“So you’ve never tried courting a girl before?” I surprisingly ask SJ as we walk on the sand beach near the lighthouse. He shakes his head. “So how do you get the girl?”
“Charm lang,” he boasts.
“Huh! Wow, ha.” I grin. “Seriously.”
“My past girlfriends and I just developed mutual feelings for each other. It would usually start with friendship.”
“So, that’s why you befriended me?”
“Your case is a different one.”
“How?”
“I didn’t know I would feel this way for you. It confused me. ‘Wag ka na munang maraming tanong, mahirap ipaliwanag, eh.”
“You should know how much you have also confused me.”
We lie down the net cradle under the coconut tree. I’ve fallen asleep in his arms and I wake up still beside him. So this is how it feels to wake up beside the man you’ve wished from the stars a myriad of times. I stare at him as he sleeps safe and sound. I’ve never felt so close to him. By simply looking at his face, my heart melts. How could I not love him?
“Tinititigan mo na naman ako,” he suddenly speaks as his eyes are still close. “Gwapong-gwapo ka na naman sa’kin.”
“Do you have a third eye? How do you know? Are you not sleeping?”
“I was. I feel you when you stare at me for long.” He pulls me close to his chest that I can hear his heart beating on a faster rate. He must be flattered whenever I look it him like that. He holds me tight on his arm. I blush.
“Let’s get up,” I tell him while my hand is still wrapped around him.
“I don’t want to get up. Let’s stay this way for a while.”
“But I’m hungry. And time is running fast. I think it’s past 9am. Come on, get up!”
As he tries to move on his side, he flips over and falls on the sand.
“Are you okay?”
“Give me a hand.”
As I reach for his hand, he then pulls me again towards him that we’re face-to-face as if we’re about to kiss each other. He tries to kiss me but then…my stomach rumbles. I close my eyes in embarrassment then we laugh. He picks my nose softly.
“Tara na nga! Kain na tayo!” he says as he continues to laugh.
***
SJ gets his guitar from the car as I dial Carol’s number. I’m screwed. I forgot to call my best friend. She must be angry. Well, I’m right. She’s pissed off. She said that I forgot her easily because I’m with the man of my dreams. Of course I did a number of apologies.
“Do you have any song request?” SJ asks as he tunes his guitar.
“How about, your song for me?” I suggest, wondering if he knew what my favorite song is.
He thinks for a moment. Then he strums the chords of the song which has always reminded me of him…my favorite song, which he sang in second year high school while it was raining hard.
“And I give up forever to touch you, ‘cause I know that you feel me somehow. You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t want to go home right now…”
I don’t know if he knew that was my favorite song. It has become my favorite even before the day he sang it. I love the lyrics, I love the beat, I love the voice and interpretation of John Rzeznik, I love the movie, which it was written for.
“And I don’t want the world to see me, ‘cause I don’t think that they’d understand. When everything’s made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.”
If it was really his song for me, then it must be destiny.
It’s funny and weird because every line of the song pertained to how I wished he would feel for me. Him, being the all-mysterious, misinterpreted, misunderstood guy and me, being able to see through all those things about him.
“I think that would be the perfect song that best describes what I want to express to you,” he says.
“That is actually…my favorite song. Do you know that?” I ask. “I mean, honestly.”
“No. But I think I remember you listening to it in high school. And I realize that would be my song for you.”
“You remember?” I ask in curiosity. How would he remember if it was nothing to him?
He nods. “I remember a lot of things,” he admits.
“What else do you remember?”
“Do you believe in love at first sight?” he asks.
I do because I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.
“I think I have experienced that.”
“Sino na namang babae ‘yan?! Sabi na nga ba, babaero ka talaga!” I exclaim.
“It’s a girl from 14 years ago,” he starts his story.
Fourteen years ago…we’re both in first year high school.
***
YOU ARE READING
Stuck in Love
RomanceFirst love never dies, they say. So when he returns after 12 long years, she suddenly realizes she's still in love with him. She has always been, unconsciously. But, he does not know, he never knows. Until when can she secretly love a person who doe...
