Dormisteryo

20

The following weeks of assisting Casey on her training at the diner was a just a breeze.

Martin was quite surprised at mabilis lang matuto si Casey sa mga gawain sa diner. She was not even acting up, hindi maarte lalo na sa mga gawaing paglilinis. Kaliwa't kanang tawanan pa nga ang inaabot nilang dalawa habang nagtatrabaho sa kusina.

There was even a time that they went home late since they got wet after splashing water to each other in the kitchen.

Tumambay pa sila sa malapit na milk tea shop, and somehow they managed to get to know each other more.

"Habang nagtatarabaho tayo, you keep mentioning your sister, Kesha. How is she?" Ang tanong ni Martin kay Casey while both of them are waiting for their milk tea.

Casey looked at the sky above, it was dark as the clouds covered most of the stars. "She's doing fine naman. Medyo makulit nga lang. Hindi kami masyadong close no'n pero alam niya naman na I care for her. Hindi kasi ako malambing na tao," aniya.

"Paanong hindi malambing?"

"I rarely show emotion sa family namin. I cringe whenever there's moment na may yakapan, iyakan, or mga heart to heart talk. Hindi ako sanay sa gano'n, though I can say mas comfortable akong umiyak sa taong hindi ko kapamilya," Casey smiled.

"I see, gets ko naman yung gano'ng situation." Martin looked at the sidewalk in front of the shop. May mga namataan siyang naglalakad na mga mag-partner, he can see most of them holding each other's hand, looking at each other's eyes with smile carved on their face. He somehow wishes he can feel it too.

"How about you? I haven't heard anything about your family?" Casey asked Martin.

"Well," umiling-iling si Martin. "It's quite a very complicated family, you know what I mean? Masyadong magulo yung background namin. The reason why I'm here is due to a serious business matter," ani Martin.

"Business matter? You mean, working student?"

"No, it's quite deeper than that. I'm not just a normal college student working his way to graduation, but I work for something else kasi," dagdag pa ni Martin.

He wants to share a lot of things yet he couldn't do so. He know the difficulty of the subject matter they were talking about. Hindi pa siya handang sabihin ang lahat tungkol sa magulong connections ng pamilya niya. If he wants to keep his inner peace, silence and ignorance is the key to it.

No reason to overthink, no reason to be bothered at all. However, Casey comes into view and started to disturb Martin's sacred rule. She wants more, she craves more, and in fact, her nature makes Martin feel so vulnerable. Na sa isang tingin lang ng babaeng nasa kaniyang harapan, she would be able to get information right away.

That Casey could work as an interrogative agent if given the chance to do police officer works. She will fit in the good guy's shoes.

"Hindi ka naman nagbebenta ng drugs ano?" Pabirong sambit ni Casey.

"Hell no, I will not do drugs at any given time."

"Akala ko eh. And speaking of drugs, nabalitaan mo na ba yung mga drug cases sa campus natin? May nagpapakalat daw kasi ng party drugs doon," Casey asked him.

The topic she brought up piqued Martin's interest. "I heard about it. May idea ka ba about that? Any theories? Thoughts?"

Casey shrugged. "Personally wala, but I know some of my classmates na may idea sa nangyari. I didn't bother asking them about it, wala naman akong pakialam sa kanila knowing na it's their decision to take drugs and live a miserable life."