A Close Second

Second

COURTNEY BEATRICE

"Can you actually pay attention? Ano ba, Jacob? Nakatulala ka lang ba diyan the whole time? Diba nagpapaturo ka?"

Jake looked up at me, snapping out of his reverie. He looks at me, a little bit surprised. I raised an indignant eyebrow saka naman sinarado ko lang yung libro.

"If you're not gonna pay attention sa sinasabi ko, then it would be better na hindi nalang natin ituloy itong tutoring session na ito. Obviosy, your mind is not even here with me."

I got up to fix my notebook and then put it atop of the cafeteria table. We were both at the outdoors part of the place, a Physics tutoring session at plan.

But obviously, may ibang plano ang utak ng kasama ko.

"Jacob Isaac Napoleon!"

He again looks at me, blinking as if he just realized where he is currently. Seriously? I scoffed at him, bagging my things.

"Nasan ba ang utak mo? Kanina ka pa sa klase ah! Napagsabihan ka na ni Ms. Cabildo, hindi ka parin ba tumitino?"
He sighs, closing his notebook as well. "Sorry, Beatrice."
"What's eating you?" Tanong ko, sitting down and cooling down, reaching for the can of coke. "Something's bothering you. What is it, Jake?"

He just stares at me, but he shakes his head later on without even saying anything which was not Jake's behavior.

Something was really eating him up, and hindi ko na pinush pa. I know Jake, and he'll definitey talk when he wants to talk.

I just continued fixing my things and then we sat in complete silence after. Nakatingin lang ako sa kanya habang nakatingin siya sa table like it was the most interesting thing that he had seen for a while.

Call it shallow, but the first thing that I had fallen in love with this guy was his looks.

He was handsome, ridiculously handsome at that.

His eyes were coal black, but it had this certain friendliness in them. His dark hair was always unruly, but it just gave him a carefree look, like he didn't have a mind kung anong hitsura nito, which was exactly the case.

His other features, straight nose, think lips and long eyelashes.... Those only made him hotter.

And then there's his build.

He was tall, 5 feet 10 at that, and lean. He was muscular but not like a bodybuilder tyoe—more like a swimmer, kahit na basketball player siya.

I've actually seen him half-naked and boy.

Mapapapaypay ka.

He's not exactly concerned with building muscle and such, as far as I know, he just lifts weights to tone his muscles and maintain them (at least that's what he's telling me) but I've seen a lot of girls eye him when he's at practice or in games.

"Bey, I need advice."

I got yanked out of my reverie, or my checking him out. He's talking now, looking at me straight. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, what is it?"
"If I did something bad to you—will you forgive me?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "What did you do?"
"No, no. I didn't do anything now." He shakes his head. "At least not yet. What I'm asking is, if I did something bad to you—hypothetically—would you forgive me?"
"What exactly did you do?"
"Nothing too bad... I mean, if it was for your sake..."
"Now, I'm worried. Ano bang kasalanan mo sa akin?" I asked him.
"Not you!" He chuckles. "I was talking about someone else!"
"Who?"
"Remember Thea?"