We had a blast. I actually think that i should have not used the phrase 'we had a blast,' - because thinking about the time that we spent with each other - that phrase is just inadequate. It was a freakin’ bomb. Well, a lot of juicy stuff was mentioned during our conversation – we hung out around 6 hours. WOW.
As I may have mentioned in my previous posts – Monette has been my best friend and my sister from another mother since we were in high school. Sophomore year, specifically. So that basically means we have known each other for 12 years – a realization that never ceases to make me feel so ancient. But as we both have said – we feel young but we know we have gained so much insight about life throughout the years. And I am really proud of that. I am proud of the people we have become.
So we met at around 130 pm. I initially waited for her Starbucks, the one sitting in front of Citibank building in Paseo de Roxas. It was waaayyy after my shift so you could just imagine - I looked like i just came from Hades, which was the slightly the truth - the day I had at work was just impossible, but allow me to exclude you - my 2 faithful readers - from the agony and misery - I do not suppose I would feel such profound joy recounting the stuff that I had to do at work.
So I was wearing my shades, not for the fear that people will judge me because my eyes look dead, but because I was happy - I was meeting my best friend and the sun - my sun - was shining so high up the sky my eyes started to hurt. I guess it was happy too. Then I saw a figure manifest on the mirror. I stood up and turned to her direction, an exclamation issued from my lips. Holy expletive. I ran to her and have her a hug. She has become thinner and my hair has become a lot shorter since we last saw each other – which was I think when we celebrated her birthday. She was startled when she saw my haircut and I immediately debunked whatever notion she might have formed in that beautiful brain of hers and told her that: ‘I just felt like getting a haircut – I am not depressed!’ Wahaha.
After about thirty seconds, I told her the sad news: 'They do not have a loo in this branch. We have to go somewhere else where I can empty my bladder.' Because I was sure we'd talk and drink coffee and talk some more. So we walked for a few minutes and repaired to yet another branch of Starbucks Coffee - in Pearl Drive (hope I got that right) - just beside the Old Spaghetti House. She bought us coffee and I ordered a couple of cinammon swirls. My brain was turning into soup because of hunger and I knew I had to get my sugar fix really fast.
Darn – I am trying to gather all the bits and pieces we spoke about last night and I suddenly feel like I am in my high school chemistry class – cramming for the quarterly exam. Jesus.
Basically we spoke about her most recent break up. I won’t reveal the name of the ‘being’ as I want to spare her from ever seeing it on my blog – I am scared of wounding her even more than she already is. She has emerged to drown (again) and has scribed an ambigram of the word ‘faithful’ on her right wrist – and all my love, hope and faith goes out to her. When I saw her newest tattoo I was reminded of that time in my life I had nothing to hold on to but my faith – hence I etched an ambigram of ‘faith’ on my left waist. I remember that when I was in college, I wrote about my friendship with Monette and I mentioned that she and I always have been ‘parallels’ – we think alike and we feel what the other one is and must be feeling without having to say so much. Seeing her yesterday affirmed that belief and I honestly feel like I have just been saved.
The thing with Monette and myself is that we might not see each other often or communicate (there are certainly a number of ways to make that happen now) a lot but when we do meet we are always able to pick up where we left off. I guess some things never really change.
We talked about a gazillion other things – books, traveling, the people back in high school (our classmates' funny nicknames and our terror teachers), the fact that we have so much respect for mathematics and we both have resolved to understanding that it is one language we are not really good at, the girl sipping her coffee in another table who probably had about a pound worth of foundation on her face she looks like Lestat (the only regret there, i hope the anonymous girl reads this - is that tom cruise is prettier), love lost and regained, defining oneself in the midst of a very tumultuous breakup, loving who we are in spite of the mistakes that we have made – and what makes everything different this time is the fact that we are both growing (a little) older and growing up.
I told Monette that I haven’t been able to write poetry in a long while – because the thing with us is that we cannot really come up with anything unless we are really, really sad or when we are on the brink of suicide. We have to induce pain to write. Aside from tattoos – we’re masochists that way.
Before I said good bye to her last night, I realized that I wouldn’t want to spend the last 12 years of my life any other way – that is because I have her and she always have seen through me and have loved me not despite of but because of my flaws. We appreciate each other not because of the things that we can do flawlessly but because of the things that make us different – the things that separates us from the rest.
we took this photograph of ourselves sometime in 2004 or 2005
starbucks intramuros
Truly, there can’t be a better elixir than the friendship that she has given me, than the love and support we have offered each other over the years.
And for you, Monette, my dearest - I know we both have been 'lost' at some point in our lives, but I am sure that you will find your way back - for not all wanderers are aimless. I love you.
written january 3, 2009
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