ALEXIS and the Bet

Chapter Twenty: Confessions of a Nerd Inlove

Benjamin didn’t want to talk with me. He wouldn’t reply to my text. He wouldn’t respond to my calls. He wouldn’t even look at me when I sat infront of him in the cafeteria. It was as if I did not exist in his world. It was as if I was invisible.

And so when Cheska offered to me help me with my problem with Benjamin, I did not hesitate to accept her help.

It didn’t matter to me that Benjamin would never forgive me. All that matters to me now was for Benjamin to know what I have to say, for him to know what I really felt for him.

Having a bridge in the likeness of Cheska made things a bit different. Cheska had connections that my friends and I could never have. Who knew she was best buddies with the acting editor-in-chief? Who knew that it took only one phone call for my article to be approved and be printed on the front page of the school paper? Who knew that even though it was not yet the time to release another edition of the school paper, Cheska managed to pull some strings and made it possible? Who knew? But thanks to Cheska, my thoughts and feelings would be read by not only Benjamin but also by the rest of the student body. If Benjamin decided not to read the paper, he still wouldn’t be able to escape the other student from telling him about what was written.

Benjamin was running for Student Council President, which was the reason he had to temporarily relieve his obligations as editor-in-chief. And so, his absence in the school paper office was to my advantage.

It was a week after when the papers started circulating the campus.

One morning, as I walked along the curb heading towards the building where my classroom was located, I saw students holding the latest copy of the school paper.
There was a mixture of reactions from the students as they read the article. Some became teary-eyed as if they were reading a John Green novel. Some gushed as if they felt kilig with what they had read. Some, however, shrugged the article with non-challance. While others beamed at me and gave me encouraging smiles.

People started treating me differently. If before they either ignored me or bullied me (bullying came from the Pinksters, of course, since they were the Pink Angels minions), now, however, the students were acting quite nice around me.

I had no idea how long this temporary immunity from bullying would last but I was just amzed with the changed the power of written words had brought on us all. I felt like I was Jose Rizal –I used my penchant for writing to let other people realized the reality that was around us. I knew I would get into trouble with the Pink Angels, but Cheska said she would back me up. I was confident I would not get kicked out of school or anything. I mean, I didn’t break any school rules, so I was safe.

What I worry about, however, were the murderous glare the Pink Angels kept on tossing at me.

At lunch time, I sat with my friends at the cafeteria. Our usual group of five became a group of twenty. No, really, I was not kidding. The students pulled three tables and joined them to form a longer one. Maybe it was because the issue about the article was still hot. Or maybe because Alicia was standing at the head of the table and reading the article out loud for everyone to hear.

I kept my head bowed down as Alicia started reading the very familiar lines:

Confessions of a Nerd Inlove

By Alexis Marie Salvacion

 

Revenge: It is something I have done at a very young age. Perhaps my form of revenge is meagre compared to those designed by Edmond Dantes or even the ones Crisostomo Ibarra, disguised as Simoune, stirred. But all revenge has a common intent: To inflict pain and suffering to the person who had caused us grievous fault.