Story Fragments

im feeling nostalgic...

i had a friend, his name was EJ. we were classmates in elementary, he was the top student in class i wasn't far behind and we were great friends. we soon became best friends in grade three (grade three lang, because when we stepped up to grade four, jejo was his best friend, in grade five it was bobbit, and in grade six he was pretty much the bestfriend of everybody...) anyways, we would hang out every after class because our sundo always came in at the same time. we would play gerbase (or what it was called), or langit lupa, we would play the mind cycles, we'd go up the lib and study because he was always being tutored and i was there to bugger my other friend aizel (she was so little back then...). on weekends i would go to his house and we would play PS until our hands are throbbing. ej introduced me to the computer, he introduced me to the mojo, and he was responsible for my pizza pig-outs when we were young. we were tight.

i remember one semana santa, he invited our barkada to this resort in laguna because it was his birthday. he paid for everything, he was even the one who talked to our parents and made paalam so that we could come with him. those were the happy times. we would go to resorts. we would go to manila and stay in hotels... we would go everywhere, anywhere he wanted to go...

he had diabetes.

he has diabetes. i dunno exactly how advanced it is. all i know is that he receives insulin shots everyday in three parts of his body. everyday... now you gauge...

i was thinking, wow he's really strong and all, coz he isnt afraid of needles and stuff. one day he was talking to me about his diabetes, he says he'd grown acquainted to the diabetic's routine that he's not scared anymore. he showed me a device that calculates the blood's sugar, punctured his finger with it, and tested a small drop of blood that blotted his fingertips. in five minutes a nurse was beside him, and he was being injected with a milky fluid on his belly. his emotion showed nothing. that kind of scares me.

erm..

anyways, that was a very long time ago. we went to different high schools and i never heard about him in four years.

and then now in UP, i stumbled across him at the college of arts and letters. twice. and we were always at the same jeepney when i go to nigs for my geol class. seeing him kind of brings back the days when we were very young to care about life, we just had fun and stuff, and that's it.

it's a wonderful feeling to stumble upon someone you knew when you were young. you've both grown. it feels great.

actually...

im kind of thankful that he's still...

he's still safe and sound.

and well... and in UP.

-bleep-