Say what?

I replaced the receiver back on the phone. I had just been talking to Don about an assigned case, Lambino v. Comelec, and I had given him background on the national political context that surrounded that particular trial.

Kitin, then a sophomore in Ateneo, looked up from her position on the living room floor. “Uy…who was that?” she asked.

“Nobody,” I answered quietly.

ABC, who was also a freshman like me in UP Law, was sitting in front of her PC and she overheard. “Uy…,” she said in turn, as she joined in the conversation. “When a person says ‘nobody,’ it’s usually a ‘somebody.’”

I rolled my eyes. We then moved to the dinner table and prepared ourselves for dinner. Clyde had joined us by then.

Kitin and ABC pursued the conversation. “So, who was that?” they asked.

“Just a friend from law school,” I replied, shrugging. “We were talking about an assignment, that’s all.”

“He’s testing the waters,” ABC pronounced.

“What? No…” I uttered in genuine surprise. “He was asking about an assignment. It was schoolwork, that’s all.”

“I’ve seen my brothers do it,” she said. “That’s how they do it. When they’re phoning a girl, taking the time to talk to them on the phone, it’s because they like her. They’re testing the waters.”

“Well, it’s not that. We’re in law school,” I said in earnest, as though it explained everything. “We need each other. We help each other out. That’s why we’re talking on the phone.”

“Is school all you ever talk about?” ABC challenged.

“Well, no, of course not,” I said, stating it as though it were the obvious.

“What else do you talk about?”

“Well, what we are eating,” I replied, matter-of-factly.

ABC made an expression on her face as if to say, ‘see?’ I rolled my eyes. A moment later, we moved on already from the topic.

July '07