How To Be The Best Third Wheel

Original Edition - Tip 49: Try To Be Frenemies

"Sana ngayong pasko, ay maalala mo pa rin ako, hinahanap-hanap pagibig mo-" (hopefully this Christmas, you will remember me, looking for your love-)

"Ara! Stop singing that depressing-*ss song!" Bree screams at me, from all the way upstairs.

"It's a Christmas song! You can't blame me if I like it!" I shout back, defending my all time favourite filipino Christmas song. 

"Yeah Ate, I know it's a Christmas song and all, but can't you sing something more merry? I don't know, like, Jingle Bells?" Illa suggests, looking up from her phone, as she sits comfortably on the couch.

I continue my arm workout, which is mixing chocolate cookie dough in a large bowl, and stick out my tongue. "Maybe I'll let you guys dictate what I can or can't sing when you actually do something."

I poke my finger in the batter and give the dough a taste. Delicious.

Brook walks into the room and grabs the car keys from the counter-top. She's barely there second, before turning to leave.

"Where are you going?" I ask, while plopping spoonfuls of dough on a baking sheet.  

She turns back around. "Just getting Christmas presents," she replies nonchalantly.

My brows furrow. "Brook, it's Christmas Eve already."

"Yeah? I didn't hear that it was Christmas yet, so technically I'm not late."

"You will probably get run over at the Eaton Centre, just saying. It's fully packed today." I remind her.

"Well if you don't let me go, I probably will, and you won't get a present this year." she snaps back, before waving goodbye and sashaying out of the room. I roll my eyes.

Illa laughs and finally gets up from the couch. She goes over to me and eyes my unbaked cookies. "Chocolate? Why didn't you do a Christmas flavour?"

I tilt my head, "Well, maybe if you got up and helped me earlier, I would've."

"I was busy!" she counters, taking a spoonful of dough and shoving it in her mouth. And she was complaining.

"Busy with what? Snapchatting your friends?" I joke.

"At least I'm communicating with people." she replies, raising her eyebrows.

This time, I'm the one raising my brows. "Are you trying to imply something?"

Illa grabs my arm. "Ate, your cellphone has been dinging with text messages and ringing with calls for the past few hours. All you do is look at your phone, then decline all of the calls, and not once have I seen you reply to those messages."

"I'm very busy, Illa. Plus, I'll reply to them later. It's just Carol calling to discuss her strange scheme for Christmas again. If I answered those, I'd never get these cookies done." I laugh.

Illa grabs my phone from the table.

"Hey!"

She swipes across the screen, then shoves it to my face. "This doesn't look like Carol, unless Carol somehow switched genders, changed backgrounds, and grew a foot in the last few hours."

I sigh, grabbing the phone back. "Okay, okay. What does it matter to you if I'm not answering a few of his calls? I mean, I texted him an 'Ok. No thanks.' yesterday."

"To what message?"

"I don't know...um, he said something like 'How are you doing? I'm drowning in decorations. Do you need help with your baking?'. Something in that sense." I shrug.