There were many things I needed to do that I forgot about the
time. I was to meet my friends at Starbucks but I left the house an hour late. When
I remembered that I was seeing them after weeks, I became excited. I haven’t
seen them that much and now we will reunite like the old days. I was smiling
when I remembered those days when we would chill at our favorite place, eat our
barkada food and just be with each other. It made me feel good about how my social life
was.
Suddenly, I felt butterflies in my stomach. Someone will be
there who I haven’t seen in a very long time: a friend who moved to Eurpoe and lived
there for 5 years, the person who I was Skyping with for the past 4 months, the
person who made me feel like my love life was blooming into something. Her name
was Stacy.
Stacy Dominguez was a high school chum who were also friends
with my barkada. She was the campus crush and was part of the school’s
gymnastics team. She was “The Girl” I thought was for me. Since I was the nerdy
Chess club president, we didn’t have much to share in common. She was outgoing,
friendly, cute, perky and known. On the other hand, I was the normal guy. Just
being behind the scenes was fine with me. Too close to be invisible. But I was
fine with my school status before.
Besides, high school wasn’t that bad for me.
As I drove closer to the place I was thinking aloud.
“You don’t have to worry. It will be fine. Just imagine it
to be like video calling through Skype. She will not notice everything you will do. It’s
just Stacy. Be cool.”
I parked the car at the rear end of the shop so that I will have
time to look through the window on where they were located. As I stopped, I looked
at my myself in the rear view mirror and said,
“Don’t worry. Be cool. It’s just Stacy.”
As I stepped out from my car, I can hear my heart beating; slowly
gaining a pace that was higher than the normal. As I walked closer, I took a
deep breath and opened the shop door; took my sunglasses off and went directly
to their group’s table.
“You better give me a good reason why you were late, Jake”
said Peter: my best friend. He was the one who called me an hour ago and asked
where I was. He sort of saved my ass from forgetting what day was today. He
always saves my ass. He was like a brother. Among the group of 13, he was the closest to
me. We went to Med.School together but he decided to take another major.
"Give him a break Peter. I’m sure he didn’t do that on
purpose”, said Josie; the group’s resident counselor. “Even hot shot doctors
like Jake deserve to be given tardy moments. Right Doc?”
I smiled back and gave her a hug.
Peter reserved a chair for me beside him. I went to the
counter to take my order: Caramel Macchiato. This is my favorite coffee. And
yes, I’m the type who likes to drink some sweet type of coffee.
I went back to the group with my coffee looking only at the
floor. I didn’t really want to scan at the people around. My heart was still
pounding with the thought I had while driving. I noticed that some people were
not there yet. It could have appeared that I had a question on my face while
drinking my coffee because Josie said to me that John, David, Sarah, Michelle
and Stacy was still on the way.
I was dumbfounded with her saying that information as I was
just having the question in my head. Maybe she could read minds. Then I remembered
that she was one of the city’s best Clinical Psychologists.
I smiled back.
“On the way”, I thought to myself.
Since they were still on the way, I was able to convince
myself to relax and be calm. I mean, what’s there to be anxious and nervous
about? I told myself that there was no reason for me to be jittery.
I slowly drank my coffee while everyone shared some stories
and asked about what was new with each other. Then I heard David’s voice from
behind me as I was sitting with my back facing the entrance door.
“Whoah! Airport traffic was horrible. Sorry for being late
guys!” said David.
“Well, what’s important is that you are already here” said
Catherine; the nurse in the group.
I didn’t look back and focused on the coffee I had on my
hand. I was sitting calmly on my chair but inside my mind I was telling my body
not to move and look at the door.
Then I heard this familiar voice.
“Oh my gosh! I miss these faces!”
