After the "CUT!"

Delusional Stalking

He never thought that he would still find himself surprised with new information from this interview. Although they might still be in the "getting-to-know" stage, he is confident that he had asked all the questions there is to ask. An example would be the question about the bringing home toiletries from hotels.

He answered no. Why would he? He is not going to use those anyway. But she had a different answer and he already knew this.

He noticed this during their MBL mall tours in Cebu and Davao. He had finished packing up and was just waiting for Maine so that they can already check out and head to the airport. Since he has nothing else to do, he decided to stay in her room and watch her throw things in her suitcase. One of those is the bag of toiletries from the hotel.

"Huy! Anong gagawin mo diyan?"
"Alin? Dito? Iuuwi?"
"Grabe siya. Pati shampoo at lotion. Naghihirap ka na ba?"
"Hoy Ricardo! Wag kang judgmental diyan. Kasama ito sa binayaran natin. Hindi mo kinuha yun sayo?"
"Eh ano naman gagawin mo diyan?"
"Pwede pa gamitin ito pag may bisita or may trips ka. Balikan mo yun iyo. Kung ayaw mo iuwi, ako ang maguuwi"
And he did. It may be the first time he took all those, but who is he to say no to the Maine Mendoza?

Almost all of the questions are nothing but just affirmation of what they know about each other. After more than a number of breaks in between shoots, countless of hours spent over the phone, and thousands of text messages exchanged - kulang na lang gawan nila ng autobiography ang isa't isa.

However there is this one question that caught him off guard. It needed further clarification after the film stopped rolling -

Naranasan mo na ba magka-stalker?

Stalker, the word in itself is creepy already. He has experience with overzealous fans, he also has his fair share of possessive fans, but he never - as far as he knows - ever had a stalker. It is a very farfetched concept for him. It was a concept, he's done some roles as a stalker too - that gave him sort of an idea what goes on in the mind of one. And it wasn't pleasant at all.

So finding out that she had or still has one has him in tetherhooks...

"Totoo ba? Nagkaroon ka ng stalker? Kelan ito?" He asked. He was annoyed that he has to find this out through an interview. This information should have came up during one of the "getting to know you" games.

"Oo nga. Ayaw mo maniwala? Actually mga 2months ago lang. May biglang nagmessage sakin sa facebook - "ganda mo today", "yellow suits you" and the likes. Yun para bang lagi niya ako nakikita. Alam ang ginagawa ko, ganoin. Tapos mga tumagal ng 1 month, tapos biglang nawala. Tapos nagulat ako na nagmemessage siya uli ngayon."

The way she narrates it is so nonchalant and dismissive, instead putting him at ease, it annoys him more.

"Ngayon? As in recent lang? Bakit hindi mo sinabi sakin?"

"Mga last week ata. Hindi ako nagsabi kasi, hindi naman siya scary or worry worthy." Not worry worthy? Tell that to his OC and worry wart self. "Message lang sa FB or DM sa Twitter every now and then. Tapos sa JFAAFJ locations lang naman niya alam. Pag may shoot ako or taping, hindi naman siya nagpaparamdam. So feeling ko sa baranggay lang siya nakasunod. Eh andami ko kayang Rogelios sa baranggay. So safe"

He wanted to throw something, not at her of course. But he wanted to do something to voice out his frustrations. This girl and her sense - or lack of it - of self-preservation is frustrating.

"Maine naman oh! Maski na. Lahat ng pyscho stalker sa ganyan nagsisimula. Una sa isang lugar lang tapos dumadalas, tapos magugulat ka na lang pati bahay mo alam na niya."

"Uy bakit mo alam? Stalker ka din no"

Yes he wanted to throw something, preferably to this unknown stalker.

"..."

"Eto naman, hindi na mabiro. Smile ka naman diyan. OK lang ako promise. Magsusumbong naman ako pag hindi eh. Smile ka na."

Safety training, and self-defense. Right. He would have this crazy, oblivious girl undergo both. She is too raw, too precious, too trusting.

"Hindi kasi nakakatawa eh. I've done one role on this. Hindi extreme pero it gave me a glimpse on how their minds work. And it is not a good one."

He might be scaring her but he wants her to understand the gravity of her situation. They might not have defined what they are right now, but she is very special to him. And he will do everything he can to protect her.

"Maine, expect mo na na may changes sa mga susunod na araw. I won't take this with a grain of salt. Makakarating ito kay Mr. T, Ms. Jenny, JoWaPao at TVJ. And if you think protective na ako, full force kaming lahat ngayon."

And thus the audience got the explanation why it's either Alden is at the Baranggay or Maine is in Broadway for the next couple of weeks or until Maine's stalker got the point that Alden wont be leaving Maine alone for him to stalk.

<FIN>
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A/N:
Sorry for not posting soon. I went on a vacation somewhere remote where internet is not in the dictionary. And I just got back. I was supposed to post something else - but plot bunnies.

Hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading. Forgive the errors too, typo amd grammatical and plot inconsistencies. I wrote this while heavily medicated - darn allergies.