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

It is like one of those nights when you dream about falling into a seemingly endless pit and before you hit the bottom, you wake up and realize it is just a dream. The only difference is tonight I have not woken up.

I keep falling deeper and deeper into the abyss. The darkness stretches eternally and not even a faint light is in sight.

I looked around me and saw the graveyard above the hills where my father and my uncles were buried.

Dried leaves scattered on the ground that crackled as I stepped on it.

Melted candles adorned the gravestones and there is a familiar scent of death all around.

I visited father's graveyard. The tombstone where his name was inscribed was soiled with thick layers of dust so I mopped it with my hands.

I sat beside it and rekindled the night before father died. The feel of his warm hug still lingered on my skin like a stubborn blotch.

I closed my eyes and tried to conjure his image from memory. How he looked and how his voice sounded but I can no longer remember how his face looked like or how his voice sounded when he called my name.

All that is left is the hole inside my chest that not even time can fill.

I buried my face on my knees and let the darkness and the silence devour me.

Out of nowhere, a crow hopped at the top of dad's tombstone. I raised my head and stared directly at the black bird in front of me.

Its wings dark as the night splayed as it cawed. A deep sorrowful sound penetrates through my core like a lightning piercing through the darkness of the evening.

The caws reminded me of the night when father died, how the crows hovered the sky in circles.

I have always hated these birds and maybe today I could finally get even. I snatched a stone from the ground and flung it towards the bird.

The stone landed directly against the bird's chest and its feathers scattered in the air before it fell to the ground.

I smirked triumphantly and rushed towards the bird's dead body.

I was horrified to see Larry's body lying flat on the ground where the bird fell.

Blood is dripping from his eyes, his nose, and his mouth. I shook his body forcefully trying to bring him back to life.

The same coldness that I felt when I touched dad's hands the morning he died.

I started to panic. My hands are shaking and my tears fell down on my cheeks.

"Larry, wake up...please...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." were the words that came out of my mouth.

The rain started to fall and the crows fly above me in circles. The cawing builds up and it punctured through my ears like nails on a chalkboard.

"Stop...can someone please make it stop..." I cried with a muffled voice.

Then I heard Nana's voice screaming at me ''Run Florante...the birds are coming for you...run!"

I woke up from my dream gasping for breath. The sun's light permeated the room through the windows and I think of Larry and the crows.

Chapter 34