Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

I stayed in my spot, looking into empty air, still holding the tickets and amusement park passes. I could not move and it felt like Cholo had brought all the life in the room with him when he left. My head felt heavy and my tears formed a haze in my vision. I felt confused and disgusted with myself.

How could I have let Summer and Ate Mikayla and whoever else who had discouraged me to drive a wedge between me and Cholo? How could I have let my pride get in the way like this?

He knew I wanted to travel and planned around it so we could see things and places we had talked about since the beginning. What was I doing, throwing that in his face because I thought he had signed me up for subjects without my knowledge?

I did not have the answers. All I had was the fact that he had left, that he was done with me. I curled up on the sofa and clutched the envelope against my chest, letting my dark thoughts take over.

“Vinnie?” said a voice, and I opened my eyes to see Liana and Gian crouching in front of the sofa to match my line of vision. “Oh my god, what happened to you?”

Liana had made me sit up. Gian was also in the room for some reason and he got me a glass of water.

“Seriously, what happened?”

I started talking and it all just came out in one steady, monotonous stream. I began with Summer, everything that led to this, to what made me say all the things I had said to Cholo, to what I had accused him of, and what this envelope contained. I told them that we were done.

“I can’t believe it,” Liana blurted out at last when I finished, shaking her head.

“Wow,” said Gian. “So this thing he did was to enlist you in a subject you needed to pass to graduate, ask a professor not to flunk you, make sure you had feasibility study groupmates, help you with an internship? What an asshole.”

“Gian,” Liana said warningly.

“Oh, and he got you tickets you never asked for? Terrible! How dare he listen to your dreams and make sure he did everything to make them happen? You’re lucky to be rid of him, Lavinia.”

“Tangina, you think this is funny?” I shouted, tempted to kick him out of my house.

“No, I think this is the opposite of funny,” Gian retorted, his sarcasm all gone. “Vinnie, you found someone who put you first, who wanted to be with you every day, and you let him go because of what—your pride? Because you listened to Summer Tiu?”

“Fuck. I messed up.”

“You think?” Gian said and Liana shook her head in defeat, muttering phrases.

“What do I do?” I asked them, teary-eyed.

“Well,” said Liana, who was caught up with some form of determination as she stood in front of me and wiped my face free of tears. “You can hunt him down but, at this point, you can only wait until he’s ready to talk to you.”

Cholo did not turn up to class the next day, not even the day after that. I called Kuya Chip but he was in Bicol for a work thing. “Sorry, Vinnie, but did something happen?” he asked and I lied through my teeth because I did not want to talk about it again. I dialled Kuya Chan and Asher but they didn’t know either. Seth told me during class that Cholo had mentioned the Korea trip and said that maybe Cholo had used that day to go to the Korean embassy and that I should not be worried.

I was at a loss already when I got a text.

Patricia Co

Come to my office, I need a word.

NOW

I had no choice but to hurry. Her room was in the far end of the second floor’s west wing. I did not bother knocking and just entered the door.

“Hi,” I said. Miss Co was glaring at me from her desk. “Wait. You know?”

“Yes, I know,” she said, voice even, but her eyes told a different story. “Please sit down, Miss Exconde.”

I closed the door behind me, feeling defeated. The way she called me Miss Exconde did not go amiss.

“Please, I’m really sorry,” I said tearfully. “I want to fix it but I can’t do that if I don’t know where he is.”

“This isn’t a grade I can fix. I can’t force him to talk to you if he doesn’t want to.”

“I messed up,” I conceded, holding both palms up in a sign of peace. “Please, Miss Co, I’m begging you. I have to fix this.”

“Take a seat, please,” she ordered, as I was still standing near the door. “He didn’t enlist you in BA 199 or get you an internship. Why did you even think that was possible?”

I blinked, not at all expecting this turn of events as I sunk into a seat.

“What? Summer said?—”

“One of Atsi’s bosses liked the video. They’re always looking for interns and they need the ones with an artistic flair this time around for a new campaign,” my professor continued. “He asked Cholo who made the visuals and, of course, he mentioned you. The boss wants students to come in for an interview and you were one of the short-listed people, period.”

Gulping the golf ball in my throat, I waited for her to continue her scolding.

“For Feasib, well, you did need group mates, did you want to end up with a group you barely know?” she went on and I shook my head in response.

I let out a breath I did not realize I had been holding and Miss Co seemed to take offense from it.

“How do I get him back, Miss Co?”

“Well, worry about that later. We have a bigger problem at hand,” Miss Co said, massaging her temples. “I was planning to handle the launch incident within the club and myself as your organization advisor, but Summer reported it to the disciplinary office.”

I felt my bones turn into jelly. It was a good thing I was sitting, because it felt like the ground vanished from beneath me.

“Even with your glowing progress report, the disciplinary faculty advisor did not approve my motion to fully dismiss your case, citing that the incident shows you have not learned your lesson. They wanted me to add more conditions. There isn’t much the student prefect office could do as the faculty advisor supersedes their authority.”

“It wouldn’t look good for the student prefect office to intervene, anyway,” I breathed. “Summer really has it in for me, doesn’t she?”

Miss Co sighed. “Said it was standard procedure. She is one of your chairpersons, too.”

“Makes sense,” I conceded. Could this day get any worse? “What do I need to do?”

She brought out a stack of paper with the university logo and scanned the pages.

“They asked for three things. One, you attend Ephemere.”

“Do I have to help?”

“Just turn up. Join the marketing team in the booth for welcoming the sponsors. Or you can join the finance team in the ticketing booth as we’re expecting a lot of people.”

“But Miss Mikayla will see me,” I protested.

“Don’t be ridiculous, she won’t be able to pull out the sponsorship on the day itself,” Miss Co scolded me and that was enough to shut me up. “Two, you make another video.”

“What? That takes a week or so to?—”

“Okay, sorry, let me correct that, you will edit a video,” she went on, cutting me off. “You will use the footage we already have for the co-presentor products since everyone saw what happened in the launch and wanted their own video placements, too. It will be shown throughout Ephemere.”

Again, I gulped. Even editing took me two or three days but I knew this would help my case. I was not going to let this go.

“Three?” I prompted.

“You go to that interview for Miss Mikayla’s boss and you have to pass.”

“Ang hirap naman nung last?” I said, unable to stop myself from complaining.

“It’s all of that or the disciplinary faculty advisor will force my hand to fail you,” my professor said, still looking pissed with me. “And all of that work you did will be for nothing. Are you up for it or not?”

Well, four months ago, I walked into the disciplinary office with no escape from suspension and managed to walk out of it with a challenge that then seemed impossible to achieve. Now that I was right here, I might as well suck it up.

“I am,” I said. “When do you need the videos?”