while we were walking with our other friends one midnight, u suddenly walked to a store and bought a cigarette. that's just the way u always do it, u leave without a warning, then u return just as silently as u left, and already smoking. but i wanted to comment on your habit once again.
u told me last year that u would quit smoking, i reminded u. then u explained that one could not just stop smoking, that it's a gradual process. u said u have reduced the number of sticks u consume in a day, from 10 to about 5 now. u were very proud of that. i noted that it was fairly good considering that it's an addiction that's hard to fight. our other friends also encouraged u to work on it harder.
we were walking on. i was recalling that time last year when we were conversing about new year's resolutions. u didn't have any so u asked me what resolutions i'd make if i were u. u said u would not get offended with whatever i come up with. u liked the only 2 resolutions i suggested so u made them as your own for that year. i wondered if u remember that but i did not bring it up. it had been over a year then as we walked on while u smoked away.
then u declared, with a cackle as if u were joking, that u’d finally end the habit “pag may nagpatigil”. i held back any response i might have given that time. i dared not clarify what u meant by that because u could have meant someone. and not anyone. had i been certain it could be anyone, i might have risked my worth on u again. just one more time. but then it could be someone. so i kept the mumblings in my head until we parted ways.
(this is for “w” who i loved. i let go of him some years back but there were relapses of my non-platonic love for him.)
