Secret Song

Track_03

JAVI

Movie in My Mind by Saint Raymond

"Ranon! Open this motherfucking door!" I banged my fist on my cousin's bar door. It was metal and freaking heavy that the remaining strength in my drunken body has abandoned me the first time I tried pulling the door open. I squinted my eyes, trying to focus them on the door handle as I tried to reach it again, in another attempt to pull it myself. "It's damn dark in 'ere, and my eyes are shit-drunk, blurry as 'eck," I whispered to myself.

Giving up from finding the handle and opening the door, my hands dropped to my sides as my knees wobbled like jelly. I chuckled before slumping on the dusty ground outside The Pharmacy, Ran's bar. I groaned at the coldness of the cement beneath my jean-clad bottom. "Pathetic loser," I told myself before deciding to lie down on the cold, hard concrete ground.

In a split-second, the bar's door opened behind me, hitting my back. I yelped in pain and jolted up, scratching the part of my back where the edge of the metal door hit me. "What the fuck?!"

"Yeah, what the fuck, Nigo?" Ranon deadpanned. I knew it was him. He's the only one who calls me Nigo, from my name Iñigo, because it rhymes with something racist, and he finds it funny. He's been calling me that since we were kids with no care in the world, and it just kind of stuck to this day. "What do you think you're doing outside my business? Drunk as fuck and barely sane?"

I shut my eyes tight to fight the pain on my back. My drunkenness doesn't help numb it, damn it. I can't even retort.

I heard my cousin sigh before pushing me aside, so he can open the heavy metal door wider. I rubbed the back of my head, trying to clear it up even for a few seconds, so I can give Ranon a piece of me. He can't just shove me aside! Nobody can do that to me, not even... that... woman.

Two huge men exited the door while Ran holds the door. By huge, I mean the bouncer type. Oh, wait, they are The Pharmacy's bouncers. They lifted me up from the ground and helped me stand on my two feet. I chuckled when my knees wobbled again. Good thing the bouncers kept me up.

"Please bring him to my office, Sonny. Dito na kayo dumaan. We can't risk him getting seen by other people," I heard my cousin say. "Ed can stay here to check the vicinity. Please review the CCTV for possible on-lookers. Let me know if there are any paparazzis around."

"Roger that, sir," Sonny and Ed replied, then I heard footsteps echo on the concrete floor. Ranon must have left us here.

I felt Sonny lift my left arm to support me. "Sir, lakad po tayo dito," he said as he maneuvered me to a dark alley from the lobby. I remember it was made to be that dark so no one else would dare go there. Plus, it was kind of camouflaged by a monochrome mural to make it more hidden. It was a shortcut to Ranon's office, that's why.

I only took about ten steps, then I felt the chill from the air-conditioner of my cousin's office when Sonny opened the door. He then led me to the leather couch in front of Ran's office desk to lay me down.

The couch was cold, stinging my skin from the sudden contact, but I was too sleepy to even react. I remained slumped until Sonny helped me straighten my body on the couch which was big enough for my height and build. Ranon uses this sometimes when he stays the night in his bar.

I then heared a creak from somewhere which I suppose was the door.

"Thank you, Sonny. You may go back now." I heard Ran's voice. "Art, pakilagay na lang 'yan dito. Thanks." My cousin said after I heard two doors open and close. Sonny might have gone back through the door we entered from before, while this Art my cousin called earlier came through the main door of Ran's office.