Air Ball

VII: Loving Every Minute 'Cause You Make Me Feel So Alive

JILL

The beach, Nemo, a teacup pig, and a red sports car - my dreaming was rudely interrupted by my loudly ringing phone. I should make it a habit to put my phone on silent mode before going to sleep. "Just ignore it. It'll go away." I said to myself, trying to go back to my teacup pig which was sitting on the front seat of my red sports car with Nemo.

Minutes passed and my phone still kept on ringing. I didn't bother to read the name on the screen and just tapped the screen a little too forcefully.

"What?" I answered with an annoyed and sleepy voice to send a message to the person on the other line that I'm in no mood to talk.

The caller laughed. "I had to call you four times before you picked up. Grabe ka naman matulog."

"Why are you calling ba? Let me get back to sleep, Jeric." I whined.

"You lost the bet remember?" He asked.

"And you woke me up just to remind me that?" I asked irritably.

"Yes. That and the fact that it's going to be today." He said.

"E di okay. But I don't get why you have to call so early. My teacup pig is waiting for me." I said to him, my eyes closed.

He chuckled on the other line. "What's with the teacup pig? But you can answer that later. Because right now you have to get up."

"What time is it na ba?" I asked groggily.

"Five a.m." He said with a tone as if it's a normal time to disturb someone's sleep.

"Five a.m?! What the hell, Jeric?!" My voice raised a pitch.

"Glad to hear you're more awake now. Kala ko matutulugan mo ako e." He teased. "Go get changed na. We're going jogging."

"Are you joking me? The only time 'Jill' and 'jogging' is in the same sentence is when 'doesn't like' is between them." I replied. "And how are we going to go jogging? I don't want to jog at UST. I don't want to jog at all."

Jeric laughed on the other line. "I'm outside your building."

"What?!" I asked disbelievingly.

"Kaya bumaba ka na. I'm giving you ten minutes. See you!" And with that, he dropped the call. I was seriously thinking of ditching him but to think that he woke up earlier than me and drove to Makati nagged my conscience. Knowing I had no choice, I got up grudgingly to wash my face, brush my teeth, and change into my running outfit. Good thing I got running shoes and shirts for Christmas. Come to think of it, maybe my cousins were trying to tell me something.

I left a note at the dining table saying I went for a run with Jeric. I can already imagine Kat and Claire's surprise when they read it. Stealing one last glance at the mirror, I tied my hair into a ponytail, cursed Jeric in my mind, and left the unit.

When I stepped outside our building, he was leaning on his car with his arm crossed, but he was smiling. The black muscle shirt he was wearing did nothing but emphasize his arms. Duh, Jill. It's called a 'muscle shirt' especially for that reason.

"Good morning to you, too." He smiled cheekily at me while I just scowled at him. Sensing I wasn't in the mood to talk yet, he spoke again. "So what's with the teacup pig?"

"My teacup pig is still waiting for me to come back to him and Nemo. Plus I think I left the engine of my red sports car running." I answered him with less hostility now because I like talking about teacup pigs.