Point of View: Eris Jane Trinidad
Drip, drop.
“Uwa~” I hugged myself tightly as I felt a gush of wind blew through me, “so cold! Brr~!”
The rain only came down harder, so it was a good thing that I took shelter under a cafeteria. I can’t believe Eros! He left me so quickly, but I don’t know where to go from here…
I bit my lip and tried not to cry.
And to top it off, I was really hungry.
I sniffed. The porridge smelled so delicious from where I was sitting. I wanted to buy some… But I didn’t have any money.
I may be an angel, but since I returned to the mortal world, I got to live as one, meaning I also got hungry.
“Acho-o!”
“Oh, don’t tell me even angels get sick?”
Surprised, I looked up when I heard a boy’s voice. Standing in front of me was a boy with a mean looking face. One hand of his were placed in his pockets, and the other was holding an umbrella against his right shoulder.
“Eros!” I quickly stood up, grinning at the sight of him. I extended ny arms to hug him, but…
“Stop! Stay away from me, you’re soaking wet.”
I was so close to hugging him out of joy, but then he placed the hand that wasn’t holding his umbrella on my face so I was stopped before I could really hug him.
“Eros, you came back for me! I’m so happy!” I exclaimed, before wiping a few tears of joy away.
“Tch,” he said before he removed the hand he was using to hold me back.
“Eros, Eros, look at this!” I raised my necklace high so he could see it, “there’s a small shade of red in the heart! It’s all because you came back for me!”
He looked at the heart before frowning.
“Are you kidding me? All I can see in the heart is a dot of red! Is that a joke or something?”
“But Eros, coming back for me wqs counted as a very small good deed. Not only that, you did it half-heartedly so only a little got colored but don’t worry, that’s a good start!” I grinned at him, giving him a thumbs up.
“What the f.u.c.k, a good start?! Tch!”
“Eros, no!”
“What?!”
“Look!” I showed him the necklace again with a frown on my face.
“Oi, why did the necklace suddenly turn fully black again?!”
“Well, you said a bad word!” I pouted, placing my hands on my hips.
“So what? It’s my everyday vocabulary.”
“You can’t do that! Whenever you do bad things, you deplete all the progress you’ve done. The necklace will start to turn black again, and how much depends on the severity of the deed.”
“What?! d.a.m.n it, I can’t do that! I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Wah! Don’t give up! Don’t! Please Eros, please please please?! It’s only for one month anyway! Please, please, please!” I pleaded, sniffing. Oh wait! I forgot.
I gripped Eros’ t-shirt again with my hands, stopping him from leaving and then I gave him an imploring look. He groaned.
“Alright, alright! Just let go of my shirt, you’re getting me wet! I already said yes! Argh!”
“Yehey, I love you Eros! Yay!” I cheered before glomping him, quickly enough that he almost lost his balance.
“Oh s.h.i.t!” He yelped before pushing me off, “you got me all wet, d.a.m.n it! Tsk!”
I just stuck my tongue out before laughing.
“Tsk! Let’s just go!” He then turned around before starting to walk towards somewhere.
I could only smile because I knew that even though he was acting that way he still had a chance to be a good person. It always starts with a small deed, and then they get bigger and bigger.
“Oi, what are you smiling for over there?” He asked when I finally catched up to him underneath his umbrella. I grinned back at him.
“I’m sure this mission will be a success.”
“Ha? What’s with the confidence?”
“Because I trust you, Eros.”
He didn’t say anything afterwards and I just let him be. I’m just really happy, I know we can do this! Yeah! I mentally cheered, pumping my fist into the air.
“Eros,” I stopped walking and started poking him on his left shoulder.
“What!? d.a.m.n! Quit it!” He said before swatting my finger away with an annoyed expression on his face. I pouted while holding my stomach.
“I’m hungry. Very, very, hungry.”
“So what if you’re hungry? Just eat then.”
I opened up my bare palms to him, saying, “I don’t have any money. Let me borrow some of yours, please, I’ll just pay you when I’m alive again! Please-!”
“Listen mushroom angel whatever,” he frowned, nakakunot yung noo niya while he looked at me intently, “The only offer there is for you is a shelter. It’s either you take it or leave it.”
“How about food? I had nothing when I came down here, not even have any spare clothes.”nung b.u.maba ako dito, pati damit na pampalit.” T~T
“Does not concern me. Decide now, take it or leave it.”
But really… if he offered me food and clothes, it wouldn’t just be for my benefit, but also for his because if he does that, the necklace would get closer to being fully red. I mentally sighed.
I really don’t want to remind him of the necklace right now because if he did a good deed just to earn the heart’s color, it wouldn’t make sense anymore. He wouldn’t make a good deed wholeheartedly, and it would just lead us to failure in this mission.
“Okay…”
“Oh Eros, is that Eris? That girl you wanted me to let stay at my private clubhouse for the moment?”
As soon as we got inside a large house with wide billiard board, an artificial golf course, with a big flat screen t.v. and wine bar in a corner which looked like it belonged to a clubhouse. Then again, the guy that just spoke right now said that this was his clubhouse, so huh. That figures.
“Yeah yeah, that’s her,” Eros just dismissed him and left me in a corner while he walked over to a closet and rummaged through it. After a while, he came back with some clothes in his hands.
“Here,” I was surprised when he threw a white t-shirt and jersey shorts before pointing at the person who received us into the clubhouse, “that’s Memo over there, he’s the owner of this private clubhouse. I asked for permission from him to let you live here for a while. Be careful around that guy. He may look nice but he’s even more of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d than I am.”
“Haha! Eros, you really haven’t changed. You’re still straight to the point,” the guy named Memo said, laughing.
“Why shouldn’t I? Isn’t it true? Tch!” He suddenly took off his t-shirt to change which made him topless, so I quickly bowed my head and turned to stare at the floor. Ugh. Why did he just undress in front of a girl? Hmph. It’s as if he doesn’t care that I’m here, geez.
“Haha, well, you said it,” even though I was still looking at the floor, I could feel it when Memo’s gaze turned to land on me. “So… how are you related to her? Is she your girlfriend? Your toy?”
I flinched at his last words. Wow, a toy? When has a life ever become equivalent to a toy?
“None of your monkey business, don’t even try that manipulating game on me, a.s.shole.”
“Wow, but I didn’t even say anything! I was just asking, so chill dude,” although I don’t really get what the two of them are talking about, I still feel a little bit creeped out by Memo’s smile because in some ways… his smiles seems so cold and in his eyes… it’s as if… there’s something in there that’s to be feared.
“Whatever dude, her room is upstairs, right?”
He nodded his head at Eros’ question, and I got surprised when Eros suddenly took my right wrist and pulled me towards the second floor of the clubhouse.
“Here’s your room, you can stay here for the rest of your mission. Don’t worry, I told no one about your magic powers because no one would believe in me, and what’s worse is that they might think that I’m insane or that I’ve had too much Marijuana. So rest a.s.sured that Memo doesn’t know anything about you being an angel, but you should still be careful around that guy. He might not be physically dangerous, but trust me he’s much more dangerous than me… he’s mentally dangerous, he loves to manipulate people.”
“Manipulate?” I asked as I came into my room. It was simple, but it was perfect to sleep in.
“Yeah, complicated s.h.i.ts. Just stay away from him. If that a.s.shole asks you anything, just invent stuff. Alright then, I’m going to leave now.”
I stood up immediately and grabbed his arm as he was about to leave.
“What?!” He cried out, irritated when he noticed me holding on to his arm.
“Are you going to come back?” I asked, pouting.
“Of course I am, are you an idiot? How will we finish that d.a.m.n mission if I don’t return. No-brained angel,” he said, exasperated, muttering the last part under his breath.
I just smiled at him and let go of his arm as I waved my hand at him. “Bye bye Eros! Come back, okay? I’ll be waiting here.”
“Whatever. Tch,” he said before really leaving.
In the span of twenty minutes inside my new room, I had already toured it and looked at all of the stuff inside. I also changed into the clothes Eros left for me. The short was sort of loose, but I just folded it over and over near the waistline. The t-shirt he gave me was also big, but at least now the clothes I was wearing was dry. I was also able to take a shower since there was a bathroom connected to the room.
It was pretty fun. Memo must be really rich to have this kind of cluhouse, since there was even a t.v. inside my room. I grinned.
Surprisingly, while I was walking around the room, when I looked at my necklace, I noticed a long, red line near the bottom of the heart.
Ha? Eros did something good? I wonder what that is.
My thoughts were interrupted when the door from the hallway into the room suddely opened. Whoever it was didn’t even knock.
“Eros?” He already came back? Waaa, that was so quick! I thought he’d come back tomorrow!
“Here,” he said, before he walked to me and raised a white plastic bag in front of my face. It smelled really delicious…
Wait… I know this smell…
“Porridge!?” My eyes widened when I s.n.a.t.c.hed the plastic bag and saw what was inside. “Waaa! Is this porridge, Eros? Porridge?”
“Nah, that’s ice cream. Tss. Isn’t it obvious it’s porridge? You’re really an angel without a brain,” he deadpanned, and I squealed.
“Is this for me, Eros!?”
“… No, that’s for me. C’mere, give it back.”
“Eh?”
He sighed, before leveling me with a stare. “I was just joking, since you have so mnay questions. You are really filled with stupidity, aren’t you? Of course that’s for you! Why would I come back here if that was for me? Tss.”
“But why did you buy me some?”
“Didn’t you say you were hungry?”
“Well, didn’t you say earlier that shelter was the only thing you were offering me?”
“That was earlier, and not now. Jeez, if you don’t want it, I’m going to eat it instead. Give it back!”
“No way! You can’t take it back! Thank you Eros! Super thank you! Look at this, here,” I showed him the necklace. “There’s a thick red line at the bottom! Yay!”
“Ah,” that was his only reaction. “Okay then, I’m going to go now.”
“Wait Eros! You’re leaving already?”
“Well what else am I supposed to do here?” =_=
“Come here, let’s eat the porridge together!” ^___^
“That might not be enough for you, you look like a pig when you’re eating.”
I pouted when I heard what he said. “That’s not true! Come on, eat with me, look, you bought so much. Quickly, come o-n! Let’s eat together!”
I placed the porridge on a small table in the room and I pushed it near the edge of the bed, before I pulled Eros to sit on the bed.
“We don’t have spoons and bowls. Wait here, I’ll take some downstairs,” he said before standing up. I quickly stopped him from doing that.
“Leave that to me Eros!”
“Fine, whatever,” and with that I went downstairs with a skip in my step.
But then I stopped descending the staircase… because at the bottom of it was Memo leaning against the wall, one of his hands in his pocket while the other held a gla.s.s. He was smiling at me… and it was really unnerving me
“Need something?”
I don’t know why but then I felt that Memo was surrounded by a bad aura. As an angel, I had a stronger sense of perception towards the souls of people. I had the ability to see whether the person standing in front of me was a good person or a bad one.
And all I could see at the moment was that…
… he was a bad guy?
At the first look, his soul seemed horrible, but if I dived in underneath that, what I could see was…
… a miserable person.
Like Eros, a person didn’t turn bad because they wanted to, but because it was how they dealt with all the pain they felt.