It's You

Chapter 3

Friendship. The word is already precious to me. How much more is the person, or persons, involved in it? Our blossoming friendship gave me excitement and happiness... and it's something new to me.

At the time when we were in the getting-to-know-each-other stage of our friendship, we agreed to have ice cream outside of the campus.

"It's only 7 o'clock but there's no jeep already," Ben said impatiently.

Just then, a jeep came and we hopped on to it. There's only the driver and the two of us as passengers.

Both of us were quiet along the way when all of a sudden a hole in the road rocked the jeep. I held on to my chest due to the impact. I had my period then which made my breasts sort of sensitive (you know, the girl thing).

"Shit! Where did that hole come from?" the driver shouted.

Then I felt Ben's arm on my shoulder as he pulled me closer to him, saying, "I'm sorry. I'm like this to Mama and my two sisters. I don't want them feeling hurt. Are you alright?"

I looked at him and nodded. I didn't move an inch because he might feel awkward about it. He only let go when we were near the library as if making sure that I was fine.

And I thought, Isn't he so caring? It's like he's some guy who'd protect his girl from anything.

After that jeep incident, I noticed that he had become very comfortable with me.

We usually have dinner at the dorm canteen but one time, he suggested we go to the other canteen which is near our dorm. It's a 5-minute walk from the back of our dorm straight to the back of the other canteen.

When we were done, we stayed for a few minutes telling stories about the day's things.

As we were going back to our dorm, the light on the stairs suddenly turned off making it so dark to walk on. I let out a soft shriek in surprise. He took my hand and we slowly walked down. He kept saying, "Be careful."

I thought he'd let go as soon as we'd reach our dorm but he didn't. He held onto my hand to the lobby. Then he stopped and motioned that we sit for a while on one of the benches.

We didn't talk. We just sat there quietly beside each other. I felt uneasy because he was facing me. He was doing something with his cell phone and I was just there - motionless -with my head down.

After a while, Andrew came and greeted us.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked. He sat beside Ben.

"We just had dinner and I'm waiting for you," Ben said smiling at him.

"Ha, ha! You already missed me that much!" Andrew let out a big laugh, and so did Ben. I only smiled looking at them.

They must be close, I thought.

Andrew was quick enough with his words, though. "Didith, we're not gays. You might think that way. We're just like this," he said with a wink.

"Hey, let's go to our rooms," Ben then said. I nodded.

He led me to the corridor and said, "Good night. I'll see you in the morning for breakfast."

"Good night," I said.

I knew that eyes were all over us. When we were seated outside, I could feel our dormmates looking at us with surprise as they very well know how Ben is.

That was the first time we held hands. Through the passing days, it became a habit for him to either hold my hand or put his arm around me while we walked. I don't know. But not even once that I feel he was taking advantage of me. Why would he? I'm not even pretty to be taken advantage of!

I'm sure he knew that we'd become an 'item' of sorts in the dorm. Yet, even if we were teased together, it didn't matter at all. We went on as friends. I thought he would keep away from me, but he didn't. Not a word from him about it. It's like he didn't mind. So even if I felt awkward, I just went with the flow.

Ah... I don't know, but there's always this tingling joy inside whenever I'm with him. And I'm glad that we became more than friends, so to speak. Uh-uh, you're wrong about the love thing. We became more than friends because we ventured into a brother-and-sister relationship.

"Ben, are we going now?" Job asked. He was his classmate and batchmate. They were doing a project as a team.

"Yes, we are," Ben said. "By the way, this is Didith, my little sister."

"Hi," Job shook hands with me then turned to Ben. "I didn't know you have a sister here."

Ben only smiled and whispered to me, "We're going. I'll see you at dinner tonight."

"Okay," I said.

So that's where I got the idea of a brother-and-sister relationship.

___________________________________________________

Thank you for reading.

Enjoy!