The Love (Dis)connection

Chapter 5

I took Mia’s advice to heart and decided to play it cool. It was true; he wasn’t courting her yet anyway. Maybe it will pass like all his other crushes.

But he did start hanging out with her more often—something that set the school aflutter—while I tried my best to stay away from him. I declined all his offers to drive me home, saying I had too much work to do to wait for him to finish his basketball games.

On Valentine’s Day, the school was all abuzz when Eula got a bouquet of white roses with the card unsigned. Since Jack was the only one linked to her lately, everyone was asking me left and right if he was finally courting her.

Then he sent me roses, too. A dozen roses in my favorite rose colors: pink, white, and red. My girlfriends were tittering excitedly, saying this was finally a sign that he loved me. Of course I knew it was from him because he handed it to me with a flourish, and it was signed with, “To my beloved best friend.” The insertion of the word ‘beloved’ felt like a cruel joke, but I smiled and hugged him in gratitude. But I did duck and stayed inside the ladies’ room for almost fifteen minutes as I cried quietly in a cubicle, with Mia patting my back. Thank God no one else used the bathroom while we were there or I would have created quite a scandal being enclosed in a single cubicle with another girl.

But I created even more gossip in the middle of Mr. Templar’s discussion.

Knock-knock.

The teachers were used to this tradition of having flowers sent to the room, and sometimes serenades done by the theater orgs in school for a fee. Although they hated being interrupted, they would rather open the door than be called hard-hearted and lose a little notch of respect in the students’ esteem as they will be viewed as not ‘game’ or ‘uncool’.

“Is there an Aurelia Tiengco here?” came the voice of a pimply-looking freshman, wearing a “Valentine’s Messenger” toga, a la Miss Universe style.

“Miss Tiengco?” boomed Mr. Templar.

I raised my hand then looked at Jack in confusion. “Did you send me another one?”

He seemed delighted. “No, I didn’t! You’ve got a secret admirer, Aurelia!” he exclaimed in excitement. His voice carried throughout the whole room, which made the close class go, “yiiieee!”

Mr. Templar handed me my rose. “Okay, settle down, settle down. Back to business.”

The rest of the class slid me winks and glances, but generally paid attention to him. Me, on the other hand, was gazing at the white card which came with the rose. The handwriting was not one I recognized.

I stared a long time at the message, wondering if it was some sort of joke.

Wipe away your tears. Happy Valentine’s Day, Aurelia.

No closing signature, no name. Just that short but sweet message. I spent the whole day in a daze, but, undeniably, feeling a little bit cheerful.

—0o0o0o0—

Over the semester, things between me and Jack remained the same. He and I still sat side by side in all our classes together, joking around.

Come final examinations week, we were together almost every day, studying together and quizzing each other on our similar subjects. Sometimes, he ate with my group of friends, or went to mass with me.

I never asked about Eula, and he never opened up. Sometimes, I’d see them hanging out in the library, but they seemed to simply be working together on their papers, since they were both Economics majors.

Everything felt the same—even my feelings for him, which didn’t die down. I was feeling pretty positive about us, all in all.

Until, on the last day of school, I found myself alone in the elevator with Eula herself. We were both on our way to the sixth floor to see some professors.

“Aurelia, I’ve been meaning to ask you about Jack,” she shyly said as soon as the elevator doors closed.

Out of habit, I immediately reverted to step one of my denial process. “What do you mean?”

“Are you and Jack dating?” she was blushing, but she stood her ground, looking me in the eye.

“Of course not. He’s my best friend, for God’s sake!”

I didn’t have to go into step three because she looked really relieved. “Oh! Oh. Of course. So you’re not, like, in love with him or something?”

I wanted so badly to get teary-eyed. I wanted to warn her off, to tell her to stay away. But I couldn’t do that. I loved Jack, I really did. “No,” I said softly, “I’m not in love with him at all.”

—0o0o0o0—

I was about to enter the chapel, when Dante suddenly went out the door.

“Oh, hi! Haven’t seen you around much,” I greeted him cheerfully.

“Oh you know, been busy.”

I smiled at him distractedly, and went inside to pray.

When I got out, I was surprised to see him sitting on one of the benches outside the chapel.

“Hey, are you waiting for one of the priests?” The University of Saint Philomena usually had one or two priests in attendance in case anyone from school, or even just around the community, wanted to confess or consult on some moral or spiritual matter.

Dante stood up, grabbing his knapsack. “Oh, actually I was waiting for you.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Really? Why? What’s up? Want to discuss the literature exam?”

He smiled shyly at me. “You’re one of the few people I can talk to, you know. I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to grab ice cream with me? You know, like a post-exam celebration.”

I looked at my phone, checking if Jack left any messages. Zero message. We usually had dinner for a sem-ender celebration. “Actually, I’m waiting for Jack. We have this usual sem-ender dinner.”

He nodded. “I understand, okay, cool.” We both turned when we heard footsteps coming from the corridor.

It was Eula and Jack, and they were laughing and gazing at each other fondly.

“Want to grab a bite?” I clearly heard Jack ask her.

“Sure. I’m starving after that exam!”

They didn’t even glance at us.

I stood there, staring after them.

“So, snacks?” Dante broke into my thoughts.

I mustered up a smile. “I guess I’m free after all.”