Safety Pin

Chapter 16: Something Fucked-up

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Hindi ko alam kung gaano katagal akong nakatulog doon ngunit hindi ko malilimutan ang kabang naramdaman ko ng makitang madilim na ang paligid at wala na masyadong tao sa mga silid. Hindi kaya tapos na ang araw? Paano kung kanina pa nag-uwian at kanina pa ako hinihintay nina papa?

"Are you dreaming?"

Napatalon ako paalis sa sanga at tila isang elepanteng nagulat sa naging reaksyon. Hindi rin naman nagtagal bago umalis sa pinagtataguan nito ang taong nanggulat.

"You're in my hiding place," Jack said by way of explanation, as if it made sense.

"Whatㅡwhat time is it?" I asked, voice panicked.

"4:25," maikli nitong sagot.

"Damn, I missed my class," wala sa loob kong sabi. Pero agad din akong napahinga ng maluwag dahil alas-singko palang ang uwian na alam nina papa. "It's dark."

"It is. May bagyong nasa Philippine Area of Responsibility kaya ganito kadilim," then he regarded me closely. "Do you even watch the news?"

"I don't." Nagsimula na akong magpagpag at inayos ang sarili. "By the way, you shouldn't really watch people sleep, Jack. It's creepy."

He chuckled and nodded at me, mockingly. "What happened to you? Suddenly had a change of heart about cutting-classes?"

"I'm not cutting-classes. Dimitri kicked me out of his class," I said and sighed again. "And I also miss my one elective."

"Tsk. You're doing a lot of things."

It is my time to regard him closely. "You're lucky you only have like 2 classes."

He shrugged and snorted. "Dimitri kicking out his favorite student? Now that's more unbelievable than the stars being a hundred years away."

"I am not kidding. He thought I was disturbing his class."

"What happened?" he replied dryly. Then his naughty eyes caught sight of the drop of blood in my skirt and clears his throat. "Oh.."

Oh no no no no! The hell. He's not thinking I'm having that time of the month, right? Right? Because he couldn't be possibly thinking about that. Anything but that.

"What!" I snapped. I fixed the offensive skirt out of sight and showed him the dried blood in Diane's handkerchief. "I had a nosebleed!"

He squinted at my noseㅡdisgusting, yesㅡ and gave me a pat in the head. "It's stop bleeding."

"Well it was five hours ago. Of course it would stop bleeding by now," I replied monotone. Tiningnan ko agad ang cellphone ko kung may susundo ba sa akin ngayon ngunit bigla nalang hinila ni Jack ang kamay ko pababa.

"Dito ka muna. Marami namang masasakyan mamaya," aniya sabay upo sa tabi ko. "Bakit ka nga ulit nagka-nosebleed?"

"I don't know. I didn't go to the clinic."

"You're cutting classes," he teased.

I looked at him incredulously. "I didn't! Sumasakit yung ulo ko kaya naisipan kong itulog nalang iyon."

"Ah. That explains the nosebleed. Uminom ka na ba ng paracetamol?" tanong niya na parang hindi niya ako inasar-asar kanina.

"I don't need it anymore. I'll be fine if you let me go home," I told him testily.

"The hospitals and doctors highly discourage self-medication, Prim. And right now you obviously need paracetamol. Sumasakit ulo mo."

I want to tell him that what he was doing is considered self-medicating because it was not really necessary to do so but then before I could even start speaking, he was already rummaging through his tiny belt bagㅡ bringing out bottled water and a biogesic.