Driving Home

Forever

SLEX, 2013

"Let's get out of here," Ignacio declared, pulling her wrist to take her to his car. Isabel shook her head and knew he was in no state to drive either of them anywhere. She wrenched her hand away from his and marched away from his nice, normal car and straight to the Volkswagen, its orange hue glowing in the dark of the moon. He couldn't help the involuntary shudder that ran through him.

"Really?" Ignacio sighed, looking at the car and already feeling the backache. Isabel looked up at him after fumbling for her keys. She saw the tears brimming over the tear tracks he'd already made, his face slightly pale. She hated seeing him like that.

"Please," she said. "Let me do this for you."

So he relented. They got into the car (he didn't even complain about the car's size, its inefficiency, its hot air conditioning or Isabel's driving) and just drove away. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Isabel didn't even bother to turn on the radio. Ignacio looked out of the window and glared, wanting to drag his hands over the places they drove past and tear them apart with his hands. They reached SLEX and the Volkswagen didn't even seem to flinch when Isabel drove faster. She drove past Parañaque, Alabang, and Biñan without thinking, and Ignacio kept his eyes outside while she glanced over at him.

It was almost nine PM on one of those infinite nights she loved. And Isabel drove into the Sta. Rosa exit when it came up. She turned right, and right again into the last place Ignacio would have expected her to take him. The parking lot was mostly empty, so she'd scored a spot near the front and marched towards the ticketing booth. Ignacio had just caught up with her when she realized that Enchanted Kingdom didn't issue tickets at nine in the evening.

"Ugh, buwisit!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. "You need a wizard cookie and a ride on the Flying Fiesta! It's therapeutic, promise. I have to get us in—"

"It's okay, Isa," Ignacio mumbled, his hands in his pockets and his sneakers scuffling the ground again. Isabel hated it when he did that. It made him look so small, and Ignacio was anything but small.

"It's not okay," she said for the first time, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You were fired."

The words hung in the air and stung him where it hurt. Yeah, he'd been fired. His usually chatty co-workers had treated him like a dead man walking for the last week so it wasn't totally out of the blue. He'd given up a basketball career for the company's management trainee program. His teammates told him sayang lang skills mo! but Ignacio was so sure he could be more than what everyone thought. So when he was pulled into a conference room and told that he just "didn't have it," he felt like a failure all over again.

Standing there in the parking lot of the amusement park, Isabel carefully read her best friend. She was wrong. He didn't need a cookie or a ride on a giant swing. He needed his best friend to step up and tell him he was going to be okay.

"It happens to everyone, Nacho. You didn't fail," she said soothingly, as she took there steps and tried to wrap her arms around as much of him as she could. This was what he needed. A hug, a voice telling him that it was going to be okay.

There was announcement over the speakers that the fireworks show was going to start soon, and Isabel smiled up at him. He put his arm around her, and a look passed between them that only they could see. They walked back slowly to her car. She was going to get him a hotdog from the snack bar nearby, then they were going to watch the fireworks together. That was what he needed.

As the lights illuminated the sky, Isabel took Ignacio's hand and squeezed it. For the first time that night, she saw a small smile play on his lips.