Is he for real?

Nina - Somewhere Down the Road


I have to let this out! Once and for all.

After that incident, I was singing the chorus part of somewhere down the road. You may call it "inspiration" and I won't deny it. I am inspired. Inspired by a third year college american boy. But it's not what you think. Inspiration as in admiring him as a person not as a male with raging hormones.

Nah... I wasn't paying attention much to that "ice cream boy". That was what my close friends in college call him. Long story......

One day, my friends, Anneka and Pierre were almost through printing their ICT projects when Rocky came in and approached the teller of the internet cafe "LUDAN'S" which happened to be his friend. He invited his friend for some ice cream but the teller declined. Viola! So that incident made him the infamous "ice cream boy".

So when we (anneka, pierre, me) met at CAFA for PE, They funnily blabbered about him telling me how handsome and charming he was. They told me too about Anneka's antics in front of the
ice cream boy and the teller. The teller told them too that the boy understands bisaya all along. That really made me laugh hard. They're my friends anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Days passed or even... months passed, they always told me about ice cream boy and that they met him again in the same internet cafe and again, how charming and handsome he was. This irked my curiosity. Who is this ice cream boy who made my friends gaga over him?


Then on one fateful day, Pierre and I (anneka was absent that day) were going to ride a jeepney(24G) for home when suddenly, Pierre pulled me across the street into the Ludan's internet Cafe. "You want to see ice cream boy, right? He might be there" she pointed out. I just followed her even if it was PARTLY against my will. Yeah, just partly though. I did want to see him but there were other more important things on my mind that time like "I should go home and clean my room".

And then we got inside the cafe, Pierre was shrieking silently, she was even jumping for joy. She was pointing to someone "Naa xa! Naa xa!" I faced the object of her sudden jumpiness. And there he was... of course! facing a computer! haha. The moment I saw his back, I said to the teller "Duha nya. tig 30 minutes. Number 22 ug 23 lang na computer." My friend widened her eyes in surprise and then she countered "Manglibre ka?".

I didn't answer her question. I went directly to computer 22. Pierre followed and sat at computer 23 just next to me at the right side. The ice cream boy was sitting at my left on computer 21 which was his favorite spot as he had told me when we already knew each other. I was trying to have a clear view of his profile by straining my eyes to the left without moving my face as if I was concentrating on the array of icons on the desktop.

The straining made my eyes tired so I just decided to catch his attenton a little. I loudly told pierre "magduwa ko ug combat grounds, ay! need for speed 2 (underground) lang." Unexpectedly, I got his attention. He broke the ice and said to me "Hey! Can I race you with that?" And I just said "SURE!" without even thinking or processing what he had just said to me. In other words, nag-loading pa ko sa akong utok brain. "My name is Patrick. What's yours?" He offered his right hand to me with a great smile and a hint of mischief in his brown eyes. I accepted it and dumbly asked him "You want my full name or just what the people call me usually?"

And then, the usual thing happened. He taught me how to play, We played, We talked, We laughed, We were pissing each other and boom! Time had flied so fast we didn't realize that one hour had already passed. It was time to stop. I approached the counter and payed my dues. He seemed unhappy that I was going home. Of course, a person would be sad if his/her playmate stops playing with him/her because the playmate must go home. Anyway, he asked for my ym. He tried to log-in but unluckily the internet was so slow at that time that it didn't log-in. So we decided to exchange numbers. Fortunately, he is a globe subscriber.

When we had already ridden the usual jeepney, Pierre complained "MALASA JUD NI ANNEKA OIE!" and then I affirmed "MALAS MULANG!". Among the three of us, she was more "into" ice cream boy whom now we call as Rocky, his gaming name or Patrick, his real name.

Patrick turned out to have been under my father in Engineering because he is a 3rd yr ECE student. He is half american. Born in America but nagdako sa Pilipinas. His father serves in a military camp in US. His mother is a native of Samar. He has four female siblings. He is the eldest of the family and the only boy. He wants to be an air force pilot in America. He likes games that's got something to do with airplanes and jets and any flying objects. He even created his own version of Flight Simulation.

So what's the point of all of these? Nah... We talked, chatted and texted each other but I still don't know his last name. Even he, does not know my last name. We're like close strangers. I realized it later that I have not asked for his full name even until now.

I asked pierre. "Am I really that wierd? I talk to people whom I have met many times before even to the point of hanging out with them yet I still don't know their full names. Is it normal? She just answered "dunnow!"

And then, I heard the song "Somewhere down the Road"