Amnesiac

Twenty Seventh

Colleen hid behind her brother's legs as she looked at me weirdly. I smiled down at her, hoping to get her warmed up to my presence already. It's been a week now. A week since I got in to a shitty talk with my mom, then got into hospital because of a seizure, got a pick-one trick from Darren then eventually chose Karlos. All in all, it was a long week. Honestly.

Also, it's been a week since I've been having this tiny acquaintance thing with Karlos's sister, Colleen. But she was a little shy type around people so it was hard really being close to her. This is the first time I will try properly.

"What's your name?" I asked her even though I know the answer.

"ColleenMarjorieLabajo," she timidly answers. "What's yours?"

My smile widens. "Blake Andromeda Martinez," I bent down to her level. "Do you mind if I want to be friends with you?"

Her eyes lit up the slightest and she moved away from Karlos's legs. "No one really likes to be friends with me," she says sadly with a small pout that I found too adorable.

"Well, I do want to be friends with you. You seem cool to me."

Colleen bites down on her bottom lip. "Do you play dolls?" she asks and I nod at her. "Do you know the Toy Story trilogy, then?" I nod again. "O-okay, I'll be friends with you."

Karlos smiled at her and to our little interaction. "I think you should clean your room a little before you play with your new friend," he smiled to her and the kid nods happily to her brother before dozing off to the stairs that probably leads up to her room. "You seem pretty good with kids."

I smile up at him before standing properly. "I'm as surprised. And your sister was a sweetie."

He rolled his eyes. "You don't live with her, Andromeda." He runs a hand through his curls. It just then caught my attention and realized that his nails were painted baby pink. I stifled a laugh. "Hey, and one more thing, lass, don't bend like that in front of me, Karlos junior is having a hard time now."

I was full on laughing now as I looked at the clear and large bulge on his jersey shorts. "Sorry, I tend to do that to men."

"I can see that." he says, looking down on his own obvious boner. "Lastly, I want to thank you for this."

"You mean the boner?"

"For this," he gestures between the two of us then to Colleen's previous direction after rolling his eyes. "I mean, my sister is really damaged for everything that happened. I am not even enough to make her forget her hardships."

I smiled. "You got me now, Karlos. I will help you bury those bad memories you and Colleen had and make new and happy memories this time."

"I'm so lucky to have you, even not as my girlfriend for the least." He says, his eyes showing thankfulness and a tint of disappointment. "Do you think I will ever get to call you that soon?"

I touch his cheek and offered him a small smile. "I know you will." I told him and withdrew my hand. "I really need to go, coz your sister would be waiting for me."

Finding Colleen's room wasn't hard. The house was painted white and grey all over, but there was this special door painted in bright pink. I pushed it open and the pink painted walls with yellow polka-dots greeted my eyes. I suddenly envied the cute girly room, though I preferred almost everything in black.

I looked around Colleen's room. Besides the thrown Barbie clothes and few bear toys, her room was exceptionally clean. Like mine, her room got this small shelf but instead of fiction books, it was filled with colouring and kid story books. There was a poster of Toy Story at the side of the wall, and I figured that she loved that movie a lot.

I can't help but ask. "Who cleans your room this well?" I asked her.

"I do," my eyes widened at the respond of the 5 year old girl. "KuyaKarlos told me that we can't rely on others when it comes to small things, so we have to rely on ourselves or on each other."

My heart softened for the kid in front of me. I was awestruck with her choice of words, I give you that. It seems like, Colleen was so young in heart and in physical, but her mentality was well-adjusted and is mature enough. She understands things that other kids at her age will never understand. I contemplate on whether being happy coz she is mature enough, or be sad that a young girl like her has gone through a lot already.

We played dolls right after that, and we made this make-shift house with blankets tied on the head board and foot board of the bed as the roof and pillows as dividers. With what we did, I remembered a first positive thing that I did in my life back when Liz and I were young.

"Throw it!" I screamed at Liz excitedly. I made this paper airplane filled with powder and glitters, imagining that maybe if we throw it to fly, it will scatter the powder and glitters around the room and we can dance like princesses around it.

Liz obeyed, throwing the paper airplane filled with the powder-glitter mixture. "Come on, we dance in the middle!" I told her again.

When we were about to dance in the middle, the airplane crashed on top of my head, causing the mixture of the powder and glitters to shower me. I saw the crinkles on Liz's eyes as she laughed hard on how awful I looked.

"I can't say your name," Colleen spoke out of the blue. I knit my brows together in confusion. "I can't pronounce your name."

I pat her head. "Make a nickname for me, then."

Moments after thinking a good nickname, Colleen decided that she would call me Andy. Her explanation was because the first three letters of my name are the same three letters of that character in Toy Story and she loved his character too much. I didn't complain though, no one really thought of a nickname for me until her.

"Ate Andy! Ate Andy!" Colleen screamed as she pointed to the door, and there stood Karlos. "I made her a nickname because her true name is so long for my tongue."

Karlos smiles, "Baby, it's real name not true name," he says, "Your grammar gets awful, geez, I should buy you baby dictionaries. Anyway, you go to the kitchen, there is peanut butter and jelly sandwich there."

The kid squeals like crazy and exits the room in lightning speed. Karlos sat down. "Nice house you made, is this your type of dream house?" he teased and I nudged him. "I made some food downstairs. I bet my sister got you starving to death. She's literally a ball of energy at most times."

I laugh at him. "Nah I am fine, she's cool to me." I told him. "Hey, I wanna do something for the two of you."

"The best thing you could do for me is to kiss me til I'm breathless." He shrugs and I nudged him again. "What? That was for real and I'm just being honest here."

"Yeah, and being cheesy too." I rolled my eyes at him. "Remember when I mentioned that I would like to be there for the two of you so I could like, replace those bad memories with good and memorable ones?"

"Yeah you just mentioned them barely an hour ago, I'm not amnesiac, Andromeda."

"I wish I was offended so I could like, beat you like a pulp." I sighed at his sarcasm. "Anyway, I was actually planning to do something already."

"You mentioned that already."

"Cut the sarcasm, Karlos!" I screamed at him playfully and he childishly fake-zips his mouth. "So, I am planning to take you two on a date. I got my paychecks and they are enough for some sort of spending!"

Karlos finally shut up right after that, but not for long. I'd be secretive if I won't tell you that we bantered about Karlos wanting to split the expenses that is about to come, but he can't change the settled mind of a girl like me, even if I am amnesiac.