TBBM XLVIII. Project Jopet

"Asleep?" Red texted me as I lied on my bed, after taking my pills. He met my mother earlier and everything happened the opposite of how I thought it would.

"About to..." I replied.

My phone rang in an instant. Red was calling me.

"Why? What do you want?" I asked.

"What do I want?" he sighed. "Why are you rude to me? Didn't you hear what Mother said earlier? She said I can tell her when you are being unreasonable---"

"Frankly," I took a deep breath. "I do not know what happened earlier. I don't understand how you charmed her like that."

"I'm Red. That's how."

"You're arrogant. You're so full of yourself. You're boasty. You're full of air. You don't apologise. How did I even get tangled up with you in this life?"

"You make it sound like you're at the losing end," he grunted.

I didn't speak for long, thinking about that favourite line of his. Was I really at the losing end because I met him? In the silence of the line, I listened to him grunt every time he moved.

"Why do you keep grunting? Did you lift again?"

"Yeah, mate," he answered. I could imagine him smiling on the other end. "Routine. But, it hurts."

"So, why are you calling me?"

"I want to hear your voice. I want to annoy you. I want to see you pissed."

"Why?" my eyes were almost closing. "I'm really nice to you. You always make me cry."

"I don't know. I just like you..."

I wasn't sure I understood what he said last but I remembered that he was still there talking when my eyes fully shut and darkness covered my senses.

The pills made me even drowsier than I used to be.

+++

The morning after, we busied ourselves updating the bulletin board assigned to us. Class officers normally did the boards bi-weekly. Red received the ranking for the last exam week and he carefully posted them. Crowds started to gather around us as he did. My name normally appeared on the top ten so I was confident enough not to squirm into the crowd and look.

"Hicks," he commanded me. "Let's go do the second board."

"Whoa!" I heard the boys of our class honked. "Mr. President is number one!"

"Really?"

"Where?"

"How did this happen? His name was in the middle last term?"

"Congrats, Red!"

The clamouring around only got louder and louder but as I watched Red, he didn't seem to have a care in the world. He focused his eyes on the board.

"Why?" he inquired, not looking. "Are you that impressed?"

"If you got the first place, then it means you scored higher than me," I smiled faintly. "How are you smart like that?"

"You see," he shook his head, still not looking. "You call me smart. You call me handsome. But you talk rudely to me. You even slept me off while I was talking to you."

"I mean," I ducked my head. I wondered how long he stayed talking to me. My phone was literally dead when I woke up this morning. "The pills make me even sleepier than usual."

"Is that bad?" he paused and looked at me.

"I don't think so. I guess the body had to process the medicine so it makes you sleepy."

He stayed quiet after I said that, thinking.

I was working with Roma and Betty on the floor as we cut pictures of the recent events. Noriella was on the adhesive while Cy and Hugo worked on attaching them on the board.

"Hicks," Red called on me. "Can you get my wallet from my bag?"

"Okay," I nodded, obediently. He seemed to be in a fair mood today.

I went back to our classroom and opened his bag. There weren't very many items inside, except his notebook and two textbooks. As I was about to close his bag, I noticed something like a drawing book inside his file case. I thought I saw that before, during his first few weeks in class. But, I wasn't sure.

I walked back to them at the hallway as they waited for me, smiling defiantly.

"Why?" I asked Betty.

"Look at the board," she clapped.

Red was blocking my view of the board.

"Here," I handed him his wallet. "What are you hiding back there?"

"Roms, give me the key," Red ordered. "We locked it. We know you are going to be mad but---"

"You're making me nervous," I pushed him aside.

No!

My photo sat on the board.

I felt fear crept up my spine.

"I asked around, they said you did this before," Red informed me with a steady voice. "So, I volunteered you to be the choir inductor."

"No!" I stepped back. Red had no idea what happened to me when I was a frosh. We were on the stage. I fell off the platform because the PAC girls tripped me. My eye glasses broke then. I got a fractured arm, too. "I'm sorry but I'm not doing it."

"Yes. You are," Red grinned.

"Oh, please," Betty came forward. "Mr. President planned for everything. He worked so hard for this."

I couldn't resist my classmates pleading but the same brought me memories of horror. I grabbed Red's hands and dragged him to the treehouse at the back of our building.

"Mr. Vizca told me. I asked him," Red began. "Angie, Cecie and Phao tripped you during the recital---"

"Do you even know how that must feel like?" I was so scared to even recall it. I was half-crying. "There were so many people and the lights were on me. I rolled a little then fell ultimately. It hurt allot as my bones broke but you know what hurt the most? People. They were laughing at me. The PAC girls were laughing at me, too. They were laughing at the meek one who fell off the stage and cracked her glasses. They were laughing even as the medics carried me on a stretcher. I hated breaking my arm and my glasses. But you know what I hated the most?"

"Hickey," Red called, his face empathetic.

"I struggled so hard for weeks," my voice kept breaking. "I struggled to build that kind of self-confidence. But they crushed all that in less than five minutes. I'm not good-looking or cool like you, Red. What's easy for you isn't for me. You talk and everyone listens. You attract allot of attention, especially of women. People anticipate what you'd ask for. It's not the same for me! People always think I'm fine being toyed like that. They think I'm fine even when I'm not being taken seriously, but I'm not, Red! I'm so sick of it! I'm so---"

"I take you seriously," Red embraced me so I would stop---that kind of very tight embrace that I'd grown accustomed with; that kind of embrace that always shut me quiet and made me feel comfortable.

"I'm scared, Red."

"I won't let them hurt you," he assured. "We will launch Project Jopet."