We used to share this crumbling house south of manila. The original cast was M, Y and L. L had this college friend who offered her aunt’s house in a too-convenient location that they couldn’t resist. I later joined them when I found out my housemate was a freak. So there we were, cramped in a double deck bed – all four of us. The “lower deck” was for Y and L, while I shared the “upper deck” with M.
We were actually a strange group. M is the loyal daughter who would send money to her sibs right after she received her paycheck, the same sis whom I had to drag out of Gilligan’s when she started to speak oh-so-slang English after a few bottles of beer. L is the fashionista chick, having graduated from one of the exclusive schools along U belt. She’s the master in running-jogging-brisk-walking-in-stilettos. Y is the conservative-whatispekpek- prim-and-proper-lady-who-wears-skirts-at-church. And well, there was me, the loud mouth.
M is the pack leader. She is Y and L’s high school classmate, my sorority sister too. M, Y and myself work for the same capitalist company, while L works for a sister company.
We would bond at night with L’s latest break-up with a zombie, sometimes the three of them pestering me with “you-people-who-fall-out-of-love” sessions. I would try nicely to explain why we-people-who-fall-out-of-love would decide to ditch a so-so-perfect-relationship because our partners have become so alarmingly boring. Not that L is boring because she is so full of colors. It’s just that she’s become so perfect for her a**hole boyfriend.
Anyhoo, past the break-up and now so fully emotionally bonded with each other, we settled nicely in that about-to-collapse house. We would cook food for breakfast, baon for lunch and dinner. Almost always just M, Y and myself because L have become a zombie herself with work. During weekends we sleep like dead people, waking up near lunchtime and with grumbling stomachs. The fastest way to go for a decent meal is our neighbors’ trusted silog series, downed with mugs full of coke. Yes, we were your typical yuppies, young urban poor, haha! as M would put it, the kind who survived on caffeine and preservatives.
We would go malling whenever we felt like it, especially when its sweldo time. We would watch last full shows on a weekday and sleep at work the following day. We would go on afternoon walks around the village where we lived, ogling at the beautiful houses and the gorgeous sons of homeowners. L and I would be tagged as the rock concert hunters. With the first gig at the first Rockestra, then followed by the Muziklaban stampede in Amoranto, and then the second Muziklaban in CCP which brought in the start of coffee sessions in Starbucks.
Later on M decided to join her boyfriend, gets pregnant, marries off and lives in the province with her young family. L resigns from work and finds a more fabulous work in Makati and thus had to move to a dorm nearby. And so it was just me and Y. And then much later on, I get an offer I couldn’t resist and had to move to the countryside too. L would go with me to the bus terminal to see me off. I remember clearly that day --- it was a Saturday afternoon. And while I was about to board the bus, L hugs me tight and tells me to go visit her every weekend for our coffee sessions. That was the last time I saw her.
It’s been almost three years since. At around lunch time today my phone rang. It was from one of the pack members! L was calling from a ski resort in the US. She’s been working there for almost a year now.
How I miss her.
