I woke up so late today because of the fact that I was awake all night and morning long. And then, barely washing my face and brushing my teeth, the phone rang. I answered and the lady in the other line was asking for me. There was a distinct familiarity from her voice but it's not like I talked to this person a lot recently. So finally, I asked who she was. And she said, "Marie Pascual."
So okay, rewind...I will take you back in time. First day in junior high and a recent immigrant from the Philippines, I went to John Burrough's Junior High School here in Los Angeles (For all of you that don't know, JB Junior high is the school you see from television shows like Family Matters with Urkel, and Boy Meets World...etc.) and all I recall was that I was in a PE class and there's this chinese looking girl in class. It was August or September and it was one of thme hot summer days and we were having PE in the field. So sitting right next to each other, we both blurted,."Man, it's hot in here..." And then she asked me if I was filipino and I responded, "Yes." And this Chinese looking female just said she is filipino, too and that she just came form the pHilippines after going in and out of the Philippines, she's migrating here for good. And she went on with her stories..... on and on. That was Marie back then.
In short, we became very good friends. She is probably one of the many bestfriends I had. But I had to move to Glendale and go to another school that I had to leave her. But I managed to keep in touch with her even when we lived kind of apart from each other. She was the witness to my first boyfriend and my first kiss--Relly. And I hooked her up with Relly's bestfriend, Jordan. Well, none of those relationships worked and we both ventured out into dating and liking different guys, She knew about Ziggy and Jay. She was there when I got into a gang--Jefrox. She was one of those people who saw my scars fromthe initiation. She saw how bad I was and how I was sooo stupid back then. She was always my conscience and she was miss-goody-too-shoes.
And when I moved back to LA High School, she was going to Fairfax High on the world famous fashion street Melrose Avenue. Over the years, we staggered to see each other. I was working at this retail store at the mall, and she would pass by there to see me. I remembered she was dating a white guy. I barely met Glenn then. I never told her about Glenn. We just lost touch and we would see each othe ronce in a blue moon. So, on and off, we would get by just having petty talks and decent "hellos," what's ups," and all that. But none more than that. I graduated as a vocational nurse and went back to school as a registered nurse and having Glenn as the love of my life, I never heard from Marie again.
Until today.
She was still the same. The same Marie who talked to me about her entire life and updating me with all the escapades I missed for the past ahmm...six or seven years. She refreshed me with the new stories about her Jerome, her husband who is half filipino and half black, how they just got married a month ago after one year and a half dating, how her brothers Rino is now a senior in high school and RJ is in college majoring in Architecture, and Matthew is 6 ( he was a baby when I met him), how her parents are stilll the same, how she stopped hanging around with her friends like Gladys and Amina and everything else rolled into one. I also did my share of updates witm my brother beign in college and a nursing major, my older sis having her own family, and little sis Noreene is a seniro in HS, too and LA, our baby brother is in junior high. And mom and dad, and Glenn whom I gave my heart for four years finding out inthe end that he got someone pregnant...Whoa! And all these new tattles and tidings occurred in one hour of conversation.
We arranged to see each other the first week of June, to catch up with the old times, and relive our memories as teenagers. Marie made me realize how gooda friend I was. Otherwise, why would she even call 411(information), bugging the operator if they had listing of telephone numbers in my name,or my dad's name, or my mom's name...or any of my family's name! Even though, six or seven years passed, I can see there's this longing to be friends again just liek we were when we were merely in our puberties.
Ah...Thanks Marie. I'll see you soon.
posted by pinay freestyle @ 1:26 PM
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