Started with one speck of faded light, slowly spreading, making all white; a few moments later, some flashes of color forming images appeared in my vision, to some degree, about to expose a clear, unobstructed vision as I gently opened my heavy eyes... But my view darkened again unexpectedly; with it, I winced at the instantaneous sharp pain in my head, a throbbing, burning pain.
Slowly and reluctantly, I reached out to feel the origin of the pain. A bandage was wrapped 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 I did, yet not really; one of my eyes stayed closed. I can't just open it, and it seems badly swollen.
I roamed my eyes around; the moment I got a clearer vision, I discerned, and was glad, that I'm in a familiar place, my room. Then, I moved 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 pulled 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 knelt. "Babe, I'm terribly sorry. I'm drunk and just feeling hot and bothered at 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 am I 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 were nailed to my reflection in the mirror for a while. "Thank God, the swelling in my head is healing well. I don't need to worry about the few scars left because of the injuries, and it can easily be covered up with makeup 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 has everything ready at one's fingertips. And today, all I need to do is 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 stuck on 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 were on the beach. We look so happy with a good open-mouthed laugh. I smiled, reminiscing about that time in Bohol. Mama allowed me to have a vacation in Ziggy's province with some friends.
It made me think about Ziggy. Where could he be at this moment? Since that breach of the peach moment during that basketball game. Ziggy didn't show 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 was 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 most since I also included some foot spa. Sitting while waiting for my nail polish to get dry, flipping the pages of the magazine, looking for some interesting stories to break the ice once in a while, I can also be able to glance the hallway through the glass wall.
In an unexpected moment, I caught sight of Nixon and Amabel passing by. I waved at them from inside the salon, but they failed to notice me. Without hesitation, I put on my sandal. Assuming my nail polish had dried enough. I wanted 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 to be introduced formally to Amabel.
The next time I've seen them, they're about to get inside WOF World of Fun). I beamed at 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 times, especially playing in the basketball machine when we proceeded to get the ball and bet on who could 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 were nowhere to be found. I forged ahead to the innermost part of the arcade, and what came across my view startled me: a little room with a video karaoke machine. Amabel and Nixon entwined themselves around each other, while one of Nixon's hands was 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 and had every intention of observing them.
The room is soundproof, and the screeches from behind that glass wall are barely heard outside. Nixon is singing, as shown in his gestures, while his other hand grapples Amabel from her waist. Both of them were swinging slowly, just like dancing with sweet and slow music. Not for long, Nixon kissed Amabel on the forehead; Amabel responded with a tiptoe and reach out to kiss Nixon on the lips. It took almost a minute for them to unlatch 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 this, I can hardly comprehend the reason for the hurting; am I angry or sad? The sweetness and lovingness that had just caught my eye, the blissfulness shown in 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 no time as this, that I had discerned from the sparkles in his eyes, that extreme blithesomeness.