10 Double Crosser

Started with one speck of faded light, slowly spreading, making all white, in a few moments later, some flashes of colors forming images appears in my vision, to some degree, about to exposed a clear, unobstructed vision as I gently open my heavy eyes... But my view darkened again unexpectedly; with it, I winced over the instantaneous sharp pain in my head, a throbbing, burning pain.

Slowly and reluctantly, I touched to feel the origin of the pain. A bandage entwined not far from my eyebrow. It was right then that I remembered what happened before now.

All of a sudden, I felt a warm touch of somebody's hand over mine. Someone's holding me. Trying to open my eyes the second time around, and it did, yet not really; one of my eyes stayed close. I can't just open it, and it seems badly swollen.

I roamed my eyes around, the moment I got a clearer vision, I descried and glad, that I'm in a familiar place, my room. Then, I move my eyes down to the one holding me.

Caught in the hop, the moment I see Nixon. There's a trace of swelling in his face, near the chin and ... black eye? Where the hell did he get that black eye from? I didn't notice any yesterday; besides, I didn't remember hitting him near the eyes? Although confused, I didn't bother to find the answer anymore. Instead, like an arrow from a bow, I take off my hand out of his grab. However, I felt the pain and discomfort, still trying my best to move away from him even a little. Now apperceived that it's not only my head, but my body also hurts when I started to move. Maybe beaten up with much effort as I'm trying to liberate myself from Nixon and my sudden fall on the ground as I'm about to lose my consciousness.

Nixon got to his feet crying, then kneels. "Babe, I'm terribly sorry, I'm drunk and just feeling hot and bothered that time, that's why I made such stupid... yeah! I'll admit it. It's idiotic, and I shouldn't..."

"Stop!... I don't keep grudges. I understand that some couples have been doing that. It doesn't mean that I didn't love you. Nixon, that's not the right place and right time, nor I'm ready for that." I explained to him.

He nodded and said, "I understand. I love you, Cloe, and I'm willing to wait."

*****

My eyes nailed with my reflection in the mirror for a while. "Thank God, The swelling in my head are healing well. I don't need to worry about the few scars left because of injuries, and it can easily be covered up with the make -up tomorrow. It's more than a week after that year-ender party, my worst night ever, and tomorrow will be my birthday, my debutante's ball. Everything's almost done and dusted, and the organizer got everything ready at one's fingertips. And today, all I need to do is to drop by the salon for a mani-pedi. Besides, I just wanted to enjoy this day for myself, some navel-gazing, because tomorrow, I will be dealing with the crowd.

I opened up the closet to dress myself up, and one of the photos that I stick at the back of my closet door caught my attention. A photograph of Ziggy and me during our high school days. It was an image of me riding on Ziggy's broad shoulders as we're on the beach. We look so happy with a good open-mouthed laugh. I smiled, reminiscing that moment that was in Bohol. Mama allowed me to have a vacation in Ziggy's province with some friends.

It earned me thinking about Ziggy. Where could he be doing by this moment? Since that breach of the peach moment during that basketball game. Ziggy didn't show himself up. I haven't even asked him if he's okay, knowing that he and Bettina broke up. Tomorrow, on my birthday, will he be there? These few moments of speculation made me heavy-hearted. I truly missed him and miserably worried.

In a parlor inside a mall that's not so grand and not so crowded, I betook myself for a mani-pedi. The whole process took two hours at the most since I also included some foot spa. Sitting while waiting for my nail paints to get dry, flipping the pages of the magazine, looking for some interesting stories to break the ice once in I while, I can also be able to glance the hallway over the glass wall.

In an unexpected moment, I caught sight of Nixon and Amabel passed by. I waved at them from inside the salon, but they failed to notice me. Without hesitation, I wear my sandal. Assuming my nail paint had dried enough. I want to catch up to them, anyway I didn't have any plan for after. There's nothing wrong anyway with a bond with my boyfriend and her friend, an opportunity enough to be introduced formally with Amabel.

The next time I've seen them, they're about to get inside WOF( World of Fun). I beamed upon the idea of them choosing the place. Of course, where do I expect two friends to have a fun time with each other? I find it cute tho' as if they're in high school. The more it reminds me of Ziggy. Place as this is one of our favorite bonding, especially playing in the basketball machine when we proceeded to get the ball and bet for who can throw and shoot more and got a higher score. The laughter, the amusement, that was true, and the perfect contentment we had back then.

I toured my sight around the arcade to find Nixon and Amabel, yet they are nowhere to be found. I forged ahead to the innermost of the arcade and what came across my view startled me inside a little room for a video karaoke machine. Amabel and Nixon entwined themselves around each other, while one of Nixon's hands is holding a microphone. Taken aback, I decided not to show myself to them. In spite, I chose to cover myself behind one of the video game machines, had every intention to observe them.

The room is soundproof, and the screeches from behind that glass wall are barely heard outside. Nixon is singing, as showed in his gestures while his other hand grappled Amabel from her waist. Both of them swinging slowly, just like dancing with sweet and slow music. Not for long, Nixon kissed Amabel on the forehead; Amabel responds with a tiptoe and reach out to kiss Nixon on the lips. It took almost a minute for them to unlatched each other. Nixon sat down and guided Amabel to sit on his lap, and again they went ahead for more intense kissing.

My vision got blurry, with some tears forming inside my eyes. My heart went heavy from what I'd seen. Despite, I can hardly comprehend the reason for the hurting, am I angry or sad. The sweetness and lovingness that had just clasped my eyes on, the blissfulness shown on Nixon's eyes, I haven't seen that when he's with me. It makes me feel guilty, for every moment we spent together seems like I had taken away his precious time to be truly happy. For this moment, there's non a time as this, that I had discerned from the sparkles of his eyes that extreme blithesomeness.