Chapter Text
Colet Vergara could be considered a sweet girl if you ask her parents. She would definitely be a nice girl if you ask the people around her. Other than that, she was also on the diligent side of things. University life has begun to take its toll on the 19-year-old, especially since she was nearing the end of her year's first semester. That always meant an onslaught of exams, reports, and lots and lots of papers; all of which went hand in hand with coffee, and late-night snacking.
That night, even her dorm mate Sheena was staying up late for her final paper. There were empty cans of soda all around the younger girl since she wasn't a fan of coffee. A bag of chips was on the floor, long empty of its contents since it was shared by the two as they sat side by side at the dining table their dorm had. They started close to 8 PM, sometime after dinner. It was currently almost 1 AM.
Colet was typing away at her laptop, eyes focused on the screen. She would shift from window to window, tab to tab, reading information before she would begin to type again. University life was a tedious life. It required a lot of time, effort, and well... money.
"Ate, order tayo ng pizza," Sheena suggested as she stopped typing. She stretched her arms out and gave a relieved sound afterward. "Need ko ng energy para matapos na ‘to. Plus, nagugutom na talaga ako. There's this 24/7 store called Blooming Pizza that Ate Aiah was talking about."
"Hati ba tayo sa bill?" Colet asked calmly, still keeping her eyes on the screen and her fingers on the keyboard.
Sheena shrugged, "Sige. Hati rin naman tayo sa pizza eh."
She got up from her seat and stretched some more, moving her body side to side to get rid of the soreness she got from sitting for so long. Sheena disappeared into her room for a moment, before coming out with her phone in her hand. She returned to her original seat and put the phone on loudspeaker.
As it was ringing, Sheena lightly poked Colet’s shoulder, making the latter stop typing.
"Ate Colet, ikaw na mag-order, please. Kahit ano lang sa’kin."
Colet only had to look away from the laptop screen for a second, and her eyes already felt the fatigue of staring at it for five hours straight. The piles of papers had been torture even for the hardworking girl. She glanced at the phone to see if it had connected to the pizza place yet. She wasn't even sure what to order at Blooming Pizza but figured every pizza place had more or less the same menu anyway. Cheese and bacon seemed good.
She yawned just as the ringing stopped, and a female’s voice came from the other line.
"Hello, thanks for calling Blooming Pizza! Time check, it's 1:30 AM. I’m guessing you’re a university student. Ano po order niyo?"
It took a moment for Colet to process what was being said to her. She did have time to wonder why the voice on the other line sounded so cheerful though. She was right on both counts: it was 1:30 AM and Colet was a university student. A really dazed university student.
"Yeah, uhm, nagseserve ba kayo ng cheese and bacon pizza?"
"Ma’am, nakakain na po ba kayo sa store namin before?"
Colet blinked and glanced at Sheena in case her dorm mate had, but the other girl shook her head as well.
"No," she answered cautiously and heard an exaggerated gasp on the other end.
"Ah, kaya pala! Blooming Pizza has everything!" She paused to chuckle. "So one regular-sized cheese and bacon pizza? No other toppings?"
"Yes," Colet replied just as she decided to start working on her paper again, eyes scanning through the words on the screen.
"That would be 500 pesos," the voice on the other end said. "We'll have somebody text this number, tapos kindly reply na lang po your exact address please."
"Okay."
"Salamat! Order po ulit kayo! Bye!"
"Sige, thanks, bye, I love you."
Colet froze.
Sheena began laughing beside her, muttering something like "Anteh ko, hindi mo kausap magulang mo!"
"I love you too," the pizza girl chirped, before laughing herself. "Busy masyado sa studies, hmm?"
"I'm really sorry," Colet gushed out immediately, all thoughts of doing her paper flying out of her mind as she stared at the phone in horror. "I didn't mean to say any of that. I mean, uhm, okay I meant to say thanks and goodbye pero hindi yung ‘I love you’ part, hindi sa hindi kita gusto or anything since I barely know you, pero—"
She was interrupted by Sheena snapping her fingers in front of her face. That, and by the laughter she continued to hear on the other line.
"I'm sorry," Colet repeated. She could feel her face flush with embarrassment and was thankful everything was happening through a phone call and not in person. That would have been so much worse.
"Ayos lang," the pizza girl replied smoothly. "Epekto siguro ng pagod noh? I hope the pizza helps."
Colet sighed in relief because the complete stranger she just said I love you to didn't seem to mind much.
"Yes. Thanks again."
"Padating na yung order mo. Bye!"
Sheena tapped on the end call button before Colet could accidentally say anything again.
The older girl groaned, "Grabe, hindi ako makapaniwala sa nangyari."
"Mas grabe ka, ate. Bilis mo naman magconfess kay pizza girl," Sheena teased as she was typing away on her phone. Most likely the address. "Kwento ko sa girls kung anong nangyari."
Colet pushed away the thoughts of what their other friends' reaction would be to her moment of shame. She already predicted laughter. Lots of laughter. At least the pizza girl took it well. She figured there could have been a lot more terrible scenarios that could have happened instead of the situation with the pizza girl being a too-cheerful girl who went along with it. She was glad for that.
There came a knock on the door sometime later, and Colet was the one who answered it.
"One regular bacon and cheese pizza," the delivery girl (her nametag said Mikha, Colet noticed) read off the receipt before glancing up. "For 'the girl who said I love you' apparently?"
Colet’s face heated up again as she awkwardly took the pizza.
"Natuwa si Ate Maloi sa call," Mikha said casually, grinning a little.
Colet couldn't find a proper reply to that, deciding instead to just hand the girl the money and say her thanks. She did take note of the name Maloi however. Well, at least she now knew who to completely avoid if ever she ended up at Blooming Pizza. She was already certain that one instance of total embarrassment was enough.
"Pizza para sa atin," Colet announced as she carried it to the table. Sheena immediately opened it as Colet settled herself back down on her chair, ready to work on her paper again. Until Sheena laughed, that is.
"Ang sweet naman talaga oh," the younger girl cooed as she pushed the open box towards Colet, who peered in. Her mouth fell open in surprise.
Apart from the regular bacon-infused cheese overload the pizza had, there was also a bunch of bacon toppings shaped carefully to resemble a heart, with an extra little smiley face in the center of the heart. For a split second, Colet wondered if this was technically considered extra toppings before she realized that that really wasn't the important part of the matter at hand. She felt her face heat up again just from the sight of it.
"Ate, para sa’yo lang ata yung pizza na ‘to eh," Sheena continued, earning a light shove on the shoulder.
"Kumain ka na nga, Sheena," Colet commented, taking a slice of pizza, not seeing how Sheena’s face lit up at that.
"I guess you can say you stole a pizza of her heart."
Colet groaned and attempted to push the laughing Sheena off her chair with her pizza-free hand. She was never going to hear the end of this.