He's remembered...

by Floremil I. Quintano
(Iloilo City, Philippines)

She never expected it to happen. She likes the boy not because she's in love with him, but because she treated him like a younger brother. However, a sudden turn of event occurred that made her realize as a high school girl, that love is a very painful thing.

She's a funny one, not pretty but quite cute and a bit chubby. She met the boy when they were first year high school, she liked him because he looked like a kid longing for a mother, so they became friends. They were always together, joked with each other that sometimes led them to fight. Their classmates sometimes mistook their friendship for love.

They had a game one time, where they played at kissing; the boy challenged her to kiss. With the spirit of a challenger she agreed to it. At first she was hesitant, but then the boy forced her that led them to kiss on the lips for a few seconds...that's when she realized that her heart skipped a beat. The day after that she felt something different. She looked at her friend in a not so ordinary way. She got so conscious every time she's with him, that later made her distant to him. The boy then didn't notice it. She got jealous whenever the boy talked to someone, especially to her best friend whom the boy liked. She would often cry because it really hurt, but she couldn't even explain it.

She admitted it to her best friend; at first she thought that she understood, but then her best friend and the boy got closer to each other. That hurt even more. The boy would often asked her about her best friend and she would answer with a smile so that the boy never realized. The distance between her and the boy widened; she did it herself because she didn't want the boy to notice it.

But then it happened, her best friend told the boy about her feelings. This time the boy made a move and stopped talking to her. Then the news went out to everybody, she was teased everywhere, and worst thing, her best friend took him away from her. She was hurt, badly hurt that until now she's cursing her high school life, and never made friends with boys, afraid that the same thing would happen again.