I am the kind of guy who doesn’t give a damn about what and how other people think, what they say, how they look like, or even what they are, as long as they do not affect my state of affairs, i.e. I mind my own business.
I am currently dating this guy named R***. He works as a quality manager in a TNC call center. I happened to be sick early this morning so I can’t drop by his office before his shift (I live in Evangelista St. while he works in Ayala Avenue), so he went to my place instead. His friend F**** tagged along.
I was there on my bed, lying down, when one of them called me. I hollered for them to get in as I am having a hard time moving. This guy F**** gave this scanning look at my boarding house and gave that sly smile. He kinda raised his eyebrows, and asked me, in the most social-climbing accent I have ever heard;
“Do you have a lighter?”
“No.”, I replied.
He shifted glances at my housemate and asked;
“Do you have a lighter?”
My housemate nodded sidewards.
I could feel the self-pity he’s feeling.I tried to control my anger for R***’s sake. They went to the stairs for a smoke. Being the Filipino that I am, I felt it is polite to actually talk to them a bit before taking a bath and go to work, so I sat alongside them.
F**** restarted the primadonna portion:
“Uh, Joey, I’m sorry for the term, but, this place is horrible.”
Now I’m pissed. Very pissed.
“Look, F****, if you don’t like this place, you can leave right now.”
He was stupefied.
“You know what F****, to say that this place is horrible is not just saying that this place is horrible. It also implies that we people who live here are so pitiful and stupid because we live in a purportedly horrible place. Now F****, you are here in what you call a horrible place, so that makes you stupid too, since you chose to be here. I know that you didn’t wanna intentionally tick me, but what you did is just plain tactless. You cannot blame people for being forced in a situation where they cannot promptly do anything about. It’s just a plainly uneducated thing to do on your end. And everyone knows that being poor is better that being uneducated, right?”
Further Silence ensued, and R*** broke it.
I stopped, out of respect for R***, ayaw ko lang talaga sa mga matapobre, at akala ba niya di ako marunong mag-english?
I will not be him.
