Last week
on college, graduation’s approaching.
All fourth
year students are at school tonight, none of the staffs or faculty knew about
this. This is a school tradition where graduating students from all departments
will sneak in to the school and do all they want to do in the whole campus.
Most of us are done vandalizing the locker rooms with water base paints,
throwing tissue papers all over the hall, putting rat traps all over
classrooms, putting liquid hand soaps on each door know, and some engineering
students set up a trap that once someone has opened the gym, it will trigger a
trap that will set all the cups filled with water based paints, oils, ketchup,
mustard, fish sauce, mud, etc.
I saw some
Accountancy Students running down the hall towards the guard house. I heard one
of them saying “Time to have some revenge!” I want to join them. I want to have
some revenge with the guards too. We don’t have agenda against guards. It’s
just that our guards here at school just happen to act like super visors most
of the time.
I entered
men’s bathroom and saw Jan, Jerome, Ernesto and Jayson filling all urinals and
toilet bowls with mud, vandalizing the walls, throwing rotten fruits
everywhere. The bathroom smelled like there are rotting cadavers inside.
“Want to
help us here?” Jan asked when he saw me.
“No,” I
said. “If I stay five minutes inside this bathroom I will definitely smell like
this.”
I went to
the fourth floor and saw Amanda sticking different colors of paper. I pick some
papers and helped her with what she was doing. She smiled at me, a simple smile
that melted my heart even if it’s just a friendly smile.
“So how’s
it going?” she asked me.
“Huh?” was
all I had to say in confusion.
“I mean
with the stuff you have to do tonight to vandalize the school,” she said.
I just
smile. There was something odd with the smell here, the air smells like beer or
some kind of liquor. “I was about to ignore it when I saw three cans of beer on
the floor. “Did you drink those beer Amanda?”
“Yes,” she
answered without even hesitating. “Don’t worry, I’m not drunk.”
“Not drunk
after drinking three cans of beer? You’re drunk. Come on, I’ll bring you home,”
I said.
Amanda just
laughed. “Relax Ben! I’m okay.”
I never saw
Amanda got drunk and I know something is wrong. “Why did you drink all those
beer then?”
She didn’t
answer.
“Do you
want to talk about it?”
Still, she
didn’t answer.
“Okay, if
you don’t want to talk about it now then maybe we can talk about it some other
time.”
“It’s too
hard for me, Ben,” Amanda finally said. “Especially that the graduation is only
days away.”
“I know,
everyone feels the same way, everyone has to live school to work. Going to
school every day has been a part of their everyday life since they could
remember,” I said.
“I’m not
talking about graduating Ben. In fact, I’m excited,” she said.
“Then what
is it?” I asked.
“It’s
because I haven’t told someone how much I love him,” she said. “Even if I know
how much he loves me.”
“Jeremy
knows how you love him.”
“I’m not talking about Jeremy, Ben,” Amanda
said furiously. “I’m talking about you!”
After
hearing what she had said, I dropped the glue and the papers I was holding.
There was nothing I could hear. I just stared at her with shock on my face. She
just stared back at me, tears are about to fall from her eyes.
“I don’t
know if it’s okay to tell you that now that I have a boyfriend, especially that
he’s your best friend,” she said. “But I never wanted any of this to happen,
and since I’ve told you what I feel towards you, I might as well tell you
everything.
“Since the
first day I saw you, when you are trying to park your bike beside mine, since
we walked and talked together towards our first class that morning, I can’t
keep you off my head. I can’t stop thinking about you, Ben. Maybe that’s the
reason why you’re the first person that popped into my head to call when Peter
and I broke up. I was so devastated that night that I want to talk to the
person I feels most comfortable with.”
I just
stared at her; I don’t know what to say. I never expected for her to say these
things. I don’t even know if there’s something to say.
“And if I
have some regrets,” she said, tears flowing down her cheeks. “If I have some
regrets it’s not telling you then straightly that…”
For a
moment, I thought she’s about to walk away, but she didn’t. She wrapped her
arms around my neck and kissed me. She closed her eyes and so did I and for
once we felt like the world doesn’t exist, like nothing matters as long as
we’re together. An eternity has passed and she let my lips go at last.
“I love
you,” she whispered. She let go of me and picked up her things and walked
slowly, she’s walking away from me.
“Amanda,” I
called her name, but then I realized it’s not my mouth who called her, it was
my heart that shouted her name so loud at it felt like the world heard it, and
so she looked at me one last time. She heard me. She heard how my heart called
her, she must have felt it.
*
* *
Explosions
of camera flashes are seen inside the gym as the graduating students (including
me) are being called one by one to receive their diplomas on stage. Everyone
who received a medal was busy taking pictures with them wearing their medals.
The first fifty medals we’re purely academic awards, but then the next fifty is
just for fun. Cloe, who always sleep on class since we’re first year, was given
the medal for Most Sleepy Head award, Jayson got the Latest Boy award, AJ got
the Best Prayer Leader award, Jerome got the Priest Choice award (given to
those people whom the priest of the university said to have the characteristics
to become one of them).
“Belleza, Kyle
Benedict,” the dean called my name and I stood up and went to the stage and
take my diploma. It was my father who
went to the stage with me to receive my diploma and while my sister and Mum
took a picture, Dad whispered “Do you want me to get you an application form
for military training?”
“No Dad,” I
said coolly.
I went back
to my chair and sit next to my classmates I saw Amanda going up to the stage
with her uncle to receive her diploma. I smiled at her and she saw me and she
smiled back.
After the
ceremony, all of us gathered on the stage and took pictures of our whole class.
When we realized that we’ve done all pose we know, we all started to hug and
said our goodbyes. We’re all happy of course that we are all done with studying
and a bit excited to work and earn our own money.
Amanda came
to me, running, and she hugged me tight. “You’re my very best friend. I’ll miss
you.”
“I’ll miss
you too!” I said and hugged her back. I let her go before I got the slightest
idea of not doing so. She obviously doesn’t remember what happened last night,
but me being in a medical field knew that she remembers what she said and done.
Jeremy came
and he hugged Amanda. Of course I’ve seen him doing that to her a hundred times
but I still feel jealous, but I’ve learned how to deal with facts. He tapped my
shoulders and said, “See you later!” and they both left.
I just look
at Amanda. I wish I told her I love her too, and I am happy that she told me so.
I stared at her as she walked away and thinking what would have happened if I
told her how I feel.
