17 Chapter 17: my great TASTE of LOVE!

It's the final round of the quiz bee competition. I made it to the top 3 and placed 2nd place and took some special awards as well. I was best in English and best in Science. Gilbert won the 1st place and took a lot of special awards too. He is more popular now than ever before.

We never got the chance to catch up after the competition because we were both caught up with a lot of congratulatory greetings from our own friends, some teachers and our batch mates. But I am sure we are both happy and there will be another time to applaud and congratulate each other sometime soon.

I just wish I could still see him before the Christmas breaks which is a few days from now.

I think I still owe him an answer from his last note in the library. I hope I still have the chance to say it to him in person.

I wish he still mean what he said in that note especially now that he is more popular than ever before.

The next day, every class were busy putting up some Christmas decorations for their Christmas party. It will happen tomorrow which should also be our last day before the break. We finished up late decorating so everybody have started and rushing to leave for home. My friends and I are walking out of the campus when Marvin saw Gilbert at the gate of the school. He is alone and my friends assume that he is waiting for me. They all run towards Gilbert when they saw him and leave me alone. They all congratulate him while he politely thanks everyone. Before Gilbert says something, Marcelo quickly interrupts, "We know you are waiting for Toni so will just leave you alone." And they all say goodbye to him and wave goodbye to me and walk out of the school.

When they were all busy catching up and while I am slowly walking towards them, someone calls me from behind. He said, "Advance Merry Christmas!" I turn around and see that it was David. He tries to hand me over a tiny stuff toy. I did not take it because I could see Gilbert is walking towards me at that moment. When he sees David trying to give me the gift, he stops walking and quickly turn around. He is leaving so I try to call him, "Gilbert!" I want to chase him but I thought to talk to David very quickly first. I turn around to face David and said, "I am sorry David you are really very nice to me but my heart belongs to someone else already and he is actually waiting for me." I left David and run and chase Gilbert as fast I could before he disappears.

I am a few meters away from Gilbert when I stop and said, "I just told him my boyfriend is waiting for me!" He stops walking but he just stay still and not turning around to face me. So, I walk towards him and I stop, "I told him my heart belongs to someone else. I didn't realise though that it has been with him for a long time already."

He turns around to me. He tries to get something from his pocket. It was the gold medal he won from the quiz bee competition and put it in my neck. He said, "You are the reason why I won this. You inspire me; you have motivated me a lot. Being with you a lot makes me look forward to study harder. I am not born smart while I know you are. So this is for you!"

I said, "But Gilbert, I don't deserve this. You work for hard for this!" I tried to take the medal out from my neck but he stops me. He said, "If you keep this with you, it means you are also keeping my heart. I LOVE YOU!"..."I LOVE YOU TOO!" I said back to him after a few moments of silence.

He touch and hold my cheeks while I hold his waist in both sides. Slowly he forwards his face to my face until his lips touches my lips. The kiss last for a few seconds and suddenly we start to open our mouth and we kiss so much that we totally forgot that we are in the middle of the campus.