Two Scenes on Valentine's Eve

Last night was an interesting mixture of a heartbreak story and unsisterly acts.

Heavy night, you might say.


Scene 1:

I don't know if it was a good thing but while all my neighbors must probably have been outside their house, snooping on the minutes of eardrum-breaking profanities of two girls, I chose to stare at the laptop screen while debating if I should look it up or continue editing a brochure layout.

So I stared hard and waited for them to shut up. It didn't for a long time. Not until after almost an hour. Yup, it was that long. There sure is a lot of hate between those two girls.

And then E arrived. By then, everything was very quiet.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, there were shrieks again. E, a self-confessed snoop, ran down the stairs and opened the gate with a bang. She ran back the stairs minutes later to tell me that she joined the rest of the our neighbors who were watching two sisters trying to kill each other. And she added that I was probably the only person in that area who wasn't there. That was probably her indirect way of telling me I missed some important news.

According to E, one sister has her whole dress ripped in parts, thanks to her drunk sister. So you might just have a picture now of what they actually did to each other to get to that point.

Scene 2:

Out of nicotine need, I and E decided to walk all the way to a midnight store somewhere near the highway. It was some 10 minutes walk. Being a phone addict that she is, she kept on talking to someone on the phone all the way to the store. With everything being so quiet, except for some slight interruption from tricycles and dogs, I felt like an intruder. Well, it wasn't intended, I was hearing everything she was saying on the phone and it seemed like she wasn't so interested in keeping her voice down.

When the call ended, she started to share her heartbreak, which I've already guessed earlier, thanks to my unintentional eavesdropping. The thing is, there was no Valentine's date for her. Her boyfriend of recent months suddenly found himself falling for someone else and of all days, he had to say it right at that day, right on Valentine's Day. Sweet.

Ah, life. Sometimes, Valentine's Day has to be so cruel.

Shattered Ego

The other night I saw how easily a person can drive another person to become violent. Or maybe, it is love that does that.

Either way, I came so close to losing my cool but maintained it and tried to make everyone calm. It was short of dressing myself up as a clown complete with the overboard lipstick and silly dance. But, should my attempt at trying to be funny in my words did not work, I might have tried that.

It was a good thing that after more than two hours, it became clear to everyone that walking, about three kilometers was better than getting ourselves worked up at the kitchen smoking our lungs out. That was one and a pack of Marlboro gone in two and half hours. Imagine how high our nicotine levels must have been at that time.

So we walked and laughed and talked about silly things. We took pictures at the bridge until my cellphone’s battery went dead. We walked until someone reminded us of the curfew time.

After finishing our empanada and C2, we headed back home at around 1am. Our feet ached and we were so sleepy, we went straight to bed when we arrived.

There were lessons learned that night. Hearts were broken and feelings were hurt. Maybe, it was more than about feelings; an ego was also shattered to pieces, in his own territory. Insults and threats were uttered. But, in the end, everyone managed to cool down afterwards. We all slept with clearer heads.

Hopefully, those lessons will remain; especially for that one person who broke one’s heart and ego. Oh, well, just as he puts it: “Magba-valentine’s pa naman.”