Only Ever You

T W O

CHAPTER TWO

RJ can barely focus on his work that morning. Or the whole day, basically. He's never been more thankful for his co-director in the show than in that moment for taking over the whole rehearsal of his kids. His mind has been somewhere else (his apartment) the entire day.

"Somebody's preoccupied." RJ turns his head to the direction of his classroom door to find Sabrina, his friend and the mother of one of his students, standing there with an eyebrow raised. She's Filipina and since her child has been RJ's student in music class since he started working here at Manhattan High School, they've formed quite a friendship.

He shakes his head. "Ako? Hindi ah." He stands up and motions for Sabrina to enter his classroom and take a seat. "Sa'n si Jared?" That's the name of her son. "Tsaka ba't nandito pa kayo? Kanina ko pa sila pinauwi, ah." He glances at his wrist-watch and it points to three-twenty. He dismissed them from rehearsals at three o'clock sharp.

"Nag-cr sandali. May time ka pa magkwento kasi matagal 'yun mag-cr." She laughs and RJ does as well.

"Anong ikukwento ko?" He pretends to be clueless as he sits behind his table once more. Sabrina takes a seat on one of the desk chairs in the front row.

"Aba ewan ko sa'yo." Sabrina gives him a knowing look. "Come on, we've been friends long enough for me to be able to tell 'pag may gumugulo sa'yo." She pauses, as if reassessing whether or not she should continue with what she's about to say. After a second, she decides to go for it anyway. "And Jared told me that you haven't been as hands-on today as you are any other day."

His heart drops a little. The kids noticed? "Napansin pala nila?"

Sabrina shrugs. "Nung hinatid ko lunch ni Jared, even I noticed that something about you is different. Paano pa sila na lagi kang kasama," she tells him honestly.

Has his aloofness today really been that visible? "I didn't think na ganun na pala ka-obvious," he mumbles.

"Aha!" Sabrina looks like she just won a contest or something. "So may problema nga?"

"Wala nga."

"Oh come on, Richard --"

"Okay, okay!" He sighs in defeat. He can never win against Sabrina's nagging. She is a mother, after all. She's probably practiced the art of nagging a few times already. "Sige na, magkukwento na. Pero kasi wala naman masyado ikukwento."

"Eh ano nga? Ang dami pang satsat." Sabrina rolls her eyes. "Makukuha nang bumalik ni Jared bago mo masabi."

RJ just decides to go for it. "Maine is here."

Sabrina frowns. "Maine?" She seems like she's trying to remember who Maine is. "As in, Nicomaine Mendoza?"

"The one and only," he affirms seriously.

"Here as in dito sa NYC?"

"In my apartment, actually."

Sabrina's eyes widen. He would laugh if not for the seriousness of their conversation.

"You're not shitting me? You're actually serious?" she asks, just to double-check -- because never in a million years would she dare think that the Maine Mendoza will fly all the way to NYC just for Richard, okay? Or well, not the Maine that Richard always tells her about, anyway.

"You think I'd joke about Maine, ever?" RJ asks her back.

Sabrina leans back in her seat, releasing a whistle of disbelief. "Holy shit."