FORT — jail booth scene

"Here she comes, bro."

"Chillax."

"I'm chill," I hissed.

"You're sweating," Aldo remarked, glancing at me while he stood right outside the tent with ropes separating us.

"It's hot out today," I replied, as I leaned back on my chair.

Roche snorted. "Sure."

"Why are you here again?" I asked her. "Your org's booth is over there," I added, nodding the tent on the other side of the football field.

"I wanna spend time with my boyfriend," she said, kissing Aldo on the cheek.

I looked away.

They had been going out for more than two years. I was used to them already. Still, it sucked 'cause they served as a constant reminder of what I could have if only I had the balls to pursue the girl I liked.

"I wish the teachers allowed us to wear casual clothes today," Roche muttered. "They won't even let us wear our PE uniforms."

For once, I agreed with her.

I watched the students walking in the sun, faintly wondering how they haven't passed out yet. They looked like they were enjoying themselves. Then again, it wasn't all the time we got to skip class and just play around with permission.

"We got a prisoner!" Julio sang, as he arrived at the jail booth with a girl.

I almost grinned at the sight of my friend. He looked like he was halfway from giving up wearing our uniform. He had his polo shirt unbuttoned, revealing his white tank top underneath. It was only a matter of time before he'd be told off.

My eyes then settled on the girl he was dragging behind him.

I noticed she had her long straight black hair in a ponytail, tied up with a white scarf with some cherry blossom pattern on it. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the heat, and I fought the urge to wipe the sweat off her forehead.

I should get a grip.

Julio turned to the girl, and said, "So, you need to stay here for at least an hour before any one of your friends can bail you out."

Kevin, Julio's org-mate who was sitting behind the table right at the front of the tent, frowned. "Hey, you got it wrong. It's only for thirty min—"

Julio covered his mouth. "Shhh, I got this." He faced the girl and gestured for her to sit on one of the chairs. "Go ahead, Sab."

She nodded and sat on the chair on the other side of the tent. She glanced at me, and when she saw me looking, she quickly averted her eyes.

"Hello," she mumbled, without looking at me.

I only nodded in greeting before turning my eyes to the ground. Awesome, we were both talking to the grass. Maybe we were both looking for my lost balls.

"Good luck," Aldo whispered, patting my shoulder.

"Don't be torpe, Fort!" Roche mouthed, giggling as the couple walked away to explore the variety of booths on the school grounds.

"I'll look for more prisoners," Julio declared, before skipping out of the tent.

Cautiously, my eyes traveled to the girl in front of me.

I'd known Sabrina Avaceda since freshman year. In all four years, I never had the luck to be put in the same class as her. To think, our high school only had three block classes per year. But still, I knew her.

She was lowkey popular, smart and well-liked – by both students and teachers. Hard not to be drawn to someone as genuinely kind as her.

Say something.

I watched Sabrina play with her hands on her lap.

Say anything.

She took a deep breath and sighed.

I cleared my throat.

She raised her head and looked at me. Her big brown eyes stared back at me, looking all cute like she expected me to say something.

And of course, I clammed up right then and there.

I avoided her eyes, trying to ignore my racing heartbeat. From my peripheral, I noticed her switching her focus to the people outside the tent; which was mostly our schoolmates running around chasing each other.

I should really say something to her. I didn't want this chance to go to waste. But whenever I opened my mouth, no words came out. It was as if there was a lump in my throat that I just couldn't get rid of.

Not being able to win against my own damn self, I ended up studying her; the way the strands of her hair were coming loose from that tie; the way her expression was relaxed despite her flushed cheeks; the way she had her hands were placed on her lap; and the way she was sitting sideways with her knees together.

Funny, this wasn't the first time I admired everything that she was but she still fascinated me every time.

"Sab!"

Our heads turned towards the direction of the voice. My jaw clenched when I recognized the newcomer.

Great, Miguel was here.

He was in Sabrina's class. I knew him well. He was a player in the varsity team with Aldo. He also ran for student council president against me several months ago.

I won.

"I came as soon as I heard," Miguel told Sabrina, glancing at me briefly before going back to pretending I didn't exist. Such a sweet guy.

"Uh, hi," she said, obviously caught off guard.

"Lemme bail you."

"No, no! It's fine," she replied, looking flustered.

Did she like him?

"It's cool," Miguel said dismissively. "I don't want you to spend the day stuck here. You should have fun."

Sabrina chuckled sheepishly. "Honestly, I'm good."

The stubborn ass shook his head. "No way, I'm not letting you waste your time here." He turned to the warden. "How much?"

"One hundred pesos," Kevin stated.

Miguel pulled out his wallet and paid the bail. Then, he turned to face Sabrina and said, "C'mon."

Our eyes locked as she stood up. For a moment, I felt time stop. Then, she sent me a small smile before following him out.

I only watched them go, because what else could I do?

"I don't remember Sab having a boyfriend," Aldo mused, suddenly showing up again right outside the tent.

"She doesn't," I deadpanned, watching her walk away as she chatted with the ass who bailed her.

But then, at the back of my mind... I couldn't help but wonder if it was only a matter of time before they got together. They'd been pretty close lately.

"Did you talk to her?" Roche asked.

I sighed. "I tried."

She laughed. "Torpe."

My jaw clenched.

"Where'd she go?" Julio asked as he arrived, looking around the tent.

"Got bailed by our school's MVP," Aldo answered.

"Epal, 'tang ina," Julio muttered, frowning. He shook his head, his game face on. "I'll arrest Sab again, you handle that pampam Miguel," he added to Roche.

"How?" she asked.

"Isn't he your org-mate?" Aldo pointed out.

She looked at her boyfriend. "Yes."

Aldo shrugged. "Just make up a shit excuse that'll require him to stay at your booth for the next couple of hours."

Julio snapped his fingers. "Good idea!"

"Seriously, we don't have to push through with this," I told my friends. "Maybe it's just not meant to be."

"If you opened your mouth, maybe it would be," Aldo muttered.

I glared at him.

"Dude, you're too goddamn torpe," Julio said, putting an arm around me. "It's holding you back. Find a way around it."

I snorted. "Easy for you to say. Kapal ng mukha mo e."

He grinned. "At least, I have the balls to back it up."

"He's not wrong there," Aldo commented, chuckling.

"Anyway, I'll get Sab."

With that, Julio waved us goodbye and made a move to leave.

"Don't be too obvious," I called after him.

"When have I ever?"

"Always!"

He only laughed as he ran away.

"Alright, gotta go," Roche announced, leaving to go to her org's booth without wasting another second. We liked giving each other shit, but she was a good friend.

"Here," Aldo said, handing me an acoustic guitar like a genie who poofed it out of fucking nowhere.

"Where the hell did you hide this?"

"I knew you'd screw it up, so this is Plan B."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You want me to play?"

"If you can't directly speak to her, might as well use this as a buffer."

I thought about it as I held the guitar in my hands. I never played outside the classroom before. And I was just goofing around with Aldo the times that I did play.

Don't get me wrong, I was far from shy. But having the ability to speak to my crush was a whole different thing.

"Okay, she's coming." Aldo patted me on the shoulder again, and whispered, "For the second time—Good luck, bro!"

He quickly left, just as Julio came back with Sabrina. She looked even prettier when she was smiling all out like this, with amusement dancing in her eyes.

"You gotta stop breaking the rules, missy," my friend told her.

She laughed. "I was only sitting there."

"Yeah, and that's against the rules."

"There were a lot of us."

"But I saw you first."

Sabrina only shook her head, grinning despite herself.

"'Sides, you were the only one who didn't run away." Julio had a smug smile on his face, before he leaned closer and whispered something in her ear.

Sabrina blushed hard.

I frowned at Julio. What the hell did he say?

When he caught me looking, he only winked at me.

I shot him a questioning look.

While Sabrina took the seat she occupied before, Julio turned his back on her and looked at me over his shoulder.

He pointed to the guitar, and mouthed, "Sing!"

I looked at the girl I'd been crushing on since freshman year. She went back to watching the students outside the tent. I took a deep breath, and started strumming my fingers on the strings.

Sabrina's eyes snapped to the guitar, before they came up and met mine.

Taking another deep breath, I focused on playing the instrument in my hands and began singing the words, "Uso pa ba ang harana~ Marahil ikaw ay nagtataka~"

She slowly turned her body to face me.

"Sino ba tong mukhang gago~ Nagkandarapa sa pagkanta~"

She leaned forward, and my heart started racing again.

"At nasisintunado sa kaba~"

She placed her elbow on her knee while her chin rested on her palm, keeping her attention solely on me.

"Puno ang langit ng bituin~ At kay lamig pa ng hangin~"

I raised my head, our eyes locking.

"Sayong tingin ako'y nababaliw, giliw~ At sa awitin kong ito~ Sana'y maibigan mo~"

The corner of her lips lifted up in a soft smile.

"Ibubuhos ko ang buong puso ko~ Sa isang munting harana~"

I looked away and tried to hide the smile forming on my own lips.

"Para sayo~"

We continued like that as I played the rest of the song. I felt like a giddy kid on christmas with our sneaky glances and knowing smiles. Neither of us said a word, yet I felt like we had an understanding.

Damn, I could get used to this.

When I finished, Sabrina had a full grin on, which lightened up her whole face. God, she was beautiful. And for a moment, I had to remind myself not to gawk like a weirdo. Then, she opened her mouth as she was about to say something.

I looked at her expectantly.

"Fort, you're still here?"

Ah, shit.

"Yeah," I answered, turning to the person who spoke. I tried not to get annoyed at my classmate's interruption.

Pamela frowned. "Why aren't you making rounds?"

It wasn't that I was neglecting my duties as student body president. I just had more important matters to attend to at the moment – like talking to Sabrina. That was, if I could get myself to actually speak to her.

"I'm a prisoner," I told Pamela instead.

"Why hasn't Aldo bailed you out yet?"

"I..." I glanced at Sabrina, who retreated to sitting properly with her eyes turned away. "I don't feel like walking around in this heat. I'd rather stay here."

"Oh, well... Here, have some." Pamela handed me a couple of wafers. "I have more in the classroom."

"Thanks, Pam."

"Do you want me to get you some water?"

"No, I—Actually, yeah please. Thanks."

She smiled as she hopped away and was back in less than a minute.

"Here you go."

"Thanks, I'll pay you later."

"Don't worry about it. See you!"

When Pamela was out of sight, I sneaked a glance at Sabrina. Without saying anything, I stood up and placed the bottle of water and wafers beside her then went back to my seat.

Julio wasn't gonna let her out anytime soon for my sake, and I didn't want her to get hungry or dehydrated while she was here.

She blinked, before looking at me in disbelief. "Is this for me?"

I only nodded.

"But... what about you?"

I shrugged and picked up the guitar again, not knowing what else to say. I was seriously getting frustrated with myself and my lack of damn voice.

"Thank you," she said.

You're welcome.

She unwrapped the wafer and began to eat quietly. Even the way she ate was cute. When she couldn't open the water bottle, she caught me watching her and she smiled sheepishly at me. I took the bottle and opened it for her.

I had to admit, I enjoyed the peaceful silence we shared – with her eating and me casually strumming the guitar. It was totally random, yet I liked it.

To be painfully honest, though, I didn't want to waste all our efforts today. My friends went all out planning this whole thing for me. This was my only chance. I had to work up the courage to speak, one way or another.

I took a deep breath (for the nth time).

I imagined the lump in my throat disappearing like air. I imagined the words flowing out of my mouth. I imagined the nerves leaving me.

And even with my heart racing and pounding against my chest, I knew I could do it now. I could definitely do it this time. I could finally talk—

"Sab, you're here again?"

Putang ina naman.

Sabrina turned to him. "Hey, Migs."

Miguel chuckled. "You're a favorite today."

I seriously fought the urge to smack his face with the guitar.

"How much is the bail?"

Julio crossed his arms. "Five hundred."

Miguel's eyes widened in shock. "What?"

"It's her second offense."

Kevin spoke up. "Bro, it's only two hun—"

"Actually," Julio continued, raising his voice, "make that one thousand."

Miguel made a face. "Isn't that too much?"

Julio shrugged. "It's for charity."

Miguel frowned, skeptical. "I'll be right back."

As soon as he left, my friend sent me a look to 'do it' before subtly nodding to Sabrina. I glowered at him, but I knew he was right. This was my last chance.

I turned my attention to the girl I'd been secretly admiring from afar for years. Before I could say anything, though, she spoke.

"Thanks again for the snacks."

I opened my mouth, but no fucking sound came out.

Say something, idiot!

And still, nothing.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I tried to force it out but I only ended up making this small choking sound, so I stopped. Trying not to show my frustration, I clenched my jaw and just nodded.

Sabrina smiled at me before getting up from her seat, just as the stubborn ass Miguel came back. Julio sighed, and I knew he was itching to facepalm himself.

I could relate.

"Here you go," Miguel said, giving the money to Julio. He glanced at me, then frowned. "Shouldn't you be checking the booths?"

Ah, he was still sore from losing the presidency to me.

"Shouldn't you be minding your own business?" I countered flatly.

Damn, where was my voice when I needed it to talk to Sabrina?

Miguel glared at me. "Let's go, Sab."

"You're free to go," Julio told her.

I caught her sneaking one last glance at me before leaving the tent. And I just stared after her, like a motherfucking dumbass.

"Bro," Julio breathed out.

"I know," I muttered, my eyes on Sabrina's retreating back.

"At this rate, you'll never get a girlfriend."

"What does it matter if it's not the right one?"

"You're saying Sab is?"

I shrugged. "Who knows?"

Julio shook his head, and waved for me. "C'mon, let's find Aldo and Roche. The drama club's serving good takoyaki."

I got to my feet and followed him out the tent, beyond disappointed at myself for the missed opportunity. She was right there with me for three whole hours!

And I completely blew it.

"Maybe it's not your time yet," Julio said.

Maybe.

If so, then someday...

If I ever get the chance again...

I swear, I wouldn't waste it.