Phoenix_Marco

Florante Mendoza builds a wall and distances himself from the people around him. Larry, the witty, funny, big-mouth Larry crashes in head-first onto Florante's  walls and throws a party! 

Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Party crasher, wall breaker, smile summoner boy falls head over heels with the sad boy. Sad boy holds back, looks back, runs back, hides back to the safety of his walls. Will they ever meet halfway?

The Summer I Fell In Love is a coming of age story that explores friendship, love and teenage alienation. Two boys  embark on an adventure to seek their rightful place in the world. As they traverse unfamiliar territories, both within themselves and the world around them, they must confront the challenges that will put the strength of their friendship to the test as they navigate through the twist and turns of adolescence.

The Summer I Fell In Love

Last night I slept wishing what happened in dad's room was just a bad dream. I woke and found out that it wasn't. The sun was like a huge microwave outside and it could burn to ashes everything in its path and made everyone as miserable as I was for all I cared.

My head was throbbing and my eyes were drooping. My knuckles were swollen like red tomatoes and my whole body was pulsating in pain.

Some days you just woke up without any idea what was going on.

I rose from the bed and undressed my sleep-shirt and boxers. I looked at myself naked in the mirror and never expected the mirror to look back.

I had no idea who I was looking at.

Something has changed. I can feel it inside. It was as if my body was a huge factory that has gone out of control and was starting to produce things that should not be there. Like for example, why was I seeing a lot of tiny hairs on my face, on my chin and on my upper lip? Last week too when I took a bath, I noticed baby hairs growing rapidly on my chest, navel area, underarms and on my friend down south. I shaved it afraid I would turn into a wolf like what I saw on TV but there's just hairs more than I can handle and the more I shaved them, the faster they grew back.

It's weekend so I changed to my new clothes without taking a trip to the shower.

I grabbed the weights from the sink but when my muscles flexed, a stabbing sensation reverberated at the back of my hands and then my hands trembled uncontrollably. Scabs were already forming on the surface of the bruised skin and a purplish-red blood coagulated underneath.

Frustrated, I dropped the weights on the ground and stumped on it.

"Honey, what has that poor thing ever done to you for you to beat it senselessly?

Nana said as she appeared from her orchid garden wearing an apron.

"Oh boy, looks like someone has woke up on the wrong side of the bed! What's wrong Florante?" Asked she, while surveying my face looking for abnormalities.

I wanted to confront her about the photos, about what happened last night, about the burden she's carrying and how I wanted her to share it with me. But something has changed and I'm not as upfront with Nana as I used to be when I was a kid.

"Nothing, I'm just..." I struggled to find the right words. Instead, tears dropped from my eyes and I wondered where did it come from.

"Oh, poor babe come here..." She rushed towards me and wrapped her arms around me. She kissed my head multiple times and somehow I knew that she knew what was wrong.

Nana's emphatic senses were metahuman.

"You're always treating me like I'm still a child..." My voice broke.

"Oh, you're Nana's sweet child and you can never grow man enough to keep yourself from my hugs and my kisses...you hear me?" I looked at Nana and her face glowed like a million suns in my eyes. She's a strong woman again in broad daylight.

"You hear me kiddo?" She repeated.

"Come inside, let me cook your favorite adobo..."

The summer wind blew and the leaves of the trees swayed with it. Even the sun above the sky looked like it's smiling.

Maybe what happened the other night was just a bad dream.

Chapter 15