Glimpses of Yesterday (Isla Contejo #2)

Chapter 10

PADABOG kong naihagis ang cellphone ko sa aking kama nang hindi na naman sumagot si Arsen sa tawag ko. He was probably busy reviewing his notes. Gosh, wasn't he getting tired at all? He was always reviewing his notes kahit wala namang quizzes or exams na mangyayari.

Araw-araw after school, he would go straight to his apartment to review his notes from all our subjects. It wasn't a bad thing that he was focusing more on his studies, but sometimes, I couldn't help but to be annoyed. Kasi naman, kahit wala namang dapat aralin ay nag-aaral pa rin siya. Are genuis and overachiever people really like that?

It's been weeks since the class started and he had been like that since the first day of school. Minsan lang siyang hindi nakakapag-review ng mga notes niya kapag nayayaya sina Enrico ng gala or meryenda sa kung saan. Pero kapag wala, diretso siya sa apartment at madalang nang sumagot ng texts at calls ko because it's either he was reading the syllabus or he was answering already the future activities in our subjects.

Hay, naku. I didn't know that he was like that. He's very studious. It was like he needed to always excel in all the subjects we had.

Napabuntonghininga ako at imbes na subukang tawagan siya ulit na hindi niya naman sasagutin, I just grabbed my purse and went out of my apartment. I would just go to his apartment whether he'd like it or not. I was so bored and I had nothing to do. I would bring meryenda na lang.

"How much po ang burger at fries?" I asked the tindera that was selling some street foods along Morayta.

"25 sa burger, 15 sa fries, ganda."

I smiled. "Sige po. 2 burgers and 2 orders of fries."

Nanatili ako sa tapat ng stall niya habang hinihintay maluto ang mga burger at fries ko. May iba ring bumibili kaya todo bilis na siya sa ginagawa.

When my order was ready, I paid for it and said thanks to the tindera before I walked to the streets. When I finally reached Arsen's apartment, I didn't need to knock anymore for him to open the door for me. I already had a duplicate key of his apartment. Siya rin ay mayroong susi ng apartment ko.

"Ga, what are you doing here?" he asked when he went out of his room — probably because he heard the opening of the door.

"I wanna see my boyfriend. Why, something wrong with that?" mataray kong tanong.

He sighed and went straight to me to kiss me on the lips. "Para namang hindi tayo araw-araw nagkikita sa school."

"School's different from our quality time together. Okay?" mariing saad ko.

Muli siyang bumuntonghininga at napatango bago ipinulupot ang braso niya sa baywang ko.

"I bought meryenda."

"Thank you."

Nagtungo kami sa dining table. Uupo na sana kami nang malingunan ko ang TV.

"Let's watch a movie while eating," I said.

"I can't, Ga. I still have a lot of topics to review—"

I rolled my eyes and looked at him sharply. "Oh, come on, Arsen! You've been studying every day! I bet you already memorized every single word from our textbooks and syllabus!"

I couldn't help but to be very annoyed once again. Hindi na nga ako nagrereklamo sa kaniya sa hindi niya pagsagot ng mga text at tawag ko dahil kahit papaano'y naiintindihan ko naman siya sa pag-aaral niya. But now that I even made an effort to be here to see him and have a quality time with him, he couldn't even show a little bit of appreciation.

"I went here so that we could have our quality time together — our babe time. Away from school, away from books, and away from that stupid subjects. Can we just at least do that once in a while? Puro ka na lang aral. How about me naman?"