From A to Z

Q

After that incident in the library, Adam distanced himself — at least physically — from Zach for a while to allow the fire that ensued to extinguish itself. He busied himself instead of manning their exhibit and conducting the initial interviews with their twelve applicants — or pledges as called in the world of fraternities. This was the highest number of aspirants in a single batch that their fraternity has had in its ten-year history. Normally, they would only have three to five applicants in a batch. The exhibit was indeed a great form of publicity for their fraternity to re-establish its brand in St. Joseph. Adam was sure that their alumni would once again be impressed with him when they learn of this yet another achievement of his.

Although he was busy attending to his duties as the Alpha, he did not lose contact with Zach. The two of them frequently exchanged messages, sometimes through SMS but most of the time through social media. They would talk about how their day went, what have they been up to for the day, and, in the past days, exchanging memes they encountered in their newsfeeds.

One afternoon, while having merienda alone in the kitchen, Adam received a message from his friend. It was a new comic strip of the artist they recently discovered and instantly became fond of because of his use of aliens, with their distinct and entertaining language, instead of using actual humans to convey human experiences.

The comic sent by Zach was about a tall person, referred to in the art as "longbeing," who was asked by a short person to reach something from the topmost shelf of a grocery stand. The short person apologized for disturbing him, but "longbeing" said: "I have accepted my role in society." Adam smiled at the term used by the artist to call the tall person, but he was unable to suppress his laughter any longer when Zach sent him an accompanying message saying: "hello longbeing." He instantly remembered that time when he helped Zach get a book from the topmost shelf of the library, only to learn that Zach was, in fact, returning it there. He was very embarrassed by himself at that time, but it was a memory that he was only laughing at now.

"Did you hear that laugh?" said Louis as he entered the kitchen, trailed by Dennis and Alex.

"Yes, I heard it," answered Dennis plainly. "What about it?"

"Dude, don't you know what that laughter means?" Louis asked the two.

The two shook their heads.

"It means that..." He lowered his voice to a whisper, but still loud enough for Adam to hear. "...someone is in love."

Within a second, the three have already surrounded Adam and began to pour him with questions, one after the other: "Who's the girl, Adam?" "How come you haven't introduced her to us?" "Is she pretty?" "Can we see her photo?" "Is she good in bed?" "How many times have you done it?"

Before he could even tell them that he was not dating anyone, Louis grabbed his phone from his hand and ran to the kitchen arch. He was disappointed when he found out that the phone was locked. Adam knew that they would steal his phone so he pressed the lock button before anyone could get a hold of it. He smiled to himself as he resumed eating his chips. He was a step ahead of them. The trio would not discover the person who made him laugh, much to Adam's relief.

Upset, Louis, along with Alex and Dennis, scrutinized him about his lock screen wallpaper instead.

It was Zach's photo of him by the river in M. Kiling.

"Did your lovey take this photo?" Louis teased him as he shoved the screen of the smartphone to his face.

Adam rolled his eyes at the moniker they made for his imaginary girlfriend. He resumed eating his chips and did not say anything.