Over Me (COMPLETED)

Chapter 28

My hesitation joins the atmosphere of the taxi and it starts to hold me by my neck, making me grasp for some invisible air.

In my peripheral, I caught Hayme played the video again. We've been in the taxi for almost twenty minutes now, bigla na lang naging traffic kaya wala rin kaming nagawa. And in that time, it was him watching relentlessly through my phone, drowned in his thoughts, mumbling silent words I wish I knew.

Bumaba ang tingin ko sa binigay niya. Did he really plan on going there? That's great, though. But I'm glad he was held up there, I don't want to have the odds of him seeing how burned out I am after that fight. Na kahit ibigay niya sa akin ito right away, hindi ko pa rin mapapansin.

"Here, salamat." he cut my thoughts off and hand me my phone back.

"Done?"

"Yeah." his tone wad short. "Galing. I know you really well at that."

Kinuha ko iyon at mahinang binalik sa bulsa. "Thank you."

I watch him switch his weight on his left shoulder, lean on the window and stare outside. That even we're currently halted on the middle of the road, his eyes are aware.

"Oh, did I say thank you already?" pinakita ko sa kaniya 'yung hawak. "Hindi mo na kailangan pero... thank you. This is beautiful. Still beautiful."

"Yeah. Welcome." he smiles short.

Bigla na lang akong nainis sa inaasal niya. He's clearly trying to draw a line in between us. Bakit pabago-bago ang mood nito? Daig niya pa ang babae when it's her time of the month!

"Oh, how did you pick these flowers? Not my favorite one but the color.. it's good."

Tinitigan niya lang iyon. Hinihintay ko siyang sumagot but he seemed occupied by something. "Does this flower means something? Mukhang mahal 'to, ah? It's not something I always see from the garden beside every road."

"Huwag mo nang isipin 'yun. It's fine by me."

"So mahal nga?"

Hayme didn't respond. "Kababalik mo lang sa trabaho, gumastos ka pa sa akin."

"I said, okay nga lang."

Ngumisi lang ako. "'Di ako galit. Praktikal lang."

Tumagal lang titig niya sa akin. "Oo nga pala! Nabanggit ba sa'yo ni Inton?"

Hindi siya sumagot at pinakita ko sa kaniya uli iyong video. "Ang alam ko, alam ni Inton na kakanta uli ako. Gusto niyang mapanood, 'di ba? Share ko sa'yo? So you can show it to him?"

"Sinabi niya 'yon?"

"Yep! Sayang naman kung hindi. Baka awayin ako noon kapag hindi ko naipakita!"

Bumaba na naman ang tingin niya, ngunit sa bulsa na niya iyon. I stare at it too but when the street light passed inside, I saw a big bulge in front of him. Fuck...

"Low battery ako."

Saglit bumaba ang balikat ko. "Then I'll share it to your Facebook?" tiningnan ko 'yung minutes ng video. "It's almost four minutes, kaya naman siguro sa Messenger iyon, right?"

He doesn't answer. And in that silence, I realized something. Oh. Oo nga pala. Bigla pa lang nawala 'yung Facebook niya nang hindi ko alam.

"Please? Para makampante ako na... at least malalaman ng kapatid mo."

Sinubukan kong ngumiti pero the chagrin in his face made me shut up.

Wala na naman siyang sagot at nawalan na ako ng pasensya. "Kung ganiyan pala gusto mo, then you should've said it already. Alam kong tanga ako, huwag mo na lang sana ipamukha pa."