Tease Chapter 5: Competitions

“Oh crap.”

Sheena looked up at me and asked, “What’s wrong?”

It was recess, and I patted my pocket for my wallet. Not there. Did a check in my bag, nada. I left my wallet at home. I tried to visualize where in my room I probably should have left it, and I knew where: the bag that I used when I went to Alex’s grave. I groaned.

“I… don’t have my wallet with me,” I replied slowly.

“Did someone steal it?”

“No. It’s at home. I forgot to grab it this morning,” I explained, and she nodded. “Aw, I’m sorry, Trista. I can’t lend you money. I’m bringing just the right amount for recess and lunch,” Sheena said, and I gave her an assuring smile. “It’s alright, Sheen. I’ll figure this one out,” I said, looking around. As if on cue, Nathan was making his way towards me, that wishy-washy smile on his face, exposing his dimple on his left cheek.

“Problem?” he asked, a cute, inquiring look on his face, and I nodded. “Wallet,” was my one-word reply.

“Lost?”

“Nope.”

“Forgot?”

“Yup.”

He took out his wallet. “I’ll buy you food,” he said, and it wasn’t phrased as a question. I was about to protest when he just took off. “Okaaaaaaay,” I said slowly, lengthening the second syllable, almost dazed at what’s happening. I wasn’t sure how to react. Nathan came back and was carrying cheese sticks and fries, and I accepted. “I’ll pay you later,” I told him, and he glowered at me.

“No.”

I stared back at him, wanting him to change his mind, but I knew he wouldn’t. “Thanks,” I said instead, and he went back to the food stall and came back with a hotdog and his own fries. He sat next to me, and we ate, small talks in between, sometimes involving Sheena. As soon as we were done eating, Nathan left to be with his team again. I was waiting for him by lunchtime, but he didn’t arrive. I silently wondered how I am to eat lunch.

Gino was the answer. He arrived in style at our acacia spot, delivering a complete food tray on my table. He raised his hand as I was about to pose a question and left once more. When he returned, he was carrying a similar food tray.

“What is this?” I asked, motioning at the pork sinigang, rice, Coke, and banana on the tray. Gino smirked. “Food,” he said simply, and I gave him a sarcastic smile. “That’s kind of obvious, isn’t?” I said, and he sat across me. “Nathan told me to give that to you. The Reader’s Theatre team was called for a practice, so he can’t bring it himself. But he wants me to make sure you eat everything, and that you’d drink your medicines,” he explained, more patiently this time. I thanked him, and then we started to eat.

“You and him finally okay?” he asked, midway the meal. I nodded.

“Pretty much.”

Tease Chapter 4: Beginnings?

“Trista, honey, someone’s here to see you,” Manang Luisa said when she knocked on my door that afternoon. I knew I had no choice, so I gave her a small smile. I braced myself and sat up, still stuffy. I felt like I was being weighed down by big boulder or something. I placed the A.P. book I was reading—or trying to read—on my bedside table. When I looked up, I gaped through my teary eyes.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove by doing this, Trista.”

“Ian,” I gasped, and he sat on the chair next to my bed. “I came to deliver Lau’s notes—not that you’re in the state that you can copy them. I knew you’d ask for it,” he explained, producing the notebooks from his gym bag. He placed them on the desk atop my A.P. book, and I thanked him quietly. I wouldn’t want to know how he knew about my asking Lau’s notes, and how the hell he talked Lau out of bringing the notes to me.

“As I’ve said, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove by doing this, Trista,” he repeated, and I frowned. “Doing what?” I asked innocently.

“Avoiding my brother?” he said, and I groaned.

Tease Chapter 3: History

“You.”

Lau greeted me even before I could even enter the school premises, and I frowned. She specifically waited for me outside the school grounds. “Me? What?” I asked innocently, and she faked a pained look.

“You, girl, are not telling me something,” she finished, and it took me three full seconds before I realized what she meant. At that point, she and I were passing the guard and Nathan was at his usual post, and he winked at me when I passed. I knew Lau caught that, because she was staring at me wide-eyed after we passed him.

“What was that all about?” she demanded as soon as we reached the classroom. The nerdy boys were again huddled in their corner, which was suddenly becoming a morning ritual. I ignored them and flopped onto my seat, placing my bag on the floor. Lau was quick—she dropped her bag onto her chair and bounced back towards me.

“I don’t really know. Maybe it’s enough to say that he likes me, and that… we’re sort of going out,” I explained, and I gave her an abridged version of what happened with Lyra in the hallway a couple of days ago and how Nathan reacted, and then to our weird weekend. I excluded the kisses—Lyra will definitely freak out when she hears that.

She perched herself on Geoff’s armchair. “So you’re saying that it’s you and him, but no commitment yet?” she asked in a whisper, and I shrugged. “If it gives anything, he called me ‘baby,’ last night,” I told her just as quietly, and she squealed.

“Oh you bitch,” she chided, and we laughed. “I’m happy for you,” she said when the laughter subsided. “Yeah. Thanks,” I replied, and I knew what she was thinking: at least now I have someone other than her. She knew all about my family history, and she’s taking everything she has to be there for me whenever she can. She’s my acquired sister, and she knows it.

“I just have one thing in my mind, though,” I told her, and she looked at me questioningly. I was about to answer when the bell rang. I told her, “Maybe later,” and she nodded. “But you will tell it to me, right?” she asked, and I gave her an assuring smile. We headed out of the classroom at that instant, and I knew whatever I was thinking will be forgotten.

–

Tease Chapter 2: Special Someones

Nathan is the first guy who expressed the want–or need–to protect me. And care for me.

I have spent the past five years of my life with no one really caring about how I do with my life and what I do with it, and no one really cared if I get hurt or if somebody is taking pains to hurt me—except maybe Manang Luisa. But Manang Luisa never found out about the bullies at Louisville, and she isn’t getting any about this one at Teddy High.

Guys at Louisville—even my ex-boyfriends—didn’t want to have anything to do with me after girls started to bitch on me. Which is pretty gentlemanly of them, if you ask me—gentlemanly to the bitches.

And having someone who cares for me and protects me? Aside from that will take some getting used to, I don’t know how it will feel if that person will be just gone as soon as he pops around.

I brushed my tears and breathed deeply.

“Just what about this entire thing about you and me are you so confused about?”

I jumped at the sound of Nathan’s voice. He was sweaty and he had been running; his bag was slung over his right shoulder and his polo shirt on the other. I didn’t want to take my time to marvel at how his muscles were sculpted and how they looked firm, so I continued to walk.

“Trista, I asked you: What about us is confusing you?” he demanded, and he was in front of me all of a sudden. I gave him an exasperated look. First, he used ‘you and me,’ and then now he’s using ‘us.’ His face softened when he saw that I was crying. 

Tease Chapter 1: Gorgeously Confused

Mom said it was “okay” that I transferred to Teddy High for my secondary education.

Not that she cares much, but hey, I have to tell her what I am doing with my life given that she is halfway around the world with her new kids and new husband.

Dad reckons that I’m “old enough to know what to do with [my] life.”

Gee, Dad, thanks. I’m twelve.

He’s just 400 kilometers away and he can’t even give me the answer I expected, or make that trip to help me arrange my transfer papers. Maybe something along the lines of “Oh, no need to come live with me here and study here. So that settles it then? I don’t have to explain you to my other family.”

Sometimes, growing up and being your own mom and dad is never nice.

 –

Tease: PROLOGUE

I hated reunions.

That was my first thought when I woke up this morning, knowing very well I have to face my high school batch mates tonight. Okay. Check that. I have to face my entire high school tonight. I have to face Nathan, Geoff, Gino, Ian, and those bitches who probably have wished to God that I dropped dead in the middle of my freshman year up until graduation. I have to face every single one who saw how most of my relationships failed. I have to face the friends I had and lost because of senior year. Who knows how many times they’ve wished I was dead before the reunion?

Ten years. It’s 2015 for heaven’s sake—reunions still matter?

It has been ten years since I last saw the bunch of them, since as soon as I stepped out and got my diploma from my high school I haven’t gone back there. I ignored every single invitation to a debut, birthday party and graduation party that I got, going only to one: Ian’s welcome home party (His family migrated to Denver when we were in our first year in college, and they continued their studies there.). I had hoped to see Nathan there, but he wasn’t, and Ian told me that his brother didn’t want to come home because he couldn’t miss lessons in school. I saw the underlying message there: he didn’t want to see me.

Ha. And I don’t know if that hurts more than what happened to us before.

What makes me think that he’s going to be here in our alma mater’s twentieth anniversary?

I was happy to see Ian, my dear best friend, though, but then again…

I wiped the sleep off my eyes and sat up in my bed, grabbing my cell phone to check for messages. Christmas vacation from work had just started. My office, which I love, have Christmas vacations like school. After Christmas parties, you go on this break, and just resume work again by January.

Yep, that’s what they call a work-life balance.

And this is what my former school decided to kick off our most wanted vacation: a reunion.

Hey Trist, I’ll see you later, ayt?

I groaned. Lau. She was one of the girls I had gotten pretty close to during high school—probably the only one I ever had aside from Ian—but like any other “friend” I’ve got back in high school, I cut her off from my life. I saw her a couple of years ago, with her own restaurant and her new husband. Finally she settled on one, after having a bit of trial and error with two others before her present, plus five other boyfriends and blown engagements before this.

I was reading the fifth message—Trista, want to join us, New Year’s Eve? We’re heading to Coron. -Drei— when my cell phone started to ring. It was an unlisted number, and although I don’t usually answer phone calls from numbers I don’t even know, I picked up. Part of me was hoping it was Eric.

“Do you know how hard it was to find someone who actually knows your number?” was the other person’s greeting. The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “Who’s this?” I asked, and the caller made a sound halfway between a groan and a grunt.

“Gino.”

It was my turn to groan. “Gino,” I repeated blandly, as if the name meant nothing to me, which is a lie. He is, after all, my ex-boyfriend, so who am I kidding not remembering his name? He was one of my relationships that horribly failed just when I thought it was perfect.

NOTE TO SELF: Never ever say something is perfect. It gets ruined.

“Yeah. You’ll be coming tonight, right?” he asked smoothly, and I smirked.

“Yep. I’m bringing my car, so if you’re offering to pick me up, don’t bother.”

“Aw, Trista. That hurts,” he said in a fake pained voice. “Why do you always hurt me like this?”

“Gino, shut it,” I said, and I wonder if the animosity that came along with my voice was because of the hate I still harbor towards him after all these years. He laughed on the other line. “See you later, Trista,” he said, and he ended the call.

I flopped onto my bed, thinking back on the years that were.

Tease: Preview

Chapter 1: Gorgeously Confused

Mom said it was “okay” that I transferred to Teddy High for my secondary education.

Not that she cares much, but hey, I have to tell her what I am doing with my life given that she is halfway around the world with her new kids and new husband.

Dad reckons that I’m “old enough to know what to do with [my] life.”

Gee, Dad, thanks. I’m twelve.

He’s just 400 kilometers away and he can’t even give me the answer I expected, or make that trip to help me arrange my transfer papers. Maybe something along the lines of “Oh, no need to come live with me here and study here. So that settles it then? I don’t have to explain you to my other family.”

Sometimes, growing up and being your own mom and dad is never nice.

–

My first day at the Teddy High.

I breathed deeply and looked at Theodore Montessori High School’s magnificent eight floors of maroon and white beauty. I told Manang Luisa when she asked me why I chose Teddy High was because (1) I liked maroon, (2) Teddy High has a gorgeous garden and fields, and (3) it is on a hilltop, so it should be sometimes cold. She flashed me a glare when I said that, and I just laughed, hugging my almost mom. Manang Luisa had, after all, taken care of me ever since I was in my diapers—or maybe ever since my parents decided I wasn’t worth the damn orgasm. (If they had one, that is. It sucks to think that even for once, they weren’t even sexually compatible. There has to be a reason why they made a mistake of marrying each other.)

Honestly, I chose Teddy High because of the seclusion. The place is a kilometer or so away from the main road (hilltop—go figure), and it only had around 80 students per year level. If it’s discretion you need, Teddy High’s the place to go.

Plus, Teddy High beats the crap out of my former school, Louisville Montessori, every single time in academic competitions. So if I plan to sow the seeds in my brain and harvest some kind of many rewards, I need to go to Teddy High.

Although going to a school that has less than 400 high school students means knowing practically everyone, I’d take my chances.

A honk from behind our car told me that I needed to go down now because we’re blocking the driveway. Manang Luisa gave me a good luck hug and the driver Paolo gave me a weird, almost maniacal smile. I swear our new driver freaks the hell out of me. Whatever. Manang Luisa tells me that he is a good guy, then so be it. If Manang Luisa thinks so… I shrugged.

I got down the car and smoothened the wrinkles of my clothes. Teddy High’s maroon and white checkered skirt and white long-sleeved blouse seemed to be okay for me, and then I put on a hey-I’m-a-freshman-but-not-your-ordinary-freshman smile. I remembered fluffing my hair in the car so the hair’s check, and I didn’t dare put on makeup because I’m still technically too young for that. I tried not to put too much confidence in my walk—I might trip and be the butt of the first day jokes. And when I got to the school gates, I swear I tried not to let my jaw drop and to keep my panties on.

I stared—I allowed myself that. The guy standing next to the guard is drop-dead GORGEOUS. He has the most intense pair of eyes I’ve ever seen and the most heartwarming smile. The dimple on his left cheek was one of the highlights of his face, along with his long, pointed nose and high cheekbones.

And I was sure that he is not a freshman.

The gorgeous one looked up and caught me staring at him, and I didn’t dare look away—that would only make me look even guiltier than I am. Gorgeous stared back, the smile on his face curving into amusement. I am so hoping he was staring at me.

And then he looked alarmed.

He stalked past the guard, who yelled at him to come back, and lunged at me, pulling me by the arm. A loud honk told me that I was actually at the driveway, and that I didn’t do a survival check (e.g., looking left and right before crossing the road) while I was staring at Gorgeous. I gasped as I crashed into his chest, inhaling his very manly smell. Hmm. It might be Bvlgari—or Clinique Happy. Either way, he smells so darn nice.

DAMN. Feels so warm and cozy in his arms.

I felt him inhale my hair, and I had to hold my breath. Thank God I had the wits to shampoo. Ha. Ha. I jumped out of his arms and tried to restrain myself. I looked up at him and muttered thanks. He looked confused for a moment, and then he glared at me.

“Don’t be stupid next time,” he said harshly, and he went back to his post next to the guard. That made my cheeks burn, and I felt my eyes well up. I caught myself in time and composed myself, and adjusted my backpack on my shoulder. I breathed deeply and entered the campus. The guard surveyed my uniform and then waved me in. Gorgeous deliberately ignored me as I passed by him, his eyes intent on the student behind me.

What the hell is he doing there? Surveying if students are in proper school uniform?