Chapter 18

The classroom exploded with talks of the upcoming Prom. It puzzled the crap out of me how wrapping your hands around somebody's waist could stir a whole room into a conundrum. Everybody talked about the event as if half the happiness in high school depended on it. Call me naive, or anti-social or whatever but to me Prom was a stupid high school fantasy. An absolute waste of time.

I drummed my pen against the desk while I listened to Metallica's Nothing Else Matters on my Walkman. Tina dragged her chair and sat in front of me. I could smell her strong, nauseating floral perfume blend from where I sat.

"Any plans for the prom?" She asked while tucking strands of her hair behind her ear. I pretended I did not hear anything.

"Hello?" She snapped her fingers in front of me.

I took my headset off, hang it on my neck and said: "What the fuck do you want Tina?"

"Given your reclusive nature, I'm worried you will not have any prom date so I feel obliged to save you from your misery and offer myself to you as your prom date." She blinked her eyes more than what's necessary and pouted her glossy lips. She used to be an adorable kid you know. What the fuck happened to that kid.

"I think you have more pressing concerns other than that stupid prom. Shouldn't you be more worried about graduating in high school?" I sort of reminded her that she almost flunked last year.

"I got everything under control." She rolled her eyes too high up her stupid skull and I sort of wished it would stuck there forever.

"I was chill until you came." I said reprehensibly.

"So, are you taking me to prom or what?" I could tell she was pissed much to my satisfaction.

"No." I said.

"Is it because of that guy you hang out with in the library?" She seethed. "What's his name again? Larry, isn't it? I heard you two are adorably close."

"None of your goddamn business."

"There are rumors runnin' around about you two, you know." She hissed.

"What rumors?" I asked.

"Oh, you're suddenly interested." She chortled. What a bitch!

"You're starting to piss me off right now."

"That he's gay!"

I shuddered at the thought of what she had just said. I felt as though a bucket of ice was poured all over me. All I could think of was Larry and how this would destroy him. I had seen it once. When the whole campus made a joke about that gay senior student who killed himself. I have seen how they made his life miserable every day until he decided to end his suffering and took his own life. I had seen it. People had seen it too but nobody did anything. I did nothing!

"Look, I am doing you a favor here. If people will see us on prom, then all these stupid rumors will stop. I know you Florante. You're not gay." She reassured.

She was right. There was no other way. I would not have these morons hurt Larry the way they did with Simon. I was scared of the things I would do to them if it comes to that.

"Alright." I sighed.

"So, you agreed?" She smirked.

"Yes. Just leave Larry out of this." I said.

"Why are you so protective of him?"

"None of your goddam business!"

"As your girlfriend it's my goddamn business." She replied.

"Look, I do not know what game you're trying to play here but I'm not interested!" I stood up and grabbed the books from my desk, ready to leave.

"If you want the rumors to stop, better do it right here, right now. Do you want your little boyfriend to be targeted? We all know what happened to Simon last year." She said the word targeted as though Larry was a play thing. A fuucking dartboard. What pissed me even more so was the fact that she was telling the truth.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. It was too impossible for Tina to care about me or Larry without an ulterior motive.

"Revenge. Leroy cheated on me." She confessed.

"So, you wanna make me some sort of a rebound because your dickhead of a boyfriend dumped you. I never thought you're capable of stooping down so low all for that guy."

"Don't try to lecture me Florante. You need me, I need you. Let's keep it that way. Deal?"

"Okay. I will do whatever the fuck you want me to do. But let's make this thing clear: I am only your boyfriend inside the campus and until prom. Nothing more, nothing less." I pointed.

"Sounds good. There will be a party at my house this Saturday. My parents will be on a business trip." She said.

"What made you think I am interested in parties?" 

"Well, you should be. Lots of students will be there. Leroy and his stupid bitch included. You can call it the pre-prom party. It will be a nice avenue to drown all the rumors between you and Larry," she explained, "We're gonna show them that we're a thing and that's it. You get to keep your name clean, and your little boyfriend safe. I get to show Leroy what he's missing. And just when he's kneeling in front of everyone begging for me to take him back. I will dump him in front of everybody. Win-win."

"I'll think about it." I rose up and headed for the exit.

Leroy looked at me with a smug on his face. He's the new leader of the pack of varsity kids who thought they're big shots. I knew these good-for-nothing kids so well. They're insecure bunch of tough-guy wannabes who hid behind their numbers to exert dominance. They prey on the weak. They stalked, pounced, bit, and played their little games on their victims. People like Leroy and his friends never frightened me though. In fact, he tried preying on me once. I broke his nose and put him in his place right in front of his minions. He needed to be reminded what physical pain and humiliation felt like. And I did just that. He still tried to get under my skin once in a while, "I'm gonna get you one of these days, boy," he said. "Anytime, bhhhoi." I replied, but all of these were empty threats thus far. I knew he was just waiting for an opportunity to hurt me and this stupid rumor between Larry and I could be it. I would never allow him to hurt Larry, not a chance.

I left the room feeling morbid. Flared up. I wanted to knock something off with my fist. My temper. Nana told me I got it from dad. She said he hurt my mom that's why she left. I looked at my fist. The one Larry treated. The bruises have already been healed, what's left was some patches of white on my skin that felt itchy. I wondered if mom and dad ever tried to heal each other's wounds too or maybe they got so used to the pain that they did not bother healing each other anymore. And when their wounds had become too much to bear, they just chose to bandage them, covered up their wounds with bandages. Is that what people do when they're hurting? Cover their wounds with bandages? Maybe that's all we were going to be in the end--goddamn Egyptian mummies covered in bandages.