just yesterday apple and i were talking and reminiscing about our good old high school days and how we enjoyed them then. we talked about how we were in school when we were younger... what we used to do during our period breaks, what we used to eat in our canteen, what subjects we used to like and the teachers that we used to hate, which movies we used to watch and where we went to whenever we cut classes. and towards the end we talked about who we used to hang out with and wondered what have happened to those we've lost touch with.
and then we had a vague recollection of a boy, a classmate, that i used to hang out with in junior high school... a recollection so vague we both couldn't remember his name. and funny how it was that i used to think he was probably just some character i read in a book somewhere... or someone from somebody else's memory.
you see, i've always prided myself on having a very sharp memory. especially those that have made a great impression in my past, particulary in my childhood. but this boy... this boy whose face i can barely recall... oh well... atleast now i know that i didn't imagine him. that he really did exist in my childhood days. that my cousin used to see me hanging out with him, and him hanging out with me. that she remembered we used to sit next to each other at the back of the classroom.
and why am i making such a big fuss of him now? i don't know... except only for the fact that when i was a new transferee in school and nobody gave a sh*t about me, he was there. i don't really know why i remembered him except maybe for the fact that when my "new friends" realized i didn't want to hang out with them after school and decided to leave me and mock me and humiliate me at every opportunity they could get, this boy was there for me. whenever most of the time i hang out with my cousins or kept to myself in school, the rest of the time i hang out with him. and the funny thing was... he didn't even talk. not a lot, atleast. he just sat there, beside me. asked me about the day's lessons (especially the ones that he missed whenever he decided they weren't worth his time). he always just sat there, listening to my rants and raves and my ceaseless talks. and he listened.
i mean he really did listen.
once during our one-sided talks i told him about this classmate of ours who used to like me and courted me for a while. now this classmate didn't take kindly to rejections, and the jerk, after being rejected thrice by me, became rude and mean in the end. i remember he used to trip me in the corridors, and push me down the stairs. yes, he did, immature little prick that he was. and so, after pissing me off with another one of his rude antics, i was ranting my disgust to this boy who always listened. and the next day after that, our jerk classmate missed school. and my friend, with his quiet voice, told me that Jerk wouldn't want to bother me again. A few days after that Jerk went back to school sporting some half-healed bruises and wounds. Apparently my silent friend had Jerk beaten up by some of his friends. Turned out he happened to be one of the biggest thugs and he belonged to one of the most notorious gangs in school. But really, he didn't look the type, I swear!
But being friends with him really had its advantages. For one thing, no one bothered me again. ever. i suddenly had this sort of an "invisible shield" that protects me from the meanest bullies in school. And these high school meanies actually fear me! Hehe... Talk about being "close" with a thug! I can always challenge anybody, and i mean anybody, into a fight and nobody would dare to cross me. and he was the one who taught me that in our school (well, i don't know about these days but in my days, my school is one of the most notorious high schools in manila)... he taught me that in our school, and in anywhere i am, i must always act tough. that i must always speak tough. that i must always BE tough. that way nobody would bully me. that way nobody would step on me. that way nobody would give me sh*t.
and i kept that advice.
at the start of the third quarter of the school year, he stopped showing up at school. and a few days after, some policemen showed up in our class, and i remember i was feeling cold and clammy when i was taken out of our classroom to be interviewed by two police officers about the whereabouts of my silent friend whose name i still can't remember even up to this point. i thought he'd gotten to some big mischief. and i was right. only, it was more than just a big mischief he'd gotten into. the policemen told me that my silent friend, who'd always been soft-spoken, who had always made me feel like a real lady, who had given me protection from all those meanies and bullies in school, who never had any other friend in class... had stabbed somebody else to death. whether he did it accidentally or on purpose, i never found out.
i never saw him again after that. but from him i learned to be tough. i learned to be a survivor. i learned to be strong. i learned to fight. i learned not to let anybody give me hell, not even from our high school principal who refused to sign my application for the UP entrance exam (because she believed i wouldn't make it to UP and she wanted to minimize the number of failed examinees to keep the high school's humiliation within a bearable level. too bad i never got to see the look in her face when she heard the news.. haha)...
but most of all, i remember him for all his attention to me. for keeping me company. for protecting me from all the bullies and meanies that only the gangliest corners of tondo manila could produce.
oh, sheesh... i really don't remember his exact face or his name anymore. joseph or joshua. something that sounded like that. gosh, i don't even know if he's still out there... you know, living... but i certainly hope he is... although others may feel different especially when i've written that he was already taking lives at the age of what, fifteen? yeah well... i can't help wishing he's still out there. after all, i saw the good side of him before i found out he was a thug.
and so wherever you are, joseph or joshua or something like that... here's a little tribute to you. just to let you know that i remember you. i don't know anything else about you. but whoever you really are, and wherever you are now, i want you to know that you are remembered, and that once, in your younger years, you've made a great impact on the life of a girl who never used to be so sure, and so strong, and so tough, as she is now.
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