The Black Suitcase

otso

I quickly dried my hair and put on minimal make up before checking out myself in the mirror if I was presentable enough.

I can't believe I overslept. Why didn't I put up an alarm?!

You see, I woke up because of the ringing of my phone. But nope, it wasn't because of an alarm! It was because someone was calling me. At first, I thought it was Ate Mia because who would call me during that time? Or maybe it was some of my friends kaya sinigawan ko yung tao. I didn't know it was Dionysus.

And don't get me started why I overslept. I was up all night watching K drama. That's why.

My phone pinged from the dresser and I quickly watched who it was from. It was from Dio. Oh my god! Galaw Calli!

I checked everything before going out. Keys and wallet are here. Time to go out!

"Dio!" I called him as soon as I reached the lobby. He was just sitting on one of the couches, scrolling on his phone. He lifted his head and smiled when his eyes landed on me.

A van was waiting for us outside. It did not take long before we were driving away from the resort. The van was silent at first before I decided to break it off.

"Hey, have you had any ex girlfriends? Or do you have a girlfriend right now?" Napatingin naman siya sa akin and he looked shock with my question. I mean,who wouldn't be? Asking that kind of question out of nowhere.

"Well, yeah. I had 2 exes and no, I'm single as of the moment," he casually said. I nodded as a response and did not speak after that. Once again, the car was silent.

"How 'bout you?" I faced him. "Have you had any exes or do you have a boyfriend right now?" I pursed my lips and looked ahead.

"I had 1 ex and nope, I don't have a boyfriend either," I said.

"Why did you break up?"

"We were still too young for love that time. It was what you called puppy love." Wrong. He was my first love. As cliché as it may sound, my ex was my bestfriend before we entered a relationship. We were childhood friends, inseparable even. We were on our 3rd year of highschool when he decided to end things between us. His reason? He felt out of love.

It sucked, I know. To have someone fall out of love of you. But we can't do anything about it. Hindi naman pwede na pilitin natin silang mahalin tayo ulit diba? That won't be love anymore. 'Cause love is seeing your love one happy, even if you're not the reason.

But I have moved on and we're friends now too. But hindi na nabalik ang dati naming closeness. Maybe dahil na rin sa fact na once upon a time, we were lovers and then, it just ended.

We arrived at the mall shortly. We asked the driver to wait for us na lang since we won't take that long naman in finding a dress. A simple white dress would do. Wala naman ako planong talbugan ang bride by wearing a gown.

We headed to store and checked out the dresses there. Since we were pressured with time dahil 1 magsastart yung wedding and it's already 11:30 A.M., hindi na ako naging choosy pa.

I grabbed the first dress that stood out in my eyes and tried it on in the dressing room. Of course, Dio waited outside. Pag sumama pa yun dito, edi nakagawa na kami ng scandal. Rawr.

"What do you think?" I went out of the dressing room and showed Dio how the dress looked when I'm wearing it. It's a simple white body dress that ends just below my knees but it has a slit that stops mid thigh. It's sleeveless and it looked cute.

"Dio? Still there?" I waved my hands in front of his face. He spaced out. What is this?! Some kind of romantic movie?

"Oh yeah. That will do. You look beau- I mean you look like a human," he said while coughing a little. Anong I look like a human!

"Look like a human. Natunganga ka nga eh," I whispered to myself and entered the dressing room again. We paid for the dress. Since we don't have time for lunch na, we decided to stop by Jollibee and just order floats and burgers then we went back to the resort.

Pagdating namin sa resort, I bid a quick goodbye before going back to my hotel room. Kailangan ko pang ayusan ang sarili ko. No way in this lifetime will I show up in that hotel looking like shit. If they want to meet me, then they'll meet the best version of me. Well, at least physically.

I took a quick bath and then proceeded to doing my make up. When I was finished, I wore the dress and the heels that I brought with me and looked at my reflection in the mirror. Well, this will do, given the pressure of time.

From: Dio🥴

Andito na ako sa baba.

I checked the phone. Heck! It was already 12:40 A.M.

To: Dio🥴

Pababa na.

I gathered all the stuff I'll need in my sling bag and then headed out of the door. I practically ran papunta sa lobby. It was a miracle na hindi ako madapa. But I spoke to soon of course. Nadapa ako, as simple as that. I tried to walk normally. Kaya naman pero kumikirot pa rin.

I ignored and walked to the lobby. When I saw Dio, I walked as normal as I could, showing no pain on my face. I don't want him to worry, as if he would worry, but you know what I mean.

"Sorry if I took so long to go down," I said as we walked out of lobby and entered the van. We're going to ride the van papunta ng simbahan but on the way to the reception, I guess we'll ride with one of his friends? I don't know.

Thankfully, we arrived just in time. We really have to hurry kasi he is one of the entourage. Major principals though. And I was kind of surprise too when I saw most of the entourage were young. Di ba kapag major principals na yung usapan, yung kinukuha ay yung medyo kay edad na? But here, it's not the case.

"You may now kiss the bride!" And the whole church was filled with cheers and applauses. Naki join na rin ako sa pagpapalakpak kahit di ko kilala tong kinakasal.

Maybe in the near future, I'd experience something like this. I don't want it to be grand. I want it to be intimate. That way, I can feel that everyone is truly happy for us. Yung mga kakilala lang namin. Yung mga nakasama namin sa journey namin. Tapos pagdating ng honeymoon, kainan agad. Rawr.

Pero seriously, in the near future, I want to settle down and be genuinely happy and contented like this couple here. And I don't know what came into me why I was looking at Dio the whole time I was imagining that.