by Segunda L.
My jaw dropped from his words. "H-huh? What did I do?" I creased my forehead. What in the world have I done? I remember returning his DVD copy of Naruto's season two. Or did I?
"Forget it. Anyway, how's your day so far?" He blew out more puffs of smoke.
I mentally took a note of searching my room later once I get home. Maybe I did forget to return the DVD. "It's cool. And strange thing is happening right now, your friends are eating lunch with us. "
"I know... I saw." He took a swig from his beer.
"You saw?"
Placing the bottle back on the ground, he said, "Yeah, I was in the dining hall for a while."
I decided to stretch my legs, it was getting stiff from my position. "I'm a social butterfly now while you're all emo here." I said it as a joke, biting my lip to stop the giggling that was about to come. Me? A social butterfly? I was far from that. "Look what you made me do. I should be there with my new friends but I'm here with you right now, while you sulk and drink. You can't hog me to yourself from now on, Timothy John. You gotta share me with the rest of them." I was seconds away from rolling on the floor and laugh from the things I was saying.
With his voice deep and clear, TJ said, "That's the problem. I don't want to."
Chapter Twenty-five
Samara
The laughter I was holding back instantly disappeared. My eyes widened from hearing his words, I was too astonished to move or to say anything at all. His dark eyes were locked on mine. I almost couldn't breathe from the realization that TJ was being possessive. I mean, that was pretty obvious. But the question here was why? I wanted to ask him so badly. Me, being me, was too much of a chicken to voice out my thoughts. A part of me was happy and excited from his possessiveness. No one has ever been that possessive over me before. It made me feel wanted and desired. Just the idea of it made the butterflies in my stomach flap their wings like a bee does.
"Remember when we were five you were at a party at my house?" He cut eye contact with me, and focused his gaze on his cigarette, bringing it to his mouth and blowing a smoke ring.
He was changing the topic. That much I could tell. I decided to play along to ease the tension. "Yeah, how can I forget? That was the first time we met."
"That's right. You were playing tag with the other kids and you sneak into my room to hide from that boy chasing after you."
Oh, I remember that alright. Stupid kid ran after me as soon as he became "it", just because I was a little chubby.
"He never caught me." I stared right back at TJ and said, "Thanks to you."
We both paused. Our eyes were locked in an invisible embrace.
“Who are you?”A voice called from behind me.
I turned around and found a boy my age, sitting on top of a bed. The room was slightly dark. But I could see him wearing a tuxedo like the other adults in the party. His black hair was cut short and he had the darkest eyes I had ever seen before.
Moving away from the door, I answered, “My name is Samara. Is this your room?”
He frowned and said, “Yeah, you’re not supposed to be here. Get out.”
Any minute now and the kid who was chasing after me will soon get here and tag me as it. I really didn’t want to be the next “it”. Being it was too tiring. Out of the other kids who were playing tag with us, he chose to run after me just because I had chubby legs. So unfair!
“Can I please, please, please, hide here for a while? I’m playing tag with the other kids and―.” I could hear footsteps fast approaching us, “He’s here! Tell him you didn’t see me.” I quickly hid behind the door and tried not to move or breathe at all.
“What? Hey―.” He didn’t get to finish his protest. The brown haired boy who was chasing after me entered the room. I couldn’t see what was happening but I listened to everything they were saying from the other side of the door.
“Woah, where did chubs go?” The ‘it’ asked.
Chubs? That boy was so rude! I gritted my teeth behind the door and balled my fists, prepared to kick him to the ground if the other boy gave away my location.
“Did you see a fat girl here? She was wearing a yellow dress and missing one shoe.”
At that moment, I wanted nothing but to hit him hard for being so rude.
“A fat girl? Nope.” The boy with black hair answered.
"Hmm, are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure. This is my room and I haven't seen any fat girl." He was a good liar. His voice was smooth. Even adults would believe it. "Guests can't come in here. And that means you too." This time, his words were said with more force on it. "Get out, now."
It took a few seconds for the other boy to respond. "Okay, okay. Geeze." I heard him shuffle his feet and was about to leave, but stopped and said, "Why don't you go out of your room and play with us?"
"I don't wanna play with snobby rich kids like you. Go away."
"Woah. What a brat. Fine. I'm going." He left after that, his footsteps slowly faded as he ran in the opposite direction.
"He's gone now. You can come out." The boy said and I slowly squirmed out from my hiding place.
When I was sure that the coast was clear, I jumped up and down in glee, spinning around the room with just one shoe on and squealed, "Thank you. Now that rude boy will never catch me." Hopping on his bed, I said to him, "You helped me. From now on we're friends. What’s your name?"
He sat up straight, and grimaced from the word 'friend'. "We're not friends. My name is TJ. And stop jumping on my bed."
I jumped higher. "Friend helps each other. And you helped me, so you're my friend now."
"I wasn't helping you. He asked if I saw a fat girl, I didn't see any."
I stopped jumping. Everyone knew I was fat. He probably just didn't want to be rude. Or maybe there was something wrong with his eyes. No matter the reason, I decided that he was going to be my friend.
"You should leave now." He continued to say. Leave? No way was I leaving. That rude boy might still be outside waiting.
"What do snobby rich kids mean?" I asked just so he wouldn't make me leave.
"It means rich kids like you who do whatever they want in another person's room." He pointed to the door and said, "Can you go away now?"
"Don't wanna." I picked up one of his pillow and rested my head on it. "You got a huge house. That means you're rich too."
He scooted away from me as if I was going to give him cooties. "I don't have rich parents like you."
"Liar! I saw your mom and dad, they ―."
"They're not my real parents." He screeched, his boyish features hardened. "I'm not lying. I'm just their adopted son."
It was too much information for my little five years old brain to handle. The word "adopted" was not even in my vocabulary yet. "H-huh? Where are your real parents then?"
"Dead." His face was devoid of any emotion but there was a slight quiver on his lips.
I once had a pet goldfish. My family went to a trip for a few days and when we returned home, we found the goldfish floating on the water, dead and rotting. I asked dad what being dead meant, they said that my goldfish would never come back. I cried for a few days because of it. And now this boy was telling me that his parents were dead. I tried to imagine being in his shoes. To never see mom and dad again. My dad teased me a lot of times but I still loved him. Mom forced me to wear those silly dresses with laces and ribbons on the side and I'd get mad at her but that didn't mean I love her less. I'd put up with all of dad's teasing and wear all the silly dress in the world if mom and dad would stay by my side for forever. Just the thought of losing them made my eyes watery.
Before I could stop myself, the tears started dropping. "I-it's so sad." I choked. "Y-your mom and dad are dead." Cheeks wet with tears, I sobbed harder as I thought about having a life without a mom and dad.
"H-hey, what's wrong with you?" Alarmed by the sudden show of water works, the boy sat closer to me. “Stop crying. If my foster parents see you, they’ll think I’m being mean and send
me back to the orphanage.” He put his hand over my arm, running it up and down on my shoulder.
“Y-you must really miss them,” I said between sobs.
With too much force, he jerked his hand away from my shoulder. “I don’t miss them. I’m happy they’re gone. Mom and dad beat me up and locked me inside the closet.”
My crying face was instantly replaced with that of horror and shock. “My dad beats me up too. He hits me with a pillow sometimes when―.”
He cut me off. “That’s not what I meant.” Sighing, he said to himself, “You’ll never understand.”
“I-I understand! You don’t have parents, right? You’re like Naruto. His parents are dead too.”
“Who?” He frowned, but he seemed interested.
“Naruto, it’s my favorite anime.” A light bulb clicked in my head. “I got an idea. You should come over and watch it in my house.”I said as I wiped my tear streaked face with my skirt.
His ears turned red, “Uhmm," he looked away and mumbled, "I can see your undies.”
A week after that, I managed to drag TJ to my house to watch Naruto. At first, he pretended to be not interested on it, complaining all the time and telling me how lame the show was. But he continued going to my house every day, watching the show with me until we finally finished all the episodes.
“Naruto is awesome.” TJ said, I noticed that his eyes were becoming livelier as each day passed. We were on our way to the playground. After being huddled in our living room for hours, I told him we should go out and play in the swing set.
“Yeap. Ninjas are cool. I’m gonna be a ninja someday.” I walked ahead and stopped in front of him, imitating the complicated but really cool hand movements Naruto had to make whenever he was using his ninja technique. TJ laughed. Not one of those pursed laugh that he usually did. It was a full on laugh, one that would disturb the whole neighborhood. He was holding on to his stomach from too much laughing when he said, “Y-you’ll make a good ninja, your enemy will die from laughing at you.”
I crossed my arms. “It’s rude to laugh at people.”
He only laughed some more, adjusting the cap on his head before continuing to walk. “So that’s the playground, huh.” He said once we reached the place filled with other kids like us.
“You’ve never been here?”
“Nope.”
“It’s fun here. Come on.” I dragged him once again to my favorite spot, the slide.
Other kids have already lined up, waiting for their turn to use the slide. TJ had no patience for it, he escaped from my tight hold and ran away to play on the monkey bars instead. Five minutes after and I was finally the next in line. I was so excited. I love the feeling of climbing up then sliding back to the ground. With experienced movements, I stepped on the ladder but a hand grabbed me from behind and stopped me from climbing.
"I'll go first, fatty." A boy with missing front tooth and freckles on his nose was blocking my way to happiness.
I didn't care that he was taller than me by a good few inches. No one gets in between the slide and me. Baring my teeth at him, I stepped on his foot using all my weight. He let out a screech and once his hold was lose, I climbed as fast as I can on the ladder, my chubby legs were driven by excitement. The higher I got, the more thrill I experienced. I opened my arms wide as I sat on top of the slide. Then I pushed myself and slid down, the wind brushed my cheeks as I continued to fall while going in curves.
When I finally stopped and reached the edge of the slide, I was so happy that I started doing a little dance, going around in circles while raising my arms up.
“Hey, you! Come back here,” the freckled nose boy screamed once he saw me off the slide.
Yikes, I forgot about him. Pushing my legs to move as fast as I can, I sprinted towards the monkey bars where TJ was hanging upside down with his two legs. Another kid was doing something similar but was failing miserably. By the look of it, they were having a monkey bar competition. And TJ was winning with ease. There was a playful smirk on his face as he changed his position and swung from one bar to another without even breaking a sweat.
“Gotcha,” behind me, two strong hands grabbed my shoulders. “You run fast, fatty.”
I screeched, “Aahhh.” The noise I made was loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the playground, including TJ. He turned my way, one look at me and he immediately let go of the bar he was hanging on to. With a perfect landing, he dropped to the ground and trotted to my direction.
“What’s going on?”TJ asked when he reached me and the freckled nose boy.
Locked in his firm grasp, I tried to squirm my way out as I explained, “This boy is hurting me.”
“You stepped on my foot first.” The boy growled.
“You were gonna cut line!”
“So?”
“It’s wrong to cut line, you should wait for your turn.” Wiggling my body free from his clasp, I said, “Let me go.”
Everything progressed too fast, the next thing I saw was TJ’s fist getting in contact with the freckled boy’s nose. Right in the spot where his freckles were most apparent, making it some sort of target spot. He stumbled backwards on one knee, yanking me along with him. Not sure what exactly happened, I looked up and saw TJ’s outstretched hand already pulling me up.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
Despite the shock that I was in, I nodded, and managed to say, “I wanna go home.”
We spun around, about to leave the playground when TJ suddenly dropped to the ground. There was a small footprint at the back of his shirt. I twirled and saw the freckled nose boy already on his feet. Nose sore and hands balled into fist. He came closer and kicked TJ again on his back, leaving another footprint on TJ’s shirt. TJ twisted his body to face him but the freckled nose boy was already on top of him. Soon enough, the other children were forming a circle on us. They were chanting “Fight, fight, fight,” making the situation worse. TJ was smaller than the other boy, he was taking the most hits the entire time. Even if I got in between, there wasn’t much I could do. I looked around to search for an adult nearby. There were two elderly crossing the street, it didn’t take long for them to break the fight after I told them what was happening.
Bruised face and swollen eyed, TJ walked silently with me on our way home. It was nearly dark when the adults successfully separated the two fighting boys altogether. The street bulbs were already lit up, even though it wasn’t night time yet. His hands were rammed inside his pockets, and the shirt he was wearing was filled with dirt. The cap he was wearing earlier got lost during the fight.
“So, uhmm, thank―,” I started but was immediately interrupted by him.
“Don’t mention it.” He was walking ahead of me, kicking a rock along the way.
“You helped me again.” My five year old self was feeling bad for everything that I put him up so far. I didn’t really get why but I felt that I was bothering him.,. from that time I entered his room and made him hide me, or by forcing him to watch Naruto with me every day the past few week and now getting into a fight because of me. I couldn’t even look him in the eyes because of it. I focused on staring at the ground instead.
“Of course.” TJ turned around. “That’s what Naruto would do. You’re my friend right? Friends help each other.” To my surprise, there was a genuine smile on his face, a warm one, and I think it was that time that I realized what a crush was.
Gosh. Just remembering that memory from my childhood made me blush like an idiot. I tried to cover my face with my hands so TJ wouldn’t see my embarrassing state. It was almost unbelievable that the boy I found in that room was the same person as the one sitting a few inches from me now. They both still have the same dark eyes, dark hair, same brooding expression, but the loneliness was gone. Replaced by an overwhelming confidence and irresistible charm.
He seemed deep in thought as he continued to look at me, his eyes unwavering. Funny thing was, I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. What bothered me was the fact that
I didn’t know what he was thinking. It was always hard to read his expression. I jumped up in surprise when he finally broke the silence.
“Sammy," he paused, it seemed as if he was having an internal debate, he took one deep breath and said, "I'm in love with you. Be my girlfriend."
Chapter Twenty-six
Jared
It wasn't intentional.
Hearing TJ finally admitting that he was in love with his childhood friend was not something I wanted to hear. Though I did expect it. He was bound to crack. Soon. And now it was out in the open. Well, good for him. For the both of them.
Unknown to TJ and Samara, I was hiding just a few meters away from them. My back was pressed on the wall and my ears were glued to their conversation. I had this strong need to see things unfold before my eyes. To make sure that everything was going smoothly. That my plans with Carrie were actually working. And hell yeah it was. In fact it was going too well. I was anticipating for TJ's big confession. At the back of my head I had a slight feeling that today was gonna be the big day. He must have had deeper feelings for her than what I originally thought because it didn't take him long to get to this stage. It was just yesterday when I started a small flicker of light in that thick head of his. It turned into an inferno and created a forest fire. When he came to school today, he looked like shit with his panda eyes. No doubt, he spent a long sleepless night.
I did it. I got him to confess. Hurray for me! I know right? I was such a do-gooder. Helping two stubborn people realize their romantic feelings for each other or some other cheesy crap like that. I was so good at this stuff, I should widen my horizon and help couples around the world!
Hell no.
This was the last time I was going to do something like this. It was a messy business. Never again. Emotions were something not to be toyed with.
