2009-10-18 - 9:35 p.m.
Something else happened while I was away...
Tuesday:
I was terribly sick, so I went home early, right after my five o'clock class ended. My TOEFL class had finished a week before. Dee's just started hers.
After class, Dee walked out of the building after class to find...Gigi's motorcycle still parked there. No Gigi, though. One of the security guards told her that Gigi had gone off with a guy on another motorcycle.
Her boyfriend, for sure...:|
Wednesday:
While I was ill at home, Dee finally got the story from Gigi herself.
It turned out that they'd gone watching a movie somewhere that night. (Or so she said.:|) To Dee's surprise, Gigi returned to finally pick her motorcycle up at...midnight.
After that, she'd gone home.
"Aren't you tired?" Dee asked skeptically.
"Uh...actually, yes."
Hmm...*raises an eyebrow*
Then at night, her boyfriend showed up again. Just like Dee, I've begun wondering:
Doesn't he do anything else??
Thursday:
I went back to work. I heard the story from both Dee and Pitbull and tried to remain calm. I noticed that Gigi had looked tired, but maybe that was just me. She hardly wears make-up anymore, so she looks rather pale too these days.
And she doesn't seem to look as happy and relaxed as she used to. Call me crazy, but there's a trace of tension and exhaustion on her face.
After seven, a TOEFL student from my previous class came for a make-up test, so I had to wait around longer. I ordered a take-out from a small dine-in nearby and finished it at my desk. Pitbull and Gigi walked out together to search for their own. I sat down with Sika.
I was talking to Sika when suddenly Pitbull rushed back, looking both shocked and freaked out like hell. She gasped in a raspy shrill, "Oh, my God! I can't believe he came back again!"
"Who?" asked Sika curiously. I instantly gave Pitbull a stern look that said: Don't. Stop that.
"Just some crazy student," I lied quickly. The last thing I want is to have my friend's romantic tale become the office gossip.
The couple came. Gigi invited him into our office. He was all smiley to everybody, and I tried not to raise his suspicion by smiling back.
It turned out that he was taking her out for a movie again. He even told us that Birthday Girl (since October 12) had to please him for a week.
Okay.*rolls eyes* Whatever.
"By the way, you're so lucky to have finished work at this hour," I started casually. He said he worked in a travel agency, so I was genuinely curious. "When do you actually finish work?"
"Uh, hours ago." Suddenly he looked so uncomfortable. I noticed that he was trying to dodge my unusual question. "It's off season now, so I am practically free."
"Really?" Somehow, Pitbull always picked up where I'd left off. She grinned at him. "Don't tell me you practically own the company too."
"Nah, I am just a head chief from their administration department." He shrugged. "All I have to do now is write a report every other day and I've already done one today."
"Oh." Earlier, he'd told Gigi he was just dealing with the computer-based transactions. (You know, ticket orders and other stuff.) He'd also told me he had to deal with the ABACUS program.
"Can't you eat a little faster?" he suddenly barked at Gigi. I had to resist my strong urge to just yell back at him. "We're watching a movie at eight!"
Poor girl.:( I could tell that he'd instantly killed her appetite with that. Looking obviously sick, she handed him the rest of her dinner.
"You finish that."
And he did...shamelessly.*rolls eyes* Pitbull and I just stared in disbelief. To make matters worse, he then walked to Selvi's desk and casually grabbed a tissue from her box, saying, "I need this."
And Selvi had long gone home.
"I don't know, that's not my desk," I warned him sternly, but it was no use.
I couldn't believe my eyes that night. He was acting as if he owned the office too. If he really worked in a travel agency like what he keeps on boasting about, there is this thing called: office manners.
And he certainly has none. I even doubt if he knows what it means.*scoffs*
"So what are you guys watching?" asked Pitbull casually. Gigi wanted 'White Out', but the dude suggested an animation called 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' - saying a horror movie might've been too scary for her.*drops jaw*
"White Out is not a horror movie," I quickly corrected. "It's a thriller about a detective having to solve a crime in the Antartics for three days before the next snowstorm ruins the entire scene."
"That sounds cool." Gigi sounded amazed. "How do you know?"
"I read a review," I told her. "Besides, you've always been a horror fan. You love 'Saw'. How come they're too scary for you now?"
"I don't know." Now it was her turn to shrug while looking at him. "I just don't like watching those stuff anymore."
"You girls want to join us?" he suddenly asked both Pitbull and me. But his eyes somehow stated otherwise.
Pitbull and I shook our heads.
"I am waiting for a student doing a make up now," I reasoned. "Job comes first."
"Good." He gave me a thumb up. I wasn't sure whether he'd really mean it or it actually meant, "Thank you for saying no, so I can be alone with her again."
Anyway, they finally said bye and left together - his possessive arm around her shoulder. (She's taller.) Pitbull and I sat together in silence. I sighed.
"We've got to tell Dee."
"Yeah." She looked sad. "I feel sad, seeing her all changed and repressed that way."
"It's not her. It's the alien he created inside her."
"Has she ever really been herself in the beginning?" Pitbull suddenly argued. "Don't tell me you don't notice that too."
Good question. "What happened earlier?"
Here's what she said:
Earlier:
Gigi and Pitbull ordered dinner outside. Just as they were returning inside, they heard a motorcycle coming. They both turned around to face the biggest shock of the night.
"Oh, my God!" Gigi squealed with panic. "He came!"
"So?"
"We'll be watching a movie at eight and I've just ordered dinner."
"Then let him wait for you to finish," Pitbull reasoned, slightly annoyed. "You didn't ask him to come, did you?"
No."
"Okay." I nodded. "I get it."
"If she keeps on acting scared like that as if he's her boss or something, then he'll keep on treating her like a mat."
"Yes, she still does."
When Dee came back from her class, we told her what had happened. She was deadly furious.
"WHAT?! HE'S LYING!" she shrilled. "I was in a travel agency as an accountant myself for years before teaching here. If you're a head chief, you can't possibly be that free. You must do a lot of out-of-town jobs and deal with clients and stuff. Even if it's off-season, you must secure a lot of future deals at work - even at this hour!"
"Oh, God."
"And if you work in the administration, it's impossible to have that much money to take someone out for a movie like, three nights in a row," she went on, pouting. "I am afraid he might be unemployed, but pretending otherwise."
"Sadly, there's nothing we can do," Pitbull reminded.
Indeed.
Friday:
Report card day. Gigi showed up late at work. She was in a rush too, exclaiming with panic, "God, I forgot to take these exam papers to correct at home last night."
Of course. She'd been more in a hurry to watch a movie the night before.
I went home with Jules after work. Pitbull and Gigi went to POINS Square, and - again - he suddenly called her.
"Are you hanging out with someone else again?" he accused her over the phone. Gigi looked alarmed.
"No, I'm not," she shot back defensively. "I'm just going out with Fitri, that's all."
They argued quite long after that on the phone. Then she started complaining to Pitbull about his overly suspicious and jealous rage. That wasn't something new anymore.
"Well, I yelled at my ex when he did that too to me, before my brother finally took charge getting rid of him," Pitbull suggested after that. "You know what to do when he gets too disturbing."
"I know, but..." She sighed dramatically. "He cares so much about me."
Sure, until he won't even give you space to breathe, Pitbull thought sarcastically. Then, something else really struck me...although not exactly by surprise anymore.
Remember that Wednesday night, when he told me he'd just been from Surabaya for the job thingy, but later told his girlfriend it was actually his boss - not him? She said she believed in him more than she did me. She even said that I often misheard everything a lot. It must've been the noise around 'Warung Jajan' that had distracted my focus.
Saturday:
"Please, don't be sad." Pitbull looked at me sympathetically. "Don't take it too personal. She is just in love right now."
"Sure, what else is new?" That doesn't mean I am not disappointed to have heard that. I mean, let's just be logical here. For her sake, I wish I'd heard it wrong.
But even if I had, then why had he told me about his boss? How irrelevant that might've sounded, knowing that he still doesn't know me personally now.
I've always been quiet most of the time. Why must I start saying something - anything - for real, if it would only do nothing but ruin a friendship?
Besides, it's not like I am going to start interfering their relationship for real. Who the hell am I anyway? What for?? I don't even like the guy.
Am I going to lose my best friend anytime soon?
The Author
