Air Ball

VIII: One Step at a Time

JERIC

"...go on a date with me." I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible but deep inside, I wanted to look at her and see her reaction but I couldn't partly because I was nervous and mostly because my eyes were on the road. It was tempting to pull over.

After ages of silence, Jill laughed. She. Just. Laughed. What the?

"So what's the punchline?" She asked.

"There's no punchline." I chuckled but I think it came off as a nervous laugh.

I could feel her staring at me, waiting for me to deliver a joke. When she realized I wasn't joking, she spoke.

"Fine." She shrugged. I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction from her because come on, I knew she had a crush on me. She said so herself while we were hanging out at our favorite coffee shop. I'm not being "mayabang" here but when you ask a girl especially someone who had a crush on you, you'd expect more than a "fine", right? Come to think of it, she used the word "had". Past tense. Wow, this girl's personality is definitely rubbing off on me.

"I mean, it's just a dare lang naman e." She said casually but I detected her tone as the tone she uses when she doesn't want to make a big deal out of something. And failing at it.

"It depends on how you see it." I replied. I didn't want to force the issue but I wanted to drop a hint that we may be wearing different glasses to view it.

Silence filled the car again. I was eager to know what's going through her head right now. When the car reached the tollgate, I managed to sneak a peek at her: she was asleep. I couldn't help but chuckle. Here I was, thinking if I said something wrong and all the while she was just sleeping. I did wake her up too early and with all the activities and rides we had today, it's not much of a surprise that she fell asleep.

By the time she woke up, we were approaching EDSA.

"Where are we?" She asked groggily.

"We've just exited SLEX. Malapit na tayo sa EDSA."I answered her.

"Jeric, what's with the dare?" She spoke after a few minutes. From the way she said it, I can tell she was seriously asking.

"What do you mean? That was your consequence diba?" I tried to lighten up the tone of the conversation.

"You know what I mean." She sighed.

"Ano ba gusto mo malaman?" I asked her.

"I wanna know why."

"Do I need to have a reason?"

"Yes. Kasi sa totoo lang, I'm puzzled right now about this. You always say sa interviews and to your friends na wala kang time na makipag-date or what. Tapos ngayon bigla mo akong ide-dare. What's the real reason?" She asked with exasperation.

I let out a small laugh. "Alam mo that's why you're the courtside reporter. And that's why writer ka rin sa school paper. You like to get to the bottom of things. Want to know something off the record?"

"What?" She asked curiously. I knew saying "off the record" would excite her.

"I really don't have any plans to go on dates or enter into a relationship habang rookie pa ako." I paused. "But you know what? There's someone who makes me want to try and give it a shot."

"Well, she's a lucky girl then."Jill said softly.

"Maybe I'm luckier to have met her." I admitted.