New Year 'vacation' in Adventure Log [01]

We always have our family reunion on January 1st. I don’t usually go. But this time I did– because the place was halfway to where I really intended to be. With my second family, whom I cherish more than most of my blood relatives perhaps.

There’s the usual party, the food, me trying to remember faces and names of my own blood. It was okay, I was with my little sister and cousins. I’m 21 and tried hard to tap into my inner child. I was already there, might as well have some fun.

Midway through the party, I decided to leave and head out to La Carlota City. I texted Luther the day before that I’ll be staying at their house. I never go to La Carlota anymore. There’s nothing in there. Where I live right now is a bustling city. Although I do miss the quiet and simplicity over there, especially the nostalgia since I spent my mischievous high school days there.

I really don’t like going on long trips by myself. But, ah, can’t afford to have a chaperon all my life. If I want to make things happen, I need to make an effort. Gene was already there, staying over at Leiz’s house. He invited me to drop by, but I was very hesitant. Leiz and I didn’t really share much in common, nor do I know her that well to make conversation pleasant and effortless. And I’m starting to feel the same way towards Gene. He’s changed quite much.

So I stayed at a fast food joint while I waited for Luther to get his late ass over and pick me up. It was 4:30, the sun wasn’t harassing our skin anymore. We walked all around town. All around. We learned that nothing is ever open on January 1st. I was thinking of going to the new cafe at LC and then do karaoke later that night, but there’s just nothing. It’s quiet.

We passed by the street where I used to live in. The house looks the same, but it feels so foreign now, being occupied by people I do not know.

The city was boring, but his company was not. We had a spontaneous idea to go to the Carribean back at my city and go swimming, but it’s a good 1 hour long bus ride. It’s like I went to LC just to pick him up. He needed to pack his clothes, so we went to his house along with Gene, which is another 10-minute ride.

It was getting dark, so we just hung out, ate their New Year celebration leftovers, and drank. Luther’s brother was home, and felt that he is duty-bound to entertain us. He showed us videos of his networking pyramid thingy, what with their Ferraris and their ridiculous paychecks. I…really didn’t care about it. And there was the movies, Step Up and TMNT. I was bored. I’d rather play cards with them and joke about Gene’s height maybe.

We slept around 12MN after the unhealthy rounds of nasty, cheap tequila. Luther and I slept on the narrow bed, Gene was on some mattress on the floor beside me. Luther told me about the open window pane draped with a tucked curtain three feet away from me. It was some sort of dimension to which some nasty spirit passes through. Which was, of course, utter bullshit, but he knows how deathly afraid I am with horror movies. I wasn’t able to sleep well that night not because of the story, but of the tug-of-war we were constantly doing with the blanket.

He slept without a shirt on, saying that it’s hot in the room. He lent me his (incredibly) short sleeping…shorts, and it felt as if I’m only wearing underwear since I’m used to sleeping in basketball shorts or pyjamas. I can’t sleep without a blanket so I asked for one. In the end, we ended up sharing because there were times that it got cold (ooh, spirit), and it wasn’t good enough for the both of us.

January 2, 2015

We woke up at 11AM, headed back to LC city proper and had some sort of brunch. The cafe was still closed, and Gene had to go back to this town so we left him be. I didn’t want to leave yet, so I nagged Luther as what we should do. He brought me to a computer cafe and surprised me with the idea of playing Defence of the Ancients.

I never play Defense of the Ancients. Because of him.

Back in high school, I asked him to teach me how to play. He set up a match along with the other boys. With DotA having a fantastically extreme learning curve, I had no idea what the hell I should be doing. There were tons of heroes and items to choose from, and me being an RPG player, I always go for the kill when I see an enemy. You shouldn’t do that in DotA. Along with his fiery hormones of puberty, he ended up shouting at me, raging about how I had to press ‘A’ to attack, and there were a bunch of other skills that had hotkeys all over the keyboard. So, yes, you should never put a newbie in a proper game yet.

This time, it was obvious that he was reflecting on his past behavior. I can feel his total restraint and effort at patience, which I find funny. I am now oblivious to people raging, as long as it doesn’t hurt my ego. We played with bots, good thinking. I was still daunted with the items, but I finally found a favorite character to play.

Sven. He’s fine for newbies, and you can actually own with the guy. From then on, Luther has been babbling nonsense to me with something like, “Ah, stun me now Sven,” or “push harder, Sven.” It never fails to shut me up. I just. wat

We went to Carribean because some of Luther’s friends are staying over there. He introduced me to them. It was, of course, hard for me since I am awkward in these things, but I survived. Then around 10PM we played more DotA at Battlestation ‘til 3:30AM. We slept at my place. He didn’t get up for work since he had this terrible headache.

January 3, 2015

I got a text from Rikku inviting me over at her place since there’s this house blessing celebration thing. I had to decline since it would be improper to leave an ailing friend behind. When he got better, we had lunch and played more DotA (surpriiiiiise). Joy texted me that they’re at 888, so we went there to meet up with them.

Joy bumped her car against another while we were trying to get out of parking, and the whole thing turned into a crime scene. It was funny because the damage is barely noticeable, but insurance-wise is profitable. She called her parents to sort things out. It was annoying because there were so many onlookers approaching as if they know enough, as if there was someone murdered. People will always love drama, I suppose.

We went out for milk tea to forget our troubles and enjoyed each other’s company. We went home, Luther back to LC, and me trying to figure out how to make the rest of the year just as exciting.

Last updated January 08, 2015