Roy, Bon and I were reunited after Roy’s absence in school for two terms now. We had spent the night over at Bon’s place, which was actually a boarding house, within UP Diliman. We have taken over the unoccupied ground floor with two rooms and a dysfunctional television set in it. Rem, Bon’s official girlfriend (according to him, which he takes back from time to time) tagged along (and so did Mench) so the two of them stayed at the family house about two blocks away.

But before that, the five of us had dinner together at the family house (Roy kept ranting about him not having a partner, Shane and he had already broken up). I, with Mench’s help, cooked the food, we had eggs mixed with sardines and plain sardines. Apparently, we were all tight in the budget.

At the Boarding house, Mench and I had our own room while Roy stayed alone in the other. I went to him twice or so and we ate the paninda’s Bon told us not to touch. They used to have a sari-sari store back there just like ours.

That night, Mench succeeded in making something out of our fragile relationship. She had made me realize that there is more to life than just my past and for the very first time, I have completely forgotten everything about it. In the darkness of that airless room, there was no Shiela, no Ranna, nothing of the things in my past. It was only she and I. And in the morning, back at my house I continued my sleep with a smile on my face, something that had never happened to me for a very long time.