The house where I live was pitch black when I arrived. All the lights were turned off. It was only a quarter passed eight, but it seemed like the whole neighborhood was already asleep. Well, it was Saturday. Most likely they were enjoying the night having a nice dinner while looking at the stars that twinkle at the dark night sky somewhere, like in a restaurant or some place out of town.
The lights that lined up the street were the only source of lighting. Without them, the whole neighborhood would have looked creepy.
Turning my purse into the light, I rummaged for my keys. When I found it, I quickly inserted it into the knob. When I heard the usual click, I pulled the door and entered the house. I didn’t open the lights. Using my phone’s dim light, I managed to find my way up to the stairs and to my room adjacent to the one where King used to sleep.
I realized as soon as there was only me and my dad left, without my younger brother making noises in his room and my mom making noises in the kitchen, the entire house was dead silent. I became aware of every move in the house. At nine in the evening, I would hear my dad’s car arriving from work. Then he would be moving around in the kitchen to drink beer or anything that could keep him awake for quite some time. And then, I would hear him opening the door to his study. Sometimes I would hear him moving around the house for some reason I couldn’t understand. And most of the time, I would be already laden with sleep by the time he went to his room to rest.
I would wake up at six in the morning and by the time I went downstairs, my dad would be already gone to work. He would leave my allowance on top of the breakfast table beside a plate of eggs. Then, I had to wait for another fifteen hours for him to get back home. It was the same every week. On weekends, he was either on a business trip or at home working in his study. We weren’t really into talking terms, but we did smile whenever we bumped at each other around the house.
I looked at the digital clock on top of my bedside table. It said 8:22. I t was Saturday and my dad was on a business trip. I could have easily gone to my mom’s house, but my resolve stopped me from doing so. I had to stay strong. This was the only way for all of us.
Without undressing or turning on any lights, I slumped my body on my bed. The familiarity of it brought me into instant oblivion the moment my back hit the mattress. Without realizing it, I had already dozed off to sleep.
Then, my phone started ringing.
“Fudge it,” I muttered under my breath as my cell phone continued to ring so loud, waking me up in the middle of plunging into the ocean with the dolphins, which was my dream.
I had to rummage around the mess for it, toppling displays on my bedside table, before I finally found it wedged between two old shoeboxes below my bed. I didn’t know how it got there but I must have been trashing around the bed a lot.
I looked at the screen and saw a number I didn’t recognize. For a moment there, I thought it was my dad calling. “Hello,” I answered, my voice sounding horrible from sleep.
“Did I wake you up?”
I sat upright. Now that made me felt past horrible. I knew that voice. I couldn’t be mistaken. It was a voice I was trying so hard to get off my system, but couldn’t. It was Henry Riviera, the one and only heartbreaker, my ex-boyfriend. He was a psychopath—not exactly someone with the disorder, but he was anti-social. Since our breakup, he had been stalking me at school. I saw him everywhere, even in places he wasn’t supposed to be, like the cafeteria. He once told me that he hates cafeteria food so he’d eat with his special lunchbox somewhere. But after our breakup, he started eating Mang Ben’s sandwich, as if it wasn’t supposed to annoy me. To top it all, he would be outside the gates of Luna East every morning as if he was waiting for me. Thank God, he never once walked up to me or else I would have broken down.
“Henry?” I asked, just to be sure. His name tasted like rust on my lips, like saying it had moved the rusty hinges inside me. My pulse rate was one thousand per minute.
“Queen,” he answered. He sounded like he had been awake the entire night.
“Why are you calling at—” I looked at my digital clock. “—at four in the morning!” I cried out, snatching a pillow threatening to fall off my bed. I put it across my heart, attempting to stop the throb.
“I just want to talk to you.”
He sounded hurt like I was supposed to tell him I missed him so much and could we get back together, please? Seriously.
“At four in the morning?” I felt skeptical. I could hear him breathing from the other end of the line. “What do you want?”
“Look, if this is not the right time—”
I laughed. “Oh, brother. You woke me up at four in the morning and now you’re saying it’s not the right time?”
“I’m sorry,” I heard him say softly and I knew it was for a different subject altogether.
It had been one delightful afternoon in April, when the wind was blowing smoothly and the sun was shining so bright, but not too much.
The next day would have been our anniversary. Henry and I should have been celebrating our two years as couple. He had sent me a message to meet him at school. It was summer and regular students were not supposed to be entering the premises of Luna East, but Henry was taking advanced classes, and his last class had just ended. I still don’t know what class it was, because I didn’t have time to find out.
In my excitement, I had already bought a cake, even though it wasn’t our anniversary yet.
He had told me to meet him at three, but I was really excited. I had arrived at our meeting place a quarter earlier than my expected arrival. Then, as I turned towards the corner, I had seen him. He was wearing a blue polo shirt—I gave it to him on his birthday so I couldn’t be mistaken that it was he. My heart had beat fast.
However, I almost wanted to be mistaken as I saw him kissing a girl. Yes, Henry was kissing another girl, at a place he was supposed to meet me, and at the least expected time! And that girl wasn’t me!
Guess the surprise was for me, after all. Though he was also surprised when he had seen me. Then that was when I had thrown him the cake. I didn’t know who was more surprised—he or me?
“Sorry for what?” I finally had the courage to ask. My heart was pounding in my chest.
But, too late. There was a crackle on the other end of the line, a long crackle. Then, before I had come to realize it, the line was dead.
“What?” Molly screamed.
I called him the minute Henry hang up on me.
“You said your psycho of an ex-boyfriend just called you, as in, now? You’re probably just hallucinating! Do you even realize it’s only four in the morning on a Sunday? It must be just the party’s after-effects!”
“He called. I have no reason to lie to you.” I resigned in a corner just a distant away from my bedroom window, cradling the receiver. It was still dark outside and the only thing I could hear was the distant barking of a dog.
“To annoy me, maybe? Because—well, because of what happened earlier at the party.”
“I’m serious.”
I imagined her rolling on her bed.
“Fine. Did he say why?” she said, her voice muffled on the edges.
Even though I knew she wouldn’t be able to see it, I nodded my head. “He said he wanted to talk to me. And he said he’s sorry.”
“Like the heck he does,” she snapped, bringing back the Molly I knew.
Molly and Henry had never gotten along fine. They always seemed to just acknowledge each other one moment and forget each other the next. Maybe because Molly thought he was from the other side—like the outcasts’ side.
“You know what, aside from his supermegalicious abs and gorgeous muscles, I really have no idea why you ever had a relationship with him.”
“Well aside from his supermegalicious abs and gorgeous muscles, let me remind you that he’s hauntingly handsome, too,” I wryly pointed out.
“Oh, that, yes, of course. But if he was that so handsome, why isn’t he popular like Noah? Oh, yes, I know. That is because he’s different.”
I frowned despite myself. There was a deafening silence coming from the other end of the line. Thinking that maybe she had already gone back to sleep, I said, “Still there?”
I waited a beat, and then, “Look, I’m really not fully awake yet. I used to stay up all night and still be able to wake up early in the morning. But, now, I feel so tired. I really want to go back to sleep now. Can we talk—maybe after I’ve gotten more sleep?”
My best friend’s voice was becoming hard to understand. I could picture her hugging a pillow or something. “Right, I know. This isn’t the right time,” I said. “Let’s just go back to sleep,” I added.
I really couldn’t understand the reply, but otherwise, I said, “Goodmornight.”
I heard a small laugh, and then a whispered response, “Goodmornight.”
How I really hoped it was all just a dream—the party’s after-effects as what my best friend had called it. How I wished Henry hadn’t called me. And how I wished I was still sleeping and dreaming that breathtaking dream with the dolphins.
But of course I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now. Especially now that Henry just shattered my peace of mind. I thought it was already a burden to have someone as popular as Noah to kiss me at a party, but I didn’t realize that it would only take my ex-boyfriend and his mysterious phone call to ruin any sign of moving on from everything that happened to me in the past.
The sun came out. Many dogs added to the barking. From the neighborhood I could hear gates opening and closing, and then engines barking to life. I wondered what the others think whenever they look at our house—my dad’s house. Do they see a haunted house? Or do they see a house that looked the same as the other houses in the neighborhood?
I guess I would never know now.
My dad wasn’t home yet. I expected him to arrive at least in time to have dinner with me. It was Sunday and it was the only day we get to really spend time with each other.
I tried to cook as much food as I could. I experimented with beef and ended up having a fusion of caldereta and menudo, which I called caldenudo. It has beef, of course, but it wasn’t like I could remember what else I had added.
Then, I also experimented with macaroni. I prepared shredded chicken, chopped carrots, finely chopped cashew nuts, pineapples, and mushrooms I got out from a can, slices of ham, toasted bacon bits, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and raisins. I mixed them all in a bowl with mayonnaise and whipped cream. Hey, I got a whole Sunday to work my hands on, okay?
But then, I got a call. It was from my dad. He called to tell me he would be coming home late and to please lock the doors, as we wouldn’t want any unsolicited visitors coming in at night. Yes. No talk of dinner and sorry-I-didn’t-call-early-to-tell-you, whatsoever. He just hung up, thinking I would understand.
Oh, well, I did understand. But still, my heart broke and the disappointment was pretty obvious there.