"Hey Dumbo!"
"What?" I snapped at Mark as he walked towards me. "You're also going to tell me you're gay?"
"What? Hell no!"
I was still avoiding Mer, so the following day after my argument with Ryan (sixth day of the intrams), I decided to head towards the library--the one place Mer was allergic to. "You can't talk loud inside the library. I mean, how can we carry a conversation if our voices should be barely above a whisper?" she had once told me.
But apparently Mark hadn't received that memo for the librarian gave us both a warning glare accompanied by "shhh!"
Mark slid in on the empty chair beside me. "I just saw you and decided to approach you. That's all."
"Right," I answered, rolling my eyes. "So what brings you here? This is not the soccer field, if you haven't noticed."
He made a chuckle. "I always like hearing you playing with words. Anyway, I have a report due next week after the intrams. So I decided to head here and do some research."
"Really now? You and the library? Somehow I don't see the compatibility."
Mark looked affronted. "You really have low opinion of me, haven't you?"
I felt bad--felt ashamed for what I said. I really shouldn't be taking out my raging hormonal imbalance at him. "I'm sorry. I'm just in one of those moods, I guess."
"Oh. You're having it right now, the thing you females have every month? I get that. No biggie. You can use me as your shock-absorber anytime."
I just have to smile at what he said. He could really be charming when he wanted to. "Thanks. Things just aren't going well with me right now."
"So care to tell me why?"
I heaved a sigh. And I could not believe I had Mark as a confidante during my depressing state. "I had a row with Ryan yesterday, and we haven't spoken ever since then."
"Ryan? The Ryan who I knocked the teeth out during elementary? That same skinny boy Ryan?"
I slapped him on his shoulder. "You did not knock his teeth out. And he's not skinny anymore."
"Well, he's still the skinny kid for me." He rested his elbows on the table. "You just give him some time to cool down. You've been friends for a long time now, so I know he'll come around sooner or later. Just give him space to think things over."
I was amazed--stunned, astonished, astounded; whatever synonyms you could use for amazed--at what Mark had said. I was not expecting him to reply something like that. I was more of thinking he might say something in the line that goes like: "He's such a looser, tell him to quit whining." Life was indeed full of surprises.
"I guess you're right," I answered.
Silence fell between us. It was a moment later when I heard Mark clearng his throat. "You haven't made any comment about my message to you..."
"Hmm? What message?" But I knew which message he was referring to.
"The one where I said I like you..."
"Oh, that message." I suddenly ran out of words to tell him. Yes, I admit, I felt something towards him. But I was not sure of what it was. And then I felt something towards Franco as well. This was all so confusing on my part.
"So...?" I heard him saying.
"Well," I said after I swallowed a non-existent lump in my throat, "I'm glad you don't hate me now."
"That's not what I meant, Kyla. And you know it." He grasped my hand gave it a light squeeze. "But I won't force an answer on you now. I can wait. I'm a patient man, you know?"
I couldn't help my giggle from escaping. "You? A patient man? Oh, I'm not sure about that one."
He was still holding my hand as he chuckled and shook his head. "That's because ever since I saw you again that night on stage, I became a changed man."
That was how Ryan saw us--Mark holding my hand with me blushing. He was standing several tables away from us, his backpack slung on one shoulder, his hand gripping tightly around the strap of his bag. He was scowling at our hands. And as he looked up to meet my gaze, I saw something else in his eyes. It was something I never saw before. I often see it in Franco's eyes whenever he looked at me. I saw it right now in Mark as he squeezed my hand. But I never saw it from Ryan before. It didn't make any sense for me. What was that emotion I saw?
Ryan briskly turned and went out of the library leaving me with a puzzle on my mind.
***
Mer was my bestie, and I felt bad for avoiding her. It wasn't her fault that Ryan and I had a fight. It was just that I felt bad about the whole thing and I wasn't ready for Mer to put the blame on me. What if it was really my fault why Ryan got mad?
Later that day, after Mark and I went on our separate ways, I went to the booth where I knew Mer was stationed. She raised an eyebrow when she saw me approaching her. "Oh, so now we're friends again? After all the twenty-four plus hours you've been avoiding me?"
"I'm sorry, Mer," I said, sitting beside her and offering her a cheesecake as a token of my friendship. "I was just in a bad mood and I don't want you to get caught in it."
"Fine," she said as she removed the tissue wrapped around her fork and sliced the cheesecake. "I forgive you. You really do know how to soften my heart."
"Ryan and I had a fight yesterday," I told her.
She placed her fork beside her cake. "I know. We talked yesterday over the phone."
"Is he still mad at me?"
"He's still... upset. Just give him time to clear things with himself."
"Why? Is he having problems?"
Mer looked as if she was trying to find the right words to say. "He's just confused. Yes, that's right. He's just confused with his relationship with Olivia."
I gave a small nod of understanding. "I see."
I was surprised to see her shaking her head. "No, Ky. You don't. You're as clueless as he is. So anyway, I have something here for you."
She handed me a small envelope with my name written on the back. I opened it and found a small note inside. The note read:
"Your beauty captivates my heart...
And forever, I will be yours and yours alone..."
I suddenly felt deja vu swept over me. I had a weird feeling I had read this note somewhere before.
"Mer," I said, handing her the note, "it's odd but this note, these sentences, they seemed familiar to me. And how did this note find its way to you?"
"Hmm?" She swallowed her cake before she replied. "You see, I called the school cafeteria if they could deliver some drinks for the volunteers here. Then this came with the delivery. I think if you would put all those previous notes together it would come out as a poem. And perhaps Mystery Man here copied it from somewhere." She let out a snort of disapproval. "So not original."
"You're right, I guess. I'll try to check the other notes tonight. I don't have them with me now."
"So are you going tomorrow night at the concert and awarding ceremony?" Mer asked me a moment later.
"Yes," I told her. "Are you going with, uhm, who's your current boyfriend now?"
"Oh. Neil and I broke up. He finally figured what his gender preference is when it comes to a partner."
I cast a questioning look at her.
"He's gay and very much happy," Mer answered dryly.
I let out a shout of laughter.
"I think your curse decided to rub itself against me," she added.
Really, now! Did they all suddenly agree to come out in the open altogether? First Luke, and now Mer's ex-boyfriend. Ah, so I was not the only one cursed after all. Maybe once in a while, we all feel we're cursed.