Milena (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER IV: Besties

Real friends are those who come to your place and disturb your nap time.

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The next morning, I woke up before my alarm clock. It’s 7 AM and too early to wake up but someone’s already disturbing my sleep! “Hey Mi, wake up…”

“Hmm…Go away intruder! I’m still sleepy!” The disturbance continued, “Get up your lazy bones!” She started shaking me up. I whisked her hands away, trying to get more sleep, “Please give me five more minutes!”

My intention to sleep more was totally ruined when the intruder hysterically laughed. I forced my eyes to open to see who’s making that exaggerated noise. I felt her jumping up and down my bed while laughing. Still rubbing my left eye, I started looking for my eyeglasses using my other hand. The intruder was kind enough to help me put on my eyeglasses. I saw my best friend, Zec, smiling at me like a proud winner! She knew that she interrupted my sleep! I threw a pillow at her and laughed as it landed successfully on her annoying smiling face.

“Wake up already! You always ask for five more minutes! I am sorry my friend, but I am not Miss Isabel!”

“What? How did you know that? You’re not even my classmate! And you are absent yesterday.”

“Of course! I am the great Zec! Especially now that you have a new friend. So, when did the two of you started hanging out? Yesterday, during and after class, you’re glued to her! I’m gone for a day and all of that happened! Spill the beans, Millie Jeans!”

“Am I really that blind not to see you or you obtained the power of invisibility?”

She threw back the pillow at me, “Don’t change the subject! When did you and that spoiled brat became friends?”

I froze for a second, deciding whether if I should tell Zec or not. Is it okay? She’s my best friend and I don’t want to keep secrets from her. Will Azil be mad at me? Should I ask her first? I think some of Azil’s friends knew about us. But to be sure, I will ask her first, for her permission. I cautiously said, “Azil and I... um, we’re friends since we started our sophomore year.”

“Really? I did not know that!”, she suspiciously replied.

I added, “You know… we’re not really close before but we tried hanging out yesterday. And… she’s fun to be with! I think, you’ll like her too!”

“What’s change? I mean, you are not close to her before but why start now?”, she asked in disbelief.

“Well, your best friend is so friendly, and I felt like I needed to accommodate all my fans.”

She playfully pinched my arm, but she’s not satisfied with that! She body wrestled me! Ugh! She’s so heavy! Poor me! I forcefully tried to be on top of her because I can’t breathe properly. She got off me when she noticed that I’m having trouble breathing. There’s a major difference in our body mass index! I joked, “Zec you’re so heavy! You need to start checking your weight daily! I need to sleep more. It’s too early. I still have an hour before my wake-up time.”

She’s not fat. I’m only thin compared to her. She playfully slapped my right cheek then laughed. She got off me and I closed my eyes again. Before I could start to doze off, she said, “I already made you breakfast. Your favorite bacon is waiting for you. Let’s eat then we’ll go somewhere else before going to school.”

After I heard bacon, I was fully awake, “Why didn’t you tell that first!” I hurriedly went to the kitchen and left her at my room.

I was eating halfway my second servings of fried garlic rice with bacon and eggs when Zec decided to join me, “Wow! You really have an appetite for bacon! You are so rude! I’m still talking to you and you left me there! Am I the only one who misses you? I miss you even if it’s just yesterday!”

“Zec, I love bacon so much as I love you! And you’re my favorite cook, my great house cleaner, and my best person to do my laundry!” I hugged her, but she playfully slapped my arms away, and said, “Am I your best friend or your best maid?”

“Of course! You’re my best maid, joke! You are the best friend I ever had! So, where are we going later, my bestie? Make sure we can still be on time for school. There are so many school activities for this week. We cannot miss a day. I told one of your classmates to let you copy all the homework they had yesterday.”

“Oh thanks! Don’t worry. We’ll go first to grocery store next our house then school. We’ll just buy some bacon to replace what I took from our refrigerator. My sister’s favorite is bacon too. She’ll be mad when she found out I took hers. Oh, I also have souvenirs from where I was.”

“Okay. Start heating up my water, please. I want to bathe with a lukewarm bath water.”

“Wow! I’m really your maid! I’ll prepare the heated water, Your Majesty! A very hot boiling water to scrape up all your skin! You don’t need to scrub all the dirt! Free skin dirt removal!” She ranted more but complied with my request. She kept on talking angrily but I can’t understand what she’s saying. She whisper-yelled almost to herself! Ha-ha! We’re quits now! She disturbed my sleep and I annoyed her now! I ate my remaining breakfast with a grin on my face, much to her annoyance.

We went to the grocery store and then to their house. She gave me a heart keychain adorned with beautiful shells. My name engraved on top of it and her name at the back. She also gave me some delicacies from Ilocos. We’re chit-chatting along the way to school.

“Zec, I wanted to travel to Ilocos too! Why didn’t you invite me?”

“I was going to! During our lunch last time! But then you ran off and I didn’t find you after our last class period. So, I went home early.”

“Duh! You can inform me via call or text!!”

“I changed my mind when I went home. I thought that maybe you’re busy and didn’t have enough time to tour with me. I just visited Grandma there.”

“Why didn’t you make your vacation a week? One day is too short to enjoy Ilocos. You missed all the good spots!”

“If I did that, you’re the one I’ll be missing. A day without you is incomplete. How much more if it’s a week?”

“You are so cheesy, bestie! You learned that from me!”

She pinched both of my cheeks and put an arm around my waist as she started ruining my perfect ponytailed hair. We laughed hard as we started tickling each other. We stopped our playful banter when someone cleared their throat.

“Ahem. You guys are so cheerful this morning!”

I smiled at her and greeted her, “Hello, Azil! Good morning!”

Zec went silent but her embrace at me tightened. Azil suddenly pulled me away from Zec and we left her at the front gate. I gave Zec an apologizing look as we ran off the other way. Azil dragged me by my arm and instead of going inside our classroom, we went straight for the restroom. She checked first if all the cubicles were empty before she locked us inside.

“I am jealous. I am possessive. I am easily hurt. Yesterday, I didn’t confront you. I am not sick yesterday! I didn’t get enough sleep because of you! I’m mad because it felt like I’m the only one who remembered our first kiss! That’s the reason why I didn’t sleep well! Every time I close my eyes, I remembered kissing you and my heart pumped erratically that made me awake all night! How about you? You didn’t sleep well because of that stupid migraine of yours! I let you have your quick nap and didn’t disturb you even our class started but that flirty substitute teacher woke you up! She could ignore you if she wanted to! But no! She took that chance to see you up close! And, that best friend of yours? I know she likes you more than a friend! Her stares are the same as mine! Sorry if I’m ranting too much now! I don’t want you to think that I’m a nagging girlfriend, but I can’t bottle up all these feelings inside! I wanted to punch someone! I wanted to hurt those bitches who flirts with you! I may be exaggerating, but you’re so nice to everyone that you can’t tell if they’re taking advantage of you! You have girls swooning over you and you’re not realizing it! I know that you already told me that you don’t like them but…”

Oh, gosh! This woman is so talkative! Talkative but still attractive! I kissed her to stopped her and, I wanted to taste her lips again. She should be thankful that she’s gorgeous and I love her or else I’ve already left her before her rant even began.

At first, she didn’t respond to my kisses. She’s too surprised that I initiated our second kiss. When she recovered from her shock, she pulled me closer to her. Her right hand on my nape and the other on my arm. And unlike our first kiss, this magical moment, took more than five minutes. We’re still entranced from our kiss when someone knocked at the door, “Mi, are you in there? Your substitute teacher is already in your room. Come on!”

Oh right! We’re in the same class today because Zec wanted to sit in with our class. Students could sit in a different classroom if subject and teacher were the same. I was about to unlock the door, when Azil told me not to, “If you unlock that door, she will know that we’re the only ones here. She will bombard you with too many questions. Are you sure you want to do this? Are you ready to tell her that we’re a couple now? That’s fine with me, so she’ll know that you’re mine already!”

I nodded, “Actually, she asked me that earlier and I was going to ask you about that. So, if it’s okay with you, then we’re going to tell Zec”

I held her hand and we both unlocked the door. This is it! The moment of truth! I took a deep sigh before opening the door. But we’re surprised that Zec is nowhere to be found. I told Azil to go to our room first, and text me if Zec is in there. I’ll wait here, incase Zec’s still searching for us. Azil texted me, “No virus here. I mean, your best friend bitchy is not here.”

I still can’t find Zec, so I sent her a message that I’ll wait for her in our room. She replied, “Where did that spoiled brat dragged you? It’s hard to look for you. See you in class!”

Our class ended but Zec didn’t attend. Did she change her mind? I’m worried. I sent her many text messages and tried calling her but she’s not answering. I didn’t walk home with Azil, so I could continue my search for Zec. I needed to tell her about me and Azil. I couldn’t find her at our usual hiding spots. In the end, I sent her another text message. I told her that we needed to talk tomorrow.

When it’s already 5 PM, I went home. I needed a quick nap before my 7 PM date with Azil. I am so excited! This is my first date! At 6 PM, I sent a text message to Azil, “Hey stranger :) can't wait to see yah ;) ”

She replied, “Me too :) See you later, stranger :* ”