Pardon the "showbiz"
title. But if I got paid twenty bucks for each time someone would ask me
if my best guy friend Mark was my boyfriend, I’d be a multi millionaire by now.
So we hang out alot. Big deal. That’s what friends do. People- family, friends,
people I’ve just met for the first time just feel the compulsion to ask this
question at one point or another. My family asked me this when they started
seeing Mark around the house alot. One of my titos asked me this because everytime
he’d see me at the mall, Mark would be with me. I remember Iris asking me this
during our orientation in Med school. And Peachy told me that the reason why
she kept her distance from Mark initially, was because there were rumors going
around class that there was somethig going on between Mark and me. And again
and again, I’d proudly answer, in the most showbiz way I can, with my showbiz
smile, "we’re just friends!" Then comes the follow- up quetion,
"why are you JUST FRIENDS?" And my answer, "why not?"
Everyone needs one really good friend of the oppposite sex. And that person for
me is Mark, thanks very much.
Why didn’t we ever become more than friends? I don’t know. Maybe it was that
really creepy duffel bag he used to lug around with him all the time during our
first few days in college. Maybe it’s his hair. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve
seen/ heard/ smelled him fart way too many times. Maybe it’s because he used to
dig my sis…never mind. 
Maybe it’s because he likes tall, leggy girls.
Maybe it’s because when I see him, I don’t see a guy. I see Mark. And when he
sees me, he sees Nina. His and Peachy’s answer to why it’s ok for us to hang
out even when Peachy’s not around, "eh si Nina ‘yan eh." Gee, thanks
Mark, you make me feel sooooo much like a lady! Or maybe it’s because he’s
already perfect as just a friend. The same way that I’m already perfect as just
a friend to him.
Whatever the reason is, I’ve always been grateful to have a friend like him in
my life. I mean who else would:
- go Rich
hunting with me? (read: watch even EXHIBITION/ NO BEARING GAMES of Ateneo)
In Mark I
have a friend who tries with all his might, in his own weird way, to make me
feel better (even if he refuses to hug me. OK lang, mabaho ka naman. Joke
lang.) when I’m down. Mark’s the friend who I know would get out of bed at
three a.m. to help out a buddy. He’s the confidant, who when I used to whine to
him about why I stll didn’t have a boyfriend, would say, "Nins, it’s not
the quantity. It’s the quality. And then to emphasize his point, bring up some
friend and her current significant other and remind me that’s it’s best to wait
for THE BEST.
He’s the kind of friend who’d give you his Hugo Boss- scented towel when you
get drenched during a boat ride. He’s the kind of friend who’d share his roll
of film with you when you’ve forgotten your own camera on an out of town trip.
He’s the friend who buys the hard bound edition of a book for a friend just
because he knows you’ve wanted to read it for the longest time but were too
cheap to get it yourself. He’s the friend who’s genuinely intetrested in your
family. He’s the friend who buys you crepes by the beach for breakfast. He’s
the friend you share gelattos with, while enjoying the late morning sun, making
you realize that you’re lucky to have a friend like him.
Our friendship is defined by the multitude of restaurants we’ve pigged out in,
by videoke sessions and driving around in his car. It’s defined by soda parlors
named Rainbow Pop, breaking his car window with a rock, Post- its left on my
car window and shopping ’til we bore holes in our pockets.
I came across one of those survey/ slambook thingies sent through email that
you send out to your friends for them to answer about you. I sent one of em
things to Mark in the early years of our friendship, and one of the questions
in that particular survey was, "would you ever kiss the person who sent
this to you?" And Mark’s reply was, "why not?" I don’t know if
he was just being polite, or if ehem, he had really good taste then. But I’m
sure if he only knew how close a friend he was going to be to me, I’m sooo sure
he’d answer differently. Haha! Coz Mark is more than just a friend. He’s like a
brother. A gross older brother. He watches over me in his own strange way and
let’s me experience life with my knowing that he’ll always be there to make the
experience more fun. He gives me the guy’s perspective on things. He listens to
me, and makes me know that he’s got me covered, no matter what.
My friendship with Mark has given me this realization…that I deserve nothing
but the best. For Mark has given me the best in everything in all our years of
friendship. And in all our years as buddies, I got the best guy friend any girl
could ask for.
The only other guy I’m going to be bestfriends with is the guy I’m giving my
heart to. The guy who’s going to be my boyfriend. The guy I’m marrying. And I
pray, no I’ll make sure that whoever that guy is would get along with my best
guy bud/ gross older brother Mark. They don’t have to be best friends. He should
just be able to stand Mark.
When someone once asked me if I ever considered the possibility of Mark being
more than just a friend to me, I admitted that at one point, when people were
bugging me about the status of my relationship with him, I got paranoid and
asked myself that question. Then I looked over at Mark, and I saw him driving,
stepping on the pedal without his shoes on. Read: with his bare feet!! And it
was then that I knew that we’d always be just buddies. And we’re happy just the
way we are- being nothing but platonic, sharing nothing but brotherly love,
being just friends.
