The Travel Buddy

Prologue

     "You have grown up," he said.

     "Yes, I did... and so did my feelings." I said staring at the meat that I am marinating, avoiding any visual contact with him as much as trying to hold the tears that were brimming in my eyes. He was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen counter where I have been working on a menu. "I am no longer that sweet little girl that you only see as your sister..." The girl who was once truly, madly, deeply in love with you, I wanted to add. "B-because I am not. I am just your bestfriend's baby sister."

     With that said, I turned around and headed out of the kitchen. I called for our househelper and instructed her to continue what we've been doing before Enzo came barging in a while ago.

     "Bee..."

     I froze in the middle of the first flight of the stairs leading to the bedrooms upstairs. That name... No one calls me by that name but him. Bee... he used to say that I'm like a bumblebee. I don't know how he meant by that, but he's fond of teasing me when I was following them around, bugging them like a bee. Or maybe it was because I'm blessed with a well-endowed butt. 

     Who can blame me? I am the only girl on our street in the village. I have no one to play with except my big brother and his friends. And we live just in front of the village's park, and so does Enzo.

     Yes, we are neighbors. Their house is adjacent to ours, not even separated by fences or walls. We live in a gated residential community of prominent and well-connected people of Iloilo City.

         "Bee," he called again. I did not turn around. I am afraid I might falter. I am afraid everything will come back to how it had been eight years ago. I am afraid of what I may see when I look at him. That tall and attractive boy, whose body was honed to perfection with sports and gym sessions, and whose face is bewitching to every female human being.

     "Bee... let's talk." He grabbed me by the arm. And since I was in the middle of ascending the stairs when he called me, I almost lost my balance when he spun me around to face him. Had it not for his firm grip on both my arms, I would have fallen off. Yet I have still managed to avoid looking at his face. "Damn, Bee! Look at me!"

I twisted my arms to get away from him. I quickly strode up two steps of the stairs making me equally tall as him, which is a wrong move because I am now facing him straight in the eyes. "There's nothing to talk about, Enzo. It's all water under the bridge now. So please stop bothering me."

I turned and climbed up another two steps.

"You were the one bothering me, Bee." I paused from going further. "You boggled up my mind eversince that night."

"Enough, Enzo!" I looked back at him. "You've already said your piece that night. I get it. You don't need to repeat it word for word." Your piercing words were already carved in my heart and in my mind. "By the way, I'm not a bee anymore. It's Bea."

And I left him there in the middle of the staircase...

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