Something Phenomenal

Phenomenal: Epilogue

Epilogue
Shane's POV

Siniksik ko ang huling gamit sa bag at dinala ito sa sasakyan. I placed it in the backseat then checked several things before I go.

"Bukas pa ang flight mo," sabi ni Dad na kasabay ko sa paglabas ng bahay. "Bakit ang aga mong magbyahe?"

"I'm going to visit someone."

Matapos magpaalam, nagsimula akong magbyahe. Kasabay ng paglayo ko sa siyudad ang pagbalik ng araw kung saan una ko siyang nakilala.

--

"Shane, this is Gabriel."

Nasa hospital lobby kami noon, katatapos lang ng shift ni Mama at may bagong doctor na papalit sa kanya. The doctor has a daughter my age, who looked so much like a bratty kid with pigtails and a smug look on her face.

"Shane?" tanong niya na nakataas ang kilay. "Your name is for girls," pangaasar niya.

Gab was condescending, even as a kid. She was staring bluntly with  those silly stickers on her face.

"Sayo panlalake," bulong ko. I was a quiet kid, a little shy kahit mahirap paniwalaan.

She crossed her arms. "So?"

Napailing lang ang mga magulang namin, nakangiti. "For sure, magiging close sila."

It was a statement both Gab and I never agreed on, and yet it became true.

Gab was a kid with her own world and played with her own rules. While other girls her age play with dolls, she played with telescopes and treasure maps her dad gave her. And I would be there tagging along in her adventure.

"Let's go! Let's go!"

Gab would sing, raising her tiny hand in the air with a makeshift flag, before marching to a nearby empty lot or fields near our village for our treasure hunt.

And I would be beside her, smiling, astounded. I couldn't believe a cool girl with moon and stars stickers on her face would choose to be my friend.

Dumating ang grade school kung saan namatay si Mama sa aksidente. Hindi ako lumalabas ng kwarto, ayaw kong kumain at hindi pumasok sa school ng dalawang buwan.

Everyone around me were physically there but felt like they're gone. My family barely had meals together and the rooms in the house were worlds apart.

And then there's Gab who barge around with her bright hair, hopping, smiling, going through people's spaces and things without a care in the world. Gab who slapped the hell out of me, made me cry and pour my heart out. If all were grays in my life, she was the remaining bright  color.

Dumating ang high school, may mga bagay na nagbago. We weren't the skinny and pigtail kids anymore who built fortresses in the yards and  hunt around in the fields.

Dad made me enroll in a basketball camp for two summers. I got taller, my body got leaner, and somehow people hang around me more and laugh at my bad jokes. Gab never laugh at my bad jokes. She retorted with sarcasm.

Gabriel's dad left them before we started high school. She became the resident intimidating girl. Kahit mga lalakeng kakilala ko takot sa kanya. She walked around in combat boots with a smug smile on her dark red lips and her ever changing hair color.

But I know it was her way of coping. Kahit hindi niya pinahalata sa ibang tao lalo na sa Mama niya, nahirapan siyang mag-adjust noong umalis ang Papa niya.

We were a tandem. Sunshine Shane and bad bitch Gabriel.

But she was never bad. I introduced her to my set of friends and once they knew her, they started to like her. The only negative side to this ay kapag may pumoporma sa kanya.