As Of Now [Editing]

As Of Now Chapter 8: The Fall

Three days after the whole panic attack inside my head had settled down and a thin but expandable line of hope threaded across my heart, now a Taylor Swift cover plays in my mind. Right, that's my phone. I forced my eyelids open and a harsh sensation of sunshine greeted my unsettled eyes. I squinted my eyes a bit and reached for my phone on my bedside table, answering my phone to cancel out my previous half-asleep daze.

"Hello?" I heard my own raspy voice leave my lips and onto the caller I answered, instantly smacking ahand to my mouth at embarrassment. I need to run to the bathroom, now.

"Camille? Gising ka na?" Carol asked, dismissive of my morning voice. 

"Iba ang kausap mo, ito ang kaluluwa ni Camilla." I lowered my voice even raspier and sarcastically attempt a soul-like accent, what king of person actually wakes up at- Oh, it's already 9 am. "Ano yun, Carol?" Pushing myself off my bed, I grabbed my towel and toiletries into the bathroom. 

"Pwede kang gumala?" Carol's voice rang out loud inside the cement tiled space as I cracked open a bottle of mouthwash. "I dunno, why?" I blurted out after spitting out the minty liquid out my mouth. "I'm bored today, gusto kong gumala." She whined over the other end, making me roll my eyes. "May pera ka bang pang-gala?" I asked rather exasperated.

It went quiet at the other end, a jingling noise at the background afterwards. She must be checking for cash. "Five hundred is enough, right?"

"Depends on where you're planning to go, where are you headed?" I clasped my phone in between my ear and my shoulder, fixing up my bed while trying to talk to my pleading friend. "I dunno yet, you decide." 

"Dude, I have to ask the folks first, I don't know if we have plans today. I'll call you then, okay?" Slipping into my slippers, I finger-brushed my hair as I waited for Carol ending answer then slipped my phone into my shorts pocket. Lovely, my friend just invited me to plans I'm supposed to make and I haven't even ate my breakfast.

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I tugged on my loose sweater and readjusted the frame to my shoulders as I walked over to my lockers, 'Chemistry, Social Studies, Algebra.' I muttered to myself, sighing. I wasn't very excited about today, it's cold this morning but it'll probably turn humid later in the afternoon like the previous week. Then again, it wouldn't be so bad now that I knew a lot about Matthew; we've been talking almost every minute since he didn't become the team's representative. He wouldn't let me sleep early, even begging for five more minutes everytime I told him I have a curfew to follow.

"Curfew?" he replied. Took him long enough.

"Yes, curfew. Do you have a problem with that?" I snarled at him sassily.

"It's only ten thiry, c'mon, five more minutes." He kept asking for five more minutes the past three nights we've been texting, I wish I knew how to decline but he's Matthew after all.

"Lucky you, you're practically this batch's homecoming committee. And what am I? A piece of new trash to make fun of." Truth hurts, but you have to face facts sometimes. A lot.

"What does that have to do with your curfew?"

"It just means your face is good and mine isn't so I have to maintain a shadow free face." Shadow, what? I meant, no-bags-under-my-eyes face, gosh darnit Camille.

"You mean eyebags, right? Bc a shadow-free face means you're soo white." 

"Yeah, that, sorry. I'm just really sleepy already." My eyes were half-open, trying to hit send without actually falling asleep in the midst of anap in between the past ten messages.