Patrick

 "Patrick."

It never dawned on me how a simple meeting made a whole difference. It was like when 1999 ended where the world came to a new. It was like when Franz Ferdinand was killed and brought the Great War into the world. It was when your whole perspective changed, just because of one person. Because of Patrick.

Patrick came to me one day, it was all sudden as if he were the lightning at the night sky.

"Shi—"

"Don't scream!" He begged.

Flabbergasted at my spot, I eyed the young man standing before me, in my room, drenched in rain – and dripping on my floor, if I may add – and was quite scared and confused himself.

"Wh-What do you e-expect me to do?" I stuttered, still trying to figure out how did a guy just magically appeared in my bedroom.

"J-Just don't scream!" He practically yelled.

"You're screaming!" I countered.

Is he serious? How does he want me to take this?

"Listen, could we please just calm down?" He asked.

How can I calm down when there's a total stranger in my room?
I went to my bedside table and grabbed my iPhone 7, opening the screen, I swiped it to the emergency call.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Calling 911." I answered as I backed up from him, and headed to the door where I could easily run away if he tried anything funny. My phone rang, it was dialing the 911 Service.

"911?" He asked, "We have those now?"

"What?" Doesn't he watch the news? Has he been living under a rock?

"Yes, 911." I answered.

"Where am I?" He asked.

Now I'm really confused.

"Manila." I simply answered. As I was going to give him the exact location of where he was. It dawned to me that something was wrong (other than the fact that there was a random guy in my room) when he suddenly just dropped on the floor, clutching his head in his hands.

"You okay?" I asked.

It took him a while before he answered, "Uh... yeah... just – what date is it today?"

"September 6, 2020. Why?" I asked, confused.

He chuckled miserably at his spot, continuously pulling his hair as if it were to seize the total shock he was feeling. The lady at the line finally picked up, and he spoke after a few moments, "Because, I'm from September 6, 1995."

You don't see that or get that every day. It didn't take long before reality – which is this – slapped me back to my senses and saw the guy just sitting there on the floor.
Just as the thought of going to his side to comfort him a little – since he looked really stressed out – he disappeared. As if he wasn't there in the first place, as if wasn't real in the first place, but his puddles of rainwater that was left at my floor made me certain that I wasn't insane. He was real.

Patrick returned – or popped into my room again – the following day. It was quite a surprise, considering this time he was wearing his school uniform. He told me that he was just heading home from school when all of a sudden he found himself here again, in my room. The next few days were the same, every time he came it was really a surprise, especially one time when he appeared wearing nothing but a towel around his waist – he was just about to take a bath. After some time of him suddenly popping in my room, it became a routine. At exactly three in the afternoon, he would appear and then would be gone after; sometimes he would stay for hours long, but mostly he would only be here for a couple of minutes, and in those hours we would just hang-out. I made sure to buy fishball and kwek-kwek from the street vendor at the corner of our street so that we could have something to eat while he was there. We would watch old Filipino movies at Cinema 1, it was funny to watch how he knew all of these actors that are now mostly dead and try to share some scandalous trivia about them. It was one of our favorite things to do.

We both have 'daddy-issues'. That's what I learned when Patrick told me that he was the eldest among his four siblings, so his parents expect more from him. He told me that he hated his father for being an alcoholic. To be fair, I told him my story that I never knew my father, since my mother told me that he left when I saw still very young. She said that he loved someone else, and it was unfair to her and me if he were to stay.

Our 'routine' continued for the next three months, and I would be lying if I didn't say that in those four months I have grown a small crush on Patrick – who wouldn't? He was very funny, charming, and a gentlemen (which you don't see at days now). Selfish as it sounds, I wanted him to stay – not for a few hours or minutes, but really stay. But life isn't like that, we don't always get what we want. So at December 25, 2020, three at the afternoon, I waited for him, hoping that I could at least tell him that I didn't want him to leave. But he never came.

January 1, 2021, I waited again. Still, no show. February 14, 2021, no Patrick. It was as if he disappeared.

"Charlie!" My mother called from the kitchen, "There's someone at door!"

"Okay!" I called back as I ran down the stairs and to the front door. I made sure to fix myself first before answering the doorbell.

The doorbell ran again.

"Wait!"

I hate it when people repeatedly ring the doorbell because of slow responses. Out of irritation, I pulled open the door.

"Who is it –"

"Charlie?"

I froze at the sight of the man before me. He looked older, his voice deep, his hair was still quite the same but shorter, but other than that, I know this man standing before me.

"Charlie, who's that?" My mother asked as she came out of the kitchen to meet the man at the door. She froze upon seeing him, her eyes showing damage and love in her eyes.

No. Please, no.

"Patrick?"

"Vivian." Patrick greeted, tears building up in his eyes. He then turned to me and caressed my hair then my cheek, "Charlie." His next actions just broke my heart in to pieces, Patrick brought me to a hug and whispered repeatedly to my ear, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Sorry. Sorry for leaving my mother and I after all these years? Sorry for not coming back after months of me waiting? Or sorry that after all this time, he was my father?

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart..."