Chapter 2: Chapter One
| Clichéd |
♥
I was the school's nerd. But no, if you think I wear glasses and wear unfashionable clothes, that's where you're wrong. I'm not saying those are bad, but the usual nerds everyone see kasi ay 'yung mga gano'n. I don't wear glasses. I read a lot but my vision is still perfect. I dress not so perfectly but at least presentable enough.
Ever since I was a child, my parents placed pressure under me and had set a straight clear path ahead of me. They were my guides, and like a tourist not familiar of the road I would take, I willingly followed everything my parents said. What else can I do? Rebel against them? I can't do that. They're my parents, and I was their puppet.
My life is a boring cycle of school, home, study and repeat. I had nothing else to focus on but my studies and my future, as what my parents told me. Because of that, teachers were so proud of me. Girls envied me for how some boys liked me while some admired me, idolized me, for having high, good grades. The boys, on the other hand, being immature and childish, chased after me as I were some kind of hottie (which, clearly, I'm not), just for challenge. I wasn't the type of girl boys can hook up just by winking and flirty jokes. I didn't believe though, that they liked me – what they liked was the challenge, not me.
My worst experience with a guy was with that senior – it was an event that was both horrifying and thrilling, in most complicated ways.
Once when I was sixteen, I was in this abandoned classroom to do a favor a janitress asked me, and this senior suddenly went to hold both my hands, his foul, scent of alcohol (he was drinking on that certain room) enveloping with my body.
I couldn't run away. His firm hands are gripping my wrists, his devilish eyes were drilling against mine, telling me nasty things I didn't want to register in my head. Tears sprang in my eyes and fear wrapped up my chest. That room was dirty, filled with broken chairs and there are lots of cobwebs on the corners of the room. I looked at those to stay my eyes away from the senior's. I screamed and asked for help, but none came.
I was so helpless. Or I thought I was.
But then, he came. In the most clichéd way.
If you're going to ask me what part of his physical feature I had noticed first, I'll say it's his eyes. It was beautiful, deep, beautiful black. Expressive. Fiery. Hot, and yet very frigid.
Under the senior's hold, I saw him storming towards us, but in my perspective everything was slower. I had a chance to look at his eyes a little bit longer. He pulled the senior away from me by the collar, and before I knew it, the senior holding me had fallen on the ground, unconscious. Because of his drunkenness and the boy's vast punch, I assumed.
Everything happened so fast, and I was left agape. Before I lose the chance to thank him, I ran towards him, walking away from the room, through my shaking knees.
"S-Salamat!"
My voice was shrill, and I hoped it was loud enough for him to hear my thanks. He stopped on his tracks. He turned, slowly, and then my soft black eyes met his, once expressive eyes became blank.
I can remember how my breathing was deep and heavy, under those gazes of his. It was electrifying. It was amazing. I never knew I can feel such emotions by just staring into someone's eyes.
He didn't say anything. He turned again and started to walk, when, again, I stopped him.
"A-Ano'ng pangalan... mo?"
I may have been annoying, but what's so wrong about knowing the name of someone that just saved me? It was a sign of acknowledgement, a key towards friendship. As simple as that.
In retrospect, I guess I was happy. I guess I was just grateful to feel that I've been really saved, and not by just anyone, it was him, the guy everyone is afraid of. The guy everyone ignores.
But that guy they leave alone is the guy that helped me get away from someone to be saved from.
I didn't expect him to answer back then. Maybe because he was just so far from my reach – because of this impression he's making, with his grim eyes and tight lips, which makes a big, red warning sign that makes him scream, without speaking, "don't be near me."
But I was wrong, because I heard him answer.
The name I'll forever remember.
"Sean."
♥
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