A piece of the past…

Troy was in a grumpy mood that morning. His mother woke him up too early because she and his father will be going to the farm they just bought a few weeks back out of town. Since they never had a servant and he never had a nanny, his parents had to drop him off to school before anyone else.

He stayed up all night going through the cycle of studying and falling asleep and waking up. It was exam week and he should have listened to Danica’s suggestion last week that he should have started studying by then instead of bugging her about stupid formulas he was sure he would never be able to make use of in the future.

As he walked inside the classroom with a frown on his face, he was surprised to see a form hunched on a chair at one corner of the room. His frown deepened. He slowly walked closer, taking note that the ghost stories circulating around the school was just pure fiction. But before he could stop it, his foot bumped against one foot of the chair beside him and the metal screeched against the wooden floor of the classroom, causing the hunched figure to move.

He was about to turn and ran as far as the entrance where the school guard was when he identified the form to be Danica. “Danica?”

She looked unkempt, not like her usual look. And her eyes looked tired.

“What are you doing here this early?”

She had a guilty look on her face before panic set in. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“That you’re very punctual?”

She blinked. “Yeah,” she stammered. “Yeah. I was here very early.”

“How early?” he tested.

“Very. Why are you here at this hour anyway?”

“I have crazy parents.” He walked closer to her. “Why do I get the feeling that you stayed here all night?”

“What?” She asked, her reaction of shock too late to be genuine. “Of course not.”

“You’re lying. You’re not a very good liar.”

“Then stop asking questions you know I’ll never give the right answer to.”

He shrugged and turned to walk to his chair.

“Brady,” Danica called.

“Yeah?” he asked as he opened his bag.

“Don’t tell anyone.”

He lifted his head and looked at her for a long time before he slowly nodded. She looked okay. No bruises or anything. What happened? “Of course.”

“Thanks,” she uttered in a low voice.

“Wow, that’s a first. You thanked me,” he tried to jest.

“Because it’s the first time you did something I should be thankful for.”

He just laughed and took out his notebook. It was time to cram.

PRESENT DAY

“Were you serious about what you said?” she asked, breaking the silence between them. They had been traveling for a few hours now and the darkness was not helping with their speed. Troy was trying to be careful.

“About what? I said a lot of things,” he asked, peering closer to my windshield as another vehicle approached from the opposite direction.

“About unfriending me,” Dannie baby said.

Oh…so she’s concerned about that. That bothered you, didn’t it? Huh, of course it does.

Troy threw her a quick glance. “As I said, don’t feel threatened about it. What I meant about what I said is that I may not be able to be your friend. Not forever, I guess. Maybe for a while or more. I am not sure. But if you still feel strongly about becoming a nun after this trip, then I’ll distance myself from you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know…go somewhere far, explore the world. I won’t see you for a long time so that pretty much sums up to not being friends, I guess. But as I have said, don’t let that possibility cloud your judgment later. I don’t want to be the answer to the question of, ‘Why didn’t you become a nun?’.”

If I had any eyebrow, I would have frowned.

And Dannie baby was as confused as I was. “Isn’t that what you’re doing now? Trying to be the reason why I won’t go back to the convent?”

“No, of course that’s not it. What I’m doing is trying to help you realize what you really want to do. I don’t want to be just the only reason why you want to change your mind. I can be a part of it, sure. I’d be glad for that. But I don’t just want that. I would not be enough reason to turn your back to something as big as serving the Lord.” He turned his head to look at her quickly again. “I want you to not go back because you’re not afraid anymore.”

“Afraid?” Dannie baby and I uttered at the same time.

“Afraid of what’s outside the safety of the convent walls.”

“You mean I am escaping?”

Troy glued his gaze on the road ahead. “Maybe. But—” he added hastily before she opened her mouth to protest. “But I am not going to discuss that with you right now because I am driving and this topic is bound to become heated. So why don’t you take a nap? Before you know it we’ll be in Dumaguete.”

Dannie looked at Troy for a long time, her nose flaring. I knew she was angry. That flaring of her nostrils rarely happened and when it did, it meant she was on the verge of bursting. A lot of things happened to her today and it was only understandable that she exploded. She got lost in the crowd earlier as I had heard. She was kidnapped by Troy once again. She found out her mother came back to the apartment. Troy said they might not be friends if she opted to go back to the convent (which I highly thought as a threat). And now he just said he she entered the convent to escape.

The last one was something I might agree with. I already had a feeling about it a year ago. Maybe the others did too and they just didn’t say anything. But this was the first time anyone had told Dannie baby what they really thought. And Troy was that person. Maybe Dannie baby had to face this one. If she couldn’t accept the truth herself, someone should slap it to her pretty face.

But not now. Troy my boy was right. They were driving and they needed to simmer down a bit.

I am excited to go back to Siquijor but I think I’d rather stay behind in Dumaguete. I got this feeling that the two of you are going to be a lot to handle than Georgie and Jordan.

*****

An hour ago, Jordan texted the hotel name to Troy. And after hours of driving they finally arrived at Dumaguete.

Right now, they were checking in and Dannie suddenly had the urge to ran out the doors and go home. Back in Bacolod, her friends were there. There was the safety of the apartment.

But the apartment may not be safe either. That lady may very well come back.

“Make sure there are two rooms,” she said to Troy.

“Yes, Danica, there are two rooms,” Troy answered patiently as he wrote on a piece of paper. “Go give the other boys a text. I don’t want them committing murder against for no reason.”

She sighed and took his phone from him. “It’s locked.”

He grabbed it from her and turned around to key in the password. She rolled her eyes. He gave it back to her and she sent a text to Jackie and George.

They had dinner at a local restaurant by the Boulevard area, near the pier they would go to the next day for their trip to Siquijor. A live band was playing outside and a few locals and other tourists were around, drinking and talking openly. The night air was cool but not cold.

A young couple was sitting right beside their table and the quiet dinner Troy and Dannie shared was somewhat being jeopardized by the couple’s heated discussion.

“All I’m saying is that we are stuck here because of that truck of yours,” the lady said. “I have told you many times that we should replace that truck.” The two were pretty much in the same mess as Troy and Dannie. Their shirts were also covered with paint.

“And I told you I’ll just bring it back for a complete overhaul when we get back, Steph,” the man answered as he continued eating like it was a natural thing.

“We should just call somebody. And we should have gone home. Whatever came to your mind to just step on the gas and go here? Do you know that you literally kidnapped your own wife?”

“I know someone around here. We’ll go tomorrow to have the truck checked. And you were a willing victim so no one really kidnapped anyone.”

“I hate your randomness. Have you called dad? Is Marty okay?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about it. And I know you love my randomness so don’t complain.”

“Ga, I know this is a trip we’ve been planning for a long time, but I don’t think I can stay here that long. What if Marty—”

“Hey, what did I tell you? No worrying over things that haven’t happened yet. Come on. We’ve been planning for this for months and it never came so now we’re here. This would not be happening if we don’t do it now,” the guy said.

“Then you should have planned for a different ride! And I have no dresses and my—”

“We’ll get the truck fixed tomorrow. We’ll get you some clothes from the mall as well. For now, just eat, drink and let’s just have some fun, okay? Don’t you miss this place? This is where we first kissed after we were locked up in jail because of your—”

“That’s so history, Ga. Let’s not talk about that,” the wife cut in. “I can’t believe you’re not even concerned…”

Dannie decided not to listen any further but Troy, on the other hand, seemed amused with the couple’s exchange. She kicked him under the table.

“Ouch! What was that for?!” he exclaimed, bending down to mend his shin.

“Just eat,” she mouthed.

Troy leaned over the table and with an amused smile said, “He also kidnapped her.”

Dannie just rolled her eyes while fighting a smile.

*****

“I’ll go ahead,” Dannie later announced, standing up. The couple beside them had been fighting again because the lady didn’t think she could do the diving lesson tomorrow. Dannie had had enough of the bantering so she decided she needed rest. “You should rest too. You’ve been driving for hours.”

Troy just smiled at her, probably as bit tipsy after a few bottles of beer. “Just go ahead. Do you have your key?”

She nodded and left him sitting there, alone, beside the bantering couple.

Once inside her room, Dannie opened her bag, took out the only fresh outfit she brought, noted she needed a few change of clothes tomorrow before they left, and went to wash herself in the bathroom.

Refreshed, she went straight to bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

She was here. She was really here. With Troy Brady.

And she had never been with a man this way. She had never let any man take her this far from Bacolod.

She shook her head and kept the fear at bay. Troy would not do anything to her. He was not her father. Not all men were capable of the things her father did to her. She closed her eyes and fought the memories that were trying to creep back.

Dannie was fast asleep in no time.

*****

The series of knocks on her door woke her up. She was greeted by the heat of the sun coming through the curtained windows of her hotel room.

The knocks came again along with the ringing of her phone. She did not bother to check who was calling because she knew who it was.

She went directly to the door and opened it. There, standing outside, was Troy Brady. He looked fresh in his white shirt and cargo shorts. He was wearing his Ray Ban sunglasses and his smile was almost contagious. She smelled his very familiar smell—his signature smell ever since she could remember.

“Good morning! Rise and shine!”

Dannie left the door ajar and went back to bed. She needed a few more minutes.

“Hey, Danica, you have to get ready. Come on!”

“Just a few more minutes,” she begged as she snuggled back in bed.

“Hey, I only have a few days with you and I’d like to make each moment count. So, if you could just please get off that bed, I’d like to have a nice, sunny outdoor breakfast with you in five minutes.”

She groaned. “Just eat alone.”

“I promised the other boys I will not touch you, especially while in bed, but I did not say I won’t try,” he warned.

That did it for her. She shot out of bed and went straight to the bathroom.

“Great! I’ll be waiting outside the door so better hurry!” he said, his voice cheerful. Whatever negative feelings he had last night must have gone away with his beer, Dannie thought. “I’ll lock the door when I get out!” he added, shouting outside the bathroom door.

Dannie hurriedly washed her face. She didn’t even dare think about what lay ahead in the next few days with Troy Brady.