I HEAR YOU

V: CALVIN

"Would you stop that?," I asked Dan as he keeps on bouncing his legs while sitting.

He glared at me,"You wouldn't understand." He was trying to sound serious but his voice wavered at the end.

"It's not like someone's dying," I exclaimed loudly. I could only care less as we chose to spend our vacant periods in the Publication Office.

"Don't joke about that!," he said frowning.
"It's normal to have absences. It's part of being a student. We even skip sometimes. This must be one of these days for her," I explained rather softly for him to stop his bouncing legs to shake the table further. I was trying to finish the drawing and his legs would not give me a break.

"She's not like that. She's a good girl and we both know that," he sighed.

"Well, sometimes good girls just want to be bad," I answered and turned to look at the shading I was trying to perfect.

"It sounds kinky when you say it like that," he said giggling.

I scrunched my nose in disgust and groaned. Is he still worried or is his mind elsewhere?  I thought. I didn't bother argue with him. I turned to face him only to see the look of concern etched on his face.

"Don't worry too much Dan," I said to appease him.

"She didn't even text me for once just not to make me worry," he said with a tone pained. I tore my gaze away from him and tried to work on my drawing again.

"Do you think------," he started but cuts himself and breathed in harshly. "Do you think she's cheating on me?," he continued but his voice at the end turns into a whisper.

I dropped my pencil and sighed. I picked it back up again and threw it at his forehead. "Ow!," he said while rubbing his forehead. "Why did you hit me?," he asked loudly while glaring at me.

"You're an idiot," I said calmly as I pulled out another pencil and started on my drawing again. "You know Gabby can't do that to you. If it even starts to rain with food, I think you wouldn't think twice of leaving her. There could be an emergency," I added.

"That's not up for an argument if it's about food and I wonder how big this emergency is for her to forget she has a boyfriend," he added and started to fiddle with his camera.

"How do you plan to do the screening for photojournalism?," I asked him, trying to steer his mind away from his worries.

"I'm just going to give them an hour for a photowalk," he answered absent-mindedly. I sighed. He is hopeless.

"Rhea's been bugging me and I can't seem to find an idea how to do the screening," I said still not tearing my eyes away from my drawing.

"You'll think of a way Tony. You just have to quit being so uptight and focused that much. Loosen up a bit and have fun," he chided and I scoffed.

"I don't have time to have fun," I answered monotonously and continued my drawing.
"You know what?," he started grinning. "I know exactly what you need," he added wiggling his eyebrows. A part of me is happy that he seemed oblivious of his worries earlier but another part of me screams fear of what he is about to say.

"You need a girlfriend," he shouts like he just thought of the most genius thing. I closed my sketchpad abruptly and threw it at his face. He glared at me crossing his arms and huffed, "You are awfully violent, you know that?"
"I don't need a girlfriend and if you try to set me up in a blind date again I'm going to break your nose," I said fuming at his words. He didn't seem fazed by it and I should have expected him to be not fazed at all.