love, unexpected

love at first sight

Laurent

"Sabay ka na!"

I heard him, loud and clear, but the words didn't register well. Ano daw?

I stared at him, his face crunched up, eyes squinted as if trying to see clearly what my reaction was. Did I hear him right? Wasn't he going to insult or make fun of me?

The loud honk of the car snatched me out of my thoughts.

"Hey, ano? Sasabay ka ba o hindi?"

"A-ako?"

He rolled his eyes, "may kasama ka bang 'di ko nakikita?"

I looked beside me and immediately felt stupid. Of course wala akong kasama! What the hell? I took a deep breath, let it out and quickly composed my thoughts, deciding whether to take up the offer or not.

Another honk. His elbow on the window, already impatient. Bahala na. Kesa naman, mabulok ako kakahintay sa pagtila ng ulan.

"Okay! Okay!" I shouted as I stood up.

I adjusted my bag on my shoulders and chained my bike again, mentally noting to shoot my friends a message to fetch me for tomorrow's school.

The rain was pouring real hard so I took my jacket out of my bag and used it to cover my head. I saw Ethan slightly opened the door to the passenger seat and gave me a swift nod after.

It's fine, I told myself, the guy was just being nice.

Hoping it wasn't a bad decision, I ran the distance to his car.

I closed the door behind me as I sat on the passenger seat. Soon as I did, the loud sound of the rain got muffled, replaced by a song playing softly. It smelled good in there, clean and the interior screamed "new". The last time I was here I didn't even notice anything.

"Thank you," I said as I fold my then wet jacket. The bottom of my pants were wet too. "You didn't have to -"

"Shut up," he abruptly said, cutting me short. "Spare me the grateful speech please. Taga saan ka?"

I was left with my mouth hanging in mid-sentence, staring at him. He was looking straight at the road. Wow. This guy is really something.

"Eastbrook street," I said curtly, feeling embarrassed.

"San yun?" I was hoping na madadaanan nya lang yung street namin, but by the crease formed on his forehead, mukhang hindi.

"Malapit lang, 2 streets away from McDo in Madrid Avenue. Pero kung out of the way, okay lang, I can wait until the rain stop."

He looked at me, his face unreadable.

"Turo mo na lang," he said, sabay baling ng mata sa daan.

It was awkward. Hindi ko alam kung bakit nya ko sinasabay. Hindi maalis sa isip ko na, this guy may be up to something. The last time I rode his car didn't end up so well.

Chill, he's just being nice, I tried convincing myself, again.

The car moved outside the campus gate and soon as we hit the road, we were welcomed by a horrendous traffic. It's past 7 according to my watch, rush hour, ang lakas pa ng ulan. By this rate, baka lagpas alas-otso na ko makauwi.

Chasing cars by Snow Patrol started playing. It's melody filling the silence. It's one of my favorite songs from the band so I let myself enjoy it.

I rested my head and looked outside, the rain was still pouring steadily, the wipers on the window were nonstop. I could see the lined cars with red lights on their tails, rain blurring them. I forced myself to relax, realizing I have been too tensed since I entered Ethan's car, I unclenched my fist I didn't know were clenched, and rested my knees that's been bouncing up and down.