From A to Z

T

There was one crucial detail that Adam forgot when playing the "Twenty Questions" card game: it should be played with girls.

Invented by Slater, the card game was inspired by a Carlos Palanca-award winning play written by a certain Juan Ekis. The piece is about two friends, Jigs and Yumi, who fell victim to the annual tradition of their barkada of selecting two persons from their group and leaving them together alone in a room for three straight days. The success rate of the tradition in forging a relationship between the "victims" was at one hundred percent; seventy-two hours was enough to know the other person deeply and, with only a bottle of wine to drink and a pack of chips to eat, it was also enough for something to happen in the sheets.

In the play, Jigs suggested that they play "Twenty Questions" to waste their time. Each of them has ten questions that they can ask one another alternately; no question should be repeated once asked.

Slater devised his own version of the play; that is, he turned it into a card game. It was his idea to include sensual consequences such as what was drawn by Adam and Zach ("strip" and "kiss") — but those were not even as lewd as the other consequences in the deck. Slater designed it to have such penalties since the true purpose of the game was to get laid with the girl of his liking but achieved in a subtle manner. Adam himself has benefited from the card game multiple times, which was why he could not understand how he could have forgotten that critical aspect of the game.

When he brought it to Zach's apartment, it was for the honest purpose of getting to know him better. True, they have been spending a lot of time together, but he felt that there was a side of his friend that he was withholding from him and all he wanted was to see that side. He could have removed the consequence cards — but that would not be fun; the consequences act as a deterrent for skipping a question. He could have told him about the vulgar consequences. But that time, he thought, and was sure that, his friend would not want to play the game in the first place; hence, the concealment he did.

What frustrated him, aside from ruining his good friendship with Zach, was the fact that he got excited because of the kiss. He — or more so, his body — liked what happened. If Zach did not push him away, he would not have stopped kissing him and something else might have even happened between the two of them.

He could not understand why he reacted that way. Why did he like it? Was it his hormones? Maybe it was because he has not slept with anyone for months already? He did not know. However, he was sure of one thing: he was disgusted with himself for liking what happened.

If his body reacted that way because of kissing Zach, that makes him gay, right? But he likes girls; in fact, he had a girlfriend and had multiple sexual intercourses with girls. Never had he felt any sensual affection towards the same sex. Every day, he was surrounded by boys, and yet he never felt any fondness for them. He was never aroused whenever he sees a naked guy in front of him unlike how easily he gets such feeling whenever a girl is passing by wearing suggestive clothing.

No, he was not gay. If he was, there should be a trend of attraction towards boys. Also, he should be soft, flamboyant — but he was manly, masculine. He was the head of a fraternity, for Pete's sake!

Moreover, he could not be gay. He could not be a "creature" he despises so much. It is against his religion; it is against his principles and his beliefs.

But, still, the question remained: why did he enjoy that kiss?

"Maybe the Lord hasn't passed on His judgment yet," he told himself when he was unable to find the answer to the question he has repeatedly asked himself.

He stood up from his bed and paced around the room. As he walked, he whispered to himself, "It only happened once, and it will never happen again... I need to seek a remedy... I need to do something before the darkness could creep inside of me... I need to prove to the Lord that I'm not a sinner... that I'm straight..."