Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 6

It was so bright, and he could feel the sun’s rays streaming against his face. His sleep disturbed, Patrick had no choice but to slowly open his eyes. When he did, he was greeted with a white ceiling... that did not look the least bit familiar with the one in his room or in their clinic for that matter. He tried to turn his head to the window on his right, but his head felt strangely heavy, so with his one hand that was not connected to the dextrose machine, he lifted it up to touch his head gingerly, but was stopped by someone’s voice.

“Hey, don’t do that. You’re gonna mess up your bandage,” the familiar voice said.

Patrick turned to the direction where it came from and saw his older brother, Peter, walking towards him. When Peter reached him, he smirked widely at Patrick.

“Damn, bro, you got yourself pretty smashed this time. You’re lucky your girlfriend stayed with you the whole time. You could’ve died, you know?”

Patrick had to crease his forehead at his brother’s words. “Girlfriend?” He didn’t have any, and Ella was the only girl who was with him yesterday.

“Yeah, your girlfriend? Well, she’s a bit flat, and kinda plain, but I guess she can be cute if you look at her longer.” Peter shrugged. “In any case, man, she’s hella scary! Would you believe that she faced that bastard Jake alone? Man, you wouldn’t want to piss off a girl like that! How do you endure that?”

Patrick was silenced as he remembered the events yesterday. Ella… was so brave. He raised his troubled eyes to his older brother. “Pete… how was she? I owe her a lot. Do you know what she did that time at the alley?”

It was Peter’s turn to crease his forehead as he asked Patrick back. “Why? What did she do?”

Patrick stared down at the blanket covering his torso, shielding his face from Peter’s probing gaze. “She protected me with her own body…” He said slowly. “Ella was ready to take Jake’s hit for me.”

Peter was silent for a while, and then exclaimed. “Man, really?” Patrick’s older brother shook his head. “Damn, she’s truly fearsome. She’s a savage one, I’d give you that. I’d advise you to not cheat on her or piss her off. Not my type, but I guess, she’s good for you.”

His brother’s words were lost on Patrick however. In his mind, he was already thinking of ways on how to make it up to Ella. At last, the injured young man spoke up. “I need to thank her…”

Peter shrugged his shoulders in response. “Well… I guess you should.”

When Monday came in, Patrick was absent. It was no surprise to Ella as her classmate’s injuries would obviously need more time to heal. She even wondered if Patrick had bone fractures considering that he was already quite beat up when she saw him. Now, that would affect the guy’s athletic activities and his stans would surely cry if they didn’t see him playing on the gym. 

She told Jasmine what happened to Patrick the next morning, although she did not tell her about the situation with Jake. Ella was told by the police to keep things confidential as further investigation was still in place, and of course, Jake was connected to the mayor of their town so it was a very complicated issue that they were probably trying to be quiet about.

Obviously, Jasmine was worried about Patrick and wanted to visit him, so Ella offered to take her to the hospital where the basketball player was confined at. However, Jasmine hesitated when she learned that Patrick’s brothers were there. Ella’s cousin could be so shy sometimes. 

As she wondered about Patrick’s state, she couldn’t help but remember her car ride with his brother that fateful night. Patrick’s brother had a… weird personality… but then again, considering how her classmate was also a bit strange for getting into fights a lot, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Heck, even Dr. Rosales, Patrick’s dad, was also unusual. 

She remembered that when the doctor first saw his son who was sprawled injured on the floor, he didn’t even look worried. The doctor seemed to be even disappointed at his son, remarking how Patrick was so weak to be put in that position. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate at quickly tending to his son’s injuries. As for the other brother, he did not talk to her much, but the one who took her home chatted with her a little.

“So… uh… what’s your name again?” Patrick’s brother drawled as he broke the silence in the car.

“Ella.” She answered. “Errr… how about you?”

He glanced at her briefly, and then smirked a little before he brought his eyes back to the road. “Julian. Nice to meet you, Ella.”

She shifted in her seat before she answered back. “Yeah… same here.”

A stretch of silence engulfed the car before Julian spoke up again. “So… how did you know Patrick?” He asked her.

“We’re classmates actually.”

“Hmmm… How long have you been together?” He asked her again.

Ella blinked her eyes at his question. “Uhmm… we’re not together.” She wasn’t even real friends with Patrick.

His eyes widened after hearing her answer and he glanced at her for a while, obviously shocked. “Oh? I thought you were his girlfriend.”

Why was everyone thinking that she was Patrick’s girlfriend anyway? This was getting annoying. Anyway, Ella decided to clarify things. “He is just tutoring me actually.” She sighed.

Julian merely hummed in response, as if he didn’t really believe her, but Ella decided to not pursue the discussion. He might think she was being unnecessarily defensive. She decided to be the one to ask questions now so that the topic would be changed.

“Is it really that normal for Patrick to get injured that bad? Your dad seemed to not even be mad earlier…” Ella remarked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, yeah… I guess so.” His voice suddenly turned serious. “He had become like that since our mom died…”

Ella’s eyes widened. Our mom? Julian must have seen her shocked expression because he turned to her with a sly smirk. “Do you want to know what happened?”

She blinked her eyes after hearing his strange offer… and then shook her head. “Nah. It’s not for me to know. That seems like a private story that someone like me shouldn’t know.”

This time, a small smile finally appeared on the guy’s face. He then inclined his head, as if accepting her answer. “Well, if you say so…” He said before finally falling silent.

Ella sighed quietly. Whatever must have happened to Patrick’s mom, it must have had affected him so badly that it caused her “tutor” to act up like this. 

Patrick was growing bored at home. He was not even bedridden anymore. After a day of observation in the hospital regarding his slight concussion, it was determined that it was not very serious to require a hospital stay. Regarding his few bruises, save for his swollen eyes and lips, these were kind of normal for him. Playing basketball got him those injuries all the time, especially if the game was very intense. He was well enough to move around, and only his refusal to be seen in a less than decent condition prevented him from going to school. He didn’t want to scare off Jasmine if she ever saw him in the hallway.

He looked at the clock hanging on the wall and saw that it was already four in the afternoon. That meant that classes had ended. He was thinking if he should call Marcus and Anthony to hang out with him, but when he remembered how those two would probably make fun of him, he lost interest. 

Hmmm… What about Ella? He owed her anyway… Maybe he should treat her to ice cream or to some McDonalds? 

Patrick smirked. It was time to bother that girl.

Ella was walking towards the abandoned basketball court, carrying two small bags of cat food and dog food. She couldn’t possibly have a tutoring session with Patrick today, so she figured she would just check up on her strays. She would try to look for The Dude and his dog pack to see how they were doing after the debacle last Saturday. 

She couldn’t help but sigh though when she remembered today’s events. Ms. Santos was officially replaced by their new Math teacher, and she was not sure if she liked him. Their new Math teacher, Mr. Kenneth De Jesus, was very different from their former. He seemed to be a happy-go-lucky guy… which made Ella wonder if he really knew what he was supposed to be teaching. Well, the school wouldn’t have hired him anyway if he wasn’t qualified, would they?  

He had them introduce themselves in front of the class, like it was the start of the school year again. This was what Ella hated the most but she had no choice but to go up there and speak up. 

“Ella Santiago? Is that your real name or nickname?” The new Math teacher asked her.

Ella stared blankly at the teacher and answered slowly. “Errr… My real name, Sir.”

“Hmmm…” The teacher nodded. “Ella… What an interesting name…” He then smiled lazily.

Interesting? Her name was probably the most common out there. This guy was strange. Ella just nodded in silence before going back to her seat, all the while feeling the teacher’s eyes on her back. She kept her head down until she heard the teacher call the next student.

Well, however weird Mr. De Jesus might be, her most pressing concern would be if he were as considerate as Ms. Santos had been with her. 

She reached her destination and instantly spotted the familiar cat colony that was usually found chilling out in the basketball court. She whistled and the cats immediately ran to her direction. She crouched down and opened her food bag, all the while scanning the field to see if The Dude and dogs were around. They weren’t, unfortunately.

She was quietly watching the cats eat when she felt her phone vibrate. She fished it out of the pocket of her school skirt and raised her eyebrow upon seeing the name of the person who texted her. It was Patrick. Frowning, she opened the message and read it.

“Hey, where are you right now?” It read. 

“Here, at the old basketball court,” she replied, and then adding, “Why?”

After a minute, Patrick responded: “Wait for me there. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

What could he possibly want from her? Ella shrugged. She then decided to sit on the cement floor of the court and wait for her troublesome classmate.