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A year ago, college student Sarawat was swept off his feet by a mysterious stranger at a concert. Suddenly that guy, Tine, has burst into Sarawat's life with a wild request: pretend to be Tine's boyfriend...
Tine's "Goodnight, Wat" text message Wednesday night was the perfect ending to what had been an emotional rollercoaster of a day. Wednesday morning had started out fine: I had breakfast with Green, then I met with Tine to return his cell phone. It was during our encounter that Tine had confirmed one of my fears: he liked girls. In desperation, I used a friendly game during a meeting of the soccer players and cheerleaders as an excuse to kiss Tine in front of everyone. But when he had exploded with anger at me afterwards, it wasn't my guilt that hurt the most. It was Tine's assertion that I hated him and was intentionally trying to make him look foolish. I could not handle the pain of knowing that Tine, the guy I was madly in love with, believed I hated him. It was the farthest thing from the truth. I finally confessed to him that I didn't hate him at all, and I agreed to be his "shield" against Green's affections. Reading "Goodnight, Wat" and hearing it in Tine's voice helped me to fall asleep with a smile on my face.
Thursday morning driving to campus, I was still smiling. When I turned into the student parking lot, my smile grew bigger. As if awaiting my arrival, Tine stood on the covered walkway between the Political Science Building and the Social Sciences Building. With his arms across his chest and a smug grin on his face, his impudent stance made me laugh to myself. It seemed only fair that Tine could now be the one dishing out the cockiness, as I had given him so much brashness in the past few days. I was sure he thought I was egotistical. It's fine if he wants to gloat about me helping him, I decided. I parked my car near a spot where he was standing.
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And then I saw Green on the walkway, angrily stomping towards Tine.
FUCK! I had forgotten to tell Green that I had agreed to help Tine. In my own defense however, I always learned of Green's decisions after he had made them without any input from me, so I surmised that I could use that as my defense once he found out what I had done. I can make big moves too, I tried to convince myself. Yet, I knew Green was much more adept at making split-second decisions as the situation dictated, whereas I usually did or said the wrong things out of nervousness. My first encounter with Tine on campus, where I had told him I would "kiss him until he dropped", confirmed my inability to adapt quickly.
As I sat in my car, I didn't know what to do.
Green and Tine suddenly looked directly at me. Tine kept his arms crossed and his face defiant, surprisingly brash in front of Green. And Green stared at me with confusion on his face.
Lacking the quick-wittedness of Green, I decided to do the easiest thing: ignore them. I figured, if I could get into the Political Science Building without interacting with them, I could then send a text message to Green to let him know I had agreed to help Tine, and I could also send a text message to Tine to ask him what he wanted me to do specifically as his shield. I just needed to get past the two of them.
I took a deep breath. Showtime! I got out of my car with my eyes glued to my cell phone as if I was reading the longest and most interesting text message in the world. I only took my eyes off my phone once when I had to go to the other side of the car to get my bag from the front seat. The walkway where Tine and Green stood was to the right of the parking space, and as I closed the car door, I made sure to not look in their direction. I put my earphones in my ears, turned the music as loud as it could go, and I locked the car with my keyfob.
