"...okay, bye."
I just got off the phone after talking to a friend for about half an hour (or an hour. I can't really keep track.) Around 1/4 of the time were spent saying "Hello? Hello? Hello?" on and on and on because of our network provider keeps effing up. Or is it just my phone. She said she can hear me even though I can't hear her. Tsk. I probably need a new phone. It was my first time calling her and I was nervous as all hell. But I enjoyed talking to her. Even though I have to constantly move around the backyard just to get a proper signal, even though I have to struggle to understand her words through the static and sudden volume drops, I enjoyed hearing her voice. Her soft, gentle voice that mirrors exactly how I've come to know her. Even when she's just saying a string of "Hellohellohellohellohello..." to check if I can hear her was so precious, to me at least. We've talked through the morning yesterday, but I wasn't able to hear her speak, so it's very refreshing to hear from her again.
I told her I'll be walking to the nearest McDonalds to eat before we hang up. The "nearest" McDonalds is not exactly "near" per se. It's around a 20 to 30 minute walk from our house. Coincidentally, it's just a road's width away from my high school. I've never really been to that branch even though I grew up here. That McDonalds simply came out of nowhere just a few months ago and I haven't been able to visit it even once. Needless to say, I haven't visited my previous school as well in those "few months". It's been what, half a year, I guess, since I've visited. I look at the time in my cellphone.
8:57pm.
...
"This'll be a good walk.", I thought to pump myself up.
Before heading out, I got a few of my songs from the laptop to my cellphone so I can listen to them while walking in the dark. Some of them were bad copies, stopping midway when I play it. I really wanted to listen to them so I re-downloaded most of them. As I'm wasting time sitting and waiting, I'm starting to get impatient. 9:27pm. Dammit. I checked the download bar. 95%. Come on, come on....Done. I didn't even bother checking them. If they don't play right, then fine. Whatever.
I was about to turn off my laptop when I realized that I might be gone for a while. I can use that idle time to continue downloading the gift I'm giving to a friend (it was 129 GB), so I plugged it in on the wall and carefully took out the batteries so as not to overcharge it. I grabbed my keys, wallet, plugged my earphones in, changed my shorts, picked up a jacket and headed out.
9:38pm.
It was particularly windy outside so I immediately put my jacket on as I stepped outside. I tucked my hands in my pockets and let out a cold breath. I used to walk from my house to my school. Not on school days though. I had my school bus to take me to and from the school. Just whenever I feel like walking. When I've got nothing to do and I want some time or myself, I walk.
I usually segment the "journey" to school into 4 parts. The first part is inside our village. Full of houses and stores from both sides of the road. Cars come and go and I have to constantly look behind (or in front, depending on which side of the road I'm in) for cars, trucks or buses that may come slamming at me. In case you're wondering, "Trucks and buses? In a village?", yes, that's not a mistake. The part of the village where my house is lies on the "main road" that runs from the express highway tollgate near my school to the town complex that in turn is a part of the main highway that goes either to the Metro or the deeper parts of my province. The "main road" is pretty much a shortcut from the expressway to the busy part of our area so we get our fair share of vehicles passing through us. Buses actually stop IN FRONT of our house. The only thing missing is a sign that says "Bus Stop" painted on our walls. Pretty irritating at times. And very dusty, too.
To get to my school (in this case, McDonalds), I just have to follow the said "main road" all the way to the expressway's tollgate. The way I remember it, the end of the road is simply an expanse of grass and ridiculously wide converging roads. Our high school sits pretty, grand and huge in the middle of nowhere.
Walking the first leg is nothing special. It's just like walking through the sidewalk of the city or some urban area. Realizations about life and the universe rarely come to me at this point. I even get irritated at times because of the smoke that gets blown to my face by all the cars. I hate smoke. This time wasn't an exception. There was only one car that blew smoke at my face since it's already pretty late at night, so I let it pass. I also get to walk with other people in this part of the journey. But since I walk (generally) at a faster pace than most people I know or encounter, I walk past them after a few minutes. One guy walking came to view when I turned the corner. By this time, I'm already singing energetically to a cover of Home by Phillip Phillips playing in my cellphone. He was treading the same direction as I was. I'm not quite sure if it's me that's too fast or it's him that's too slow, though. I just know that I want to overtake him as soon as possible because if I don't, he'll hear me belt out my powerful solos and he'd think I'm weird and annoying and I don't want that.
9:46pm.
I get to the arc of our village. This marks the edge where our village, and the first leg of my journey, ends. The night is just getting started.
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