Landuse

Cottage

The boy placed Alex in a cottage. Kubo, as they call it in the Philippines. She was placed on a straw bed.

"What's your name, by the way?"
"Nathaniel." he replied.
"Oh.. Can I call you Nathan?"
"Yes. Okay."
He was taking something from a wooden drawer. Looking for something.
"What is your?"
"Mine? Ohh. My name is Alex."
"Oh. How is your tuhod, Alex?"
"You mean my knee?"
"Yes yes. Knee."
"Painful."
He held a torn grey shirt on his hand as he shut a drawer close.
"I am so sorry. I was just playing with you."
"No, I understand. It's alright."

He began to rip a long strip of it. He did it so smoothly. No trouble at all. He went over to her and kneeled in front of her. He began to tie a complicated knot on her wound to cover it up. It was still painful. Is this even clean?

"There." he finished.
Alex tried to stand up. It was tight. It felt comfortable anyway.
"Thanks!" she said.
"Welcome." he replied.
She began inspecting her camera. She tried pressing the power button. It turned on. She gave a huge sigh of relief.

"What is that?" he asked, walking closer to her, eyes pinned to the camera. "Why you so worried about this?"
"It's my camera. You know what it is right?"
"Ohh. Yes yes but why it look so weird?"
"What do you mean?"
"I never see it before."
"Well, ok come here. I'll show you."

He walked closer to her. Hand on his hip. His eyebrows scrunched. He stared at the screen, confused.

"So, you put your eye here," she placed her eye to demonstrate.
"Then you press this."
She clicked. There was a flash.
"Oops. Sorry. Must be too dark here."
She looked at him and saw his eyes were big in shock. She laughed. She began to change the settings, changing the ISO and shutter speed. She looked at him again without moving her head. He was staring, not at the camera, at her.

"What?" she asked.
He was still staring.
"Nothing." he said.
She went back to her camera and continued.

"You are... Pretty."
Her head jolted up. She looked at him.
"What? Me?" she asked.
"Yes.. Very.. Cute." he said, grinning.
"Well, you're handsome." she said, giggling.

They both laughed.

"Really? I am handsome?" he said lifting one eyebrow.
"Haha. Yes. Very cute." she replied.
"Haha! Thank you, Alex."
"Welcome!" she laughed.

She finished setting up the camera.
"Here. Come!" she offered Nathan the camera. He mimicked what she had done earlier and placed his eye on the view finder. He pointed the camera at her and shot.

"There. Pretty." he handed the camera back to Alex. She giggled.
She looked at the picture. Blurry. Vood try though. She did the same to Nathan.
"There," she said looking at her photo. Clear.
"Handsome." she let him hold the camera. She went behind him to get a closer look too.

He looked at the photo.
"Ang galing ah!" he said.
"Very nice!" he said giving a thumbs up.
"What can I say? Nice model here."
They giggled and stared at each other. Their giggle faded and then it was just a game of staring contest, their eyes focused on each other.

Suddenly, "Nat Nat?" she heard. They turned to the door. It was an old man. "Sino yan?" the man pointed at Alex.
"Kaibigan lang po" he replied. Kaibigan.. That's friend.

She could make out what they were saying. She wasn't that great in her tagalog. She heard 'why in our house?' and Nathan replying 'she got injured'.
"Palabasin mo! Wag kang magdadala nang ibang bata dito!" she didn't understand what it meant, but he was shouting. Nathan turned to her.
"I'm sorry. You can walk yourself?"
"Oh.. Yes yes. Thank you, Nathan." she smiled.

When she reached home, Kate asked,
"Who's shirt is that?" pointing at the grey shirt tied to her knee.
"I just... Found it."
"Take it off! It looks dirty, will just make it worse. Why do you have a bruise anyway? And what happened to the camera?!"
"I fell.. Running."