Change of Heart

Chapter 15

Tristan

It was a familiar but surreal scene. The room, the lights, the unpleasant aura… I’ve been here before.  

As I looked straight, My eyes fell on the boy sitting on the bench. His eyes were downcast. He seemed to be talking to himself.  I looked up at the door beside him. OPERATING ROOM. What the? Where am I?

I walked to the boy’s direction. I thought I’ve seen this guy before. He was wearing the same basketball uniform I had in high school.  Maybe, he’s a junior or a school mate in high school? When the boy brought his face up, I felt shivers down my spine. The back of my hair stood up. I was looking at my sixteen year old self.

He was shrugging his shoulders, trying to look strong like a man, but very much still a boy. He failed to hold back his tears, so he buried his face in his arms.

I knew what was going to happen next.

Simon from three years ago came charging in. Panicking, my younger self stood up to face him and before he could utter his apologies, his older brother had strike him down with a punch. He fell to the floor and barely managed to get up if not for a nurse who assisted him.

“Simon!” My mother screamed after him and held my brother back.

“I’m sorry, Kuya! I’m sorry, mom!” My younger self cried while stroking the bruise inflicted by his brother and while trying to get up.

“AND YOU THINK YOUR SORRY CAN HELP?” Simon screamed at me. My mother hugged him from behind. “Stop it, Simon. Stop it!”

There was a pregnant pause. Simon and my mother were crying. My younger self was crying. And I, the witness, couldn’t also hold back my tears.

The door from the operating room opened. I shut my eyes tightly. I refused to remember what he would announce next.

“Tristan, are you okay?” The voice didn’t belong to the doctor. I opened my eyes, but instead of seeing the same image, I was looking at Erica’s face.

Her face took me by surprise. And no, her face isn’t scary. I just didn’t think that she would be this beautiful. I admit I was pretty much infatuated with the Erica I danced with at the party, but the Erica that looked down on me now was more radiating than ever.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” She said in a comforting and angelic voice. “It was just a dream. Stop crying.”

I sat up and tried to put up a straight face. “Urgh! I wasn’t crying!”

Erica beamed and placed her hand on my cheek and wiped away the trail of tears.

“Damn it!” I swiped her hand away from my face, because one, I was embarrassed because Erica unmistakably witnessed me shed tears and worse, IN MY DREAMS. Two, she has this fluttering effect on me whenever she’s near.

Erica hit me on the head. “Shhhh! If you let my mom hear you say that…”