Almost Maybes

Two Years Ago

~

Ayala was with me. Rex was here, too, in our house. We were on the balcony of my room. Ayala and I were sitting across each other while Rex was leaning his back against the bars of the balcony, strumming his guitar. He brought a guitar this time because Ayala was with him. She loved to play, bass guitar was her expertise. She usually visits twice a month with Rex, meanwhile Rex would show up at least five times a month or more. He had this routine of being in our house during the weekend or every Friday night. Mom was happy to entertain him during the visits. Rex had been officially part of the family, as my closest male friend as I would describe it.

It had been his norm to visit when he was free, no work, and on holidays since we left college. The gang was quite full-time busy with work, we seldom spent a weekend together. If we did, it would just be lunch at a favorite restaurant or anywhere near the school university, just to bring back the old times.

For the last six months, I had been working and so were the others. Two months from now Ayala would be entering college, and she was weighing her options. I just learned today that she was part of their school band. She was the bassist, and she could also play the acoustic and electric guitar. Well, maybe all of the guitar types. I had no idea how good or how hard it was to play the bass guitar, but Ayala was ace at it.

"Just tell Ivy the real reason why you joined the band," Rex said, challenging her to disclose an information or two.

Ayala sneered at him and said nothing. I was intrigued so I pried a little bit more.

"Could there be fake and real reasons for being part of a band?" I asked.

"I know someone who tried to make a bass cover of Take the Power Back just to impress someone. Luckily, that had been her ticket to joining the band. Wanna know her name, Ivy?"

"Ugh, Kuya, can you stop bringing that up?" Ayala demanded. "I joined the band because I had a crush on their drummer, okay? Happy?" she asked her brother.

"Tell her what happened a year after that," Rex suggested.

Ayala looked at me, with doleful eyes. "He transferred school."

"He had gone to another school, but you stayed in the band?" I asked. Astounded with the story of how she joined a band for the guy she liked. "I guess it's not him you really like. You are very interested in music, maybe that's it."

She nodded and managed to smile. "I've enjoyed playing with the band. I hope I make him proud by staying."

"Were you that close?"

Ayala hesitated before answering. She turned to Rex and looked at him. Their eyes were speaking to each other.

"Go ahead, tell her. I'll pretend I didn't hear a thing." he said.

Ayala gave me snippets of the story. She said he didn't get the chance to know her feelings toward him. She managed to keep to herself that she liked this guy very much. The guy was not the prince charming type that a girl could dream of, she said. He had shortcomings, too. He only prioritized his band and didn't care much about his studies. He, according to Ayala, could play so well. If he would be discovered and be given a chance to go all out, be a well-known drummer, he would kill it. It was also the reason why he changed schools, the band of the new school he was at, had been to a lot of university tours. It had been also invited to be the front act of a small tour in town.

"We used to play songs together in the practice room while waiting for the rest of the band members to arrive. He was an early bird. I did report early just to see him, to have some alone time with him. I like him so much, that's why I did that. He used to sing cool songs to me, too. They were not that romantic, but I liked them."