Almost Maybes

Chapter 7

Two weeks had passed. Today was Saturday.

I stayed in my room the whole day. I'd read the books on my shelf, jumping from one novel to another every two hours. I did everything just to keep myself busy. I even turned off my phone to avoid destruction after sending Rex a message an hour ago, I asked after his turtle, Tecumseh, and there was no reply received.

Tecumseh was his pet turtle, whose name was from "Rhett Butler's People" the authorized novel based on Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind", which we'd bought together. The mentioned novels were some of my well-liked books which were really a good read. Rex had read Rhett Butler's People because I kept on talking about it. He was able to finish reading the book in just five days, I didn't have an idea on how he did that. I read that book for almost a month before lending it to him; I was a slow reader.

Even though the idea was practically not sensible, I asked if he had the bald haircut we talked about a day after my birthday. He didn't reply. He had been out of reach for the longest time. It was bothering me. If he was occupied with work or something else, he would let me know. Since the post-birthday party, we hadn't talked yet.

All of this was a total waste of time. I was watching a comedy film, and his face was all over my TV screen. This was no good. I didn't even laugh while waiting for the show to end.

I think it was time for me to move forward. I was looking around my sullen room, the lights were off, and the only source of light was my flickering TV screen.

It was 10 in the midnight and I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to go over to my brother's room to have a talk with him. I was aware that by this time he was still up.

I knocked at his door, it was ajar, so I let myself in. My brother didn't want to lock himself alone which I find weird. When I walked in his room, a chillhop song was playing in the background. I stopped on my way, just to recall the song title.

"Is it Move Together?" I asked him to confirm if I'd guessed it right.

Kuya Eli loved chillhop music. He would use it as a background song while he was either reading or cleaning his neat as a pin bedroom, which sort of weird because it didn't get untidy most of the time.

I sat at the corner of his bed; I knew he was aware of my presence. He just chose to ignore me. He was standing by his desk, dancing to the mood soothing song, while flipping over a book.

"Hi," I said.

He didn't even acknowledge my greeting. He dropped the book and picked up his phone. Gazing over his shoulder, I tried to sneak on his phone, but he turned his back against me abruptly, covering the phone's screen with the use of one hand. Like he was protecting confidential information.

"Who's the girl?" I asked.

There was a picture of a girl used as his phone lock screen wallpaper. I didn't get to see the picture vividly because he immediately covered it with his hand.

"I'm going to hit the sack now; you may go back to your room. "

"Are you seeing that girl? Is she a celebrity or not?"

"It's almost time to sleep. Ivy Grit."

He kept ignoring my questions.

"But I want to stay here for a while," I reasoned out. "May I share the bed with you tonight?"

He told me that he cannot picture himself with me in the same bed, it would give him shivers. He turned to face me, showing his not-so-in-a-good-mood face. A minute ago, he was still smiling while examining a book, a couple of minutes had passed and he was back at being too shabby.