From: Your Secret Admirer

Chapter Thirteen

"Hey Dumbo!"

"What?" I snapped at Mark as he walked towards me. "You're also going to tell me you're gay?"

"What? Hell no!"

I was still avoiding Mer, so the following day after my argument with Ryan (sixth day of the intrams), I decided to head towards the library--the one place Mer was allergic to. "You can't talk loud inside the library. I mean, how can we carry a conversation if our voices should be barely above a whisper?" she had once told me.

But apparently Mark hadn't received that memo for the librarian gave us both a warning glare accompanied by "shhh!"

Mark slid in on the empty chair beside me. "I just saw you and decided to approach you. That's all."

"Right," I answered, rolling my eyes. "So what brings you here? This is not the soccer field, if you haven't noticed."

He made a chuckle. "I always like hearing you playing with words. Anyway, I have a report due next week after the intrams. So I decided to head here and do some research."

"Really now? You and the library? Somehow I don't see the compatibility."

Mark looked affronted. "You really have low opinion of me, haven't you?"

I felt bad--felt ashamed for what I said. I really shouldn't be taking out my raging hormonal imbalance at him. "I'm sorry. I'm just in one of those moods, I guess."

"Oh. You're having it right now, the thing you females have every month? I get that. No biggie. You can use me as your shock-absorber anytime."

I just have to smile at what he said. He could really be charming when he wanted to. "Thanks. Things just aren't going well with me right now."

"So care to tell me why?"

I heaved a sigh. And I could not believe I had Mark as a confidante during my depressing state. "I had a row with Ryan yesterday, and we haven't spoken ever since then."

"Ryan? The Ryan who I knocked the teeth out during elementary? That same skinny boy Ryan?"

I slapped him on his shoulder. "You did not knock his teeth out. And he's not skinny anymore."

"Well, he's still the skinny kid for me." He rested his elbows on the table. "You just give him some time to cool down. You've been friends for a long time now, so I know he'll come around sooner or later. Just give him space to think things over."

I was amazed--stunned, astonished, astounded; whatever synonyms you could use for amazed--at what Mark had said. I was not expecting him to reply something like that. I was more of thinking he might say something in the line that goes like: "He's such a looser, tell him to quit whining." Life was indeed full of surprises.

"I guess you're right," I answered.

Silence fell between us. It was a moment later when I heard Mark clearng his throat. "You haven't made any comment about my message to you..."

"Hmm? What message?" But I knew which message he was referring to.

"The one where I said I like you..."

"Oh, that message." I suddenly ran out of words to tell him. Yes, I admit, I felt something towards him. But I was not sure of what it was. And then I felt something towards Franco as well. This was all so confusing on my part.

"So...?" I heard him saying.

"Well," I said after I swallowed a non-existent lump in my throat, "I'm glad you don't hate me now."