Every Bad Thing

Happy 5M: Special Chapter

In celebration of 5M, here's a special chapter.

Comment down your favorite EBT moment or memory and I'll read it on my Instagram story! @anyahaseyoh

Every Bad Thing (The S#1): Chapter 3.5

Silas' POV

February 14. Valentine's Day.

I used to not care about such a trivial event. I' had always thought that events were invented for business men to capitalize on. For Halloween, candies and pumpkins. For Christmas, candy canes and a Christmas tree. For New Year, fireworks and champagnes. And as for Valentine's, chocolate and greeting cards.

I always thought of Valentine's Day as something stupid and useless until now. Until... I met Laurene.

After Laurene joked about asking her out... I had contemplated on actually doing it.

Gusto ko. Gustong-gusto ko. Pero paano ko siya tatanungin? I had never been on a date. Let alone asked someone to go out on a date.

I was the type of guy who never gets noticed because I wasn't attractive enough. Guaranteed, I had never really liked anyone before but I knew for sure that if I tried to ask a girl out, the girl would laugh at my face. Hindi lang siya ang tatawa kung hindi pati ang mga kaibigan niya.

How to ask a girl out on a date

That was what I searched in google at my spare time. It was pathetic. It wasn't like I could ask my father about it. Our father-son relationship only revolved around my achievements and being the complacent and good son.

The first advice was to already plan out the date before asking the person out. I also had to research about what people do on a date before proceeding on my former research.

Laurene was an artistic person. She loved to draw even though she would never admit it to anyone else... other than me. That was why I thought of taking her to an art museum then I would ask one of my father's colleagues, an architect, if we could visit the house they were currently working on.

The second advice simply said: ask her in person. That was when I already knew this wasn't going to happen. How could I ask her in person? Just the thought of being in front of her with the plan of asking her out was enough to suffocate me. Paano pa kung aayain ko na talaga siya nang totoo?

The third advice was to ask for a friend's help if I was struggling but that wasn't an option. Wala naman akong kaibigan or mutual friend namin na pwede kong hingan ng tulong.

Then I convinced myself that I was good at memorization. All I had to was memorize what I was going to ask her and just ask her like a normal guy would.

"Laurene, I found out about this art museum that I think you'd love. Gusto mo bang pumunta kasama ako?" that was the line that I had to practice in front of the mirror.

My question was a short paragraph composed of two sentences but I had to memorize and rehearse it for two days. I actually memorized it on the first hour of the first day but I was too much of a coward to act on it.

I didn't beat up myself over it too much because Valentine's Day was still on Sunday and I still had until Friday to ask her out.

Friday came and my heart was frantically beating inside my chest ever since I woke up. Lalong bumibilis pa ang bawat tibok kapag nakikita ko si Laurene at ngumingiti siya sa akin.

I was going to ask her during recess. I was going to buy us some snack before heading to our place and then I would ask her after giving her the food.