Back to You

Chapter Six

~MATTHEW~ 

I found myself in the same situation I was back in highschool. Only now, Jess and I are adults. Jessie was right for drawing the line after what happened that night. Although I thought I could fix it and become the earnest bestfriend ready to help her, I guess we needed to help ourselves first.

So, I stopped reaching out for a while. However, I would still ask her brothers, Benjie or Rex, for a bit of an update on her. I had seen her one day coming home from the preschool she was working at. I wasn't stalking her. I went to Sydney for a business trip and decided to pass by the school on an off-day.

I tried working on myself, too. My own friends tried helping me by setting me up on blind dates, going to bars, and doing all "bro steps" as one of my guys pointed out in the process of moving on. However, nothing could take my mind off Jessie. I see her instead of the ladies I go to on dates. I imagined hanging out with her during boys' night. I tried, really.

It had been five months since Jess and I came back home from the Philippines. It had been five months since I last saw her, too. It was the first Christmas we hadn't celebrated together. I did send her a text and a message on her Facebook to greet her. She was nice enough to do the same. No small talks. Although, the longer we didn't see each other or talk to each other, I feared that I might not get my bestfriend back.

Finally, it was her that messaged first. It was a day after her birthday when my greeting went unaswered. She asked how I was doing and that she missed me. She updated me on what she had been up to and that she actually saw me that day I passed by the school. She actually found it funny but insisted that we keep our promise of fixing ourselves first. She would want to hangout as soon as possible. At the end of her message, she attached a photo of herself holding the gift I sent her -- a gold picture frame with a black and white photo of us at the riverbank where we used to play as kids. She thanked me for that and the memory of the picture.

I guess the whole distance thing was doing us good after all. I just had to trust her. I had to trust us.