It has been 4 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes and 56 seconds since Bruce, her fiance, broke up with her-Ivy realized when she stared at her Philip Stein. That bastard. Then she took out her mobile, checked the screen and found no signs of Bruce.
The Snake Pit is Bruce's favorite club. At least that's how she remembers it. After four sordid days of locking herself up inside her room, she went out hunting. She had hoped to find Bruce in this dark, brooding place. All the music they play here are the cliche-ridden Rock n' Roll and some weird electronic music which Ivy can't really relate to. As she came to think of it, while Bruce knew most of the people here, she knew nobody. Or even recognized anyone. This was Bruce's world. Not hers. Still, she sat on the bar and waited as a silent predator patiently waits on her prey.
Bruce never showed. It was a quarter past three and Ivy was half tipsy and half sleepy. She fell asleep face down on the formica. The bartender called for a cab. But not until after sobering up the nice lady a little with a couple of Italian expressos. He knew who Ivy was. She was Atty. Bruce Jacob's girlfriend. He did not tell her that Atty. Jacob left about ten minutes before she came in.
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5 Days ago
Bruce almost punched Tommy after hearing the news. You motherf*cker, how dare you? That's not true! Bruce was clinching on Tommy's neck with one hand, and his right was balled into a fist, preparing to strike a great blow from mid-air.
"Punch me if you want, pare, but a once a hoe, always a hoe. I'm your bro, dude. Bros before hoes, puta. I saw Ivy with that creepy guy from before. They were all cuddly and crap."
"When?" said Bruce, a man with a vast vocabulary.
"Last Tuesday, sa Eastwood while me and our buddies was about to go and see a street race between Kanzai and H3. 'Tangina pare, she's making a fool of you. I didn't want to tell you pero I know you guys are getting married...so..."
"..." Bruce released Tommy and almost fell down on his knees. But he didn't. Instead he said, "Just drop it, Tom. Just fuckin' drop it."
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4 days ago
Bruce had a rough day at the office. He screamed at his clerk, which in turn, made the poor lady cry. A big client was very unhappy. He will still spend Christmas in jail, despite the big wad of cash he gave Bruce to er, expedite the procedings. Bruce's ear was still ringing half an hour after this crook client of his banged the phone on the other end of the line. That's becuase the little clerk forgot to mail on time the pleading Bruce prepared. Bruce had half a mind to fire her, but good help, Bruce realized, was hard to find. He came home to the apartment he and Ivy was staying at. It was round elevenish. No Ivy. No dinner at the table. Bruce opened the fridge and found half a box of OJ's and some eggs. I don't deserve this shit, Bruce thought.
"Where are you?" said Bruce when Ivy answered.
"I'm with friends...here at Amplitude...and youghdrtsy, huouhggnj..." The reception was not so hot. The background music/noise was too loud. Beep. Then the whole thing got cut.
Friends. Amplitude. The latter is a dance club where hip kids go to spend their parents' hard earned cash on booze. Some yuppies also frequent there to find sex, as in any other club. Bruce can't stand that sort of place, as much as he can't stand Ivy's friends.
Bruce haven't had anything since brunch. He decided to go to a McDonald's drive-thru and order some nuggets and fries. He took his silver Honda 2000. Hunger was just another excuse to drive. Amplitude was just a few blocks away from the McDo so Bruce, against his better instincts, thought of driving by. As he did so, he smiled at the cars parked at the lot. There were Toyotas with GT wings, Mitsubishis with Spoon stickers, and cut-spring dropped Sentras with street-glow pummeling the midnight air with 99,000 decibels of low-SQ gangsta rap. The Philippines is truly the rice capital of the world. Bruce almost hit his head at his Mugen "Mickey Mouse" steering wheel when he braked when he saw Ivy getting inside a ricey '99 Honda EK with a cheap glittered red finish. Shortly thereafter, he saw a guy wearing a baseball cap sideways enter the driver's side door of the rice mobile.
"Well, fuck me..." Bruce whispered to himself. He saw shadows kissing inside the sedan since it had magic tint. Bruce then stepped hard on the throttle and white smoke engulfed everyone within the roadster's immediate radius. Bruce went home, packed his overnight bag and threw it by the passenger seat.
"d engagemnt is ovr. wer nt mnt 2 b. tnx anyway 4 d gud tyms." Bruce typed on his SMS screen.
He added "go fuck urself." at the end but decided to erase the same. Send. If it's easy for you to cheat on me, I'll make it even easier--Bruce thought.
Starting from few minutes after Bruce hit the send button, there were eighty-six messages and ninety missed calls from Ivy. Bruce never learned of it. He threw away his cellphone at the NLEX while driving towards Bagiuo City.
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3 days ago
After a quart of Jim Beam, a couple of double shots of Jack, and about six pints of beer, Atty. Bruce Jacob slept behind the wheel in a garage of a local Pine City motel. He didn't even make it up the room. The girl she was with, left him hours ago at the club, as no one is really interested in motorbreath and a limp dick.
After four hours, Bruce woke up because he thought someone hit him in the head. Massive hangover. He climbed up the stairs, stripped and showered for two hours. He thought of Ivy but realized that he doesn't really love her anymore. In fact, he doubted if he ever loved her in the first place. Ivy was easy on the eyes. Easy to love. But "what in the green hell is love, anyway? Who knows these things?" Bruce thought. After he got dressed, he went to the mall and bought a M&S shirt, a pair of Levi's annd some fresh socks. He bought a ticket and changed in the moviehouse comfort room since he knew that there's going to be less people there. Without seeing the movie, however, he started his journey back to Quezon City.
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2 days ago
Bruce was slaving at the office. The holidays were approaching and reglementary periods were ending. There were pleadings and motions to finish and a whole lot of cash to be collected. He worked till midnight. He bought a new cellular. An i-phone. Bruce had integrated his old cellphone's phone book into his car's head unit so transferring contacts were easy. He planned that he'd do it on the drive to the motel he was staying in the meantime. At least, for the time being until Ivy packs and leaves the apartment. If she doesn't, Bruce thought he'd go to the States for New year's eve. He might just celebrate it in NY's famous Times Square. He always dreamt of that when he was a kid. Back when Sinatra was still alive and crooning.
Bruce started transferring the contacts from his car to his new i-phone. He reviewed the names while he drove and some entries he found interesting.
Gabriel Reyes. Good old Gabe. Gabe was like a brother to Bruce back in college. Bruce tried to call him but Gabe didn't answer. Bruce then dialled a few more names of friends but no one answered. maybe it didn't help that it was a quarter before midnight on a thursday night.
Selena Cruz. Bruce hit the "call" button.
"Hello. Who's this?" a female voice answered.
"Uhm, hi. It's always a pleasure to hear your voice." Bruce answered.
"Bruce? Is this Bruce Jacob?" Selena asked as if she did not already know.
"Who else?"
"Hmmm, eh where's your wife Ivy?"
"She's not my wife."
"Ok, where's your fiance?"
"I dont know. I don't care."
"Bakit, nag-away kayo?"
"No. Hindi."
"Eh ba't you don't know, you don't care ka diyan?"
"Ivy and me are through. The wedding's off. Enough about her. I don't want to talk about her anymore."
Selena is sort of Bruce's ex-girlfriend. Well, sort of because they really weren't officially involved, but their closeness back in the day made everybody thought they were the perfect couple. Bruce and Selena also thought they could have been. Up to this very night, they teased why they didn't end up with each other, what could've been and why things happen the way they did, what would their kids look like, and all sorts of other cheesy stuff from their past and even those of the alternate present, way beyond Bruce had parked his car in the motel garage, stripped into his undergarments, laid on the bed, and the conclusion of three episodes of a 7th Heaven marathon. Bruce and Selena talked more than three hours on the phone before Selena had the mind to ask: "Bakit ka nga pala napatawag?" Then they both laughed. After the laughing stopped, Bruce told her, "I want to see you.""Ok. Sunduin mo ako from work."
