Begin Again - A KaRa (Mika Reyes & Ara Galang) Fanfiction

Twenty-Two

"Si Ara pa talaga ininvite mo ah!" Cienne said as she shoved half a fried egg in her mouth. "Kasama pa si Jerome! Nako Mikang... na-f'feel ko nang maraming matatapilok... sha arena mamaya... sha haba ng hair mo!" Muntik pang mabaliukan si bruha, salita kasi ng salita, punong puno pa nga 'yung bibig.

"Wala namang malisya 'yun!" I said annoyingly as I zipped my shorts. "Friend ko siya, friend ko si Jerome, we're all going as friends!"

"We're all going ash friendsh," Cienne imitated me with her mouth still full. "If I didn't know better, you're trying to make Ara feel jealous of you and Jerome! Tama ako 'no?" She said with a smirk.

"Hindi ah!" I replied immediately. "No way! Ano ka ba Cienne, past is past. Whatever Ara and I had is all in the past. Drop it," I added as Cienne opened her mouth to argue.

Cienne just rolled her eyes and resumed with her meal.

Later on, Jerome had texted me saying that he was already waiting for me downstairs. I brushed my damp hair, waved goodbye to Cienne (who had her pang-asar face on), and went down.

"Saan nga pala natin i-m'meet si Ara?" Jerome asked while we were on the way.

"Dun na sa venue," I said, looking down on my phone. "Nandun na raw siya, malapit naman na tayo diba?" I looked out.

"Yes, yes, malapit na."

A few moments after Jerome had said that, however, I noticed that we were going on a considerably slower pace than we were moments ago. Hindi na nag-o'overtake si Jerome, and it looked like he was intentionally trying to miss all the green stoplights and waiting for them to go red. I checked the clock and it had already been fifteen minutes after Ara texted me saying that she was already at the venue. As far as I know, nandun na dapat kami ten minutes ago.

"Jerome, pwede pakibilisan? Baka ma-miss natin 'yung start ng game," I lied. The truth is, I didn't really care if we missed most of the game, I just didn't want Ara to be waiting for us too long.

"Yes, ma'am," Jerome said with a smile.

Five minutes later, we had finally arrived in the venue and I immediately saw Ara waiting for us just outside the entrance.

"Bakit sa labas ka pa naghintay? Sana pumasok ka na," I said as we entered.

"No, it's okay," Ara replied simply.

The pair of them were really silent when we were making our way to our seats. However, some people recognized us so we had to stop once in a while to take a picture, but no one really bothered to take a group picture with us three, which I was deeply grateful for because I don't really need any issues at the moment.

Nang makarating na kami sa seats namin, the players were already being announced. I sat between Ara and Jerome, considering that the two of them weren't really that close.

We sat in silence (well it wasn't really silent, people were roaring and screaming and cheering for their teams, but the three of us didn't talk much) as the stats of specific players were being shown on screen.

"Oh my God, si Ara at Mika!" I heard someone scream over my shoulder. Nagkatinginan kami ni Ara. Ara had her eyes wide open that caused me to laugh.

"Ate Ara, Ate Mika!" Two girls were coming our way, clutching a phone in their hands. "Pwede po pa-picture?"

"Sure," Ara said and stood up. I followed suit.

We took a picture with both the girls' phones and was about to sit back down when the second girl said, "Pwede po picture-an ko kayong dalawa?"