"Kane's birthday is coming up," Miguel said. We were currently hanging out at Brian's place.

"Yeah, Lily told me that she and Bianca are going to give Kane a gift," I said.

Brian touched his chin and pondered about something. He was obviously plotting something.

"Do you have any plans?" Brian asked Vino.

Vino grinned before saying, "I'm not going to talk about it."

"Come on," Brian persuaded.

"No." Vino shook his head.

"Okay, I got a plan," Brian answered, grinning at us.

He suggested that we give Kane a birthday cake on the Monday after her birthday. Since her birthday would be a Saturday, we couldn't surprise her on her actual birthday.

I was thinking of giving her a gift of my own, but I didn't want her or any of them to know that I like her. Besides, Kane liked Vino so there was no point in trying.

***

"Hey, you can do better next year," Bianca said trying to cheer Miguel, Vino, and Brian up.

The Eastview Tigers had just lost the championship game. There was no one to blame since the team and the opponent both played well during the series. But all three of them looked so defeated. They kept on talking about the game and all the better plays they should've executed.

"I should have taken that jumper when I had the chance," Brian said.

"You know what you should do? Get over it," Lily frankly said.

"Everyone's sad that we didn't win the championship but at least Eastview is the runner-up," Kane said, and all of us looked at her.

She noticed our reactions, and she raised her eyebrows. She must have realized what she did because she said, "Okay, I know you may say it's funny hearing those words from me. But look, I'm trying to cheer you up."

Vino smiled warmly at her.

"If Kane says that then I think we really should move on and look forward for next year," Miguel said, chuckling.

Kane never wanted to be the second best. She wanted to be the first, and the best. So it was really unusual to hear her say things like that. But I understood she was really trying to help cheer them up.

"Well, at least Jeff has some awesome shots. Right, Jeff?" Bianca asked.

"Of course. I don't want to disappoint you and Ms. Sanchez."

***

: Bro, are you at home? Planning to come over there.

: Yep. You can come over anytime.

After about half an hour, I heard a car parked outside. I looked out the window and saw Vino closing the passenger door of their black SUV. I hurriedly walk to our door to open it. The car took off as Vino reached our front door.

"Hey bro," I greeted.

"Hey, I was thinking if I can get some pictures during the game," Vino said. "And also wanted to hang out for a while."

"Sure. You wanna call Brian and ask him to come over?" I asked since Brian and I live in the same neighborhood, and our house was two blocks away from theirs.

"I already did, but he isn't home."

I asked Vino to come in to the living room. Nobody was home except for me since Mommy and my sister Rosie were at work. My older brother Nate, on the other hand, went out with his college friends.

"By the way, you took a picture of me and Kane, right?"

"Uh, yes I did. Have a seat. I'll just get my laptop."

After a few minutes, I went back to the living room, with the laptop on my hands. I already saved all the pictures from my camera to my laptop. I opened the folder labelled sports fest.

"Just scroll through the folder. I haven't sorted it yet by sports. It's a compilation of all pictures during the sports fest," I said, and Vino nodded.

He clicked a photo of the Eastview students cheering from the bleachers. Bianca, Lily, and Kane were sitting behind the player's bench.

"I like this one," Vino said with a smile.

He took out his flash drive and plugged it into the USB port of my laptop. He began selecting and copying photos.

"I'll just get you something to drink."

"No, I'm fine," he said but I head to the kitchen anyway.

I took a bottle of Coke and two glasses. When I returned to the living room, Vino was looking at me seriously, if not furiously.

"How long has it been?" he asked, and I didn't understand what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?"

"I think I've seen enough proof that you like Kane too," he said, putting my laptop down on the table.

Oh shit.

He must have browsed another folder-the one labelled sophomore. This folder contained photos during this school year, mostly pictures during school activities, during our hang outs, and stolen photos of our classmates-especially Kane.

Vino stood up from the sofa. "She's your favourite subject. Not to mention that she has the most candid photos among all of us. That counts for something, right?"

SHIT.

"I can explain."

"You know I've been open about my feelings for her. I told you guys about it. You could have told us that you like her too. What were you planning to do?"

"I-I wasn't..."

"I thought it was clear from the start that the four of us will never pursue the same girl. We'll never fight over a girl."

I knew he was not happy about what he saw. He probably wanted to punch me in the face at the moment but he still managed to talk so fucking calmly, I didn't even know how he did it.

"I like her, okay. But I have no intentions of telling her that I like her. I have no plans of dating her. She likes you and I think that's enough reason to hide my feelings for her. And of course, we shouldn't be really fighting over a girl."

Vino just shook his head.

"I'll get going," he said, unplugging his flash drive from my laptop, and left.

***

I tried avoiding Kane and Vino after my conversation with him. It wasn't that difficult since I was usually the most silent among the seven of us. Kane didn't even notice my behavior. Not even our friends. Or maybe I was just thinking of things too much. After all, I had been one of the most behaved pupils in elementary. I had always behaved this way even when we were younger, so I guess nothing had really changed except for my feelings for her.

"Hey, Jeff," Vino called me on my way to the faculty room.

He was on his way to the drama club meeting. The club invited him to play the role of prince because they said that Vino and Bianca look good as prince and princess.

"Hey," I answered.

"You've been a little silent this week. You don't have to avoid us, bro..." Vino started, and I was surprised he noticed. "I feel like it has something to do with what happened during the weekend. Now I just wanted to see if we're cool."

"I guess..."

"Look, I shouldn't have walked out on you like that. I was just furious because I thought you were planning something behind my back. That's not cool. But I also remembered that you're not that kind of guy. I'm sorry, man."

I was relieved to hear him say that. I was glad he knew me well enough to know that I'm not the kind of guy that pulls some shit behind a friend's back.

"Of course I won't do that. I like Kane and I want her to be happy. You can make her happy."

Vino nodded.

"Please, don't break her heart," I said.

"I won't."

He offered his hand, and we did a bro handshake.

I counted on Vino's words that he would never break Kane's heart. I thought maybe I should start letting go of my feelings for her.

***