Kiss Shot

Untitled Part 5

It's rather strange to remember that Kuya Stephen used to have a best friend. He doesn't trust anyone easily. Looking at him, lean and wiry and cranky all the time, you can't imagine he would ever be dependent on anyone else - not a brother, not a parent, not anyone so close.

But he used to have my Kuya Roger. The same way I did. And now he has to stay here, in this place where we both lost him.

Just because I wouldn't leave and he couldn't leave me alone.

I reach out and hold his hand. He doesn't flinch or move away. "Sorry, okay?" I tell him. "Let's go back and get our things, then let's go home. Okay?"

He looks at me. What I said doesn't really need an answer. He turns around the turns off the lights, and after we've stepped out, he shuts the door to the ward behind us. 

It's only when we've left the floor that he shakes free of my hold on his hand, and I let him.

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We head back to the emergency room, where a pleasant surprise happens to be waiting for us -

"Good news!" the attending nurse says brightly. "She's awake, and she's ready to go home. She was asking who brought her to the hospital, and I told her two friends of hers did."

"Thank goodness!" I remark. Off to one side, Kuya Stephen makes some vague gestures and frantic mouth movements that seem to spell out I am NOT going in there!

So I pout at him, then turn again to the nurse and ask, "Can I see her?"

The nurse leads me to the cot where Mia Martin is resting. "Her mother called just a few minutes ago," the nurse said. "She was stuck in traffic, but she'll be here shortly."

There's a chair by the bed. I make my way to it. She looks at me wide-eyed, like something small and scared.

Maybe greeting her with a smile will calm her down...?

"Hi," I say to her, when the nurse has gone. "My name is Nikki. I'm not in your class, but I think we're on the same year level..."

Without her glasses, and with the side of her head stitched and patched up like so, Mia Martin looks quite vulnerable - not at all the super-genius I've imagined her to be.

...Then again, what does a super-genius look/behave like, really? For all I know, they're all like this: cute, petite, with long straight hair, and big brown eyes that look like they'll shine in the dark.

...The type Dylan Aiba will go for, perhaps?

"Do you remember me?" I venture. Maybe she doesn't, and I can easily say Hey, my Kuya Stephen and I picked you up out of the sidewalk when that CRAZY MOTORBIKE DRIVER almost ran you over! You owe us your life, for crying out loud, so let's be friends!!

Mia Martin nods, slowly. "You... stepped out into the road," she said. "You asked how I was..."

She still seems a bit disoriented. I'm pretty sure the medicines that made her sleep have nothing to do with it.

"Oh! Here." I fish out a pair of glasses from the pockets of my uniform skirt. Before handing it over to her, I inspect it: nope, no visible scratches or bends. Good, that's one less thing for Kuya Stephen to worry about paying for. "I kept it for you. You were asking for it before we took you here."

The frame of her glasses is colored pink. The frame is thick, and clearly classy - perhaps it's even a brand-name pair, but I don't make it a point to look into things like that.

She takes it and puts it on. Nothing much about her changes. She looks a bit sterner... just a bit less approachable.

And seriously - on her small face, those lenses suddenly look HUGE.