BANDED 2 (JUNIOR JAM!)

Chapter 9 (Happy Holidays... Or Not...)

Sunday Morning, December 11, 1994.

There he was, walking happily, basking in his new source of inspiration for re-forming BANDED. Kris passed by the café but didn’t look at it… if he did, the day would have ended differently… happily.

Instead, he walked on… and stopped by in front of the school. He just sat there, right below the Burger Joint. After a few minutes though he realized he looked like an idiot and instead decided to go to the park.

And why not? If I really want to move on, then I must conquer that… dread of going back to the park alone… Why? Before I knew Kim I was already hanging out here… me and my friends… she’s the newcomer…

Although... she does have her house just next to it…

But I don’t care! Like I said, I’m moving on!!

And that’s what he thought as he neared the park… and walked inside. He thought he heard some faint voices from the direction of the bridge and he decided to investigate… and got the shock that was worse than the actual time Kim broke up with him…

Kim… you’re… kissing… that guy…

It was all he can think of… for he didn’t really know how to react and would just have stood there… if he hadn’t realized he might be seen, and at one point thought that Kim looked directly at him… even if her eyes are closed… in evident bliss…

Kris decided to run… just run…

He ran from the park, oblivious to all and once again, the same feeling he had a week before came back. Without purpose… without direction…

I’ve been already feeling well since Friday night and it seems that my life is having its direction again…

And now… once again…

He heard someone call him, but he didn’t care… he just ran as far as he can from the park, and ended up in a vacant lot near MASGIM… He knelt down… and punched the ground as hard as he could… as clear drops fell to the ground…

Where the hell did he go?

Robbie thought as he went from the park, seeing the spectacle that surely resulted in Kris’ senseless flight. He was on the way somewhere else but walked near the park, and saw Kris running like hell… his face as red as is… as if…

If we’re in a cartoon Kris would have smoke coming out of his nose… but enough of that… I couldn’t chase him and I noticed he came from the park… and so I went… and there she was… Kim letting JC taste the roof of her mouth…

No wonder…

Damn you, girl! Things are looking up for Kris again, and now this…

He decided to call Kris’ house using a payphone.

And he walked again towards home, slowly… looking as dejected as he was before this Friday. The people whom Kris greeted a while ago were surprised to find the sudden change. He went home with his clothes dirty and his fists red. He entered the house and was greeted by his parents.

“Hey Kris…” Tony said, ‘Whoa… what happened to you?”

“I just tripped Dad”, Kris said in a dispassionate monotone.

“Tripped? But…” Tony started, but decided that Kris is not in the right state to talk right now. He had been going home like this for weeks but in the last days they noticed a sudden inspiration, and now Kris is being depressed again. “Okay…” Tony said instead, “but Robbie called a while ago…”