He woke up that morning by his ringing phone. He must have slept all day, he told himself. He reached for it on the counter and immediately answers it.

“You’re still on bed?” he could hear the brushing wind from the other side. Must be on the jeepney, he told himself.

“How did you know?” he asked. He opened the curtains only to find the sun blinding him. It was afternoon and was late to meet with Andy and the rest of his friends.

“I called you eight times.”

“Sorry. I slept late last night,” he answered with a smile. He can’t wait for tonight for Paskuhan.

Looking outside, everyone is on the move. Some of them may have planned some party that morning and spend the night attending the concert and the fireworks display. Some may just use the day and hangout and have a party for the whole day. Whatever they are doing, it’s going to be something fun. Fun as bright as today.

“Yeah, yeah,” and he heard laughter from the other side of the phone, “I will be there in an hour.”

“Meet you at Q. Pav?”

“Yeah.”

After that, he went to his bathroom to take a cold shower.

-

It has been two weeks since there real first day for their summer class and they already have done their preliminary exam, half of their project, and sixty percent of the semester. After this, he has the summer all to himself.

It has been a while when he was able to talk with Michael and Jim. Jim is busy spending his days at Baguio. It was an unexpected turn of events, as he told him. He didn’t know that his parents were planning a month long vacation with their relatives there. He didn’t even know they have one.

He has been visiting every park there is just to spend the day reading but what interests him the most where the events he get to see when picking beyond his book. He was able to see at least three couple kissing, on three different occasions. An intense soccer match. A tour group being lost. And many unexpected and wild stuff. He wished he could film it and show it to them but unfortunately, he doesn’t have the time to get his phone and take a quick video, as it seems those moments were just for a fleeting second. What’s funnier is that there is always something to witness. As if faith is entertaining him.

But the story he was most excited to tell them was how he met Eileen.

He was at the retail factory outlet, looking for a pair of brand new running shoes as he decided that he can’t just have his days lazily reading around so he decided to run every other day. So after that day’s reading at an open field in Camp John Hay, he went there looking for a pair of shoes with the book he was reading on his hand, a finger tucked between the pages where he was currently reading when suddenly, he heard a girl made a snarky remark.

“Are you actually reading that or just pretending?”

When he turned around, he saw her there, looking at the selection of shoes he was looking at.

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse me what?”

“Next time, mind your own business.”