CHAPTER 4: Habits & Halos
380 Words
It started as nothing.A shared table at lunch.A short walk after class.A photo here, a sketch there.Some days they talked. Some days they didn’t.But always they showed up.
Gwy started saving a seat beside her during breaks. Aileen would wait outside Gwy’s classroom even if she didn’t have to. Wala namang label, wala ring tanong. It was just… comfortable.
“Bakit lagi mong kinukuhanan yung mga tao habang hindi sila nakatingin?” Aileen once asked.
“Because that’s when they’re most honest,” Gwy answered, then paused. “Ikaw, bakit puro likod ang drawings mo?”
Aileen smiled. “Because sometimes, it’s easier to understand someone when you’re not looking at their face.”
They didn’t say it aloud, but both of them understood some connections are quiet, but deep.
By the time Grade 8 started, nothing between them had changed and yet, everything felt slightly different.
They were still in the same group, still laughing at Haze and Harper’s silly stories, still eating at the same corner of the cafeteria. But now, Gwy started noticing the way Aileen twirled her pencil when she was nervous. The way she bit her lip when thinking. The way her smile lingered longer when it was directed at her.
One afternoon, habang naglalakad sila palabas ng school, Aileen suddenly asked, “Gwy, do you ever overthink everything?”
Gwy glanced at her. “All the time. Why?”
Aileen shrugged. “Sometimes I feel like… may nararamdaman ako, pero ayokong malaman kung ano talaga siya.”
Gwy slowed her steps. Her fingers tightened on the strap of her camera bag.
“Same,” she said softly.
They didn’t look at each other, but the silence that followed said more than words ever could.
A few weeks into Grade 8, the school hallways began to feel smaller, busier but whenever Gwy and Aileen were together, time still seemed to slow down.
They didn’t talk about what they were, or what they weren’t. But there were new things now.
Aileen would lightly tap Gwy’s shoulder with her pencil when she was bored.
Gwy started carrying two of her favorite film rolls one for her, one for Aileen’s moments.Sometimes, they’d just sit on the stairs after class, watching the sun melt into orange outside the window.
- Writer
