Te Quiero (hiatus)

13 - The Unsolicited Parental Advice

Despite what he said, Zylo didn't really ask for my contact number. After that night at Warehouse, he followed me on my social media accounts, which caused quite a lot of ruckus among Ate Via's readers who kept asking what was going on, but aside from the occasional reactions to my IG stories, we had little to zero interaction with each other.

Which further confirmed what Noah told me—he really was just generally nice to everyone.

That was nice to know. At least he's not someone I should avoid. And I was grateful he didn't press for any sort of communication with me either. I wasn't that comfortable yet, especially when my set of friends were spazzing hard about us.

Pagkatapos kasi ng gabing 'yon, the girls never stopped mooning about how unlikely and serendipitous it had been. The writer in Ate Via kept spinning wild stories in her head, and Shane and Ance were making it worse by adding their own details to it.

They were fangirling, hard.

The readers were fangirling just as hard. The photo had been deleted, pero mabilis talaga ang netizens. They grabbed it even before Zylo deleted it, and now it was making rounds among the reader community. Most of them were asking kung totoo ba yung story. Some were wondering which of which was true. Paulit-ulit lang naman ang tanong—they all wanted to know if we were really dating.

I warned Zylo of this. Maging siya, nakikita kong nakakakuha ng mga ganoong klaseng tweets. But he never addressed any of them. When I told Ate Nellie about the constant messages I was receiving, she adviced me to ignore them na lang. I gave one clarification tweet but that was it. After that, I followed her suggestion na.

It was making me feel tad bit awkward though everytime I was seeing Zylo's name pop up in my notifications. Kada naaaalala ko siya, I couldn't stop the feeling of dread from creeping over me. Para kasing I was walking into a land mine here, and everyone was waiting for me to do just that.

Wala pa man, everyone was expecting that I'd fall in love with him.

Ugh.

The stubborn, rebellious fire in me was bursting out to prove everyone wrong. Mas lalo ko tuloy gustong layuan si Zylo.

And that was my dilemma at the moment because Noah was inviting me to a house party three weeks from now. I could say no, but that chance was out of the options when he managed to convince Joaquin to go as well. Kung magpupumilit pa 'kong tumanggi, that was bound to raise some red flags because I was known for loving parties. Mas lalo ko lang bibigyan ng chance si Noah to support his argument.

"Alam mo, babe. Don't overthink it. Just enjoy the moment. Masyado kang too ahead of what's happening," Shane told me when I told her of my concerns.

Nasa Poblacion na kami ngayon. We met after she finished whatever brand event she was invited to.

We were currently drinking now in Polilya to kill time and de-stress. Bukod kasi sa personal issues ko, work had been too toxic. My deadlines were just around the corner na.

I took a sip from my cocktail, running my eyes around the chill set-up of the bar. "I know you're right. But it doesn't feel right to be friends with him lalo na if people can easily give other color to it," I answered honestly, returning my eyes back to her.

Shane put down her phone and popped some chips into her mouth. The purple neon light was casting purple hues and shadows across her face and dark blonde hair.

"You don't care about what others think naman. You only care about what your friends think. But don't mind us too much. Do your own thing kasi babe, we're only teasing you pero alam naman namin na walang mangyayari. Why don't you just relax?"