Chapter 2 – Okay. Guys aren't all jerks.

Chapter 2 – Okay. Guys aren’t all Jerks.

“I could happily take the picture for you guys with my camera.” The stranger offered.

“No thanks,” I said as I smiled sarcastically. “We can manage on our own.”

“Come on Rachelle! He’s already offering. Let him take the shot. At least you’ll be in it.” Tina bantered. “You should respect the dude’s manly kindness.” Mark, as expected, seconded her motion.

“Okay! Okay!” I said to my friends. I just agreed to keep them from saying anything else that would make me the bad guy. I approached the stranger and whispered to him. “This doesn’t change anything.” I joined my friends and tried to smile. I should be happy. This kind of trip won’t happen every summer. I won’t let this pervert of a stranger ruin it.

Click. The stranger took the picture. “Thanks man.” Patrick said. “No problem.” The stranger answered.

“Hey! Um. Why don’t you come and join us?” Joseph offered. I panicked. I went behind the stranger and gestured a big “NO” to Joseph and Patrick. “It’s ok. I’m not hungry. And besides, I think your friend wouldn’t want m in your table. Thanks anyway.” The stranger said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards me. “No. Don’t mind her. Come on. We insist.” Mark inserted. I smacked my forehead with my palm and rubbed it down my face in frustration. “Well, okay.” The stranger agreed. I have such great friends.

We all sat down to eat. I sat the furthest from the stranger. The guys brought out their beer but they didn’t bring it all out. They must be saving the rest for later night. “I’m Patrick Milano by the way. This is Tina Asuncion, Mark Letigio, Joseph Soriano, and Rachelle Yuzon.“ Patrick introduced. “Hi! I’m Daniel Rivera! It’s nice to meet you all.” The stranger said, pushing back his shades.

“Your name sounds familiar. Are you one of my ex-boyfriends?” Tina asked.

“I don’t think so.” Daniel answered.

“Oh. I almost forgot.” Daniel added. He rushed back to the boat and took out this large black tray covered with foil. He set it down the table and spoke. “I made these this morning for my best friend and I to eat here. But he had to leave for some emergency so left me with all this to eat. Of course I won’t be able to eat it all.” He removed the cover. “Woaahhh!” The boys said in sync. My eyes widened as well when I saw what was under the foil. Different types of beautiful and delectable sushi organized to look even more mouth-watering.

We all started to eat. I tried to resist the temptation of getting a piece of sushi and dip it in kikoman sauce with wasabi and lime. Daniel noticed that. I think he was enjoying himself because of it. That jerk, bribing me with sushi. If I get just one piece, he’ll think I’m forgiving him. But the fact is, I didn’t want to forgive him. Ugh. Torture.

Patrick shared joke while Mark was drinking beer. Mark , with his shallow sense of humour, laughed instantly and spewed his beer on Tina . God! How I loved that. We all laughed. Tina was irritated but forgave Mark almost instantly and kissed him romantically. I hate live kissing so I looked away.

After eating, we went island hopping. Now that Daniel’s newly acquainted with use, the guys welcomed him to our group. Joseph swapped his seat with Daniel’s. So it was just me and Joseph in the “stuff boat”. The engine started and the two boats set off to another island.

“You seem to be annoyed by him.” Joseph said.

“Really? OMG! How did you notice?” I replied sarcastically.

He laughed. “But why? He seems nice.”

“He touched my ass. How is that nice? You also saw taking pictures of me, right? And you know how much I hate getting my picture taken by strangers, right? ” I rolled my eyes away from Joseph.

“Was it on purpose? “

“Um.. yeah.. of course..” I answered gawking at him.

“Oh.. so he’s a pervert.. But why did he do it then?” He asked

A thought occurred to me. “Did he put you up to this?”

“Not really, he just told me the whole story of saving your life and all.”

“ Yeah its true he save me, but that doesn’t give him an all access pass to my body.”

“But his lighter fell in your shorts.”

“Well, that was no reason to feel my ass for it.”

“Look, the lighter might be sentimental to him. Hear the guy’s side of the story.”

“A lighter? Sentimental? I don’t think so.”

“Think about it. He brings it around with him but he doesn’t smoke.”

“Well, maybe he wants to look cool. I mean he’s a guy, right? That’s what you guys love to do.”

He paused and sighed. “Look, Rachelle. We also have the capacity to be sentimental. Ninety percent of the pictures in our wallets are pictures of our wife and kids, or probably memorable pictures of us with our girlfriends. We keep greeting cards, poems and stories given to us, and when we have the time, we look through them. We keep things that were resided by those who have left us. We cherish those things because we want to remind ourselves that whoever gave us those things are important to us. “

I was silenced. I knew he just wanted good vibes from everybody but I must have ticked him off with that last sentence. Joseph stopped looking at me and stared blankly at the sky. He held the silver butterfly necklace he always wore around his neck. I understood why he spoke like that.

I forgot, that necklace was his girlfriend’s, Trixie. He gave it to her on their first anniversary. They were perfect for each other, so happy. But a few weeks after their anniversary, a grave illness took her life. Joseph blames himself but I don’t know how an illness is his fault. “Joseph, I’m sorry about what I said.” I apologized.

“It’s okay. I mean, we are individuals with different points of view, right?” He looked at me and smiled.

“But you’re right. I should give him a chance.”

Joseph smiled wider. Well, I just said that to keep him from getting all emotional.

We arrived at our next island. The attraction there was a cave filled with sea water. The fun part was that you could jump off the rocks and land on the water. To get out, you had to swim out of the cave and back to the shore. I jumped first. I took my shorts of because it was hard to swim in them. Under my shorts was my bikini. I noticed the guys watching, checking me out. I jumped quickly. I forgot to blow air out of my nose so sea water went inside it. Tina jumped wrong too. She got irritated with the sea water in her nose that she asked Mark to swim her back to shore. I stayed and watched the others. It was Daniel’s turn. He removed his camera bag and his shirt. I didn’t want to accept it but he had a seriously toned body, abs and everything. He removed his shades. I tried to look at his face but the sun coming in the entrance was hindering me. When my eyes adjusted a bit, I couldn’t accept what he looked like. He was good looking, like an angel, and the sun light from the entrance added effect.

He crouched down and asked,” Um, Rachelle. Could you please move a bit further?”

“Tsss.” I hissed and moved back so he could jump.

After the cave, we headed to another spot. It wasn’t an island. Rather, it was like a docking station for boats. Patrick was removing some snorkelling gear out of a bag. “We’re going snorkelling here. The catch is we have to swim to the spot. The boats can’t go near because they might damage the corals and kill the clams.” Patrick said.

“Where’d you get the fancy gear?’ I asked Patrick.

“My parents love to go scuba diving; my sisters and I just go snorkelling when we come with them on trips. I borrowed these from the, so don’t lose them. They’re worth a lot more than they look.” Patrick said. We all put in our gear, but just before we were about to jump in, Daniel and Patrick called our attention.

“Before you wear your mask, spit on it and rub it on the glass.” Daniel said.

“Ew! That’s gross.” Tina said. Mark took his off and, without hesitating, spat on it. “Ew Mark!” Tina scolded. “But he told me to.” Mark complained.

I butted in. “Are you serious? What will we accomplish by doing that?” I asked that because I knew he was kidding.

Patrick answered for Daniel. “We have to do it so our masks don’t fog. Scuba divers do it all the time.”

I ended up embarrassing myself. We jumped in the water. I looked down but all I see is water, nothing but blue. “Swim towards the buoy!” Someone shouted. We all swam towards the buoy, with Daniel leading us. I started to see the sand and fish. We swam a bit far from the docking station but we found the clams. “Touch them at the side of the mouth. But only on the side.” Patrick said. Joseph dove and we watched him do it. The clam shut close its mouth. He got startled and we all laughed. We saw different kinds of fish and a sea snake. We all got tired so we headed back to the boat.

The next destinations were caves. The men enjoyed them the most. They climbed the rocks and posed for pictures Tina and I were too fragile to do that so we just stood around. Daniel enjoyed the most because he was able take beautiful shots of the rock formations.