Stranger

Seriously

Time flies. It's friday today and this is my last day here in my current job. I am not doing anything since I already taught Rose everything. I am just sitting here so I decided to sort the order forms, return good stocks forms and bad stock order forms. This will not consume a lot of time. Maybe, 20 to 30 minutes will be more than enough.

At 4 pm, I already finished all the possible works I could do. I even asked my colleagues if they need help with something, they gave me some works to do but still not enough to kill time until 5 pm. Since, I do not have anything I could do, I just took my phone and browse f*******:. A notification came up stating someone liked my post. I tapped the notification tab to see who was it and just below that, I noticed a pending friend request I received when I was eating out with Sarah, Rose and Judy a week ago. Aside from the friend request, I also received a message request from the same person but I chose to ignore it and did not even mind looking what the message is about.

I decided to finally accept the friend request from this someone. A week is enough, I think? To actually make him think that I thought about it before accepting his request. Just a minute or two right after tapping the accept button, a message popped up. Guess what? It's from the same person. It looks like he was waiting for it the whole week. When I opened the message, it says, "Hey, how are you?" I smiled a little. Now, I can read all the messages he sent within the week that passed. He messaged me more than once, asking the same question. I sent a short reply "So far so good." All I can say is, he's really quick in responding. So, the conversation went like this.

Jerome: Congrats on your new job!

Me: Thanks! I guess your little sister already told you how we met.

Jerome: Yeah! My mom was with me in the living room when she got home. She immediately went to me and told me what happened. Haha

Me: Ah, I see.

Jerome: Right after that, I searched you in f*******: and luckily we have mutual friends.

Me: Ah, yeah. Lucky you. Because if we don't, you cannot send me a friend request or even a message. :D

Jerome: After you left, Joyce said she told her colleagues how smart you are and when Mom heard your name, she also asked how are you.

Me: Tell Joyce to take it back, I don't want them to set expectations on me. Hahaha! Please do tell your Mom my regards. Oh my God! I can't believe it has been that long. I can still clearly remember your mom's face on my head and her face everytime the principal will send her a letter to come to school because of you. Hahaha

Jerome: I will. Oh common you should forget that part. It been years and I changed hahaha

Me: I doubt it hahaha

Jerome: Joyce said that you're so skinny that's why she did not recognize you at first. What happened to you, Via?

Me: I have hyperthyroidism.

Jerome: Are you okay now?

Me: Yeah, I'm good now. It has been four years since I was diagnosed. My mom took me to our family doctor because I am losing weight when I was not in a diet and now I am only taking maintenance medication but still gaining weight is not possible as of now.

Jerome: You'll be okay in no time. By the way, don't you have a boyfriend or a husband perhaps, who might get mad at me for chatting you?

Me: Noo, I'm all good hahaha (I laughed)

Jerome: Good then! Hahaha! Joyce also mentioned that even though you're so skinny, you are still pretty.

Me: Tell Joyce thank you for saying that hahaha.

Jerome: I told her, will I have a crush on her if she's not that pretty?

Me: Hahahaha.

Jerome: Hahahaha.

Me: Hahahaha.

Jerome: Seriously, that's true.

My co-workers noticed me when I laughed a little. They asked me what's happening and I said, just chatting with an old friend.

Jerome is my elementary classmate. When you grow older, the only people you will remember during your school years, aside from your closest friends, are your crushes, those good-looking classmates and batchmates and the naughty ones. He is part of the naughty ones but he is also good-looking.

Wayback elementary, we are not allowed to bring money. Our snacks can be packed at home or we can order it from the cafeteria. The canteeners will just list down what we ordered daily and parents will pay for it at the end of the month.

I can clearly remember a memory of him. It was in the cafeteria. His mom received another letter from the principal to come to school because trust me, he is really a headache. After his mom finished talking with the principal, she took Jerome to the cafeteria to buy him snacks for recess time. Her mom was so surprised when one canteener told her that Jerome's credit is already at five hundred pesos and it was only a week since our parents paid for it. It was a huge amount of money back then because normally five hundred pesos will be more than enough for a month's snacks. On the list, there's a day wherein he ordered twenty hotdog sandwiches and twenty drinks and guess what, he just gave it away to his playmates according to a staff who saw what happenened that day. His mom cannot do anything but to pay for it and asked all the canteeners to only give him one snack and one drink a day. See? How he was a headache. Hahaha.

Another reason why I remember Jerome vividly is because everyone in school knew he has a crush on me. Hahaha! Even though we're kids at that time, he's very vocal about it.

Her mother doesn't personally knows me. My elementary classmates told me that their mothers know me because I was the class top 1 since kindergarten. So my name was always mentioned during recognition days. I was so good at studying back then, but nothing on those matters now in the real world.

We continued chatting about random stuffs such as what I have been doing for the past years, about our jobs, etc. and vice versa.

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My co-workers and I went to a nearby mall to watch a movie and eat out since it's my last day. While eating, they told me that they will resign soon and find a good company as well. I encouraged them to try to apply on my current job. Working in a call center is not bad, others just make it looked like it's not a decent job because holding a degree is not a requirement but I am telling you it is not as easy as it seems to be. Aside from the salary which is like thrice of what we are receiving now, it also provides HMO or a health card not only for you but also for at least two of your dependents.

After eating, we parted ways since we all live in different directions. We say our goodbyes and I am sure I will miss working with them. Just them, not the work loads and surely not the company.

~~~