by M.G. Marquez
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MAGGIE
The next morning, I woke up confused.
I woke up next to Guji’s sleeping face and my whole body trembled in alarm. The feeling was so wonderful, I wanna cry in fulfillment. It wasn’t just that. I heard chuckles and short conversations around me whose voices I recognized.
They’re here. My friends are here and they saw us, Guji and me, sleeping next to each other – ARMS TO ARMS. Oh dear earth, please eat me whole now.
“Guys, look at this. Maggie’s drooling!” I heard Paola commenting in front of her phone. Damn. They took a picture of me.
“HEY! Why’d you taken a picture of me?”
“We didn’t. You’re one heck of a judgmental bitch,” Via said in an as-a-matter-of-factly way. I yelled at them and they dashed off, laughing.
Geez. I am friends with a bunch of crazy bitches.
I looked down on Guji I want to hug him tight and kicked him at his side to wake him up. He kept on rolling on the floor and calling me “Mama.”
Mama. I pursed my lips and tried not to be sad.
I asked Hana if she could bring Guji up to his room and said she can. When I was about to dash off, I looked back.
Guji loves his mom so much. Too much that I pity him.
We’re at the living room and we’re watching the same movie. I’m getting allergic to it.
Guji kept on laughing on the same scenes he’d been seeing for the 102nd time. I just rolled my eyes and watched with them.
My best friends were also here. Via, Nikki, Kate, and Paola became friends with B4 after what they did to the boys. They did me a favor by scaring the hell out of them in an old, abandoned building. I wanted revenge on what the boys did to me at the clearing. After falling into that hole in the ground and screaming out for help, the boys just made fun of me and never helped me get out. Bastards.
So, the girls pretended that they were the ghosts of the hole in the clearing and that they wanted justice. When the boys were crying in fear, they went outside and changed from their ghost costumes into something nice and preppy.
The girls saved the boys. And they lived happily ever after.
My thighs were starting to get numb at the weight of Guji and Fred’s heads on them. I gripped their hairs and they cried in pain.
“My thighs aren’t pillow, d’bags.”
“There you go again, SB. You’re being selfish again –” Guji paused when he heard my horror-inspired ringtone. Their eyes went wide and ran away. I laughed at their cowardice.
I was about to answer my phone when Paola grabbed it before me. She made a face. “Who’s Patch?”
“Give me that!” I tried my best to snatch my phone from her but I just can’t. My eyes went wide when she answered the call. Blast it.
“Hello? Who are you?” Paola looked at me mockingly. I give her my rabbit-face in return. “Oh, Yvan. I see. What? You’re going out on a date? Wow, congratulations Maggie! Someone out there did have the guts to date you!”
It’s not a date! It’s a bet. We had a bet and I lost this time.
“What’s your status with Yvan, huh?” Nikki asked me teasingly.
“We’re friends. Why?”
“Woo, friends. You like him –”
“WHAT? NO! That kind of face? No way,” I waved in disbelief.
“Why are you blushing?”
“WOOOOOW! MAGGIE’S IN LOVE!”
“NO –”
“Who’s in love?” The boys ran back to the living room, their eyes full of wonder. I covered my face in complete shame. I could stand four people teasing me about my love life. But with an addition of four people trying to butt in – I think I’m going to have a fever.
“It’s Pao who’s in love.” I pointed at her defiantly.
“What? Do you want me to steal Yvan from you, huh?”
“You have a crush on Yvan?”
And then everything went crazy. They started the conversation with Guji telling them that I’d been trying to kill him every time he prevents me from seeing him, ending it with Hana telling us that Yvan looks gorgeous.
I don’t know what pushed me to finally say this but I just said it. “OK FINE. I have a crush on him. ‘Got a problem with that, huh?”
But just like what others say, you can’t please everyone. Yvan can’t seem to please Via in any chance at all. She said he’s too much of himself blah blah. I didn’t see him like that. He’s kind, approachable, and fun.
“Why are you so bitter, huh? You’ve got hidden desires for him, no?”
“OF COURSE NOT. I just have personal vendetta against him. You know my tendencies on certain types of guys,” Via said in an as-matter-of-factly way. She even blew her bangs in annoyance.
Sometimes, I just don’t understand her tendencies.
I went to the kitchen to get some drinks for us. When I got back, the main door opened. The one who went in made my world crash. And all of the things I’m carrying.
“Janella!” Guji rushed to my side and knelt in front of me. He picked up the fragments of the pitcher and glasses that I broke. Yvan did, too.
Being in the same enclosed space, and breathing the same air as him, wasn’t the easiest thing to do right now. Everything wasn’t the same anymore now that I admitted to myself that I have a crush on him. I felt awkward.
“Maggie, can’t you be more careful?” Yvan said while picking up shards. I knelt with them and picked up my mess. If it weren’t for him who’s going into someone else’s house without any notice, this wouldn’t have happened.
“Yvan,” I called but eight other people looked at me. The last time I checked, there’s only one person who was named Yvan, and not nine. I disregarded them anyway. “I’m sorry about last time. I didn’t see it coming –”
“It’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course it’s okay for him,” I saw Guji put an arm around Yvan’s shoulder and beamed at me.
“So, will it be okay if I borrow her today?” My eyes went wide at what Yvan said. My fists closed into balls and I felt a thousand needles attacking my right palm. A warm, uncomfortable feeling started to reel into my hands I’m going to cry.
When I decided to open my hand, it was bleeding. I didn’t know I was holding a shard, damn it.
“What? Where will you go?” Guji asked, dumbfounded.
“I want to ask her to practice with me. The Regionals are coming and the school wants to win,” Yvan turned to me and smiled my heart jumped out of its cage to Jupiter. “Do you want to?”
I looked at Guji who’s shaking his head ever so wildly. “Yes, I do.”
Oh, I love doing the exact opposite of what Guji wanted.