I woke up to Akon's voice chanting the same syllable over and over. Later did I realize that it was my cellphone ringing. I customized the tone to Akon's "Right Now", a song that always perks me up. I checked the screen and saw Chris's name flashing. I picked it up groggily,
"What's up? Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Well, hello to you too! It's 2 o'clock in in the afternoon, sleepyhead! I've been calling for the last half hour. It's about time you picked up," he called.
We talked for over a few minutes more, exchanging short chit-chats and hung up. We decided to meet up for dinner and a round of beer later tonight with other friends. He even termed it as a Boys Night Out. Just for old time's sake.
Chris and I were best of friends all throughout high school. Though we went to different Universities for college, we kept in touch. We hung out each time we got. Chris has always been my wingman--'my person' as Meredith Grey refers to Christina Yang in the hit series. He was a brother I never had. We had the same line of interest--basketball, women, booze. Back in fourth year high school, we agreed to have Saturday Nights as a 'Boys Night Out'. We would have dinner at Kroc's Grille and a few buckets of ice-cold beer at a bar nearby. Just the usual guy stuff. It wasn't also a bad idea that the bar we usually hung out at caters college girls partying. Beer and women were a match made in heaven for us high school boys. One of our friends, Max, got laid during one of our Night Outs. He did it with a Psychology student from Benilde named Cindy. She was physically okay. We gave her a 7 out of 10 rating. Although we admit we were a tough crowd. Max couldn't stop bragging about Cindy up until we graduated. And we kept telling him the only reason she went with him that night was she just had too much to drink. THat always kept Max's mouth shut from all the boasting. Max wasn't exactly blessed with good looks. He was scrawny and gangly. His face was pimply and his hair all greasy with the gel he applied. But he managed to hook up with a few girl here and there. What he lacked physically was compensated by his charm, confidence and his limitless cheesy-but-actually-works pickup lines. I've always wondered what Max would become once we are older. I guess I'd have to find out tonight. I kinda missed those guys. They always kept my mind off things. Their company made me take a step backward with what's happening to Trish and I then. They were concerned that I was getting in way too deep. Looks like they were right after all. I got hit hard with how I felt for her. Maybe that's why I still can't get over what happened. I don't know. I'm not sure anymore. All I know is in a few days, our paths would cross again.
I slacked a few more hours off. I rummaged through my clothes for something to wear. I picked out a navy blue "I'm With Stupid" shirt, that way I'd still have a kick when I sit beside Max later. I also pulled up my handy pair of Levi's to match it, and pondered whether to take my Chucks I wore last night or my Nikes to complete the outfit. My clothes were all laid out on the bed but it was still too early to get dressed. So I went to the nearest convenience store to buy a few things I needed. Along with a toothbrush and aftershave, I also picked up the latest FHM magazine to browse through and a Ham and Cheese sandwich to fill my empty stomach. My last meal was almost a day ago with the boneless chicken and mashed potatoes served at the plane.
My headache yesterday was more effective than a Sleepasil. It has been a while since I've had too much sleep. I felt good waking up after 12 hours of hibernating. My rest could have been pushed to a couple more hours had Chris not called up. But I can't blame him. It has been too long since we heard of each other. Though we kept in touch throughout college, things started to lose grip when my family moved overseas. We still texted and emailed for the first few months but when I got started on my job, I became too busy. We rarely caught each other on-line. Last news I got was that he was about to tie the knot. I was invited to his wedding last year. He even asked me to be his best man. Unfortunately, the company was working on this huge client at the time and we were required extra hours. So, I promised to make up for that, and this year was a perfect time to do that. I could hardly imagine Chris to be a husband. Let alone be thr first to get married from the batch. He was too immature then to handle such responsibility. But I guess time does change. And so do people.
I almost forgot what time it is. I rushed to the loo, took a bath and got dressed. The dark clouds outside suggested I bring along my jacket. I checked for the time. My Swiss Army told me I have about 50 minutes to get to the Grille. It took me about five minutes to hail a cab. I'm not pretty sure if I had allotted enough travel time. With traffic in Manila, you'll never know. Luckily though, I arrived about thirty minutes later. The cab swerved through Ayala Avenue in such speed that the next thing I knew, I was reaching for my wallet and handed a couple of hundred peso bills to the driver. I entered the resto and scanned the crowd for familiar faces. No sign of them. Just before the waitress approached me, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a message from Chris telling me he's on his way. Not wanting to sit alone at a table, I decided to step out for a while and lit a cigarette.
Smoking was never my thing. But it did help me get through cold, winter nights. The heater in my pad wasn't quite enough to keep me warm. When it gets really, really cold I just warm myself up with a cup of black coffee and a few sticks of Dunhill. Soon as I put out my second cigarette, I heard someone call my name from behind. I turned around and there they were. Chris, Max, and two other buddies, Victor and Ace. The gang was complete yet again. We exchanged punches and handshakes. Our laughter thundered the nightfall. Passers-by staring at us with disgusted faces thinking, what a bunch of lunatics. We really didn't cared. But we went inside anyway to officially start a long night filled with catching up, drunkenness, and more laughter.
The waiter brought a platter of Spicy Salted Squid to complete our entree. Looking at everything we ordered, you would think feast for a king. There was food for at least 8 people on our table. I almost forgot we were gluttony out of the seven deadly sins. We all said our graces and dug in. I filled my plate with two pieces of roasted chicken, a slice of pizza and a huge serving of Caesar salad. The talking never stopped. They ambushed me with a bunch of questions--mostly about my work and women. Victor and Ace started arguing whether Blondes or Brunettes were better. As their debate segued to eye color, I asked how Max was doing. Unlike Vic and Ace, he graduated college with a degree in Business Management. He is now a marketing officer for Allsec Technologies. I guess his job also required its employees to be physically appealing. Gone was the gawky teenager. The new Max now fills his shirt with muscles that has 'gym' written all over it. He also has a girlfriend. No, not Cindy. This time he met her at work and not at some bar. They have been steady for three years now. As for the group's clowns, Vic and Ace have their own photography business. Not finishing college was not the end of their road. They decided to trade their books for lenses. Their caps and togas for events, photoshoots and models. THey've always had their eyes set for this kind of work. And I'm very happy that they're living their dreams. I took another huge bite of my gooey hin crust pizza. Chewed on it for a while and drowned the half-masticated food with two gulps of beer. The table then turned a complete 180 as Vic asked me, "Whatever happened to you and Trish Tom?" Max immediately shot Vic a glare as if he just asked an atheist about God. The table fell silent, waiting awkwardly for my reaction. I found it rather funny. They still probably thought asking me about Trish is taboo. Yet I know that I've moved on. Or have I? At least that's what I'd like to believe. I cleared my throat and finally broke the silence.
"Trish and I are OK, I guess. We never really got the chance to talk again since we graduated. We both were going our separate ways, so we decided to just break it off and keep the friendship. I mean, being in that young age, we could have easily mistaken what we're feeling with mere infatuation or admiration, right? The uncertainty of our youth basically decided for both of us not to take that step forward..." The silence trailed off a few seconds more. Vic was taking it all in as Max and Ace nodded in agreement. My piece satisfied most of them--all but Chris. He looked at me like I had just told a lie. I almost knew what his look meant. Listening back to what I replied, I noticed how I overused 'we' and it hit me. I realized I had not chosen the right words after all. No way can I take them back now. It did make sense to the rest of the gang. They bought it. But did it really make sense to me? Was that exactly what happened? Or was that what I just forced myself to believe in all these years?
(to be continued..)
