Kryptonite

Walls

Nadine placed a hand on her forehead as roaring grumble was elicited from her throat. "This is bullshit. Janella, wag kang maniwala sa kanya, walang nangyari samin ni--"

"I know," Janella interrupted as her lips curved into a smile. "Knowing you, you wouldn't play with someone's feelings for your own personal gain."

"Tsaka hindi ko kaya mag-friends with benefits," Nadine brought up as she closed the tab with the blind item. "It's either we're together or we're strictly friends."

"And where does James fall?" Janella asked.

Nadine raised an eyebrow. "What? How did he get into this? He's neither."

Janella scuffed. "Then why have we been on call for 2 hours talking about what you can do to pay him back? At this point parang magkaibigan na kayo at the least."

Nadine rolled her eyes. "Nagpapasalamat lang ako, this means nothing," she argued as she went on google and began to skim through tourist websites. "Do you think he'd want to go to Greenbelt? Mall of Asia? Or maybe not, I don't think he's into shopping and going around malls."

Janella let out a dry laugh as she began to clap her hands at the sight of her point being seamlessly validated. "If it means nothing why are you so stressed over what to pick?"

Nadine clenched her jaw. "You know how I am with making plans! I'd act the same way if you had a third cousin come over and you asked me to tour them around. It's all part of being a perfectionist," she snarled as she began to tap on keyboard to look at more websites. "There's amusement parks too pero parang hindi niya rin type," she mumbled.

Janella let out a sigh. "What does James like?"

"Hindi ko alam, kaya nahihirapan ako," Nadine replied. "We don't really see each other unless he needs to bring me somewhere. Gaya ng sinabi ko dati, parang wala siyang mga interests. I tried to ask him at hindi niya talaga alam."

"So medyo boring siya?"

"Hindi naman sa ganon. I just don't know a lot about him," Nadine responded. "The only time we did hang out was when he wanted me to accompany him around Manila bay."

Janella placed a finger on her chin as she began to ponder of what else her friend can do. "Why not just bring him back to the beach?"

Nadine shook her head. "Hindi pwede, ginawa na natin yun. It has to be something different."

Janella furrowed her brow. "Grabe talaga ang pagiging perfectionist mo," she said sarcastically.

Nadine tilted her head back as she continued to muse on where to go.

"He's not the type to like a busy place or something fancy, yan ang napansin ko," Nadine said aloud. "Maybe not something indoors either since he seemed to love being outside. He does seem to have an interest in taking photos, so maybe something with a nice view. Something outside all the city noise..."

It was then that Nadine's eyes lit up as an idea popped into her head.

"Meron ka bang naisip?" Janella asked as Nadine sat up straight and began to feverishly slam on her keyboard.

Nadine could only nod as she began to look through pictures.

--

"There, binura ko na," Ivan said as he refreshed the webpage to show that the blind item was indeed gone as well as the article with the photo of James and Nadine. "Didn't expect it to take three days, his firewalls were something else. Though I'm not sure how much this will help, others may speculate that she or Ron paid for it to being taken down."