Hard & Easy

A/N:  For the sake of transparency, here's how this 'collab' happened: a generic theme was decided and I received text (which, in all honesty, I thought was already beautiful on its own that I hesitated 'writing over it') and then I proceeded to intersperse my contributions. A lot of you, dear readers, have loved and quoted lines which I did not write, and at the time, I thought I had done my part of being a proper human being by redirecting the credit to where it is due. I was mistaken.

So, it has come to this.Due to circumstances beyond my control, I  have decided to remove the parts of this 'collab' that are not mine instead of deleting the story altogether. As a result, Hard & Easy will not read the same way it did before, and it will read like shit without those parts. Disjoint. Incomplete. Soulless. A chimera missing its head. 

Although there is a part of me who wishes to salvage what I have poured into this and try to fill in the 'missing pieces' myself, I can't. I wrote my parts for that beautiful piece, I did my best to dance to its tune without ruining the beat, and it... just doesn't feel the same. If you so wish, you can still find that piece somewhere, but not in the context it was once presented here. I wish I did not find it, but I did, and it hurt.

I hope for your understanding despite me not making the events crystal clear.  Rest assured though, that what remains is something I truly wrote for you - just my own words and what I had in my heart then - no matter how ugly and stunted it now is. 

Dahil sa kwentong 'to, may mga nagsabing magaling akong magsulat. Kasi siguro, yung mga salitang tinanggal ko na ngayon ang talagang nagdala. Pero wala pala akong karapatang gamitin ang mga salitang yun, at ang pagmamahal na tinanggap ko ay dapat palang inilaan sa ibang taong hindi ko kilala. 

Sigh. Now, this note is longer than the story. FML.

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"Hamburger."

He pinched through her loose striped shirt.

"Ay di pala hamburger, Hamburglar pala peg mo ngayon."

She flinched, and buckled her seatbelt.

It was 10 pm and they've just packed-up. Maine has changed into her going-home clothes, and he has put on his invisible chauffeur hat.

"Pagod no?" He asks.

"Yup." She stares out the window of his passenger seat.

She opens the door to her unit and flicks the lights on. She runs straight to her bedroom and buries herself into the crisp white sheets.

He lies down beside her and stares at the ceiling.

"Sorry." He mumbles. "Di ko dapat ginawa yun sa shoot."

"Kasi naman, ang ganda mo."

She turns her head to him and slaps his arm, a smile crawling into her lips.

"Harot mo!"

"Di ko napigilan eh. Tsaka really I wanted to tell you. Wala namang sound diba?"

... until it's time to go home.

Alden heads for the door. It's another long drive, he thinks to himself, as he checks his pocket for his keys. He does not want last time to happen again, when he had to wake her up because he dropped them on her couch.

"Ingat ha..."

"Opo. See you tomorrow. Pahinga kang mabuti."

Maine clings to the doorpost as he steps out. He turns around, and she watches intently as his gaze lingers like it always does, like he does not want to leave.

"I love you." He says with a smile.

The corners of her lips start moving on their own, upward, like her spirit, whenever she's enveloped in his embrace. She could feel the words inching their way up her throat, but the air remained steeped in silence.

Maybe tomorrow, she thinks. Maybe tomorrow she'll believe she can make love work. Maybe tomorrow, she'll feel she deserves him.

She curls her hand ever so slightly and waves him goodbye. Gently, she closes the door. He never leaves until she does.

She never knows how long it takes him to actually start leaving. He wants to be there, on the off-chance she opens the door. So he waits, sometimes a minute, sometimes ten.

(A/N: Yes, even the final line has to go.)