Connectors of the Two Worlds

Chapter 21

"Hmm... I couldn't help but be nosy but... are you dating two guys at the same time?" Alfred suddenly asked me that question. I almost ripped the book that I'm currently reading. We were still inside the library when he asked me that question.

I slowly turned to him in my disbelieving facial expression. After a long silence, he had managed to ask me such an absurd question out of nowhere. I tried to open my mouth but not a word was there to utter. I couldn't say anything but just scoff at his innocent look.

He just shrugged. "I mean... why did you pick to love too early at your age? You know... we're still young..."

I scoffed and eyed him sharply. "Thinking about it now, I think I'm not talking to a person as same as my age. Are you my grandfather or something? You're reprimanding me..." I said matter-of-factly.

He raised his other eyebrow. "Guess harder..."

"Should I stop talking to you from now on?"

"What if I refuse to?"

We measured our looks for a long moment. No one was blinking. Until I gave up and sighed. "What do you want? You keep bugging me this much. Can't you see that I'm trying my best to review for the contest?"

He shrugged again. "It's called an ice breaker. People need to have some so that their brains wouldn't be overworked most of the time. So, don't overdo it by reviewing too much. Just relax and be entertained by answering my questions, okay?"

I stared at his unbelievable mocking face for a moment. After some thought, I decided to sigh and face him once more. "Fine..." I cleared my throat and tried to be as low as possible. "What do you want to know? Me? Dating two guys? Of course not! I'm not that kind of person. And by the way, I'm not yet dating anyone. So, stop accusing me of things like that, you got it?"

"Well... I always see Garcia and Cervantes around you. You even meet them separately. I thought you were cheating with both of them. Anyways, why not come up with an answer for the two of them? Isn't it the best thing to do? What do you think?"

"You're right. You are nosy," I finally said. I sighed and frowned in front of the book I'm holding and looked through it. "I don't know... maybe I just don't wanna break someone's heart by rejecting them head-on. But that's not the case. It wasn't a choice for me to make. It's also what the time demands of me. We never get to choose for ourselves. We never had the future, because it's yet to unfold..." I answered wholeheartedly. I faced him afterwards, showing him my curious face. "Wait... why am I explaining this to you? Why do you ask, anyway? Don't you have someone in your life, too? I bet you have a dozen," I guessed with my sarcastic expression. Looking at Alfred's face and body built, he's sure is a win for girls. He's exactly what girls dream of. I sometimes see my schoolmates droop at his presence. He's just new so he's able to display his innocent charms on them.

His squared shoulders became slumped at my trivial words. "I had a lover once, but she's already gone..." he suddenly confessed.

I widened my eyes and looked at him in disbelief. I could see how his expression changed into a frown one. I've never seen him this serious before, though this is the first time that I'm talking to him this long, I could sense that he's being sincere in front of me. "What do you mean gone? Like gone dead? Or gone vanished? C-can I ask what happened to her?"

"We were separated by our parents. They don't like us to be together."

"But why? Are you both living in the 60s or 80s? People nowadays don't need to be too strict with their children. Hello? It's 21st century!" I chuckled, but when I saw that he didn't laugh, I started to clear my throat again. "Seriously? Did you mean that?"

"Yes. It is the truth. After our parents had separated us, I haven't heard from her ever since. I came to find her everywhere, all that connects to her disappearance. That's also the reason why I came to this place. It's because I wanted to trace all the things that are connected to her," he answered in his sincerest tone.

I left the book open and moved closer to Alfred's side. "Woah! What did you get so far? Did you find her?" I asked in amusement. I didn't know that there's still guys who would be so brazen and find their first love even if they spend money and time for it. I find his story romantic. I couldn't help but smile. She must be the luckiest girl on the face of the earth.

Alfred just smiled with his flat lips pursed altogether, then turned to me. Dreamy eyes glued to mine. "Yeah. I think I've found her. I think she's near. I'm certain of it..."

His statement left my heart pounding in a bad state. I could hear the loud pounding of my heart. It's starting to dig out of my chest.

What's this that I'm feeling? Why is it that I could sense his sadness in his heart? It's as if I'm literally feeling what's inside of him for a very long time. It's as if I know the things that will make him happy.

His eyes... he has shown me too much. I could even see the sad images in his irises. I couldn't seem to stop staring. It was like my eyes were already locked to his.

I really don't know what to feel but this sadness, this melancholy I'm seeing in his eyes, it's making me want to ease them. I wanted to tame and get rid of it from his presence.

My cheeks suddenly felt hot at his meaningful look. I began to hitch my breathing. I could even smell his fresh breath too close to mine. My eyebrows arched in confusion.

Why is his face too close to mine?

Not long enough, I lowered my gaze and cleared my throat. "Hmm..." I laughed nervously, not looking at him. I tried as much as possible to return my attention to the Mathematics Book I was holding a while ago. I kept on clearing my throat to ease the tension building inside of me. "I-I hope you will find her very soon..." I faked a cough. "So... what is she like, then?"

Stupid! You should have diverted the topic away from that, you crap! Why did you keep on asking the same thing? Are you really that dumb?! my thoughts suddenly interrupted me. I even shut my eyes out of irritation. What did I just do?!

Alfred smiled as soon as he heard my question. He probably was thinking of his lost lover. "She has curly hair, small pouted lips. She's also beautiful and tall. She looks just a little like you, except for your eyeglasses and your straight dark hair." He pointed to my glasses.

I widened my eyes at his answer. "L-looks a little like me?" I suddenly blushed. Why would he say that I looked like her? I don't understand...

He chuckled and ruined my hair. "Don't get too excited. She's very different from you. She's a lot more beautiful. I like her better than you look. She's tougher, bolder, expressive, and secretive. She's unpredictable and unreachable..." The last word became a whisper. He even frowned at it.

My face broke in confusion. The story is quite familiar to me. I just don't remember where and when did I see her. I feel like I knew what he was referring to. But I stopped swimming into my thoughts when I looked at his hopeful look in his eyes. I suddenly felt envy towards his past lover. "You really love her, don't you?"

And in an instance, as I have seen his face, it hit me real hard. It's as if I have the right to feel pain. His angelic smile answered my question.

****

The whole Senior High students didn't attend their classes as they all decided to participate in cheering for our school as I came to represent it in this year's "Mathematics Club: Quiz Bee" in the Division level. It was held in another city 1 hour away from Saint Claire Subdivision.

Everyone is excited including me.

I saw Joe and Rex smiling at me, giving me their encouraging messages they sent me via phone. I just couldn't help not to smile at them. It gives me more courage than a little while ago.

Half an hour was the distance of the main event from now. Mrs. Briones looked stressed but also excited at the contest. She kept on reminding me my pointers. I was a little oblivious, probably because I became numb of so much drum beats inside my heart. I  might also think that I could have a cardiac arrest if I keep on minding my nervousness. I kept my cool.

The stage was full of decorative designs, making it very colorful and captivating. There were six senior students chattering up on the stage. It made me me wonder because it should be ten students, including me. Probably the rest of them weren't there yet.

After about a minute, Mrs. Briones ushered me to the stage and found a monoblock seat for me.

Suddenly, I saw a black car stopped in front of the gate of the school. There came out a fair and young lady, wearing her green checkered uniform skirt and a yellow t-shirt. The shirt showed its printed letters saying: "Live without time. Die wasting time."

"Weird..." a boy beside me commented. I looked at him and saw that he's looking at the girl as well. "She's from the S.A. Montessori, did you hear? She acts up as if she's a queen or something..." he said.

"You know her?" I asked.

"She's Dorothy de Evo..."

My heart pounded and the reason for it was unknown. The name of the girl is quite familiar. I just don't know where and when did I heard of it.

The girl walked, modeling herself as the center of attraction. She succeeded in doing so. She smiled casually as she made it up to the stage and greeted us. "Hi!" she said looking in our direction.

I looked at the boy beside me and found that he's looking at me, too.

Dorothy sighed and boringly pointed at me. "You, miss..." she called.

I looked at her in confusion.

"Hi! I'm Dore. How about you?" She raised her hand to shake and I accepted it.

"Clan..." I answered bashfully smiling at her face.

She suddenly let go of my hand in her sassy way. She sighed as she wandered her gaze to the stage. "What a pity! What kind of place is this?" She shrugged. "Oh, well... what else is new?" she commented at the venue as she walked away to an empty seat at the farthest side.

"What a show-off..." the boy beside me hissed under his breath. He even rolled his eyes, then smiled at me. "Oh well... what else is new?" he mocked the girl earlier.

I couldn't help but to silently laugh.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Bernie." The boy finally introduced himself, inviting my hand to shake. "From San Antonio. How about you?"

"I'm Clan from Saint Claire. Nice to meet you..." I introduced myself as I shook with his hand.

"Me, too! By the way, nice uniform!" he complimented as he shove me with his meticulous eyes.

"Oh, thanks!"

Bernie and I had a talk of so many things while others were busy reviewing their Math books, taking the contest too seriously. But I felt a little guilty about wasting my time talking so many nonsense topics.

But who cares?

The contest started at almost 10:30 AM. The first round was the Math Quiz Bee. I always shook my head as I'm not sure of my answers. Second, Equations were written on the board to be answered in 10 minutes. I only finished mine in 8 minutes, still doubting my answers. Lastly, Sci-Dama. I hate chess games and Mrs. Briones did not inform me about this. Luckily, Joe was very eager to teach me the rules. He even taught me to play.

He says, "Just play tue usual rules, but calculate your moves or else your dama will lose. Don't aim the highest score because that's the time you will not achieve it."

I know the rules but I'm not good at calculating it all the time.

The third round came and the judges started to calculate the scores of the contestants. We have almost an hour for the decision.

I started to feel a little jittery. Will I be able to win this contest? I looked at my classmates that never stopped cheering for me. Somehow, I couldn't help but smile. They all believed in me. I should not let them down.

I can do this...