Out of the blue

Chapter 12:

The memento from the past

Note: This is the chapter book cover for chapter 12.

[P.O.V] Kevin Lee

[Day 2 at Cebu pacific beach resort]

This is the second day we have been here at the Cebu pacific beach resort where the clean-up drive activity of the cheerleading club will be held, and until now, Benjie still does not come out of his resort room.

At this moment, Gun, Jelai, and I were outside of Benjie's room, because until now, he still won't come out to his room because of what he heard from Gun yesterday.

While the three of us waiting for him to come out to his room... Kaito suddenly arrives as he feels worried about Benjie. 

"Any news about Benjie? Doesn't he come out yet?" (Kaito asks me.)

"He still hasn't come out of his room since last night because of what he heard from Gun  yesterday." (I told Kaito as I looked at Gun.)

At that moment, when Gun heard me that I blamed him, he suddenly spoke up to me: "If you want to blame me why Benjie still hasn't come out of his room then okay, but I have no regrets for what I told him yesterday because I was just telling him the truth and he must educate to become mature."

"I understand your point, dude but the way you talk to him yesterday was so outspoken, it also makes me goosebumps." (I told Gun.)

"Wait, guys... Please stop fighting okay so just tell me about what happened yesterday?" (Kaito asks me.)

As Kaito tried to ask us about what happened yesterday... Out of nowhere, Dianne suddenly arrived on the scene.

"Wait, what really going on here? why are you here, Dianne?" (Kaito suddenly asks Dianne.)

"Well, it's a long story, Kaito but right now, let's focus on the main topic... Are you still remember the last time we talk?" (Dianne told Kaito with a smile on her lips.)

"Yeah." (Kaito responds to Dianne.)

"Then I think this is the right time for us to talk about how stupid Benjie really is." (Dianne told Kaito as she gives Kaito a sweet smile on her lips.)

After Dianne and Kaito decide to talk privately about Benjie, I thought to secretly follow them because I have bad feelings that Dianne has a plan to discredit Benjie in Kaito's eyes but before I would follow them... Jelai suddenly grab my hand to stop me as she said: "Don't try to follow them wherever they go, the two of them need privacy to talk."

"But, I have a bad feeling that Dianne has a plan to discredit Benjie in Kaito's eyes." (I told Gun and Jelai.)

"No... she would do nothing bad against Kaito and Benjie's relationship." (Jelai told me as she keeps looking at Dianne and Kaito walking away.)

"Why are you too sure that she won't do anything against Benjie?" (I quickly ask Jelai.)

"Because yesterday she tried to convince Benjie to fight what he felt for Kaito and that's our enough reason to believe her she won't do anything against Benjie and Kaito." (Jelai told me as she held my hand to stop me from following Dianne and Kaito.)

[P.O.V] Kaito Almasen

[Atm seashore]

As I was with Dianne walking at the seashore, she suddenly spoke to me.

"Kaito, Did you know Benjie has a strong feeling towards people with bad intentions that's the reason why he has very few friends because it's hard for him to trust people around him." (Dianne asks me as she walking by my side at the white sand of the beach.)

"What do you mean?" (I asked Dianne as I looking at her.)

At that time, as I asked Dianne what she was talking about, she suddenly sat down on the white sand of the beach as she suddenly picked up the seashell she had seen.

"Look at this seashell, Kaito... Do you know what is the purpose of shells in sea animals?" (Dianne suddenly asks me as she showed me the seashell she had seen.)

"To protect from the predators?" (I answered Dianne's question.)

"Yes, you are correct then do you still remember why Benjie bullied you at first?" (Dianne told me as she smiles at me.)

At that moment, I am still confused about what Dianne trying to say to me.

"If you can't figure out why Benjie bullied you then, I'll tell you his main reason why he bullied you... because Benjie is in the seashell and you're the predator... Do you remember your first day at our university, right?... You're the first who approach and mess up Benjie's life and as a seashell and you're the predator, Benjie also messed up your life just to protect himself from you but the important question is, why am I telling you this to you?... Because when Benjie and I were in 9th grade... There's a huge incident that suddenly happened in our university that greatly affected Benjie's life until now... and because of that incident, Benjie received an ungrateful memento from what happened four years ago." (Dianne told me as she sit beside me on the white sand of the beach.)

"Memento?" (I suddenly ask Dianne as I sat by her side.)

When I asked Dianne what the word memento meant, she suddenly gives me a smirk as she decides to tell me what happened to Benjie four years ago.

[P.O.V] Dianne Mendoza

[Four years ago...]

Before Gun and Kevin became friends with Benjie ... Benjie had a friend, a soul mate friend named Jameson Sebastian (James), and Cedric Bautista... Jameson Sebastian was a smart man, brave, optimistic, and strategic guy... he's the type of person who always acts like a big brother of Benjie, and to be exact after Kaito left the Philippines, he's the second person to become Benjie's friend who taught Benjie how to play guitar and write a song.

While Cedric Bautista was a supportive friend and childhood friend of James who knew all about James Sebastian... in short, James is the way why Benjie and Cedric become friends too... But in the nearly five years of their friendship, Cedric had to break apart with them to go to Hong Kong with his mother so they could forget the problem with their family.

But after Cedric left the Philippines, the friendship between Benjie and James became faded... they both have been busy with their different lives.

James has to go to a part-time job so that he can support daily living expenses with his younger brother while Benjie has been busy playing football so that he can forget about you but one day, Out of the blue, James approached Benjie to tell him that he needs Benjie's help to steal the answer key for the upcoming final exam at our university...

When Benjie heard what James told him, he immediately ask him what's his main reason why he want to steal the upcoming final exam answer key of our university but James refused to answer Benjie's question.

Since that day, Benjie rarely sees James in our school... Benjie had a hard time talking to James just to make them friends again but James is unreachable, he's too busy making money for an unknown reason but on the day of the final examination in our university, the head-teachers found out that the answer key was missing so they searched for it in every classroom in our university but while the head-teachers and the student inspectors were doing an inspection on every student's bags in our university, the one of the head-teacher accidentally found the missing answer key to Benjie's bag.

At that time, Benjie had no idea how the missing answer key got into his bag but when Benjie's father found out that that missing answer key was in his son's bag, he was very angry and disappointed with Benjie... Whatever Benjie tell his Father that he didn't steal the answer key...  his Father didn't believe him.

Because of the scandalous happened in our university when the students found out that the missing answer key was found in Benjie's bag, they never stopped judging Benjie behind his back... Other students keep accusing Benjie that he attentionally steal the answer key test paper but Benjie knew in himself that he was innocent and he hadn't stolen anything so Benjie made a way to find out who's the person behind the crime of stealing the answer key test paper and while Benjie was investigating the possible culprit in stealing the answer key, he suddenly remembered what James had told him that he wanted to steal the answer key in the final examination.

At that moment, Benjie had a strong suspicion that James was involved in stealing the answer key so Benjie immediately ran to find and confront James so that he would confess to stealing the answer key.

But no matter how much Benjie insisted on James that he was the one who stole the answer key, he didn't admit to Benjie that he stole the answer key but unexpectedly, there's a witness appeared, the witness said that he saw James put the answer key in Benjie's bag and when Benjie heard the witness statement, he immediately punched James in front of the head-teachers and when Benjie's father finds out the whole truth, Benjie's father immediately finds a way to expel James from university.

At that time, when James found out he was going to be expelled from university, he immediately apologized to Benjie, he wanted to tell Benjie why he decided to frame him but at those times, Benjie didn't listen to him... after that incident, James suddenly disappeared with no trace.

Since then, Benjie has been strict in choosing friends, and because of other student's judgment of what happened four years ago, Benjie has become a bully within our university just to protect himself before others will hurt him behind his back just like what James did to him... and because of that incident four years ago, Benjie received a memento from the past that he distrustful of anyone, he becomes a beast who has a strong sense of smell for people who have bad intentions towards him.

Note: Memento of the past is a reminder of something, especially a past event or time. It most often refers to a keepsake or a souvenir.

"But why do you knew all of this? and why didn't I see you talking to Benjie inside the university?" (Kaito suddenly asks me.)

At that moment, when I heard Kaito's question, I suddenly laugh at him.

"Because when Benjie and I were in 9th grade, I realized that I really liked Benjie because of his good looks and charm, and later on, I decide to admit to Benjie that I liked him and Yes, Benjie and I were secretly together for 2 months."  (I told Kaito as I was looking at the ocean waves.)

"But after two months of being Benjie's girlfriend, he suddenly broke up with me because of you, and because of that, I am so upset and decide to stay away from him for a while." (I told Kaito as I was looking at the ocean waves.)

"But that doesn't mean I hate him at those times, okay... I just want to stay away from him for a while to be able to think and give myself time to recover from being broken-hearted because when I'm always with Benjie, I always get annoyed at him when he told me a story about you... Benjie always tells me how adorable and cute you are, etc ... but while Benjie telling me a story about you, I saw in Benjie's eyes that he was sincere in love for you, a love that no matter what I do, I can't replace Benjie's love for you."  (I told Kaito as I was looking at the ocean waves with a smile on my face.)

When Kaito heard about my past relationship with Benjie, he suddenly smiles as he looking at the ocean waves.

"But even though Benjie has a child-like personality, I know he is a good person but when Kevin became Benjie's friend, Benjie became even more violent towards the students here but even Kevin uses his intelligence to help Benjie torture the life of other students in our university, Benjie knows that Kevin can't betray him just like James had done to him." (I told Kaito as I throwing a seashell in the sea.)

"But how about Gun? how Benjie met Gun?" (Kaito suddenly asks me as he looks at me.)

"Honestly, I don't know Gun very well but he is Benjie's closest friend who is always quiet but always there for him to help him with any kind of problem, Gun appreciates his friendship with Benjie and Kevin, so sometimes, Gun tries to stop Kevin and Benjie from doing bad things to other students in our university but to be honest, I  have no idea how Gun and Benjie became friends and all the students in our university are still wondering how Benjie and Gun became friends." (I told Kaito.)

"But for me, Gun is a loyal friend of Benjie because Benjie believes in him." (Kaito told me as he throws a seashell he saw on the beach in the ocean waves with a smile on his face.)

After thirty minutes of talking to Kaito about Benjie, I decided to give Kaito the key to Benjie's resort room unit.

"What's this?" (Kaito suddenly asks me as I hand over to him the key to Benjie's resort room unit.)

"It's up to you whether you want to talk to Benjie or not but for now, I hope you understand how Benjie feels for you because it's not easy for Benjie to wait for you for almost nine years and even if he's not sure you'll come back here in the Philippines, Benjie chose to wait for you and now... All I can do is give you this key to Benjie's room, It's up to you whether you talk to him or not, but always remember that I'm always here to support you and Benjie... You will always remember that you and Benjie don't need a fairytale love story to let other people know that you both love each other... Whatever your answer in Benjie's heart, he deserves to know your answers from your heart." (I told Kaito with a smile on my lips.)

[P.O.V] Gun Sivilya

[ATM in the lobby of the Cebu pacific resort]

As I was waiting for Benjie to come out of his room herein the lobby of the resort ... Benjie's dad suddenly called me.

[Answered the call]

"Hello, Mr. de Guzman, Why did you call me?" (I asked Benjie's dad on the phone.)

"Hasn't Benjamin come out of his room yet?" (Benjie's dad asked me on phone.)

"Yes, sir, Benjie hasn't been out since last night but do you want me to forcibly open the door to Benjie's room so we can find out his condition?" (I asked Benjie's dad on the phone.)

"No..not now... let's give my stupid son a little time to think about his mistakes, and in fact, it's his fault why he and Kaito are fighting because he hasn't used his brain before taking action." (Benjie's dad told me on the phone.)

After Benjie's father said those words, I suddenly quiet as I suddenly saw Kaito heading towards Benjie's resort room unit.

At that time, I quickly stoop up to follow Kaito but as I followed Kaito towards Benjie's resort room unit, Benjie's dad suddenly spoke to me on the phone.

"Gun, thank you so much for protecting my son." (Benjie's dad told me on the phone.)

"To be honest, Mr. de Guzman, at first, I only used Benjie to gain money for you but this time, I'm not doing this because of the money you give me... Benjie is my friend so I want to let him know that I will always support him in everything and I will always be here to guide him not just as a classmate but as a true friend." (I told Benjie's dad on the phone as I followed Kaito towards Benjie's resort room unit.)

To be continued.....