AMA-Con: The Compilation

The Choice

@pattyboy - "Life is comprised of a million choices, influenced by the million choices everyone around you." - @mcdimplesPEX

***

It was a chilly afternoon in New York. The weather was perfect—cloudless, blue like it was painted on a canvass by God himself. We were walking as the cold wind caressed our faces, only the two of us, her ahead of me like always as she gave me a brief tour around the city she loved. We just finished doing our last show in the US a couple of days ago and since we had some free time before our flight back to Manila, I asked her out to some pizza for lunch. She never turns down invitations when free food was involved. Though in my case, whatever reason I had behind my impish grins or puffy red eyes, she always said yes to me. I call out her name and she doesn't look back, instead she walks faster. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I shook my head as I shed a chuckle, then tilted it upwards out of irk, making me face the masterpiece stretching above me. Damn, the sky was so clear that afternoon. Probably one of the bluest I've ever laid my eyes on.

We reached Central Park after hailing a cab around Brooklyn and I was, by all means, left in awe. First, with how beautiful the city was in the fall. I never expected New York to be this captivating, this enthralling. But the Big Apple just had to prove me wrong. The sight of the autumn leaves falling and the sound it made when I step on them just made the coldness all the more lovable. And it made me realize that even though the twigs were losing its color and the trees were shedding its leaves--even when everything around was dying—it can still be beautiful. Or maybe it's just her. Whenever she is close to me, wherever she was there too, everywhere I went to was beautiful. I guess it might just be her. I can't tell.

Secondly, with how awfully bad the traffic was even though it was only a weekday. She told me it would take us less than 50 minutes to reach the park but we ended up crashing more than an hour inside the cab. I knew it would be all honking vehicles and long waits inside the car but it was way worse than I ever expected. I've made several tours in New York before but sadly, I never actually got the time to actually enjoy the city. As most of you know, I only went there solely for work--for shows, meet & greets and some concerts. During those times, whenever I had to move through the busy streets of Broadway and 5th Avenue, I was accompanied by Mama Ten or fans or people from the show organizer or maybe all of them at the same time. How I even wished I had my own car because I had a driver glued to me the whole time. So in that moment, despite being stuck in traffic, immobilized because she slept dead on my shoulder after ranting about how worse the traffic in New York has gotten, I was in utter bliss. I got to see the view more from the cab's window; the busy streets overflowing with businessmen drinking their early noon coffee, office ladies talking on the phone, hipsters listening to music on their headphones. And yeah, I got to nestle my nose on her head too. Hmmmm. Rejoice. Have I told you that I love playing with her hair even if it's now short? Or kissing her head because I get to really feel that she's mine and mine only?

To make a long story short, I've never been on a real tour around the city—one that I actually enjoyed. I bet you could imagine the joy I am engulfed in now that I am getting to do what I wanted to do then—with her and only her. She was my guide and I was the tourist and we were together and we were happy. I am always happy whenever I am with her. She nudged her cheek on my shoulder and asked me if we reached the place yet, to which I laughed off. Her eyes where closed and a smile was formed on her face. "Wala trapik eh. Di pa." I tugged her closer to me and wrapped her with my arms into an embrace. "Sleep ka pa."

Which leads and leaves me to my last reason on why I am breathless as I follow her swinging ponytail as we walk the asphalt of the renowned park in a peculiar rhythm. "Meng!" I call out to her. "Hoy! Meng!" I hear her chuckle before she left me; left me looking at her as she ran off to the huge fountain by the lake. "Meng! Teka nga!" I cried.