I was on the verge of driving myself off the nearest cliff out of pure boredom. Come one, who ever thought that it would be a fun day? Yes, yes, there was this amazing view but I couldn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else. I couldn’t very well take a selfie with the hilltops at the background. And the only vehicle I could talk to, which was the bus, was parked too far away.

No one cared about the yellow Volkswagen sitting near the entrance.

Everyone else was busy with their activities.

I was only left to wonder how Jackie was dealing with Brian’s presence. She should be very careful around Dean. As far as Brian knew, they were together.

But I was more concerned about what that guy could do to her in this place. He had been acting creepy. Not his usual creepy-stalker self, but the creepy-psychopathic one. If I had any hairs on me, they would be standing up.

At the moment, I couldn’t hear what was happening, but I could see that the group was gathering around for another activity. Earlier, they did some sort of game where they had to build some sort of tower using sticks. I didn’t know what that activity was supposed to achieve, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with ‘team building’.

Whatever they were planning now, it seemed like there was going to be some action. Earlier, Victor had hidden something behind me and I wasn’t sure what it was.

  *****

“Now, listen up, guys,” Victor said over the chatters. “There are two groups here, right? We have Jamie, Daisy and Bernie for the yellow team and for the blue team we have Jackie, Joseph and Karen. As always, sir Dean will be participating by helping Brian and I with our next activities. Do you remember the number of points your group has?”

“Yeah,” everyone answered. The yellow team had 50 points so far while the blue team only had 30.

“Blue team, you need to catch up if you want to win the prize tomorrow. This will be our last activity for today and it is worth 20 points.”

Jackie looked at Karen. Her friend had been hard to lift up earlier during one of their activities due to her weight. “It’s okay,” she reassured her.

“You really need to lose weight, Ka,” said Joseph.

Jackie elbowed him.

“What?”

“Just see what I can do,” Karen bragged.

“The only chance we’ll get the prize tomorrow is if the last game will be an eating contest,” Joseph retorted.

“Shut up!” Karen and Jackie shouted.

The three of them cleared their throats when they saw the rest looking at them without any sign of humor. “Sorry,” Joseph murmured.

“That’s okay,” said Brian with his creepy smile. “Victor?”

“Okay!” Victor clapped his hands together and looked at the two teams. Dean was standing beside him in his outdoor getup which still amazed most of Jackie’s teammates. “We’re going to have a mini Amazing Race.”

Jackie and Joseph groaned. This meant they had to double their efforts. The other team jumped with excitement and Jackie secretly regretted not having picked the yellow card earlier that day.

“We have already prepared the different clues earlier. They are hidden within the vicinity of the resort. All you have to do is follow the instructions given to you and do the tasks required in order to get to the next clue and ultimately get to the final destination and win your points. The three members will need to reach the final destination at the same time.”

Joseph looked at Karen who glared at him. “I can do it!”

Their team leader just looked at Karen with doubt.

“She can do it!” Jackie repeated, shooting arrows at him behind Karen’s head.

“Sir Dean will help us with this game. So, are you ready?” Victor finished with a big smile.

“Yes!” the yellow team shouted.

“Yeah,” the blue team said.

“Please step forward and get your mission cards. The race begins NOW!” Victor said and handed them the cards which they immediately read. They didn’t notice Dean and Brian go away and disappear.

“I am alive when everything goes down, black and dead,” Jackie read. “What the hell does this mean?”

“Find me and you’ll find the next clue. The first team to arrive will immediately get to the next location. The last one to come will need to do another task to gain the next clue. Good luck!” Joseph continued.

“Oh, I know what that is,” said Karen.

They looked at her expectantly. “Don’t say it out loud,” Jackie said under her breath. The other team was busy talking about the riddle.

“You don’t know what that is?” Karen asked them like she was talking to a couple of three-year-olds.

“Just tell us,” Joseph said.

“It’s obviously a generator.”

Joseph and Jackie looked at each other for a moment before whirling around in excitement. “Where is it?” Jackie asked. The other team was looking at them with curiosity.

“Now we know why you are in our team,” Joseph was telling Karen as they started to run to the direction of the pool, away from the back of the resort where they were having their activity.

“Let’s just follow them,” said one of the other team.

“No, they might be wrong,” said the other.

“Where is it?” Jackie shouted over her shoulder.

“Now I know why you two need me,” Karen said, catching her breath. “I know things you don’t. It’s up there!” she pointed at a tree house made of concrete. It had a narrow staircase that led upstairs.

“How can you be so sure?” Joseph asked.

“Just look at the warning sign! No one is allowed to go up there. It only means that it is only for the resort personnel. Use your brains.”

With Karen’s last statement, Jackie and Joseph ran upstairs and lo and behold, they found the generator inside the tree house. There was only one mission card and a task card for the team who would come last. They grabbed the mission card with excitement. They were leading.

Because of Karen, they led the race until the last mission which was hidden behind Toto. They had to find ten eggs near the superhero sculptures. Dean was sitting in a wooden stool near them, just waiting for them to finish their tasks. His face was neutral, bare of any indication of whether or not they were looking at the right place.

“Just one more egg and we’re about to win!” Karen shouted. The yellow team was busy doing another task which was obviously harder than finding eggs. They were trying to relay water from one end of the pool to the other using their hands to fill a one-liter bottle. They were halfway through the bottle now and Jackie was in panic.

“You know where it is, right?” she whispered to Dean as she searched the bushes behind him.

He just stared at her and shrugged.

“We really need to win this, you know,” she said.

“Not saying anything,” he uttered.

“I’ll tell everyone about your band if you don’t tell me where the last egg is,” she threatened halfheartedly out of desperation.

He chuckled under his breath.

“I really might tell them!” Jackie insisted.

“Nice try, Jackie. But it’s not working.”

She stared at him for a long time and even tried the “cute act”. It didn’t work. Her shoulders sagged. She turned away to look for the egg again.

“Who’s your favorite superhero among those?” Dean asked behind her.

She turned to look at him and then at the superhero sculptures a few meters away. “I don’t know, Superman?”

He nodded. “I like Hulk,” he uttered with a smile.

It didn’t take her ten seconds to finally realize what he was trying to say. She beamed at him saying, “Your secret’s safe with me,” before she started running toward the giant, green man with the growling face.

“Hey, there, Hulk. I’m here to look for your egg,” Jackie said with a giggle as she searched for the egg around the superhero’s feet. The grasses were tall, making it easy to miss the green-colored egg hiding just a few inches away from Hulk’s left foot.

Jackie cried out as she took the egg in her hand. “I got Hulk’s egg! I got it!”

  *****

Everyone had an amazing dinner together inside the lodging house. It was refreshing to be with the same people you worked with everyday in a different place other than the office and not talk about work. Jackie, of course, knew everyone personally after all their after-office meet-ups, but being in a place like Campuestohan was like knowing them all over again.

Dean was okay with the drinking. Dean was okay with the noise. In short, Dean was okay outside the office and everyone was awed with that fact. Apart from Jackie, no one really knew him outside his suit and tie. And his hair was also different and the ladies had noted that when he took off his cap that evening. Jamie, Daisy and Karen agreed that Dean Gamboa was way hotter with his casual look.

After dinner, the group decided to gather around a bonfire far from the lodging house.

“Sir Dean, we’re glad you were able to join us,” Victor said as he handed their boss a bottle of beer.

Dean took with a small smile. “I have always wanted to join the team building activities in the past but I never found the time.”

Karen arched her eyebrow as she elbowed Jackie. Jackie gave her friend a look that said she better stop whatever she was thinking.

Her attention was snatched away from Dean and the group’s conversation when she saw Brian sitting behind Victor. He was not even drinking. He was just sitting there looking at her in a really creepy way.

The stalker Brian she was used to, but this near-psychopath look he was giving her was entirely different. She tore her eyes away from him and pretended to listen to whatever Joseph was saying. She could feel Brian’s gaze on her. It was too strong it made the hairs on her arms stand. She wondered if making up the lie about her and Dean was actually a good idea. She may have triggered something dangerous in Brian by doing that and it scared the shit out of her.

Victor was the first to announce he was going to bed. Jackie prayed Dean wouldn’t follow and she was glad he seemed to be staying for a while. The yellow team stood up and said goodbye around midnight, saying they needed their energy for tomorrow’s games.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” Brian asked. It somehow startled Karen, Joseph, Dean and Jackie. Those were the first words he uttered since they gathered around the bonfire and no one really noticed his presence.

Jackie knew he was addressing her but she pretended not to hear.

“We’ll go inside after this,” Dean said, lifting his beer.

Brian just nodded. He stood up and said, “Don’t stay up too late, guys. We’ll have a long day tomorrow.”

No one said a word as he turned to leave.

“That guy creeps me out,” Karen said in a whisper. “Does he still bother you, Jackie?”

“What?” she asked, feigning innocence.

“Brian.”

“Oh, no, he…he sort of understands my feelings.”

“I still think he’s better than that gay boyfriend of yours,” Joseph said with a chuckle.

“Gay?” asked Dean.

“It’s nothing,” Jackie said. “And that gay is my ex-boyfriend. Know the difference.”

Karen and Joseph laughed.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Karen announced.

“I’ll come with,” Joseph said, standing up. “You might stumble and roll down the edge of the hill,” he added.

When their two companions left, Jackie turned to Dean. “You really surprised us when you showed up today.”

He just shrugged.

They shared a long moment of comfortable silence. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and the crickets around them. After a while Jackie found herself asking, “Do you have a family?”

He looked at her curiously. “Of course.”

She nodded in an awkward way. She really didn’t know how to follow that up.

Another long silence. She checked her watch. “I don’t think those two are coming back,” she said.

“You want to go inside?” he asked.

Jackie looked at the lodging house. Some rooms still had their lights on and one of them could be Brian’s. “No.”

“Does he really scare you that much?”

She did not dare look at him. “What do you mean? I don’t get scared,” she lied.

“Brian. Does he scare you that much?”

“He’s…different today. I honestly don’t know.”

“You think it is because of the rumor about us?”

This time she met his gaze. Her heart started to race. If you only know, she thought. “Could be.”

Dean scoffed. “Why didn’t you give him a chance?”

“Because I can never really picture myself loving him,” she answered in an instant.

“And how do you picture ‘loving’ someone?”

“I am not sure, really. I think I have never really been in love before. I only thought I was whenever I was in a relationship. But then it would end and I would think it was not love. But how can I be so sure, right? I don’t know, it’s complicated. I think I’ll know if I’m in love if I am actually happy.”

For the second time, Dean scoffed.

Jackie threw him a look. “What?”

“Your idea of love is the one being sold every 14th day of February. It comes in the form of cards, chocolates and flowers.”

Jackie whistled. “Mr. Drummer knows a thing or two about love.”

“I only know that love is not something you celebrate once a year. It is something you live for and live with every day. It doesn’t just come with roses, balloons, kisses and laughter. It comes as a Pandora’s box.”

“You mean it leaves us nothing but hope?”

“No. It means you have to be prepared for all the bad things that come with it and hope that they all go away. If they don’t, then you’ll have to either face them and work and live with them or you can always close the lid and move on.”

Jackie didn’t know what to say. She was both amazed and greatly curious at the same time. His words told her that he had been through a lot in love and she wanted to know what it was. But at the same time she was afraid.

“You’re looking at me like I have grown a halo,” he said before gulping his beer.

“No, I was actually thinking you look like an onion.”

“A what?” He almost spilled his drink.

“An onion. I would like to peel through all the layers but I know it would be a difficult process. I might end up in tears.”

For a moment he just stared at her. And then he laughed. “And all along I am an onion. Great.”

Jackie laughed. After another long silence, she took a deep breath. “Well, I guess it’s time to call it a night.” He followed her when she stood up and walked with her back to the lodging house.

“Good night,” she said when they reached the room she shared with Karen.

“’Night,” he answered and walked to the next door.

“Shit,” she uttered when she found the door locked.

“Joseph left the door locked,” Dean said at the same time.

“I don’t have a key,” they said in unison.

They then tried to knock.

“Karen,” Jackie called.

“Joseph,” Dean said.

No reply from both rooms.

  *****

Okay, so I had already accepted my lonely fate and was about ready to hum to sleep when the two of them came up to me and entered saying they would be sleeping with me. With me!

I was used to sleeping alone. I hated the constant squeaking of my chairs and the weird breathing sound of humans when they sleep.

And now they were talking about music.

“You guys play around a lot lately,” Jackie said, adjusting to a comfortable position in the passenger seat. Dean was behind the wheel, leaning against the door and facing her.

“With the instruments?” he asked, tapping his fingers against my steering wheel.

“Yeah. Does that mean you also play the guitar?”

“Yes.”

“And sing?”

It took him a moment before answering, “Not the same way as Phil. Or Nikki.”

Jackie smiled at him. “Can I hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“You. Sing.” She leaned over to grab his shirt when he started to turn around and dismiss her request. “Come on! No one’s around but me here. Let’s hear it.”

“I don’t really know a lot of songs, Jackie. Let go of my shirt.”

“Not until you start singing,” she said, pulling harder. “Just sing whatever you guys are planning to play on your future performance.”

“I don’t have anything to play with. Jackie, let go of me,” he warned.

“Uh-uh, no, not until you sing a song. Just let me hear your voice. Come on, you don’t need an instrument.”

He tried to pull her hand away but she only made it harder by grabbing tighter, now with both hands. He looked at her for a long time before he sighed. “Fine. Just one song.”

“Game.”

“We’ve been practicing Gone, Gone, Gone lately and it’s the only song that comes to mind right now.”

“Perfect. I haven’t heard it before.”

“Will you let go of my shirt now?”

“No, not until you finished singing.”

“It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

“I can’t risk it,” she said, shaking her head.

“Fine.” He took a deep breath and started singing. His voice was not as powerful as their lead vocalist, but it was okay. And it seemed that Jackie liked it.

 
I'll be at your door tonight 
If you need help, if you need help 
I'll shut down the city lights, 
I'll lie, cheat, I'll beg and bribe 
To make you well, to make you well 

When enemies are at your door 
I'll carry you away from war 
If you need help, if you need help 
Your hope dangling by a string 
I'll share in your suffering 
To make you well, to make you well 

At that time, Dean stopped singing and said, “Okay, enough--”

But Jackie pulled at his shirt even more with a warning look. “Finish it!”

“Jackie, I’m tired.”

“Liar. You don’t sound tired. You didn’t even do anything today but sit and watch us run around.”

They did a gazing battle. Jackie won. Dean shook his head and continued singing.

Give me reasons to believe 
That you would do the same for me 

And I would do it for you, for you
Baby, I'm not moving on 
I love you long after you're gone. 
For you, for you. 
You would never sleep alone 
I love you long after you're gone 
And long after you're gone, gone, gone. 

 
I'm gon' be there to catch you 
Put you on your feet, you on your feet 
And if your well is empty 
Not a thing will prevent me 
Tell me what you need, what do you need 

I surrender honestly 
You've always done the same for me 

So I would do it for you, for you. 
Baby, I'm not moving on 
I love you long after you're gone. 
For you, for you. 
You would never sleep alone. 
I love you long after you're gone 
And long after you're gone gone gone. 

You're my back bone, 
You're my cornerstone 
You're my crutch when my legs stop moving 
You're my head start, 
You're my rugged heart 
You're the pulse that I've always needed 
Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating 

He cut the song short. “Okay, it’s over,” he said, clearing his throat.

Jackie didn’t say a word. She was looking at him in that dreamy way of hers and I knew she was in big trouble.

Oh, Jackie girl, you’re freaking falling! It was just a song, girl! The composer of that song doesn’t know you so don’t ever, for a second, think that it was for you. But of course, you already think that.

“Let go, Jackie,” Dean said and this time, his voice was below a whisper. I didn’t even realize they were too close together now, what with all of Jackie’s pulling. “Jackie,” Dean said and I almost didn’t hear it myself this time. He reached up to grab her hands and that was when she felt his touch that she snapped.

Her eyes blinked a few times and she drew in a quick breath. “Sorry,” she uttered and tried to let him go, only this time his grip on her hands tightened and he pulled her back. Their eyes were locked and his hand was still over hers against his chest.

I had heard enough stories from Tata. She had told me a lot about Troy’s activities while he was onboard his precious vehicle with a girl.

Please, guys, don’t do this to me. I beg you to please don’t kiss--yeah, right.

Okay, fine. They’re kissing.

Right.

They’re doing it.  

My engines almost groaned in protest. It was so freaking awkward!

They were kissing like there was nobody watching. I could clearly hear how their soft breathing turned rugged. Jackie was strongly pulling on Dean’s shirt now. His left hand was holding her nape, pressing her mouth closer against his (like it could get any closer!) while his right hand travelled to rub the edge of her shoulder and then down her arm and finally around her waist, pulling her closer to him that she almost ended up straddling him.

At that moment, Jackie’s hands were also freely roaming around Dean’s hair, his shoulders, his face, back to his hair, to his nape and back to his shirt to pull him closer.

Hasn't anyone told you to get a room? Do I look like a room? What is wrong with you two?!

And now their position changed. How in the hell did that happen so fast? Jackie was now leaning against the passenger door and Dean was adjusting his position above her.

Please, don’t let this happen! Not now, please! Not here!

And something from above must have heard the poor cry of the yellow Volkswagen because my honk suddenly rang out in the silence of the night and the rugged breathing of the two persons inside me. Dean had accidentally pushed it with his butt or feet or elbow (I couldn’t really point it out because it was a tangle of limbs everywhere). The sound of my honk did the trick and they both stopped. Dean let go of Jackie and jumped back so fast and strong that his head bumped against my hood.

“Ouch!” we both shouted at the same time.

There was a very long, awkward silence as the two of them tried to catch their breaths, their eyes still locked with each other.

Is anyone going to say anything here?

“I need to sleep,” Jackie murmured, pulling her gaze away from his. Her hand reached for the lever of my passenger seat to lean it all the way back. It was amazing how she managed to straighten on top of it in one motion and pretended to be sleeping, her back facing Dean.

“I need some air,” Dean said under his breath and walked out to pace behind me, brushing his fingers through his hair time and again.

I must admit, I am excited for later when the sun comes up and these two would have to face each other again.