"CN, bilisan mo, kanina pa naghihintay ang Tito Roger mo!"
Sa sinabing iyon ni Mama ay mas binilisan ko pa ang paglagay ng mga gamit sa huling bag na dadalhin ko. Ngayon, lilipat na ako sa condominium na inupahan namin para sa mga susunod na buwan. Sa susunod na linggo na kasi ang simula ng klase kaya nag-umpisa na kaming maglipat ng gamit ko.
Simula sa Lunes, sa SLU na ako mag-aaral. I was firm on my decision that I'd stay here in Baguio for my studies. So close to my family yet so far away from Slade. Noong sinorpresa niya ako sa pagpunta niya dito noong birthday naming dalawa at tinanong kung pwede ba kaming magsimula ulit, hindi ko naisip na ganito magiging kahirap ang lagay naming dalawa.
Ang layo namin sa isa't-isa. I was just really grateful he was showing a lot of effort to make this—what we have—work. Lagi siyang nagtetext at tumatawag. He even visited me here biweekly to start winning my family's approval. Noong una, alam kong nahirapan siya sa mga grandparents ko lalo na kay Lolo. Lolo made Slade do a lot of things the first time he went to my grandparent's house.
Pinag-igib, pinag-sibak ng kahoy, at pinag-dilig ng buong farm nila ng mga gulay. But Slade was very persistent, he did all of those. At kahit pa yung mga ibang pinagawa ni Lolo ay talagang ginawa niya pa rin. Pero ang talagang nakahuli sa loob ni Lolo ay nang malaman niyang marunong mag-chess si Slade.
Ngayon ko lang din nalaman ang tungkol doon. hindi nga rin ako makapaniwala noong una. I mean, Slade and chess? What an odd combination. But when I sat and watched him played with Lolo and witnessed how he easily beat my grandfather, I was totally in awe. Dahil ako nga, hindi ko alam maglaro ng chess. Kahit pa noong bata ay ilang beses ng nagtangka si Lolo na turuan ako, hindi pa rin ako natuto-tuto. Ewan ko, maybe chess was not really for me. Pwede pa siguro ang Sudoku.
So, finally, Lolo was approved of Slade together with Lola, Mama and Tito Roger. Hindi ko nga alam na mabilis niya lang iyon magagawa. But Slade just really had it in him. There was something in him that people would easily drawn into. Kahit nga noon na kahit alam kong bad boy ang dating niya, meron pa rin sa kanya na parang nag-udyok sa akin na mas kilalanin pa siya. And I was glad I did. I was really happy I let Slade had his way into my life.
Dahil nga okay na kami sa pamilya ko at nakuha na ni Slade ang tiwala nila, pinayagan na nila kaming magdate sa labas. Pero bago pa man kami makalabas ng bahay, samu't saring bilin na ang natanggap namin. Plus, I still had my curfew at ten pm.
Slade and I both agreed with all of those. At kahit sa dami ng restrictions na narinig, nagawa pa rin naming i-enjoy ang kauna-unahang official date namin. We strolled around different places in Baguio, in-enjoy ang malamig na temperatura, ang bawat minuto na magkasama kaming dalawa. The date was really different from the way we spent our time together before.
Noon, kapag nagha-hang out kaming dalawa, it was either in each other's unit, studying with doing some extra curricular activities I knew my Lola would make Lola faint once she'd know about those (not that I was planning on telling her).
Pero ngayon, hindi man nagdidikit ang anumang bahagi ng katawan namin, para pa rin akong lumulutang sa sobrang saya. And now how I appreciated those deep, meaningful conversations. Since our birthdays happened, all we did was talk, and I mean a lot. We started on ourselves, just the common information about each other we didn't know about yet. Hanggang sa palalim nang palalim. And one thing I learned through that course was that there was so much we needed to know about each other.
May pagkakataon nga na inaabot na kami ng madaling-araw sa telepono, pero tila walang nakakamalay ng oras. In a matter of few days, we made up of the time we should have spent knowing about each other back then.
And like the other days, that was how we spent our very first official date. Simple lang pero napaka-memorable. Maybe because now, we were sure of each other. Like no matter how slow we would take this, we were certain that in the end it would be us.
أنت تقرأ
Bad for You (GU #1)
العاطفيةWhen you grew up with rules and strict grandparents, you know better than to engage yourself with anything bad. Even that bad involves with good looks, sexiness, mysterious appeal, and goes with the name of Slade. For someone as good as CN, Slade is...
