Rematch

CHAPTER 1

"Where you at?" he asked but didn't wait for me to speak. "Darla's throwing a party tonight for her birthday. Are you going?"

It wasn't a surprise that Zach got invited to Reagan parties. The moment Zoey told me that her twin would be enrolling in our sister school for boys, we already expected that. Zach was the life of the party. He could turn even the most mundane gathering into a memorable one. That's why people wanted him around.

"No. I'm going to the movies with Tita Judith. I already promised to go," I lied, sure that he'd let me off the hook because shortly after moving to the Philippines last year, I told them about Tita Judith, my uncle's (mom's brother) wife,being my guardian. The only interaction we had was when she helped me enroll in Reagan. Still, her existence was a convenient excuse to deflect any invitation from Zach when I was injured and recovering.

To be honest, I was beginning to think I was getting better at lying. I wasn't proud of it, of course. Lying to my friends about y condition was necessary because I didn't want to hear the pity in their voices. I've had too much of that from my family and my schoolmates at RIS. I didn't want to hear the same thing from my closest friends.

He was silent for a few seconds before speaking in a clipped voice. "You could just say you don't want to hang out with me instead, y' know."

Damn it. "Zach—"

The line went dead after that. I couldn't blame him for doing so. I knew he would eventually run out of patience from my playing hide-and-seek with him for almost a year now. He had been calling me since the school year started but I refused to answer most of his calls. On the very few occasions that I did, I made sure I was busy so he wouldn't pester me about catching up over burger or something like we always did back in the US.

However, since Berkeley and Reagan shared a massive compound and completely turning invisible from him was impossible, I just went out of my way to avoid him most of the time by staying in the dorms where boys were off-limits. But Zach was very pesky and almost did everything he could to have a chat with me even when I was mostly with my classmates. That was why I was never alone when I was at the grounds. So he couldn't get past the casual how-are-you-today thing and just stuck to openly inviting me to parties I never showed up in. I knew the moment I accepted the invitation, he'd grab the chance to fill me in with anything that came to his mind.

It's not that I didn't want to hang out with him. I did. Very badly too. Just like what he could do to parties, he could also turn a frown upside-down. And honestly, I needed that now more than ever. But Zach had a big mouth and always seemed like he had a lot of stories to share. Which was the main reason why I tried to steer clear from him. Because I wasn't ready to hear his stories about our year apart, senior high school, about our basketball team...about the wonder boy, Jarlin Trance. Zoey had already given me the summarized version of it all and that was enough. I didn't want a detailed recap from Zach. It would only make me feel even more miserable about my current state.

But then again maybe I was taking this too far. Since my leg was, according to the PT, fully healed now, maybe I should make it up to him afterall. Especially that Berkeley-Reagan International Schools or simply BRIS would be hosting the Annual International Schools' Sports Fest this year. Though I wasn't part of the roster of players, the fact that I was still a member of the Athletics Club meant I had to support our teams. And Zach was a BRIS Soccer player. I just had to figure out a way to not actively listen to his animated version of what I missed out back in California when I left.