《The Silence in the Crowd》Chapter One

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Today is Saturday and I decided to buy a new book. It was a fine day, and I thought that I'll just walk under the sun until I reach the bookstore. I was walking for just about five minutes now until I realized that this is gonna be a long-long fucking walk for a very fucking bright day.

I was really bored- I am always bored. I don't know why is that a usual thing for me now. Maybe because I'm just growing up? Adolescence, I suppose. I woke up this morning, feeling good and all that stuff. I had a coffee and a good breakfast, I played mobile games with my friends and all that shit but, something happened that made me do some stupid walk-trip by myself.

I remember asking my best pal Jonathan- I call him Jon -to come with me as I do this tiring stuff but the bastard just laughed at me. He thought that I was insane. He told me by a chat, "Are you out of your mind? Walking under the heat of the sun on a Saturday? You got to be kidding me?" Fucking idiot, he did not believe what I just told him. I was serious about it and he thought that I was 'out of my mind'. Well, yeah, maybe I was. Maybe, I was out of my goddamn mind for doing this but boy, I needed this walk and I will fucking walk until my feet can no longer take a single step. From what Jon said, I was much more eager now to finish this walk-trip, with or without him.

Oh boy, it was surely hot today, and the sun is too fucking bright for my eyes. Does the sun really shine as bright as this? Or I spent too much time inside my darkroom, isolated from every shit that happens around me. No, I just realized that I was not really afar from what happens around me- I have my goddamn mobile phone. This fucking little thing called 'mobile phones', everyone is addicted to these devices. I think every individual have one, people even consider it as 'one of the most important things in life', I agree though, but, I will also agree to the man who is willing not to use it or stop using it forever- I will kiss him on the lips or maybe, I'll just marry that man -believe me, I surely will. I use my phone a lot, I won't deny it. It's the main source of information (real and some trash hoax) in the 21st century.

Anyways, I have my phone with me because I needed music and I have two-hundred songs saved in my device. I played a song and pressed the shuffle button. I actually told myself some rules for this walk-trip- dumb ones. First is, I must never do something about the shuffled playlist, whatever the song is playing, I must listen to it and not skip it. Second, I stopped by in a small mart and bought an energy drink because I set up some checkpoints for me where I could only have a sip from that energy drink. Third, No cheating; I must follow those two rules that I made for myself because It will be dumb for me not to follow these rules that I actually created.

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Five songs have passed and I'm already sweating like all the water from my body was just coming out of a faucet. I grabbed my towel inside my bag and wiped my face, my torso, and my back. I also felt my skin burning like hell. I thought about using my umbrella to protect myself from the deadly sunlight. But, I just kept it inside my bag. That's the only thing that I have right now; the baseball cap that I borrowed from my dad, my small bag (the kind of bag that you can just hang in your torso and look cool because that is the trend) with other five valuable things inside.

Then, I finally reached the street where a Mormon Chapel stood with its neatness and all that stuff. I took a picture of it and then send it to Jon. He immediately replied "I'm not in there. I'm at our house right now," His mom always go in this street because they have relatives that live in that neighborhood. That guy, he thought I send that photo to him because I'm supposed to pick him up and ask him to join me in this walk-trip. That is when he was wrong. Maybe, he had that idea because, he always does this thing- annoying thing, where he will persuade you to come with him because, he wants to go somewhere and he'll say, "Come on now pal! I'll wait for you in front of your house. Just come with me! You don't have a choice man, I'll be at your house and pick you up." He never succeeded though, because, I'll always tell him to go bother someone else. I'm a tough introvert guy, you know?

Well, that street was one of my checkpoints so I took a little sip from my drink and just started walking again. I was kind of running out of breath at this moment. Boy, I really did some heavy smoking last night! So I did this thing that I do whenever I feel the consequence of smoking cigars- I close my fist and hit my chest with it and say 'Hoo-Haa!'. I maybe sound like a stupid fucking gorilla but, I remember seeing Matthew McConaughey did that in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street- well, kind of similar to that one. To be honest, I don't like to smoke or the idea of having lung cancer and all the bullshit but, whenever there is one stick of a cigarette, I can't help myself but smoke some. I hate it, or maybe that's just what I thought. Some people say that it will kill you soon or that your life span is reduced when you smoke, and some people say- especially my friends -that smoking helps you to be calm, to be somehow 'at ease', you know what I'm saying? If you ask me what side of these statements I believe, I must say both sides. Yes, smoking kills you, it's true, but, have you ever considered why these people smoke? Let us ignore those people that smoke because they're addicted to nicotine, let's focus on those people who smoke because they needed the feeling that one stick of cigarette offers. Maybe, they had a bad day, a tough one, so they lit one stick to somehow not to think about it. You might think that my reason for smoking is 'unethical', I think that too, but, consideration in both side (smokers and non-smokers) could be a good idea- having 'your' life to be worried while also having fun is a good idea.

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Finally, I reached Jon's street, where he lives. I took a picture of one sign that says Carsadang Bago and send it to him. He replied with "Saturday is your ideal day to be stupid?", I replied with "What time do you think I'll reach the mall?" while still walking. I took a sip from my drink again while I wait for his response. Then he finally said, "Four? Four. I'm sure about it pal. Anyway, what came into your mind that you've decided to do this all by yourself? Did your parents kicked you out or something?" I chuckled and began typing, "I asked you to come with me, haven't I? And you said no. And maybe, just maybe, I am alone. I'm just walking all by myself." I took a photo of me and send it to him. The conversation somehow ended at that point.

Let me tell you something about good Old Jonathan. He's my best pal in school, he truly is. He somehow annoys me but, that guy is a good man. He really is. I can't remember how we became close but, we went through some shit together, him and I. We're friends for almost four consecutive years now, boy, that is one hell of a ride. Truth be told, we're actually different from each other. In what way? Well, Old Jon is a very sporty man. He plays basketball very good, he does know how to play volleyball- fuck it, he's really good at physical activities and all that shit. The guy was also good at women, oh boy he is! When I first saw him, I thought that this guy is a gentleman... yeah, kind of. But then I saw his ways on women, and immediately doubted my first impression on him. He's quite handsome, that's why many girls in our school and from their neighborhood was really attracted to him. Based on his stories, I think that Jon knows how to handle a relationship. The problem with him is, he always has these weird infatuations with girls that he likes. It annoys the hell out of me. I remember Old Jon having a crush with this girl in our school when we were still on senior-high, and the man, goodness-gracious, he's madly in love with her. But I ignored his weirdness because, I thought, we were only seventeen and it's normal for us to have this strong feeling to the opposite sex and all that bullshit. He even asked me to write a poem for the girl and he decided to read it in front of her- the class and our Filipino teacher included -with matching music to be more... romantic, I guess? I kind of felt odd when I heard him reading the poem that I wrote. It almost felt like I was the guy who has feelings for this girl that I barely even know. I also remember telling Old Jonathan to the court that girl but he just told me, "She doesn't want to have an intimate relationship at the moment. I know her, she wants to focus on her study first."

Anyway, the next year, we found out that she now has a relationship with a guy- 'An intimate' one. Boy, that crushed Jon's heart. But I know him, he's a real tough man. That's where our differences make an entrance. While Old Jonathan is a hunk and all that, here I am, an introvert-freak, a fragile person, I don't even play any known sport. I suck at physical activities unlike Jon, but when it comes to academics, I can say that I'm- somehow -good at it (Not in mathematics though, not that stuff). We might have our differences but, we both believe that 'No man is an island'. He's good at doing while I'm good at thinking. Just imagine us doing a prank to our classmates and then laughing our asses off.

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