What If...

10: Caring Hands

My supposedly sound sleep was disturbed by Tess’s conversation with this young guy. Maybe he’s a classmate of Alex that dropped by. Good thing, I’ve still got company at this time and this would give me the opportunity to get to know more about Alex and his circle of friends.

   “I’m going now. Take good care of my son,” Tess said to the guy and then I heard the door opened and shut.

I want to wake up and see who's this visitor. She seems comfortable talking to him.

   “Good morning, Budz. It’s a bit early for you to wake up. It’s just 7:30AM,” the mysterious guy said in a cheerful and welcoming voice.

Am I hearing things right? He called me Budz, similar to Buddy. Can’t he be Raymund, my older brother? That’s impossible! Why will he be visiting Alex rather than me at the suite upstairs? I must still be dreaming. I need to open my eyes to find out.

Once I opened my eyes, everything again is a blur. I forgot Alex has terrible eyesight. I can’t see how this guest looks like. Looks like this is also a wrong idea!
  
   “Hey, Budz. You’re awake already. Sorry if I woke you up at this time with my noisy conversation with Auntie,” the guy said in an apologetic manner. “Wait, let me look for your glasses.”

When he said that point regarding my glasses, I started reaching to my side table on the left. When I can’t feel my glasses there, I frantically reached on the right side table. Instead of having my glasses, I dropped some stuff instead. It’s so difficult having such poor vision. How can Alex survive this?

   “Budz, you dropped the oranges I brought you. Just stay put. Let me find your glasses. Where would you possibly leave them?” he said while hearing him chuckling.

As he tries to look for my glasses, I can slightly see his silhouette. He looks pretty fit and tall, and had that built which seems familiar. Wait! Can this be Bok?! My mind is playing games with me again! I’m starting to feel anxious and excited at the same time.

   “Here you go, Budz! You seem to have left your glasses by the table near the toilet,” he said gladly as he handed over my broken spectacles. “I wonder how it got there though. That’s a long walk from the toilet to your bed without your glasses on.”
   “You’re right. I forgot to take them off while sleeping, so Mom might have removed them,” I said as I tried to explain how my glasses reached that far away from me. How careless of me, that’s what happens if you never wore one of those corrective eyewear in your lifetime.
   As I’m wearing my glasses, the guy jokingly remarked, “C'mon, wear those now, so that you can see how good-looking your buddy is. Hehe.”

When I wore my glasses, I started to look to my mystery visitor. And what a surprise indeed. It’s not only that he’s good-looking, like he claimed to be, but he is someone I’m truly familiar with.

   “ICO! What are you doing here?!” I exclaimed in astonishment seeing my crush in front of me. Never have I imagined him being this close to me, for I always see him from a distance while waiting for my kids' dismissal.
   “I’m here to check on you, Budz. You made us worried sick when we haven’t heard from you the night of your accident, and found you lying unconscious here,” my crush said while smiling sweetly at me. “And what’s with that shocked look? It’s like you have seen some kind of ghost.”
   “Well, I didn’t expect seeing you here, especially at this time,” I replied as calmly as possible as I try to contain my excitement in seeing my dream boy (what the heck am I saying here).
   “Why not? I’m your best friend. I’m always here for you,” he said while still having that infectious smile. “And don’t call me Ico. You never call me by my campus nickname! You usually call me by my name, Dennis. Don’t you remember, Budz?”
   “Sorry about that, Dennis. You know that my head had quite a shake during the accident,” I embarrassingly apologized to him. I just can’t believe I’m with him at this time, both starstruck and awkward, for I didn’t have the slightest idea that he’s my best friend.
   “That’s okay. I’m here to help you remember as much good memories as possible. Don’t worry about that. We can also build good memories from this point onwards,” he confidently assured me as gave me a comforting pat on my shoulder.