Phankspace (Second Part)

"Ang laki-laki talaga!!"

I remarked while my eyes turned around to inspect the kitchen, the dining area and the living room. After the wild abandonment session, (which ended after my buddy gave me a warm bath) Phanks resumed his laundry duties leaving me idle and with nothing else to do. I went around to feel his loft, hoping to learn his inner personality.

Truth is, even if we see each other every week, I don't know many things about my partner outside the confines of our relationship. All I know is that he is a terrible flirt, he loves the divas - especially Regine and he is a very hard worker. Between the two of us, he is more into mainstream. He wouldn't mind watching variety shows or listen to jologs music (like those being played in Love Radio). Our personality contrasts so much that I sometimes ask myself how we are able to last this long without getting bored with one another. One thing I also noticed is that the more we grow older, the more he becomes effeminate.

Which strangely, doesn't concern me at all.

Last week, I intercepted a message he sent to a girl friend confiding that he misses having a "companion." I interpreted the word "companion" as someone else aside from me since the girl replied in a giggly tone. She implied that my buddy has an "anonymous textmate" and even encourages him to meet this person. It did affect me for a brief moment and I seriously considered confronting him about this latest cat-and-mouse game between us. However, I immediately realized that in the way I project myself lately, it is as if I'm the epitome of singlehood. Nobody among my new friends have ever seen my buddy and me showing up together in a group gathering.

So I guess we're just quits.

Nevertheless, the issue isn't the textmate or what his girl friend said. Spoken between the words of the text message is the undeniable loneliness my buddy feels living alone. There were many times, he would tell me how he wished we're living together - especially after his brother had left. He would even insist that I should hang-out more in his place the soonest I could find time to go to Valenzuela. Much as I would love to accept his offer, he knows that my feet is deeply rooted at home. In our four years of being a couple, I've grown used to him staying in my place rather than me sleeping over in his home.

That is why I somehow sympathized with him. That same afternoon, much as I would lose money with my decision, I decided to buy him a second-hand TV.

I could not simply bear the fact that I have my cable TV, my internet and computer games at home, while he have to endure the madness of weekends in deafening, solitary silence with a simple transistor radio as company.

The TV would be my present for him this Christmas.

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Phankspace (First Part)

Tucked at the edge of a three-unit compound, his home rests behind a row of chicken-feed stores that keep his little kingdom away from the bustling and busy main street of Karuhatan. His place is a one-bedroom, one bathroom loft. When he described the unit to me during the time he found it for rent, Phanks said that it was the most beautiful place he had set foot in his weeks of scouting for a new apartment. He even begged that I lend him money for the down-payment before others could occupy the place.

Much to my initial resistance, I eventually gave in. With my financial backing, he was able to secure the place. He moved in together with his brother, his brother's girlfriend and the teenage daughter of her brother's girlfriend. However, things did not go well between the four of them. A conflict ensued and since my buddy is the one paying the rent, everyone else got booted out.

Two weeks after his brother had left for the province, he asked me to pay him a visit. After more than a year of not setting foot in Valenzuela, I got to finally hang-out in my boyfriend's new home.

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The moment I entered the compound's main gate, the serenity of the place immediately took over. Unlike the disorienting street a few steps behind me, the narrow passage leading to the courtyard had muffled the sounds outside effectively, that one can barely hear the honking of passenger jeeps or the engine of a passing motorcycle. The calmness of the compound was so strange, it almost felt like nobody lives there except my buddy.

He opened the door and welcomed me to his loft. The main room alone, which includes the kitchen and the dining area was so spacious and the racks were well-arranged, I blurted to my buddy, "ang ganda naman ng bagong bahay mo." He returned a smile to my complement.

You see, his last apartment was far different from this new one. Aside from being located in a multi-story tenement, the walls of his old home was devoid of any paint or concrete, it exposed the hollow blocks, which made the entire place craggy and dirty. His new home doesn't just have walls that are smoothened and painted, it has its own laundry area where one can dry clothes without the risk of them being stolen.

Phanks lead me to his bedroom, where the late-afternoon sun's rays passes through the jalousie windows. He hugged me tight and I kissed him in return. Then, he asked me to lie down on his bed to take a rest from my long journey. However, I felt very restless. The thought that I can do whatever I want with him, without the risk of making loud noises made me extremely kinky I immediately grabbed him by his waist, took off his sleeveless shirt and forced him to lie down on top of me.

That afternoon, it was he who got impaled by a relatively long pole which he kept on complaining,

"ang laki-laki naman."

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