pile, or rather, mountain of pillows around us.

After a few minutes of watching some sort of a very boring horror movie with a so gay lead actor, I heard some snoring around the place. I thought I was just hearing things but when I turned to look at Darren and to ask him if he's hearing the same thing, I found out that he was the one making the sounds. He was soundly asleep.

I stared at his sleeping form for a while. His hair was in its spiky up-do as usual. His small cheeky eyes were closed. His full pink lips were slightly agape as he lay here beside me, asleep. "Why are you staring, Nicole?" he suddenly spoke, his eyes still closed so you could possibly imagine how shocked I was when he found out that I was staring at him.

I struggled to form an alibi to tell him. "Uh..." I stammered. "I wasn't looking at you! I was... I was staring at that... at that vase!" I pointed the vase that was set on a coffee table behind him. "I can't help but admire the design on the ceramic of it."

He smiled. "Reasons,"

I was shocked at the next thing he did. He pulled me closer and hugged me. It was beyond my comfort, but I wasn't even doing the slightest move to thrash away from his grip, maybe because a big part of me likes this. I knew my cheeks were burning red as of now. Oh, Darren, I wish you're hugging me because of something special. But I already know it in the mere depths of my brain that DarrenLyndonGonzalesEspanto won't ever love me back.

I love him more than anythingelse, but there is nothing I can do about the fact that there isn't a chance ofhim to love me as much as I love him.