My Young Bromance

I'm one lucky intern who was privileged to have a 2-week vacation while the rest of my co-interns would probably go on duty, figuring out how to reattach or amputate mangled extremities on new' year's eve. As  day 10 of bumming around came, boredom strikes in my  isolated, enchanted kingdom where all fantasies come true (read: my room). I ventured into the depths of our mysterious dungeon, a.k.a. bodega, where I found some old photo albums. They are the albums that my late granny compiled, categorized according to families, events, travels, etc.. I took one and opened it. I saw a picture of  our new year's eve dinner in 1995. My grandmother was sitting in the middle while I was standing on her right and another boy was standing on her left. His name is...Carlito Miguel..Tadadan...*Tingin sa malayo...fade effect...black and white...piano instrumental* (Sorry, I'm in a soap opera mood today).

When I was young, my grandmother used to live in our house in the province. Every vacation, my parents would take me there to spend quality time with my granny. But being a stranger to that place, I didn't know anyone of my age. I had no  friends. The house helpers were my playmates and at night, my granny and I would play sungka. When the household is busy, I would play alone with my robots, my manly robots and guns.

Dear granny thought that cute little Basti is bored and lonely. She didn't know that I'm introvert by nature. So my ever kind and loving granny called all her tauhans and said, "Ipaghanap ng kalaro ang aking mahal na apo. Kung hindi, walang kakain ng hapunan!" *evil laugh* 

And that's how I met...Carlito Miguel, or let's just call him Carlo. He is the nephew of my uncle's driver. Carlo is unlike other paslit kids in town. He is actually cute, with mestizo features. He has light brown eyes with long eyelashes and pointed nose. He had Stefano Mori-ish hair, the popular hairstyle back then. He is 4 years older. When we were first introduced to each other, I felt something that I have felt with girls that I admire before. Oh dear, I had my first guy crush.

Carlo and I became good friends. Everyday, he would come over to our place. We would wait for the morning Japanese cartoons and then play family computer after. After lunch, we would either play hide and seek around the house or stroll around the town plaza, then afterwards, take a bath together in my granny's bath tub. Yes, we took a bath together naked. We were inseparable.

New Year's eve came. My mom invited him to sleep over and celebrate new year with us. While the household was busy preparing for new year's eve dinner, my mom sent me and Carlo to the bedroom to sleep and she told us that she would just wake us up when the clock strikes 12. So, we obediently followed, changed in our pajamas and headed to bed. It was a cold December night. We covered ourselves in blanket, then fell into a deep slumber.

In the middle of my sleep, I was woken up by something. It felt so warm and comforting. I realized that Carlo was cuddling me. I gently removed his arms but my movements woke him up. "Why?" he asked me. "My mom might see us." I replied. "So? We're both boys. What's wrong with that?" he justified. Hmmm... That's what's wrong. We're both boys and we're cuddling.  I guess Carlo had no concept of homosexuality back then. But I just let him do it, perhaps, because it feels good. Sorry to disappoint you, but this post is not about a pre-teen homosexual sex. Nothing further happened that night. First of all, I had no idea of homosexual sex (and even heterosexual sex because I still believe that torrid kissing makes a girl pregnant) and yeah, there were no feelings of lust back then.

Days after, the two-week Christmas break has to end, and so as our play dates. Carlo was there when we were loading our baggage to the car to say good bye. No, there were no teary good byes or promises of unending friendship said. He just asked me to sing. (Ang weird diba? Perhaps he wants a memory of my voice). So there, in front of him, I sang a song about missing someone on Christmas day. We just said simple good byes after. I told him that I'll be back on summer break. Then I sat on the backseat of the car, looked back through the rear shield and waved as the driver started the car. As the car took off, I just watched as the house became smaller from my view (No, Carlo did not chase the car crying until he can no longer catch his breath while I am helplessly looking back from the backseat, though it might make me cry if he did that.)

Back to the present...
One day, my mom went to the community health clinic to have her blood pressure checked. He approached a male nurse and asked him to take her blood pressure. As he was wrapping the cuff around my mom's arm, the nurse asked my mom, "Tita, how's Basti?" My mom was shocked and looked at his face. That's when she recognized him. He was Carlo.

When my mom visited me recently, he told me about the encounter. She was laughing as she recounted how noisy we were back then and when she saw us cuddling in the bedroom (Sabi ko na nga ba! Nakita niya!). I was a bit embarrassed when my mom reminded me of the latter. I wanted to ask my mom if he still looks good as before but she might wonder why I'm asking. Anyway, she told told me that Carlo has a girlfriend (toink!) and that he wants to see me next time I'm home.

Well, it would be nice to see an old friend again and relive the past (I mean every bit of the past...including the baths and cuddling...hehehe)