Chapter 19
800 Words
19
(page 28 of 126)
The girl that used to be in my bed was gone. Throughout the day she was gone.
“You know this is coming, Luke.” Matt said sitting beside me.
“What’s coming?”
“That she’ll move out.”
“No, I didn’t see it coming... I never did.”
“The book just corrected the sequence. Eureka shouldn’t live with Darwin and a roommate.”
“But I’m not Darwin.” I whined.
Matt grabbed my shoulder and cleared his throat. He acts like a father to me and that made me feel awkward. “Luke, don’t be sad.”
“I’m not sad.” I lied.
“Really, but you look miserable. You look Hurricane Sydney all over again.”
“That’s not helping, Matt.”
My phone rang all of a sudden and made the two of us flinch. I dug up my pocket and fumbled with my phone. After seeing the one calling, I looked at Matt and said “Speak of the devil.”
“Eureka?”Matt asked. I looked at him sarcastically.
“Sydney.”
“Oh that devil, make sense.”
The phone was still ringing. “Should I answer it?”
“I guess...maybe there’s an emergency.” So I pressed ‘Answer’ and her voice quickly chirped.
“Luke, oh God, could you meet me?” She really did sounded stressed.
“Okay, I’ll meet you. Where?”
“At the Oblation Park, I’ll wait for you.”
She ended the call. Without any more hesitation, I changed my shirt and wore my blue hoodie.
“Was it an emergency?” Matt asked looking concerned.
“Yeah, I think so.”
I hurried outside and walked as fast as I could. The sky was gray foretelling me that it would rain. “To the Oblation Park, the cousin of Freedom Park,” I thought.
***
Fernando Poe Sr. was standing proudly naked, exposing his square butt, at the centre of the park. He stretches his arms, offering himself to the nation. His statue signifies selfless sacrifice thus gaining the title Oble, short for Oblation which mean “to offer” in Latin.
But what caught my attention was not Oble but the girl who was standing in front of him. Sydney was admiring Oble as if she hadn’t seen it before.
“Sydney.” I called out to her when I was at least a meter away from her. She turned around and I saw her eyes, filled with tears. She walked slowly to me then hugged me firmly.
“Sid, what’s wrong?” I asked and she responded with a sob. I felt her warm tears fell on my chest. I broke free from her arms and grabbed one of them and I directed ourselves to sit on one of the benches. Some students actually called it love benches because it was perfectly made for cuddling, but I haven’t thought that we’ll ever use it like that. She nested her head to my chest and she continued to cry.
“Could you at least tell me what’s going on?”
“Luke, its Vince...he replaced me already.”
At first I didn’t know how to respond to that, not because I have no response at all but I had a plenty of it I couldn’t choose.
“Sid, you were the one who replaced him first.”
“I know, I know and I was stupid. I just want to say sorry for dragging you here at this messed up situation.”
I nodded and for the first time I really agreed to every word of that sentence. I wanted to say: That’s what you get for breaking someone else heart or Hope that gives you hell. But I never did, because now I know better.
“Just cry. I’m a handkerchief right now, okay? Just don’t blow your nose at me. My hoodie is perfectly new.” I told her. Her face drew a smile but she continued to cry.
“He said that it was better for us. He said that he likes the new girl better.”
“Does it hurt?”
She nodded.
“It’s gonna be okay.” I can’t believe I had used that sentence.
She sat up and looked up at me and grabbed my hand. “I want you, I want you back. I made a mistake.”
No, Sydney, you’re making a mistake right now.
- Writer
