Ikaanim na tawag

Ikaanim na tawag
8:26 p.m.
November 5, 2000
Rodriguez Residence

“Hello?” 

“Hello? Mika? Mika! Oh I’m so glad to finally hear your voice!”

Nagtataka si Mikaela. Is this true? “L-Leo?” 

“Mikaela! You don’t know just how much I had to go through. I tried to contact you a lot of times! Did you read my email?”

Email? May email pala sya na sinend?! “Umm… No… Hang on. I would have to hang up if I would read the email you sent me.*” 

“No need, Mika. I’ll just tell you what I wrote there.” Leonard sighed before he continued, the excitement in his voice was obvious. “Mikaela! Remember the concept airplane I told you before back in highschool? Well, we entered it in a contest and we won! I want you to come to the awarding ceremony, and I’ll drop by tomorrow with your ticket, okay?”

“I-I don’t know, Leo. When will this be?” 

“It’s this coming Sunday. Wala ka naman sigurong pupuntahan sa Sunday, right?”

“Well… I really don’t know, Leo. I… I have to ask Carl…” 

“Carl? Who’s Carl? Ah! The assistant secretary for Literati, right?”

“Yes.” 

“Why? Do you hold meetings even on Sundays?” he asked jokingly.

“It’s not that, Leo… It’s just—“ Carl would be angry if he learns that I’m with you and not with him. 

“Oh. Umm… Nagtatampo ka pa rin ba?”

“Huh?” 

“I was stupid, Mikaela. I shouldn’t have told you all those awful things last time. I wasn’t feeling well. And… Everything I did the week went wrong. I guess, when you failed me, it was too much. At ikaw ang napag-buntunan ko ng galit. I’m really sorry for that, Mika. And I’ve waited so long to try to make it up to you.”

“Leo… You don’t understand… I—“ already have a boyfriend to think about. 

“You have the right to be angry at me. But please… please attend my awarding ceremony. You… You’re the only person I want to see there besides my Mother. Because you mean so much more to me, you know?”

Natigilan si Mikaela. “I-I… is that true, Leo?” 

“Yes, Mika. You mean so much that I tried to call you afterwards. But your phone line was busy all night, and I thought that maybe your brother was using it.”

That was when Carl called. I told him how you shattered my heart, and he helped me pick up the pieces of my broken heart that night, Leo. 

“So I tried calling the next day.” Leo continued. “I thought you were just ignoring me when you didn’t pick up, and I remembered saying that you shouldn’t call me because it was exam week. Then I got busy with the exams and projects that I forgot to call you that week.”

I had been calling you, Leo.Didn’t you know that? Or were you too busy to hear the ringing of your phone? Bakit di mo sinasagot ang mga tawag ko? Why did you keep ignoring my calls? 

“And when I did call you, I find out that our landline has been busted. Mother tried to call home and all she could hear was the ringing from our line, when I don’t hear anything at all. It took them a week later to replace the landline. But since it was your birthday last October 10, I borrowed Mother’s cellphone to call you up, but before I could talk to you, the battery went dead and I couldn’t call you anymore.”

Biglang naalala ni Mikaela ang sinabing tawag ng kuya niya almost a month ago. So Leo did call! He called! And I missed it! 

“Since calling you was futile, I tried reaching you via email. But with all this sh*t going on, I forgot my password on that email. I created a new email account, but I don’t remember your email address. I’ve been telling my buddies at the Aeronautics team about you and they were able to find your email address for me. I sent our new landline number at your email. But you never called, so I decided to call you up now that our phone is back.”

He was the anonymous email sender! The email which I deleted because I thought it was some sort of spam**. Well, mukha naman talagang spam kasi ang nakasulat lang dun ay “This is my new number. Call me. ###-##-## ***~ Leo.” 

“But when I try to call you, it was you who wouldn’t answer. I thought you got really mad that you won’t pick up the phone. Then, Timothy called, and informed me about your new landline number. So I got your new number and finally called you up.”

Mikaela didn’t notice the tears fall as she stared at the phone. All this time… All this time that I thought that you hated me… that you had forsaken me… that you had left me all alone… All this time… you… you were trying to reach out to me… But you are too late, Leo… Too late… 

“Mika? Are you crying?” Leo asked, his voice worried. “Mika… I’m really really sorry… I-I… I know… I had been stupid. Really stupid. I want to make it up to you. Because… Mika… You had always been more than just my Girl Bestfriend. I had been keeping these feelings I have for you since Highschool, and I realized just how much you meant to me when we stopped talking to each other for a long time. I knew that if I don’t hear your voice soon enough, I’d go mad. Because Mika… I have… I have always wanted… you… for my girlfriend…”

Tuloy-tuloy ang pagtulo ng luha ni Mikaela. Di nya alam kung magagawa pa niyang tumigil sa pag-iyak. “L-Leo… I’m sorry…” 

“No, Mika. I’m sorry. I know… I shouldn’t be telling you this… because I promised… we promised… But… this promise… it is really hard to keep, you know? I was just afraid that if I told you soon, you would… you would go away. Heck, the two years after graduation had been hell. And as for Kristine, you shouldn’t be worried about her… Kasi that first night that I called you up… Kristine and I just broke up. I was looking for someone to talk to… and I remembered you… I knew… I knew I could count on you, and that you would be willing to listen… because… you are my Girl Best Friend. If your Kuya had answered my first phone call instead of you, I would have easily pretended to be an anonymous caller. But… when I heard your voice… I couldn’t stop myself. I… just wanted to keep you talking to me…”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” she sobbed. 

“I wanted to see you. Because I wanted to tell you that day how much I love you. So I used Kristine as an excuse. Coz I knew you wouldn’t let me down and help me when I need it. I wanted to surprise you with that school play… That’s why I didn’t tell you… And… Well… I should have considered your feelings before I lost my temper and told you all that sh*t.”

“I’m so sorry… Leo… I’m really, really sorry…” 

“Don’t cry, Mika… Please…” he pleaded. “And stop apologizing to me… It was my fault… all my fault… please, Mika… stop… You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Too late, Leo…” Lalong naiyak si Mikaela as she realized the words that are coming out of her mouth. “Too late…” 

At this point, gusto nang ibaba ni Mikaela ang telepono. She can’t take it anymore… She doesn’t want to break his heart… especially now that she realized he never broke hers in the first place. Pero… di naman din niya kayang paasahin pa si Leonard. It was the least that she could do… tell him the truth.

“What do you mean, Mika?” 

“You’re too late, Leo…” she sobbed again. And in a very low voice, she replied. “I… I already have a boyfriend…”

Parang sinampal si Leonard ng mga salitang iyon ni Mikaela. Paulit ulit niya itong narinig sa kanyang utak. Mikaela Rodriguez already has a boyfriend. You lose, Leo. You lose. Matagal bago sya nakapagsalita ulit. 

“You… You have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, Leo.”Mikaela said, trying to keep her voice steady. 

“It’s Carl, isn’t it?”

Ayaw na sanang sumagot ni Mikaela, knowing just how this was hurting him. “Yes.” 

There was another momentary pause before Leonard spoke again.

“C-congratulations…” he said, his voice trembling and almost a whisper. 

“Please do not say ‘Congratulations’ when you don’t mean it.”

There was a long pause before Leonard continued. Mikaela could hear him starting to cry on the other line. 

“I guess… I really am… too late…” he said sadly. Mikaela could hear his sorrow from the sound of his voice. “You were right, Mika. Pride is a lonely friend… I lost it all, Mika. All of it. My studies, my friends, my family, my computer… and you… All because of my stupid, stupid, stupid Pride… But… you were right when you said… that God… He brings it all back… and even more… And He brought it all back… I won the competition… my family is proud of me… my friends… they want to meet you so much, Mika… and my computer just got fixed… But I guess… I guess… I guess not everything… I… I lost you… and now I can’t have you back…”

“I’m so sorry… Leo… I’m really, really sorry…” Mikaela apologized. But she knew that it’s all over. Things will never be the same between them again. 

“No, Mikaela. It’s… all my fault… every single second of it… because I was too late… and I was a coward… and… and…”

Mikaela wanted to console him, but right now, wala siyang maisip na pwede niyang sabihin kay Leonard. At this point, both of them are crying, though Mikaela tried her best to fight her tears back to listen. So she just held on the phone and listened to him cry his heart out and tell her how much he had regretted for letting her walk away. 

When both of them had calmed down, she asked. “Umm… Leo… Are you… Are you alright now?”

“Yes.” Even if Leonard had said that, Mikaela knew that he was lying. “Mikaela…” 

“Yes?”

“Promise me you’ll bring him.” 

“Hmm… I’ll… I have to ask him first, alright?”

“Okay.” He said flatly. 

“Akin na yung number mo. Tawagan kita mamaya.”

Leonard gave Mikaela his number, and then hangs up. 

And that was the end for the two of them.