Someday, I'll Find My Way Home

Karl turns eighteen.

A week after, nothing had changed between the two of us. Axel stopped texting me or contacting me in any way. During our lecture classes on our major subjects, he would hang out with his orgmates instead of us.

Candace and Marvin were stuck as well, since they were seated near their orgmates, so they had no choice but to interact with him as well. I still joined Paula as we seated on the other side of the room faraway from them.

She said, "I'm tired of this."

"I'm sorry. I must be boring you out," I told her.

"Girl, you will never bore me out." She scribbled on her notes before continuing. "I meant that I hate the five of us not talking over this that should've been just between the two of us."

"We just need to endure it," I said.

I didn't think I could at that moment.

Marc was really persistent these days. He kept on asking me out on dinner that I refused, over an over again. So much that I didn't reply to him whenever he was texting me. I was almost at the point of unfriending him on Facebook and changing my number so he wouldn't bother me at all.

But that was the least of my worries.

I was walking like a ninja everytime I walk around in campus--always cautious over bumping over Axel or any of their orgmates for that matter. One time I saw them walking on C-Park when I was about to go to Grove for dinner. I had to switch lanes and took the longest path instead, so I wouldn't see him in my peripheral vision.

Sometimes, I would remember that I haven't eaten in ten hours, only to be reminded when my students were eating while I was teaching. 

Bullet, one of my students, noticed my hunger when I had my one-on-one with him. We ate first at 7-11 before I could resume my discussion. It was unprofessional, but I couldn't teach him properly without eating first.

I wanted to ask Paula out for dinner, but they were so busy with their organization's recruitment that I barely saw her, Candace, and Marvin except for our classes together. So, I spent too much time inside the apartment instead, binging F.R.I.EN.D.S to ease my loneliness.

I went home that weekend to escape UPLB for a while and celebrate my 18th birthday with my family. My birthday landed on a Wednesday, so we did an early celebration. We started out great--a bountiful rice breakfast with tapa, scrambled eggs, and daing.

Then, my father went to buy liempo and bangus that he would grill. My mother went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for her special spaghetti--my absolute favorite since it was a derivative of Jollibee's recipe--and Pancit Bihon, a tradition in our family for a long life. Our version was my favorite since it had shrimp and chicken. I helped my sisters prepare my special Mango Graham cake since they were craving it after I served it last Christmas.

We weren't the type of family who goes out during birthday celebrations. We valued eating together in the comfort of our own home. While eating our food (and sharing it to our neighbors, who in return bought us ice cream as a way of saying thank you), we watched a pirated DVD of Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficient.

It wasn't much, but I loved how simple it was. We were together, and that's what mattered.

-

I went back next Monday, only to be greeted by a storm when I came back to UPLB. It began as a silent drizzle when I rode the van going to Calamba, and by the time I arrived, the storm raged its anger.