Back There Again

003

rosée du matin
────────────

Eckart

I really hate working here.

But it's not like I have a choice-one enormous row with my dearest friend and here he is, sitting on a stack of cardboard boxes in the backroom of the Rosée du matin, counting down the minutes. I shouldn't have let myself become involved in that perilous game with de Gracia who was older and far more cunning. He's as ancient as a fossil, so you'd think he'd have a few more ploys up his sleeve to push me over the edge.

"Suck it up, natalo ka so kailangan mo mag serve sa mga customer ng booth namin. Sa pagkakaalam ko sabi ni dela Cruz sa hapon pa kayo e-dispatch" I click my tongue and drop the mop. Hindi sana ako nagtiwala kay Kairi.

It started with the little pranks. Insignificant but annoying all the same. Misplacing my camera, hats, drug handbooks when he knows I have a class. So sometimes I retaliated by turning on and off the lights while de Gracia is cleaning the trays, messing with the aircon, e.t.c..

de Gracia is our senior in medtech. He's more childish than us. At first akala ko he's younger than us. And he's the one and only student council president sa School of Allied Medical Sciences. What a bigshot.

"Look, you're my younger brothers kaya binibigyan ko kayo nung portion ng atensyon ko" he's doing it again, smile oh so wide.

"Iyo nalang yan de Gracia, tutal may kapatid ka naman doon mo nalang ibuhos lahat." bakas sa boses ni Kairi yung inis. Lucky enough hindi siya ang nabunot ngayon kundi he'll definitely walk out.

Yeah, kind of remember his brother last year? Bumista iyon dito and they said na kamukha ko daw. Actually, in my eyes we don't. I decided to leave them alone and de Gracia had cackled for the next minute while I furiously, desperately scrubbed all the dirt out, then rushed outside to let it dry. Only it was too late. The dryer was already running at that point, and sky outside was already gray, mottled and sad.

Napasapo nalang ako. Really? Why does it have to rain again? Masyadong blessed naman yung school year kung ganito lang rin. They said when it rains and currently celebrating it means it is a blessing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, magbaha na kung magbaha.

I am here now, head pressed into the wall smudged with fingerprints and what appears to be fecal stains. Human or animal, I wouldn't know, and I doesn't want to. Just then, de Gracia walks in and throws a look over my shoulder.

Minsan gusto ko tuloy siyang itaboy. Just a second after that thought lumabas naman sa isip ko that he's my senior after all. Damn.

"Your time's up."

It's almost as if my visitation privileges in prison have expired.

Every bone in my leg cracks as I stand up, and the soles of my feet throb. They're so inflated that I think I'll just go up a size in shoes to accommodate my permanently inflated balloon feet.

"Come on, cheer up a little. Punta ka na sa cashier. Remember ikaw gagawa nung drinks. A lot of sweet damsel in distress are waiting for their knight" tinawanan ko lang si de Gracia. He even wink and giving me a lot of disgusting hearts bago nag laho papuntag stock room.

"Fuck you Jeremiah." half shouted but barely hearable outside.

"Galit na si Valentino tinawag ka na sa first name mo" umiling lang ako sa kanila at nagatawanan. Just normal banters, you know the one that makes you closer.

Readied myself and just a little bit fix of my hair when Kairi knock. Ano naman?

"I know you're not in the mood, but there's a group of girls who just walked in and said they won't drink anything that isn't made by you-what is true love if not that?" Kairi snickers and takes my spot on the most concrete box they have here, then complains about how hot it is still from 'my flat ass.'