In That Room: A Lovestruck Entry

When I first read Noemi’s Lovestruck Writing Contest, memories of my first love struck moment came flooding back. I felt like Harry Potter falling into Dumbledore’s pensieve, landing into a room of a men’s dormitory in a state university.

It was a holiday, 18 years ago. For lack of better and cheaper things to do (besides studying that is), me, my sisses and some brods decided to celebrate Gat Andres Bonifacio’s birthday. We bought some beer and pulutan and stayed inside a dormitory room. Three of its four occupants were my brods and their beds were placed side by side. The fourth bed was located on the other side of the room. So the three beds became our papag, a table-chair-bed rolled into one. We sat there forming a circle and in the middle was our feast. I was seated cross-legged near the foot of the middle bed. I was facing one of the brods who had the wall against his back. To my left is a sis and if I face her, I get a clean view of the door opening if somebody enters. And someone did enter! There was no knocking. Only a clicking of keys and turning of the doorknob. When I heard the sound, I quickly looked up to see who came in and lo and behold, it was the most handsome guy I ever saw!

He saw me too and I felt like I was having a heart attack. You know those (bleep) commercials or cartoons that show imaginary arrows hitting a couple’s hearts as their eyes locked together while everything around them blurs? Well, that’s how my lovestruck moment was. It was as (bleep) as the cartoons but it was so true. It was love at first sight. He was so handsome that I can’t take my eyes off him even as we broke our gazes from each other. As he moved towards his bed, a brod introduced us to him and he acknowledged us one by one. I turned around to look at him and he smiled at me. It was a beautiful smile coming from his lips so kissable it reminded me of freshly-washed, succulent, red grapes. I was wondering how tender and sweet it must be if those lips touched mine.

“O beer mo.” One of my brods offered me a bottle and its ice-coldness broke the spell. One thing one learns from having brods is that they always, always pull you down to earth when you’re reaching the stratosphere. I looked back and offered him a beer. He declined and smiled again. I must have been wearing a (bleep) smile in my face but I only found out when he left the room.

“P(bleep, bleep) ka Ami. Na in love ka ano?” One of the brods exclaimed. There was hooting and a whole lotta teasing. I don’t clearly remember now, but I think somebody threw something at me. I don’t recall if it was pillow or a bottle cap. I also think I pushed my other brod away because he was playfully slapping my back. I retorted, “G(bleep) ka. Hindi a.” Another round of hooting and teasing. When the noise died down, everyone went on drinking beer and eating the pulutan. I was joining in the fun but half of mind was occupied by the guy’s face. Then everyone became silent and there was something that suddenly formed in my mind. It rushed out of my heart and zoomed up my throat and before I can swallow it back, I heard myself ask

“Me girlfriend na ba yun?!”

The room erupted with laughter. I got another volley of curses and pulutan instead of receiving a yes or a no. Everyone was laughing so hard that I also found it very funny. If it was because of the beer of because of love I never knew. I just laughed and laughed.

The answer to my question came the following day. At that time the guy didn’t have a girlfriend but there were a lot of girls visiting him in the dorm. Later I also found out from my brods that two girls fought in the dorm over him. No wonder they kept on bursting my bubbles. A fraternal batchmate didn’t really like him for me that he did everything in his power to get the guy to transfer to another room.

So there it is, my lovestruck story. In fairness, it was not totally an unrequited love for me. He liked me too but I guess not enough to become his girlfriend. We dated once or twice and we talked with each other a lot but it didn’t bloom into something more meaningful. We lost contact when I went on my academic fieldwork. The last time I saw him was in a restaurant inside the university. I was with my future husband then and even if it was a pleasant surprise to see him again, I was already into another lovestruck moment but this time, it’s the kind that was meant for a lifetime.