You- little SLUT!
Her walk-like-a-lingerie-superslut is a jaw-dropping skin exhibition. Her Helen-of-Troy smile can launch not only a thousand ships, but a Titanic-resurrected as well. Who wouldn’t be, if catwalk stripping is your one-night-stand production galore and your “my-mother-is-a-whore” lipstick is a signatured tag for a trip-to-seventh-heaven escapade? She’s a filthy blood sucking bitch in high-heeled red stiletto.
-HIM-
No matter how confused my feelings were, the fact remained that it wasn’t a lovestory. But of course i couldn’t forget.
Careless-Jobless-Hopeless…the Chronicles of the Miserable
im the deadly virus of misfortune, spines with that most condemning human act (than burning a first class subdivision) doomed for the most dreadful, criminally-wanted, sentenced to-electric-chair and cannibalistic punishment?
A Worry Wart
sumer, to the Philippines’ Unemployment Rate.” Somehow, it feels like I’m back in college again.
Survivor Addict
ned and it took a minute to stay long. Finally, he blurted out, “Survivor is ready! Go!”
Mais-Con-Yellow
There was this asshole (pun intended) boy who gave me a rehab-treatment after losing my IQ level lower than my toes during my University years. He got these Korean-inspired eyes, tartar-infested teeth, rough-skinned complexion and was the top assembled doll of God who swayed my natural effeminate tendencies to total heart failure of 50-50 critical condition. He was this 5’6 towering tall, electric-post manly bearing and a 24-karat worth smiling face who used to wore a yellowish, detergent-deprived, old rotten polo shirt uniform.
You li’l slut!
Her walk-like-a-lingerie-superslut is a jaw-dropping skin
exhibition. Her Helen-of-Troy smile can launch not only a thousand ships, but a Titanic-resurrected as well. Who wouldn’t be, if catwalk stripping is your one-night-stand production galore and your “my-mother-is-a-whore” lipstick is a signatured tag for a trip-to-seventh-heaven escapade? She’s a filthy blood sucking bitch in high-heeled red stiletto.
My Super IDOL…..ENZO PINEDA!!!!!
Cold Summer Nights
It was the end of May. He lay down under the leafless tree near the edge of the cliff, branching out into the panoramic view of the sea. The stars were countless in the sky, giving a shimmering fortune to the sea water but vanished as the waves glided down the rocky shore. Nonetheless, the merciful ending of the waves gave a soothing melody amidst the serenity of the place. Despite the summer season’s flavor, the air was chilly and excruciating to the point of his human impulse. Then a moment or two, he withdrew from his solitary preoccupation and managed to roll on to his front, bending his knees clasped in the security of his two arms. Then suddenly he gazed into my side and I saw deep in the radiance of his angelic face the realization of my existence.
Since the time we arrived at the cliff, he had managed to keep the silence into a puzzle game. I wondered how everything was going through in his mind. Even the dreamy set-up of the surrounding never gave me any suspicion of what was we were up to at that time. I’d known him for almost twelve years now and never in those times had he become so unfathomable in my senses. None of his child-like tendencies had given me the complete preview of his way of thinking. But this time was a puzzle game, in which any moment would make or break my only consolation.
And this boy, in spite of his good looks and proud bearing, was even so different. Ah, he was a saint-named in the literal meaning of the word. Everyone called him Francis but I would call him- Saint Francis Guzman, depending how the humor counted on between us. That was exactly I thought myself about him the first time we met in the village creek many years ago. Down from his little boy helplessness, he was actually fishing for help in the rescue of his basketball being carried away by the water current. It all started by that mere incident that had led to years of irrevocable amity, tested in the tracks of our childhood years. Now, we had grown up to be little individuals bonded by peer pressure and identity crisis.
Then he threw himself away from our awkward eye to eye contact and rested his calm face in the vastness of the night in perfect peace. The strands of his black-as-the-night hair swayed with the blowing of the wind that gave us the hint of the passing hours.
I shivered and my lips started to move for the urgency of the words to speak up. Anything to shatter his hard-won peace I said, “Why are you treating me as though I’m invisible?”
As far as my words had registered in the deepest of his ears, his chestnut-brown eyes turned to meet my existence. For a moment, he stared at me as if scrutinizing the lines in my face turned due to my excessive sickness from the other weeks. There under the fullness of the moon, I saw how his lips slightly moved to both sides, giving the assurance of a supposed smile. His smile was the sweetest in the innocence of a seventeen-year old boy whom I’d known for years. What could have been so elusive other than his gold-karat worth of smile? I became so nostalgic at any rate.
Francis scratched his head elaborately, finding the perfect words to say. As I saw it, he wasn’t a naturally hush person in the seventeen long years I’d lived with him and now, I recognized the symptom that troubled his sensibility.
There the silence had found its way again between us. I turned my head for inquiry. Instead of giving out an answer, I heard a movement in his side and stiffened, and he had moved to lay full length under the spectacular view of the sparkling sky.
Francis was gone back again into his own pea-sized world, where introspection is the only access to understand his metaphor. Somehow, I’d been determined to find a way of wiggling out the puzzle game he had made me playing on. I gave out a little sigh of pure tolerance of the cold war arising from that point we were positioned. My eyes turned to examine the place shadowed by dim lights coming from the moon and the stars.
Memories returned into my consciousness, how we used to sneak out in the night going here. Francis wasn’t a sea lover nor a swimmer but he would love to accompany Kara and me in this favorite place of ours. This place had even changed from the day we discovered it. Before, from being a jungle-like of cogon grasses towering, it had transformed into a deserted place cropped with tiny carabao grasses mixed with rocky sands on top of the rock formation. This flattened rock became a natural cliff too good for diving and swimming, having the picturesque view of the open sea in the east and the safest spot for its crystal-clear mild water level.
Some of the vegetation beside the shore had survived from tough weather however; others became perfect example of the past years. But as far as our friendship had stayed, the only surviving tree on top of the cliff remained sturdy and vibrant. It became the witness of all our childhood indulgences and letdowns, not to mention how it took every promise made, and broken, and mended.
In the middle of my deep musing, he came back to his senses. Francis mumbled words and bent forward, raising his head towards my direction. There could be any interchange of ideas between us because he had shut me out before I could open my mouth.
“I’ve got enough silence for tonight,” he stared at me, “…here beside you…” and he trailed off in his words with such a heartrending grin.
His words stopped me in my tracks of imaginings. He wouldn’t tell on me- would he? I spun around and looked at Francis suspiciously, but he was the picture of innocence. Chestnut eyes gazed at me from an angelic face framed by cropped curls the same style as mine.
“What made you think I’m off for tonight? Just because I’d got this two-week old flu and you have come to believe that I’m a first-class malfunctioning telephone post seated beside you now?” I said sheepishly, giving a fake defense to strike him out.
He said nothing, but I was sure he was smiling to goad me more. For another second, he just stared at me with all the fondness of a little boy amused in a certain excitement. Sure, he was again in a state of formulating his little jokes he had famed for, and I knew those would aim to me anytime.
But my suspicion had turned me down. Instead, he took offense and looked on the other direction. I wondered how each moment had given me much to fathom, and of course I couldn’t forget how enigmatic he had been tonight. I rolled around on my position to check my wristwatch, and the time had knocked me off. It was already 11:00 in that cold summer evening but I certainly didn’t have anything against with the time because I was with him.
“You know what would be nice,” he muttered after a long while of silence, “it’s when we become familiar with our silence. Perhaps, it’s odd but it’s powerful when we can’t find enough courage to speak up…”
“Yeah,” I said, trying hard to sound natural. “Tonight is all about silence and connections. I’ll never forget the first time I had this silence…”
A twitch of astonishment brought Francis’ eyebrows together. “Who could have given you that, Sid?” he said in a manner too close of probing.
Persuaded by a bit of old time reverie, I reluctantly took on the guessing game against him. I straightened my position in the ground, in crossed legs hoping to find a comfortable sitting position.
“He was this little boy in the neighborhood who was too aloof to talk to stranger. Many thought he was a vampire or what. Then one day, his ball strolled down the slope into the rushing current of the creek…” I gazed at his side and saw him seriously taking every word I would say. “The little boy was actually helpless and so, there goes this champion swimmer who had rescued his basketball. Right, it was a basketball because after so many years, he became a super jock at school…” I said at him smilingly.
Francis laughed vehemently, overpowering the silence of the night. He said in a wide grimace, “And it never occurred to you that I was the basketball super jock and you were the champion swimmer, right Sid? I must be thinking the otherwise…”
His raucous laughter was infectious that it had induced me into a lighter mood but still, I tried to be an inch away from his exaggeration. “Is it too much of you to be humble, huh!”
He looked directly into my almond eyes, trying to match any score I was supposed to tag in. My determination had risen and that time I was firm to rule his bewilderment.
“After that sometime, they became partners in crime. They would go biking together around the village and played anything he could think of, but not swimming. He was hydrophobic, huh! But he was a super jock, of course!” I said to him, seeing the annoyance in his eyes that seemed to increase my delight.
“Oh, I see,” I said, “this little boy after a while had grown up into a charming but half-proud good-looking guy. And he had fallen in love with a girl named Kara who unfortunately, was in love with another overly cute guy but it was soon this pretty Kara went away and he was back again with his only friend- his sweet fallback…” my words trailed off as I saw him bowed down his face away from me. Something in the resolution of my story had sickened him, taking his own lamentation of my sentiments.
Instantly, I became so numb, unable to proceed on my storytelling. Rather than approaching him, I hung back. As soon as I got into my own mind, I was nibbling each moment of silence into my system. The cold breeze swayed us, and I felt how it shivered my knees in an instant desolation.
At that moment Francis stood up beside me and spotted me with the gloomy expression in my face. When his eyes met mine, they were filled with such relief that it was almost recognizable.
“Sidney, stand up,” he ordered as he was stretching his arm to me.
I threw him a brief glance of amazement but still, his hands met mine. He pulled me to stand up. Then, I regained my democratic freedom to interrogate him.
“You Saint Francis- what are you up to now?”
Instead of giving me the hint of his drastic plot, Francis put his right hand inside the pocket of his trouser. After a moment, his hand appeared holding his i-pod. What the hell his i-pod had to do with this? I wondered how much this music player would play a vital role in this night out with him under the rich glittering night.
There was a long-suffering sigh he had given out while holding the music player. He bit his drafted gorgeous red lips to keep it still and peered at the chords of the ear piece. I saw him put on the ear piece on his right ear and the other one, he pinned it on my left ear.
Confused, I turned to watch his movements but he seemed oblivious to everything but the ear piece extending between us. As his fingers pressed on the keypad of his music player, he whispered, “Remember what I’d promised you? It’s supposed to be now.” I saw the sincerity in his face and the passion was lucidly projected in his eyes.
The promise, sure, I could remember that night that he promised to dance with me. How could I ever forget that Junior Prom Night when I was ate out by jealousy? It was one of those nights that I was left lifeless with the only dream I so longed from him. But I certainly wasn’t to take that up, not until this night.
As he selected the track, “I Knew I Loved You” by Savage Garden and pushed the play button, I couldn’t help contrasting the slow, romantic ballad to my dance partner. Once that was settled, Francis put his arms around me and drew me close. Because of the difference in our heights, the top of my head barely reached the tip of his ears. We were in an uncomfortable angle, inches away from each other. Francis must have sensed my uneasiness because at that moment he looked down at me and grinned.
“It seems we’re stuck with each other, Sid,” he smiled and drew me closer that could rest my head in against his shoulder.
For a moment, I forced myself to relax, and for the next few minutes we swayed back and forth in time to the music. The music had dried me up instantly. I could feel his heartbeat next to mine and in any case, I had a deep longing of this moment. There was something in the passing of time that made me realized to make the most of everything.
In my state of mind, I couldn’t afford to say a word at that time. Just like the song, I had wished this moment through the years. Everything about us mattered to me, though it could be so awkward.
Now the music sounded sweeter and melodic, becoming poignant with a greater depth of meaning. The grip on his hand loosened and became almost a caress that could drive me to sleep. If the time persisted, I would be ended up sleeping in his shoulder, tucked in the full embrace of his arms that seemed like eternity.
At last the final notes of the song faded away, but for a moment we just stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms. The chords of the ear piece had managed to fall down from us as the music faded into our ears.
Suddenly the spell was broken, and I took a wobbly step backward out of Francis’ embrace. He looked at me intently, giving out the satisfaction the dance had caused into us.
I gave out a grateful smile and said, “Have I ever told you that you’re my favorite saint, haven’t I?”
Francis moved his head and laughed. “Of course, you did! You spoiled me, huh!” he declared jubilantly.
Upon hearing his words, I blurted out a habitual child-like grin. Of course, I didn’t expect to hear that from him. Then, to make quite sure, he looked again at me and knew that this time there was no doubt about everything.
We were there, he was real and judging by what I’d felt before, I was died out with him. But still he stared at me intently, gripped in the tension of the accuracy of his words. He wasn’t smiling at me, he laughed with the unexpected burst of sunshine and said, “Sidney, haven’t I told you that you’re too cute to be a boy, have I?”
“Of course! You have just said it now…” my voice trailed off as I began to be affirmative to my only consolation.
He could hear the tears in my voice as he began to pull something from his pocket. There was nothing I could do but turned my grateful eyes towards him and when he looked and smiled into my direction, my heart lurched as though it had been caught in an electric wire. Then he aimed to show the stuff he got from his pocket, wrapped in a small piece of paper. When he opened it, there I saw the little extracted tooth dried up by years of being kept.
“Would you mind of keeping this for me, Sid?” he gave out his supermodel smile while showing to me the extracted tooth.
Funny, but Francis had been so sentimental with the stuff since it was his first dental tooth extraction. I remembered before, I would try to steal it from him but, I would often end up dealing with the fact of losing. And now as I saw it, he was handing it to me; in total surrender of the thing he valued the most. How could I ever beg off with him?
For the next more minutes, we spent watching the stars in the bright sky. It was one of those nights I’d missed hanging out with him and Kara. Then I felt how deflating the air was and chilled me, but I found Francis taking off his jacket and put it on me. I stared at him but he made no movement in return, instead, he merely raised his eyebrows in a cool, calculated silent answer.
It was almost 12:00 midnight when we decided to go back home. I was actually pulling my bike for a ride but he pleaded to take me on. He lifted me in weightless manner at his back and walked back home, leaving our bikes stranded in our favorite place. Silence had occupied our journey towards home but I could hear how he would catch a profound breath everytime we slowed down the path. I lay down my tired body at his back as I was drowsing myself to sleep.
We were almost near our house when I woke up and saw from a far two shadows waiting for us. As we got nearer, I realized it was my Mom and Kara who eagerly stood there. Francis was somehow silent as he put me on at the landing infront of our gate.
“Goodnight, Sid. You take care,” he said with such a relieving smile. Then he turned his gazed to my Mom who was been waiting for us. “Goodnight, Auntie. Thank you,” he said and there was a sudden surge of pain in his voice as he gave out a sad grin.
Knowing the pressure there had been the other days with my family and his, I managed to snap the scene as I took a step backward beside my Mom. Kara smiled at me, giving the assurance that everything was alright.
Then my Mom spoke, “We’re off for sleep now.” He turned to Francis and gave him a firm smile as she said, “Your Mom had been looking for you.”
As we approached the door, I looked back to his direction. He was still standing there and I intentionally stopped to bid him goodnight. “I had a great night with you, Franz. Goodnight as well!”
With my last words, he began to move backward and it was a sign that he was ready to go home. And then, I saw Kara still standing in the place where I first saw her earlier. It never occurred to me how I forgot about her existence at the moment I was lost with Francis.
“You have a goodnight, Kara!”
Kara just smiled at me and hastily followed Francis into his direction. I saw the two of them walked down the street away from us. For a moment I stood there watching them go, seeing my bestfriend together with the girl who had loved me eversince. But everything that happened to us in the past days made us complete opposites now. We’d been caught in circumstances too hard to understand.
As soon as I got to bed, my Mom put on my blanket and kissed me on my forehead. Since the time my Mom and Dad separated, she hadn’t stayed home most of the time thus; her parental shortcomings were always a subject on me. Just like Francis, I grew up without any father figure to take me for a fishing session or to build me a ring for my basketball. I didn’t know how my parents ended up that way in their lives but from that moment I realized, I already lose a father.
I heard my Mom walked towards the door and before she closed it, she said in a soft whisper, “I never intend to interfere with you happiness, Son.”
Now that I’d finally admitted the truth to everyone, Francis was more intolerable than ever. Only now there was a major difference and he needed to stand with his decision. Now, I was even more afraid that he wouldn’t which would definitely break my heart. Somehow, the hours had dragged me down to sleep, in an even happier disposition but somehow made me doubtful at some points.
Suddenly there was a loud stamping from the staircase toward my room that awakened me. When I opened my still sleepy eyes and looked into the side table where my alarm clock was situated, I was dumbstruck to see the time. The sun was already high up in the east and it was already 9:30 in the morning. Still, my body was rolled up in bed, unable to move ahead. How could I ever forget the rest of the night that seemed sort of anti-climactic after all I’d been through with Francis?
When I turned to the direction of the door, I was surprise to find Kara standing there, staring bluntly at me as if I had gone out of reality. Knowing her, I still managed to smile at her anxiousness.
As I watched her made her way towards me, a sudden surge of sadness flooded through me. Of course, she hadn’t said anything yet but there was something in her face that made me worried of.
“So, that’s it? You’re just supposed to give him the freedom to go? Sid, he’s leaving us…” her voice trailed off, bound to pre-empt a supposed cry.
Her words made me numb and stupor for a moment. My knees had shaken me and the bad news was slowly deafening my sense of hearing. But still I heard the throbbing of my heart, in a manner of an adrenaline rush slowly taking its toll on me.
When she saw the tears tripping down my eyes, she pulled my hands violently making me followed her tracks. She had passed the pain in me and now, she could have kicked me off just to get in time of Francis’ departure.
Until then, we finally reached his house but there was something in the condition of the time suggested that we were too late. Francis’ house was just across ours and I’d never imagined he would go without banging at our door, telling me that he was going to vanish into the air or what. Was last night the warning of everything he wanted to say?
There in the middle of the street, I saw my dreams fell apart into pieces. Kara was standing at my back, gnawing her heart in total composure and my Mom was there, too, to witness my judgment day. I felt hot tears sting my eyes but I wiped them angrily.
What had I expected, anyway? I was crazy to have come to believe in his words and even crazier to have imagined I could ever compete with destiny.
On the other side of the street, I saw their car in a distance too far to reach my eyes. If ever he would see me standing there, it would be useless for he might just thought of dogs straying in the street. Nonetheless, it would leave me there hopeless.
Glancing a final look at their course, I pushed my way back to our house, wanting to get away from humiliation. I couldn’t stand more minutes of this nightmare but there, I heard a rushing noise of a car aiming towards us. I hadn’t been there very long when I heard footsteps coming. Turning to see who had come in, I found myself face to face with Francis.
He looked sorrowful to see me as I was to see him. His eyes swell from what I’d thought was because of crying, and his face was covered with a gloomy tone too hard to recognize the cheerful Francis I’d known before.
There was a long, awkward silence. Finally Francis spoke in the middle of tears, “I’m choosing God over you…because I love Him more…”
I heard his voice trailed off in a controlled manner. It was the first time he mentioned about love and sure enough, his word marked my mind. Needless to say, I didn’t swoon, but I certainly was startled.
Why do I have to compete with God? If this had something to do with swimming, I could have won the game just to make him stay. But this was a game of fate, a momentarily leap of fate.
Unable to tear my eyes away from him, I watched as how he took the pain in his heart out of his eyes into tears. Before I could say a word, he managed to speak again, “I shall go and if destiny permits, we’ll meet again someday. But for now, I shall go… no call, no SMS, no email, no chat, no communication…nothing at all. Let’s lead our lives now individually. I’m choosing this kind of life, Sid… And you, too, should be even happier…” Then after saying his final words, he pinched the tip of my nose and gave out a smile in between tears. No matter how we’d been all throughout these years, the fact remained that he was still my bestfriend as ever.
I didn’t manage to reply. I just stared at him with all my innocence, pretending myself to be of less contradiction, sure enough that whatever I would say, even if it would mean of opting him to stay would never change the pattern of his thinking.
Tears rolled down rapidly from my eyes and my breath was cutting my nerves inside. A warm glow filled me all the way down to my toes, melting out every piece of my organs. That wave of sadness such as I had never experienced in my life before had gripped me in the throat and nearly choked me to death.
Then of course, I saw him walked back into their car which had been parked infront of their house. His Mom was seating inside the car, judging from the shadow reflected in the window screen. As long as he had settled inside, the car quickly drove on their way. He never had the ghost-of-a-chance to witness my public suicide, in my attempt to make him stay with me.
He was gone but all his memories still lingered in my mind. His words ate my confidence, at the certainty about my own future, like the sea slowly and imperceptibly eroding the rocks it had hurled itself from years past.
Somehow, my Mom and Kara mumbled words for my solace. It was cleared to them that I almost crossed the threshold into the uncharted seas and there I was having a hard time regaining my might to start anew.
The days dragged by, one miserable day at a time, without any clue of whether Francis would return or not. Since the time that he decided to start his new life, I hadn’t spent a single minute alone because my family was always there to steer me. My weeks seemed to be the longest but dullest weeks of my life, knowing that I lose more of my appetite and I was back again in bed for medication and rest. His lost in my system turned to be the deadliest pain that I couldn’t even think of to get well.
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to anything everyday now when I lose contact with him. I couldn’t imagine that anything unusual or interesting would happen to me now that he was already gone- but somehow, I was wrong.
Though his memories tortured me, it took somehow months before I was back at good pace. Kara was very cooperative in teaching me to move on but of course, it wouldn’t mean of forgetting him.
If there had been remedies for an aching heart, it would be taking the memories in but never endure the feeling. So, Kara and I went on the usual things we used to do before with Francis, from biking around the village to swimming at the cliff. Each time we would jump off the cliff, it was as if I was seeing him and hearing his ineffectual laughter on the top but the moment I took a second look on everything, there goes the sad reality.
Finally, it was a long time to wait, but I had my reasons to any celebration. I spent the first few weeks of the introduction to healing, getting my system accustomed to my new environment and set-up. It was two weeks then since classes had started, Kara and I were back in school for our senior year. The only difference now was that Francis could no longer go with us until our highschool graduation.
Seven months later, Kara and I were biking our way up to the cliff. It was already Christmas vacation and there was the cold breeze of December air that made us nostalgic of the past. My mind wandered of the days gone by but as I stared at Kara’s cherubic face, I was smitten by a question I so longed to ask her.
Something about the purity of her face that made me hung up. She stood beside me with her bike but her eyes were closed, feeling her reflexes into a deep solitude. Just like everybody, Kara had grown up from the sweet shy girl I’d known before into a charming stunningly-beautiful girl, and that made me puzzled.
“Do you still like me after all?” I said smilingly, trying to provoke her.
The success of my provocation had taken its effect because in a moment, she had loosened her so called- mediation and opened her eyes in total amazement. She managed to reply sheepishly after awhile, “I don’t even like myself sometimes but of course, I still do.”
“So, this worth a start…from square-one?” I finally blurted out.
She looked at me intently, as if probing the sincerity of my words and then, she vehemently pulled her bike as she came rushing first on our race track. Her words flipped into the air, she said, “It’s your choice. This time, it’s all about making choices. I just want you to be happy, Sid”
A realization came to uproar me of what reality had supposed to be. I wasn’t left alone, not this time, not by him and his love. As far as what was socially acceptable, it did not leave me there; she had come to rescue me.
Happiness is a choice and Francis chose it the way Kara and I did now. If this was a sign of moving on, I could feel much of my consolation turning aside as I was slowly rising from the reality that he wasn’t for me. No matter how confused my feelings were, the fact remained that it wasn’t a lovestory. But of course I couldn’t forget him.
_______________________________________
For a second or two, my shadow was hesitant to follow my track. So I managed to walk hastily up the course towards the edge of the sea cliff, avoiding some humiliation from my footsteps. I stood fast; fetching every falling detail of the breath taking scenery to my system. I shivered as the swift cooling breeze of the sea struck my skin and the bashing noise of the sea waves seemed to soothe my effectual sense of hearing. It had brought some chilling stimuli into my sensibility as I positioned myself on the top.
The red sunset as my backdrop I photographed my life. Gone were the cold summer nights, it had drifted us apart, both in space and time. He had bid me goodbye and there I stood now, the same place I had grown up with him. The serenity had matured me.
-JHERRYMIE D. VERBO
(A story of multi-layered relationships, grown-up friendship and making choices. I hope you enjoy reading. ‘Til next time with the “Cold Summer Nights-2”. Thank you and God bless!)
Beautiful Girl
Beautiful Girl is the story of a man finding for his ideal girl. This is the story of Louie in his search for his ideal girl after plenty of side-splitting and devastating break-ups with his former girlfriends, in which through his imaginative journey, he will meet Mandy, a pigment in his imagination of an ideal girl whom will teach him everything on the ideals of life and love.
At the height of his latest break-up with his 10th girlfriend, Louie who is a frustrated writer tries to decipher the reasons of his failed relationships with all his past girlfriends. While talking to himself in front of the mirror, he remembered all the favorite break-up lines he got from all his ex-girlfriends, “You’re so boring Louie! Get married with your thoughts!” and even the famous “pouring of juice into his face” while cursing him to death.
Louie came to realize that it was his entire fault that he ended up with failed relationships because he always chose the girl who was too far to be his ideal. So what he did, he drafted all the qualities that he likes from his ideal girl. He tried going out to different places like the mall, public parks, and his favorite bookstore, coffee shops, into the cinema and even into the streets for the biggest search of his life. He got a daily planner where in he wrote all the qualities of his ideal girl.
In reality, Louie is not the typical guy who got the primitive male brain when it comes to romantic views. He is actually a hopeless romantic geek who nails himself in romance books and all the corny and boring stuffs for any ordinary guy. He works as a bored accounting clerk in a publishing house and is too far from his dream of becoming a famous fiction writer. He loves skate-boarding as much as he does for books and girls. Being overly- sentimental is most treasured quality that bores a lot of girls he meets.
He actually came up with three signs if the girl was really his ideal girl. First, he wanted to meet her in his favorite place in the park. It could be sometime just after a late afternoon walk in the park while the sunset is in full blast of its romantic breeze. She should be wearing a something-green Sunday dress with her hair in ponytail tied. And him, he just came from a sweat-filled skate boarding session and he would accidentally bump at her. With all the coincidence slash magical might of destiny, she would say, “Ang galing mo namang mag-skate board!” and it would be the first registered memory in her brain.
The other instance would be somewhere in his favorite bookstore. Just the usual, it could be sometime in the afternoon just after mouth-watering lunch at a fancy restaurant. While he is reading a book, a girl from behind would approach him, saying “Ngayon lang ako nakakita ng lalaki na mahilig sa romance pocket book!” and she would be amazed that they have similar favorite author. Though it could be their second meeting, the girl would not recognize him as someone so special.
Until the third time that he would meet that girl inside the movie theater. It was actually sometime in the morning, not the usual time of watching movie for anyone in his normal sane mind. And by that time, she would have the guts of asking him, “Small world, you’re here again!” And of course, after those three consecutive coincidental meetings, he would ask her for a dinner date and it would be the start of their undying friendship that would eventually lead to romantic affair.
Then one “magical” Saturday afternoon it happened while he watching a movie. He thought he was alone inside the theater when a girl sitted beside him knowing that they were the only two watching the movie. Unknowingly, the girl talked to him, saying, “Sobrang laki ng mundo, tayo lang dalawa ang nanunuod.” Louie smiled with the twist of fate that they were into.
Then just after the movie, the girl vanished somewhere that he wasn’t able to find her. Soon in the afternoon just after he had his lunch, he went to his favorite book sale store where in unconsciously he met again the girl who was laughing at him while saying, “Bakla ka ba? Nagbabasa ka ng romance pocket book?” Louie again got smitten by the fact that they’ve met the second time. And of course, in the very expected incident, he met again the girl in the park. That time he was playing skate board when he bumped at her. The girl gave him a squinted-look and wrinkled brow and saying, “Gago ka ha! Akala mo ang galing-galing mo?”
And that was the start of their getting to know sessions and roller coaster love affair. She was actually Mandy. As expected, they shared the same passion for skate- boarding, romantic books and even dreams to write a book someday. They also enjoyed watching movies and pretended to be the first class film critics when scrutinizing the movies that they’ve watched together. They also enjoyed in watching the red sunset and the clouds aesthetical formation. With Mandy, all the best things that Louie wanted to do before with his past girlfriends were made possible. Mandy became the ideal girl of Louie.
Louie even brought Mandy to his apartment. He related to her the story of his life from being an out-of-wedlock independent kid and to his frustration as a writer. Mandy found serenity in his old piano. She started playing the piano until she had smitten his attention. He shared to her his deep frustration on playing the piano because it could only be the way that his father would appreciate him as his son. On that everyday, they became closer as he was starting to learn to play the piano through her help. At the very end, they have attended the birthday party of Louie’s younger half-sister and he played the piano. His relationship with his father became good.
Most of the time they have been together and that made Louie fell in love with the girl she thought to be his ideal girl. They became committed to each other and that was the start of their strong held love affair. He had been telling her that he was very happy to have her in his life for she was his ideal girl.
It was when everything was falling into the right places for Louie when Mandy felt totally mind-controlled of the situation that she played perfectly the role of his ideal girl. She followed everything he wanted them to do and tried to like the things he loved to. Then one day marked the merciful ending of their happiest times. Mandy started to fathom the real score of their relationship. She realized that Louie was the one leading her ways since the very first time they met. She had already recognized the symptom of being driven into his track of thinking. She then realized that if she was his ideal girl but he was not her ideal man either. So when they met again, she broke off with him, leaving him the tears of his own made fault. Louie tried to stop her decisions but her courage was too much that she even started to contradict the thinking of his master. They parted ways in the most devastating break-up that Louie had experienced.
After 3 months, Louie was in the park. He was facing at his laptop when the air just swept off his consciousness. He started to mutter to himself. He realized that role of Mandy in his life was already over. Since the day the broke-off, he hadn’t seen her again and not even in his dream. She made him miserably good as the person that he was now and he had also realized the reasons of his failed relationships.
In reality, Mandy was just a pigment in his imaginative mind. She was just a product of his terrible search for his ideal girl. Everything that happened to them was only a day dream. For him, it was so funny how the character he made in his mind contradicted him at the very end. If only he could have some other time with Mandy in dreamland, he could have lessened his overly-demanding attitude towards her. But now, she was too far a dream for him and her face had just become a silhouette in the back of his mind. He wished to meet someone like her someday and planned to say to her, “I’m a better person now.”
Louie pursued his dream of becoming a fiction writer. While he was waiting for the production of his first book, the publisher showed him the tentative cover design of his book. There he saw in the cover design a familiar face. It was Mandy’s.
-Jherrymie D. Verbo
