CHAPTER 2

 

      ‘This guy, why?’

 

       She won’t deny, she had a poor eyesight but she was sure this was the guy a moment ago. The brown hair. The face even if it seemed blurry a little while ago.

 

            A sudden palpitation of her heart started. It was the second time. It was really the second time she felt this way for a guy.

 

            “I’m sorry,” he spoke up. His eyes laid down to her ID looking at the name.

 

            For Tricia, it was as if the guy wanted to know her more. Then what will be the next? Her number for them to talk late at night? Wow.

 

            She shook her head to take away the corny thoughts.

 

            “Miss Ferret.” The guy nodded. “Miss Tricia Ferret, uhm, I’m sorry again. We just both abruptly appeared in the doorsteps. We didn’t expect each other to converge. I also got startled.” He caressed his nape, let out a soft chuckle and went back to an eye-to-eye contact. And she wanted to cuss herself to death because of that—really.

 

    Why was he so handsome?

 

            Why was she feeling this way? It shouldn’t be. Well, why shouldn’t it be? As what she’d thought, the guy was handsome, there was no way she could deny that fact. It was as if he was suited to a role of a leading man in a romance genre.

 

      She should reread “To the boys I’ve loved before”. Maybe there’ll be a chance that her love story would end up the same with the female lead.

 

            It was a relaxing chuckle for Tricia, but annoyed her a little bit. It was as if a lullaby and a euphonious rhythm in the ears. The guy even pronounced her surname emphasizing the ‘t’ which made her feel awkward. And another awkward when the silence filled between them. She didn’t know what to react, and the stranger was obviously waiting her response. Well, how would she even react when she could not even take her eyes off him? Even how hard she tried to seek something inside her head for her to say, she still got nothing but only him. What must she say, anyway? Or did she really need to say something?

 

 

            It was frustrating. Why wasn’t he speaking now? Was this a staring contest?

 

        Just tell me, because I am not aware. She wanted to say.

 

      They just gazed away from each other when they heard a cough beside them, and it turned out to be a professor. The look in his face seemed suspicious, but mocking, so Tricia got her body stiffed. Why was she so dense? Of course, the professor had thought something fishy in his mind.

 

            “It’s fine.” That’s it, her tongue finally let it go. And the moment she told him that, she immediately stepped away to run, to flee out of the two fascinating eyes of that laid-back stranger guy.

 

            Even though she knew what she did was like no manners, she didn’t care . The only thing she could think was to escape. She also thought that the guy wasn’t just handsome but smart, so he would just think she was in a rushed time—her action was considerable still. She could no longer hide the redness of her countenance and the pallor of her lips anymore. There was no mirror to be proven by, but it was her body. She knew what was happening.

 

            Her face was getting red and it would be embarrassed if she would choose to stay in front of that laid-back stranger guy like an idiot. And both of their bodies just touched, it was totally awkward. And that debonair smile was so contagious. It gave her a strange feeling, deluged her to smile back. She couldn’t even look at the ID of the guy because of the sudden palpitation of her heart beat. And she couldn’t explain it why. The moment their bodies just touched, she felt something strange. Was it a good sign or bad? But why would she care?

 

   Tricia could now feel a relief when she was already far from the vicinity of the library. The nervousness was already gone, she was now calmed. She even tried to act like nothing happened, and dared to plaster a small smile on her lips to avoid any speculation that she’d been in a marathon because she was being chased by a mad dog. Well, that would be her silliest reason if ever someone would happen to confront her. Like hello, dogs weren’t even allowed inside their campus.

 

 

   She needed to breathe. She had to calm down.

 

            She was now about to enter their building when someone followed her pace. It was her guy classmate, uh-oh. No, not just a classmate. How unlucky this day was for her.

           

            Frustrating.

 

 

            “Hey.” The guy took a quick glance at her, and she could feel her chest pounding so loud, even without her glancing back.

 

   She already knew who was this handsome guy beside her, so she didn’t have the gut to look at him for a confirmation. She wanted to shout and scream, she wanted to walk upstairs of the rooftop then jump off. She just acted as if she was not in her sanity. She was trying to control the direction of her sight to where it must only place, in order for her pretentious action to be not caught. 

 

  Every time she remembered the embarrassing moment happened several months ago, she just wanted to vanish and didn’t want to show up anymore to the guy who was walking beside her. Well, she really was stupid to do that.

           

  “Tric, hey. You alright?” He held her hand and shook it a little. Okay, she thought that was already too much for her to handle. She didn’t want her to collapse just because she could feel the butterfly in her stomach.

 

Set aside the flirtatious side. Prioritize the study first, ‘cause you’ll just get hurt at the end of the day.

 

            She immediately withdrew her hand out of the grip of Charles Mores. Her childhood crush. Childhood for the pete’s sake! There was a big possibility that it would fall into love, and that was what she was afraid of.  Charles was also their classmate since elementary. They’d all planned that they would study in Genaro High for senior high school, which happened, and a lot of them did. The facilities of the school were nice according to what they’d seen during the orientation months ago. But Tricia just didn’t want to study here at first, because it was far from Cavite City, which was their hometown, but someone had forced her to do so. Guess who? No other than her best friend—Danica.

 

 

            “Oh? Hi, Charles. I didn’t notice you, I was preoccupied by a lot of the stuffs. Sorry.” She smiled and avoid looking at his eyes. Well, that was a lie.

 

            He chuckled. “Yeah, I see. Let’s just walk together?”

 

            She unconsciously smiled and nodded. They talked about academics again while they were on their way to their classroom. That was always their set-up, that was what they always did and talked about every time that they were alone together. Over and over. If it was not academic, then it was all about cloak books or Greek mythology and politics. She had no idea about cloaks and most especially, politics topics always gave her a head ache, but she still managed to listen, and gave her opinion. She even once recommended the book Red White Royal and Blue because of its political aspects. She didn’t want Charles to get disappointed in her. Well, would the guy? She didn’t know. Their treatment towards each other wasn’t the same anymore as to what it was before after that event happened. She always thought the negative results. Always.

 

      “Let’s just continue the discussion tomorrow. And again, for those who failed to present their report today, better luck next time. I’ve given you enough time to do your task, but what did you kids do in the whole weekend? I’ve already warned you about this, no? But you didn’t listen. Alright, you may go. Class dismissed.”

 

      Tricia hadn’t noticed that her classmates were now preparing their things and stuffs, and getting ready to go. She was not in her sanity, and she didn’t know why. She had been thinking about what happened when she was in the cafeteria, not when she was with her best friend, but when someone whispered on her ears only to find out that there was nothing.

 

    “Are you feeling good, Tric?”

 

         She looked at his friend, his bag was on his right shoulder. He asked her but his eyes was on the door.

 

      Tricia smiled. “I am just lacking some sleep, Lloyd.” This time, he looked at her. “And yeah, if you are look for my best friend, she is outside the building.”

 

 

    Lloyd smirked. “I am not looking for her, Tric. Charles was already gone outside, he just asked me if I could check you here.”

 

      Tricia nodded, still not moving from her seat. “I’ll just stay here for some more minutes. I’m gonna do something.”

 

      “Are you sure? I could stay here with you.” Lloyd seated on the armchair.

 

    Tricia quickly shook her head. “No, no. It’s fine, Lloyd. You can go, really.”

 

   Lloyd looked at her suspiciously. “It isn’t that obvious you really want me to go, eh?” He voicelessly laughed before he stood up. “If ever I see your best friend, I’ll ask her to go up here, is that okay?”

 

     She said thanks before Lloyd existed the room. And now, of course, she was alone. None of her classmates and friends left with her.

 

      Tricia just poured her full attention on what she was writing. She needed to finish their assignment in PerDev. She didn’t want to just sit without doing anything. She also didn’t want to go home. But why? She wasn’t sure of the reason. She feel restless. This day was really exhausting her. 

 

       She continued the task she was writing and after half of an hour she decided to stand up. She locked the door after she was out. No one was in the hallway on their floor, but she was not scared.

 

       She looked at her wrist watch. 4:44pm.

 

 

               The whole class ended with all of the activities that they needed to accomplish this week. They were all bombarded with school stuffs again. The moment Tricia was finally out of the building, the first person she saw was her best friend’s back, she was leaning on her knees while sitting on the stairs of the entrance, and she seemed tired.

 

      Tricia just smiled at the sight of her. She tapped the back of her best friend which was quickly responded with her gaze. Her face was really stressed.

 

            “Sorry, I am late for about thirty minutes. My professor just asked my help,” she lied. “How’s the class?”

 

 

            Danica gradually standing up. Her hair looked disheveled. Her face looked as if she got raped by a mad clown. The tiredness was boldly plastered on her face.

 

            Tricia chuckled when her question left no answer. “You looked like a ghost to me, or rather sort of a crazy ghost, ‘Nic.”

 

            Danica rolled her eyes. “Here is the great Tricia Sorrieto Ferret, may I present to everyone, which happened to be my best friend, now being a paranormal lover and contemplating me for being a crazy ghost, which at first and until now, in the matter-of-fact as well, did not even believe it does really exist! Seriously?!”

 

            It was time for Tricia to roll her eyes, yet remained a smile on her lips. “Because truth slap, of course. Would you care to share some sufficient evidences from credible sources that ghosts really exist? And well, if they really did, I wish I could see one,” she joked.

 

            “I hope your wish will be granted, in the name of all the god and goddess, amen!” Danica shouted, and now frustrated.

 

            Tricia tapped her best friend’s head and messed her disheveled long-blacked hair. “Okay, that’s too much and a little bit scary, ‘Nic. You really like a witch that condemning me to go to hell. But let’s forget about it. What’s really the problem?”

 

            And the moment Danica heaved a sigh, ignoring what Tricia had been uttered, and just heard the latter clearly, she fired it out. All of the hatred from school works to her exhaustion on their physical activity a moment ago to financial problem—she secreted all of those. She pushed all the forces away. Just like her problem which she was not able to take the quiz because she entered class late a while ago. She really was crazy. Her complaints even lasted for more than five minutes. The other students were even looking at them because of the sharp pitch of her voice.

 

            Tricia supposed to relax her as they were finally outside their campus, when an unfortunate incident caught their attention. They stopped unconsciously with a hint of confusion, not just they stopped when they saw others were panicking, but their eyes widened in horror as they realized what the crowd were watching.

 

 

            They caught a glimpse part of the mercedes car surrounded by the crowd. And the only thing that came into their mind was an accident. Uncertainty. Fatality. Bruises or worst, dead people.

 

            “Oh, my God!” shouted someone else.

 

            Some students were running through the way to the crowd while Tricia and Danica were stoned standing at the sight of the accident 10 meters away from where they were. They were out of words and they could only hear their heart beat pounding so fast. The people were panicking, full of whimpers and shrieks, and even the faculty members who happened to hear what the commotion was, were already out from the campus to know what really happened. They were all panicking. Somebody even screaming as they reached the crowd and see what happened.

 

            ‘What just…happened?’ that was what Tricia wanted to utter right now but she couldn’t, she suddenly lost her strength. And the only thing she could do was to pray that everything was going to be alright.

 

            Was it really going to be fine?

 

            “What happened?! Accident? Who?!”

 

            “Oh, God!”

 

            “Hoping everyone was okay. Let’s go there!”

 

            “There is an accident?! How many are involved?!”

 

            “Students from our school!”

 

            “Ma’am, they are two! We don’t know who they are!”

 

            Tricia almost lost her strength the moment she heard that. She heard it clearly, the people who were involved were all studying in Genaro High—in their school.

 

            Danica rapidly held her hand so she looked at her. She saw how her eyes full of questions with fears. She got it, Danica wanted them to go along with other students. But no, that was a bad idea for her. Really, really a bad idea.

 

            “No, ‘Nic. O-okay, I am scared, to be honest with you. I am scared not because I don’t want to see blood, but because I don’t want to know whoever those people are. I am afraid w-we know them. I d-don’t know what to do. I, I just can’t. I’m really sorry.”

 

             Danica just nodded, an indication that she understood her. She just embraced Tricia. That was the only way she could do right now to tell her best friend that everything will be okay.

 

            Before they decided to go home without daring to know what actually happened, a loud scream engulfed all over the surrounding.  A loud scream which almost devoured the whole city.

 

            “KYYYLE!”

 

Itutuloy…

 

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