ALEXIS and the Bet

Chapter Thirteen: The Make-Over

True to his word, Benjamin waited for me outside of our room. I shot Alica a “what now?” look, but she was gazing blankly towards the doorway. I shifted my gaze at the door and saw Benjamin waving his hand towards us. I grabbed my bag and tugged Alicia’s wrist, indicating for her to follow me.

“Friday ngayon,” I told Benjamin. “May club meeting kaya hindi pa ako uuwi.”

“Okay lang ‘yon,” he answered. “Gusto kasi namin ni Art na sumali sa book club niyo. ‘Di ba Art?” He nudged his companion to the side, and that was the only time I noticed he was standing beside Arthur. So that was why Alicia seemed like she was floating in outer space. She was openly staring at Arthur as if he was an apparition.

Arthur looked confused for a second. “Ha? Ah –oo, gusto namin sumali.” He then turned to face Alicia. “Is that okay, Alicia?”

“Anything for you, my king Arthur,” Alicia breathed dreamily. I forcully tugged her hand. “I mean, oo sure. Walang problema. Go. Anytime. Thank you. You’re always welcome.”

I tried so hard not to roll my eyes or to throw a deadly glare at the two boys. Really. Benjamin even used Alicia’s position as the president of the club, not to mention her very noticeable admiration towards Arthur, so the two could have a seat-in on our club. And I had a hard time deciding whether to get mad at Benjamin for using Alicia’s weakness to get what he wanted or to to admire his intelligence for coming up with such plan. If the situation was different, I would have felt flattered for what he did. But as what my friends had reminded me, the bitter truth was everything he was doing were all lies.

I was amazed at the turn of events in our club meeting. Alicia was very attentive and accommodating to our visitors. She even offered Arthur a cup of hot choco. Three times. The rest of the girls weren’t that friendly though. Nevertheless, Benjamin acted as if he didn’t mind the scowls and glares he received. He even smiled graciously at my friends. Gosh, he really looked cute with that smile.

I heard him chuckled and he was looking directly at me. No, wait. Did I just say that out loud? And sure enough, the death-glare Robyn threw at me was proof enough that I was stupid enough to speak before to think. I was so never going to get over this humiliation.

I sat on the floor. Benjamin sat at my side. I couldn’t help it but feel this weird electric current running in my veins when our knees touched. I mean, they were just knees. It wasn’t as if we held hands or something. But still, that tiny skin contact was really something.

It was not surprising that Benjamin knew many things about books. He even participated and gave his opinions about the real message of El Filibusterismo and its contributions to the revolution. And with every word he spoke, I couldn’t help myself but gaze at those soft lips as it uttered every syllable and created words that sounded music to my ears. I was also drawn by his hand gestures whenever he put an emphasis on a word.

He looked and talked intelligent. And intelligence was really a plus factor for me. And then I suddenly found myself hopelessly drawn to him, momentarily forgetting I was supposed to make him fall in love with me and not the other way around.

I shook my head to remove all thoughts of cute Benjamin and intelligent Benjamin from my head. Oh, why did he have to be cute and intelligent?

I shook my head again. I had sounded like a love sick fan girl. And I wasn’t like that before. Benjamin was messing with my head. And I was not sure if it was bad or good.

Benjamin threw me a worried look. “Are you alright?”

I gave him a small nod. “Okay lang ako.”

“May gagawin ka ba bukas?”

Usually I spent Saturdays at home reading a book. “Wala naman. Bakit?”