by M.G. Marquez
CHAPTER EIGHT
MAGGIE
Guji and I had a fight last night for the nth time. It’s true that he scares the hell out of me every time and his presence chokes me to death, but I always pretend that I’m not. I know that he took me as his tutor to better compensate with my hostile attitude towards them. I won’t give him a chance.
I left a note on his book that I’ll be gone for four days for a press conference. I said that his Dad allowed me to so he should shut up when I come back. I said that if I hear news telling that he and his stupid gang went out to cause a riot, I would hang him upside down in a chandelier.
Of course, I won’t do that. I can’t do that.
“Maggie,” the one seated beside me called my attention. The butterflies in my stomach suddenly went alive.
It’s Ero.
Only the mere sound of his voice makes my hands tremble in nervousness. He was my first love. He was the one who I’ve been trying to get over with for months now. I told myself that when I graduate in high school I would be graduating from him too. But I can’t.
“Can I ask you something?” he continued, beaming at me. I shrugged. “What is it?”
He leaned in close to my ear, whispered, “Can you be my girlfriend? Just for one day?”
I swear I could’ve smashed his face if he hadn’t caught my arm in time. Why would he ask me something like that – AGAIN?
“Whoa! What’s wrong with what I said?”
“I DON’T KNOW. Just go find someone better.”
He asked me that same question three years ago. I could’ve accepted his offer because, oh my, I’m so deeply in love with him since freshman year and I’ve been dying to be his girlfriend. I don’t know what my problem was and let the opportunity go.
Maybe because I was just scared he was just joking. Maybe a day was too short for me to have him. Maybe I wanted something more. Maybe my best friend Paola was also in love with him, too.
Girl Code.
I’ve always known that Ero won’t fall in love with me. On some days he disregards me, the next day he makes fun of me, and always tells me that he loves me as a classmate and a friend. He holds my hand, hugs me tight, and tickles me every time we meet along the way.
But I am not special. He treated everyone like that.
And it hurts because I hoped. I hoped that ours would be different, but hey, it was not.
“But I want you,” he insisted, still smiling. I tried to punch his face but he always has the chance to dodge it. “C’mon just for one day! Please?”
“Shut up, dumb ass.” I kicked his leg and ran away.
Can’t he see that I’m hurt? That I can’t just be his girlfriend for one day because that was too short and unreal? That my first relationship could be just one heck of a joke for him?
Of course, he can’t possibly know that because he’s stupid.
Dense.
“HEY FOOT FACE. Where the hell are you?”
I dropped my phone on the table after reading Guji’s message. I guess he failed to see my note, eh? But I replied anyway. He might kill me if I didn’t.
I was busy trying to get rid of Ero’s silly gestures at me when Yvan sat beside me, plugged an earphone on my left ear. Uncle Kracker’s “Smile” was playing. My lips curved into a smile almost instantly and all of my irritation died when I heard him singing the song.
His voice slowly kills me inside, melting me.
“Hey, let’s make a wager,” he said. “The one who’ll get the best place will be treated by the loser,”
I looked at him, jaw unhinged. He’s a photojournalist like me but we’re on different divisions. I’m in the English division, he’s in Filipino. I don’t have much confidence in myself because I haven’t had any proper training in this kind of thing. Unlike him.
I’m not a photographer, and not much of a journalist. I was forced to be one.
Hugo University just didn’t have a choice when they let me enter into competitions two years ago. Luck is with me every time I win. I swear it’s just luck which made me win.
Now, I don’t know if luck is still my friend.
“Okay. Sure.” I said in reply. “The loser will treat the winner at Yellow Cab. Sounds great?”
Yvan nodded. And I regretted it that same second.
WHAT DID I SAY? I should’ve not accepted his challenge because for sure I will lose. And losing meant I have to spend more than a thousand for food.
Man, I worked hard for that money then it’ll go away in one sitting at Yellow Cab?
I think I’m going to have a fever.
GUJI
I have nothing much to do, and it bores me to death. Foot Face was nowhere to be seen. She was absent for the whole day, which meant I have no one to annoy, which sucked because I enjoy annoying her, which sucked even more because she didn’t even tell me where she’d gone.
I ditched class and went straight to Yvan’s house. I’m going to invite him to play soccer with us at the clearing. His class ended at 12 so I assumed he’s home. But he wasn’t.
“Where’s Yvan?” I demanded.
“Why do you care?” the She-Retard said, an eyebrow raised. She’s Yvan’s sister but I don’t care. I care for Yvan alone and no one else in this freaking home. “If you’re going to invite him for a drink, forget it. Go away, B.I.’s.”
Bad influences, you say?
Having said that, Fred tried to charge at her but Klein and Jason caught and restrained him. They tied him up to his neck and he moved like a fish. I kept myself from laughing. I should be serious.
I turned to the She-Retard. “Where. Is. Yvan?”
She crossed her arms and looked at me defiantly. When I started to walk toward her, she began stepping back. I saw the books on top of the table and swiped them off to the floor. I grabbed the glass of water there and I do plan on crashing this in her face.
“In school, questions are repeated only twice. NOW ANSWER ME.”
“H-He’s in Malvar,” she answered, trembling.
“What? I can’t hear anything. Can you repeat that?”
“He’s in Malvar I said!”
When I was about to pour the contents of the glass I’m holding on her, someone screamed behind me. The Mother-Retard.
“GUJI?! What are you doing here?!”
I turned around, put the glass down, and kept my hands inside my pockets. “Surprise. Long time, no shout.”
“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, YOU BASTARD!”
“But we just got here? We made an effort to visit you here and you’ll just shoo us away? What a waste,”
“Is that so? Just stand still. I’ll get you some drinks,” the Mother-Retard returned inside, and we waited. When she came back, I went white.
She’s holding a shotgun, and it’s pointed straight at me for heaven’s sake! She’s going to shoot me!
“GUJI TARENCE KIM! On a count of three and you’re still here, I swear I’ll shoot you!”
I panicked. I ran down the porch and hauled Jason with me. We can’t run faster than we can right now because we’re dragging Fred along, which by the way was all tied-up. When I told them to untie him first, which seemed to take forever to get done, we were cornered by an awfully devil-sent creature.
‘”Arf! Arf!”
There was a bulldog. A really angry bulldog and it’s going to kill Fred. Well, of course, it would be Fred to die first because he’s stupid and a pain in the butt. Having him dead wouldn’t be a waste on my part.
A deafening sound trembled and I am sure that came from a shotgun. We ran.
“Boss! Where do we go now?” Fred asked, jumping behind me. I still don’t know because there’s a wall around us, a bulldog behind us, and one hell of a crazy Mother-retard following us with a shotgun.
I seriously have zero ideas.
“Guys,” I frantically said. “PLAY DEAD.”
And so we did.
I got home before dark and I’m having a serious problem with Foot Face’s room.
; She moved in a week ago because Yvan had requested it so. How did they become friends anyway? Ugh whatever.
She said she was harassed the last time she went home late. If it weren’t for Yvan she could’ve experienced something worse. I just wished she did. She deserves it anyway.
I leaned against the door frame and smelled her room. I know that there’s something wrong in here until it hit me.
That smell. This room smells like my mom.
I walked toward her bed and smelled the sheets and pillows. I swallowed.
She smells like my mom.
I grabbed everything she owns – her clothes, bed sheets, pillow cases, and just about anything that smells like my mom. I don’t want anyone or anything that could make me remember her.
She left me. She left me even though she said she won’t.
I met DAD on the hallway and stopped me. He looked at the basket full of everything that I’m carrying, confused. “What are you going to do with those? Are they even yours to start with?”
“You don’t care,”
“I didn’t teach you ill manners, Guji,”
I smirked at him, mocked him. “I don’t remember you teaching me anything. Even just a basic on soccer, you failed to teach me. That’s the only thing I asked from you,”
I left him standing there, guilty.
My life messed up when I turned 8. My Dad lost in the most important soccer game in his life, and it was his fault. He kicked the ball in the wrong goal and he became a legend. He went crazy eventually. My mom left because Dad was being unbearable. She left me. She left me with a crazy man and I was just a kid to understand anything, everything.
I went back to reality when my phone rang. I answered Fred’s call as I watch the fire dance around Foot Face’s clothes.
“What?” I asked, a cigarette in between my lips.
“Those seven bastards with bonnets are looking for you. Boss, we can take them down right now you don’t have to go –”
“I’ll go. I’m bored stiff here. Five minutes,”
I hang up, threw my cigarette into the drum.
I wonder how Foot Face will react to this. Fun.