It's You

Chapter 5

I honestly don't know what kind of friendship we had. He was caring, thoughtful, and attentive, yet, something. There was something that I couldn't explain in our friendship.

One early morning, the dorm guard called out my name.

"Didith Ramirez, room 1117. Didith Ramirez, room 1117. You have a visitor."

I was so embarrassed I hurriedly ran off to the lobby. It was only 6 o'clock and most of the residents were still sleeping having a 9:00 AM class.

Adrian was waiting in the sala with a bouquet of yellow roses and M&M. Jonas, the Dorm Leader for boys, was talking to him.

"Didith, I'm sure you're aware of the visiting hours," he said.

"I'm sorry," I whispered with my head down.

"It's fine but only for today, okay?" He patted me on the head. I nodded and said thank you.

Adrian was all red having realized what he did. But since he made an effort to visit me so early in the morning, I decided to let him stay for a few minutes.

Just then, Ben came down from the 2nd floor, went straight to us, and stopped.

"Good morning, Adrian. You're so early," he said seriously.

"Good morning," Adrian answered.

"If you're done, I'm gonna snatch her from you now because we'll be having our breakfast." He was more of commanding him to leave.

"Yes. I was about to leave." Adrian looked at me and waved. "I'll see you later in class."

"Yup. Take care on your way home," I said.

While Ben and I were having breakfast, he didn't talk. I didn't have anything to say either. When he was done, he took out his wallet and got an ID-size picture of his.

"If a classmate will court you, show them this picture so that they won't bother you. Tell them you already have a boyfriend and you're not available anymore." He borrowed a pen from the cashier and wrote something on the back before giving it to me.

When I looked at the back of the picture, 'I love you...' was what he had written.

Again, just like that. For some reason, I wasn't sure why I allowed things to be that way.

Wait. There's another one.

I had a long quiz in Algebra which gave me a migraine. I went straight to the dorm after the quiz, did not eat lunch, then slept until 4:00 PM. At around 5:00 PM, I decided to go to Mercury Drug outside of the campus to buy paracetamol and some biscuits for a snack. Since it was still early and I knew Ben's last class was until 7:00 PM, I roamed around the market and some stalls.

When I returned to the dorm, I saw Ben and his classmates outside having some chitchat. He immediately walked towards me, took the things I bought, and led me to his classmates.

"I'll just put this in my room," I said.

"Stay for a while," he whispered.

He held my hand as he introduced me to his classmates. One by one, he mentioned their names, all five of them. And while they chatted, he didn't let go of me. He probably realized that he was still holding my hand when he noticed that his classmates were looking at it.

He looked at me, released my hand, and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you hungry already?"

"She must be," Santy, one of his classmates, said with a soft laugh. "Such a brother you are!"

"We better get going because we have a quiz tomorrow," Eric said, also a classmate of his. "Don't let your sister sleep in hunger."

"Ah, just go all of you," he told them. "Be ready for the quiz."

I went straight to my room and left the grocery. When I returned to the lobby, I saw Ben watching the news.

I don't know but something made me stop and just stare at him.

That was the first time that I had a side view of his face. That was the first time that I ever looked at him.

And I felt a sudden leap within.

Then I realized that I'm beginning to admire him, I mean, really admire him. The admiration I felt the first time I saw him was more of physical admiration. I noticed that I'm beginning to see his good qualities. But then, everything I saw in him was good. I just didn't have the time to see his bad points. All I counted were the good ones.

Yet, I dismissed my growing special admiration for him. I thought it wouldn't do us any good.

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