by M.G. Marquez
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MAGGIE
Guji had watched “The Despicable Me” a hundred times that I’m going to cry in frustration. I could see Gru and his yellow minions in my dreams, even when I’m wide awake. I rolled my eyes when he laughed at Agnes choking a cute unicorn, saying “It’s so fluffy I gonna die!” For the 101st time.
I was about to go out of the room when he shouted, “Hey!”
I turned around, made a face. “What? I have businesses to attend to, FYI –”
“You’re the reason why I’m here so you’re going to stay,”
“WHAT? What about my studies? I have been absent for a week now because of you –”
“I TOLD YOU TO STAY, SO YOU’LL STAY.”
I breathed in, breathed out. Took a sit and pretended that I’m an angel from above. Having taken the remote control from his hand, I turned off the TV and punched him in the stomach. He yelped in pain as I screeched, “I. NEED. TO. GO. SO. LET. ME. GO!”
When he tried to talk back, I didn’t give him any chance at all. Until someone did. Klein and the others entered the room and stopped our warfare in here.
“Don’t you get tired of all this? Deaf?” Klein asked us, putting the groceries down. Guji and I both said no.
Suddenly, I remembered a story which my block mates told me when I came back from the conference. It made me cry in fear. Guji might be interested in that same story. Ha.
“Hey, BrainDead,” I sat beside him, looking grave. I did my best to sound grave to be more realistic. “I don’t know if I need to tell this to you right now, but I guess you should know,” I took a deep breath when I felt him twitch.
“W-what’s that about?”
“I went to a fortuneteller the other day. She asked me what I wanted to know – life, career, love life, and friends. I chose friends.”
“Yah… so?” Guji said uneasily. The boys crowded around us and listened to my story.
“She gave me 30 candles which I will be carving names in. I wrote your name,” I looked at Klein, Fred, and Jason, all of them wide-eyed. “Their names, though you guys aren’t my friends. I just feel like writing your names. (Because I want you to die, I laughed evilly.)
“She told me to light them all. After that, she said I have to blow their lights off,” Guji touched my arm and told me I should stop. I said I shouldn’t because I want him safe, which by far was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever said.
“I blew their lights off,” I took a deep breath. “One of them didn’t die,”
I stared at him, his eyes engulfing me. His eyes were a different shade of brown I hate love hate love them – MAJ, you were telling him a story. “Y-your candle’s light didn’t die so I got confused. I asked the fortuneteller why. She told me you have to take care of yourself,”
“Why?”
I reached for his hand and squeezed it. Bowed down, I said, “Someone’s following you. And… he’s The Ripper. H-he can get you anytime –”
The next second totally shocked me. I didn’t know he could do such thing, or even thought about it.
He jumped out of the bed and went straight outside to the terrace. He climbed onto the plant box, and we screamed in horror.
“BOSS!” Fred grabbed Guji’s leg to restrain him from jumping. “Boss, we’ll protect you! Boss, please don’t jump! Whoever that Ripper is we’ll kill him first!”
“If I’m going to die… why wait?”
“No, Boss! Till death do us part!”
Maggie… wait for it. Wait for it... “See you in hell,” Guji said.
Then I felt the urge to thank God they’re so stupid. These guys are so ridiculous I cried in laughter. “You did take that seriously? You’re so dramatic I swear I could cry a river!”
I was hitting the floor because I can’t contain my happiness anymore when I saw them looking at me, glaring. “What do you mean?”
“IT WAS A JOKE!”
Then I realized that telling him this story was a bad idea.
A really bad one.