Dialed Destiny

The Last Call to Remember

Matthew's POV

Honestly, parang ako yung naluto sa init ng tinginan ni Nick. Ever since that kiss in the kitchen—yung French kiss na sinakop yung buong kaluluwa ko, I swear—I've been replaying it in my head. Like, rewind, slow-mo, repeat. And can we talk about how the guy looks so fine standing there like he owns the damn room? My God, luto na ako.

Pero ngayon? Nick’s looking at me, and something’s missing. Nakatingin siya pero parang wala akong nakikita sa mga mata niya.

It started kaninang umaga. I woke up thinking today would be perfect, like a scene from a rom-com, pero apparently the universe had other plans. I thought we'd make dirty jokes, eat breakfast, maybe end up doing more than just eating, you know? Pero when I opened my eyes, something was off.

Nick was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking... confused? His brows furrowed, parang may hindi siya maintindihan. I was about to say something witty—alam mo na, to break the tension—pero before I could speak, he turned to me.

"Matt, what do you want to eat?" he asked, standing up.

My mind went straight to the gutter, of course. Ice cream mo ang nais ko, I thought. Pero I played it cool, throwing in a little wink, hoping to lighten the mood. "Ice cream mo ang nais ko," I said with a smirk.

He chuckled softly, pero... it wasn’t the same laugh I knew. It wasn’t our laugh.

"Nick, are you okay?" I finally asked. "Parang ang weird mo ngayon."

His face got more serious, and then he hit me with it: "I don’t know, Matt. It's weird. I remember us talking last night, laughing... but everything else feels hazy. Like, something’s missing."

Napatigil ako. Girl, ano daw? My brain couldn't process what he was saying at first. "What do you mean 'something’s missing'?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly. Does he not remember what we did?

He looked at me, then at the floor. "I don’t know... it's like I can remember everything but..." he paused, then looked at me again, confusion all over his face. "Pero bakit parang I don’t remember us? Why do I feel like there’s something between us, pero hindi ko maalala?" I-.. I'm sorry, Matt.

Putangina, ano 'to? It felt like someone ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Hindi ko alam kung anong masasabi ko. Gusto kong matawa kasi parang bad joke 'to, right? But I couldn’t laugh. It hurt.

I tried to keep it together. "You don’t remember anything from last night? At all?" I asked, my chest tightening with each word.

He shook his head, and I swear, parang may sumuntok sa akin. "I remember us talking, laughing. I remember sitting with you. But... the kiss? The... connection? It’s gone. Like, I don’t know, Matt. Why don’t I remember?"

Fuck, this is too good to be true, I thought. The guy I’ve been falling for, the guy I kissed last night—the one kiss that felt like everything was aligning—was telling me he didn’t remember? Ang sakit, girl. Parang sinasampal ako ng tadhana.

I wanted to scream, to shake him, to make him remember. Pero all I could do was sit there, feeling everything crash down. "Hindi mo na maalala... anything?" I repeated, trying to make sense of it all. Kiss ko pa nga 'yan ng todo, tapos nawawala na sa utak niya? Self, bakit ba ganito?

I couldn’t help but let out a sarcastic laugh, even though it hurt like hell. "Well, that’s... great." I said, trying to hide the pain with humor. "Perfect timing, really. Now that we’ve kissed, I was hoping you’d forget how to kiss other people, not me."

He looked at me like he was searching for something, but couldn’t find it. "I don’t want to forget you, Matt," he whispered. "Pero bakit... why does it feel like this part of my memory is just... gone?"