Chapter 4 Friends

"Mia," Lorena called out to me as I entered her house in Quezon City. I had travelled quite a distance from Makati City to get here, where we live.

The first thing my eyes searched for was Yunnie.

"Where is Yunnie?" I asked her.

Only Chimmy and Lomi were present.

"Oh, so you're looking for your girlfriend right away without even acknowledging me," Lorena pouted.

I sat down on the sofa. "Where is Yunnie?" I asked again.

"Hey, you're the girlfriend. Why are you looking for her at our place?" Chimmy replied.

"She was with me earlier," Lomi said, busy typing on her cell phone without looking at me.

"She seemed in a hurry. I think they're going to Siargao. She said she couldn't reach you."

I checked my phone again, but there were no texts or missed calls from her.

"What will she do in Siargao?" I inquired, as she hadn't mentioned anything to me.

"Maybe she'll go swimming," Lorena suggested.

"She'll be looking for Nemo," Chimmy added with a laugh.

"Are we supposed to laugh?" Lomi sarcastically asked while trying to force a laugh.

"I wasn't trying to be funny," Chimmy suddenly turned serious.

"She's having a family bonding trip, and you're not there," Lomi stated.

She didn't mention anything to me.

"She's feeling down. She said she tried contacting you for three weeks, but you didn't text her either," Lorena sat beside me.

They didn't know what had happened to me, and I didn't tell them.

"When are they coming back?" We haven't been in touch.

I miss her.

Please proofread and edit the text for any grammatical or contextual errors.

"We thought you two had broken up," Lorena said.

"Why are you frowning?" Chimmy asked Lomi. "Did you and Sam have another fight?"

Lomi was frowning again. They always argue with each other, her girlfriend included.

"I'm going home," I said without enthusiasm.

I just wanted to be at home. I think I've gotten used to Ethan's presence. I wonder what that idiot is up to now.

My phone beeps.

"You didn't bring your tumbler," the text reads.

"I wish I had someone to text me," Chimmy said.

"Where's your girlfriend? It's a miracle she's not with you," Lomi said.

"She's busy," Chimmy replied shortly.

"I'm going home, guys."

I really have no appetite for this. I was excited to come here to be with her, only to find out she's not here.

"Do you want me to slap you?" Lorena said.

I pouted and leaned back on the sofa.

"You seem to have lost weight," Lomi observed, looking at me.

"Let's just drink. I'm annoyed with my boyfriend," Lorena suggested.

"Don't drink too much alcohol," I read in Ethan's text.

"Are you going to be abandoned by her and go back to your real wife?" Chimmy teased.

"Lomi, why don't you get us some drinks since you're the one complaining?" Lorena ordered, and Lomi obeyed.

"You know, you're something else," Lorena said with frustration. "I can't stand you being a tomboy." She said it with a restrained tone.

"I can't drink," Ethan explicitly told me not to drink yet because I have a UTI and it's severe.

I didn't even know I had a UTI. If that incident hadn't happened, we wouldn't have known.

"You can drink later. Don't add to the problem, Mia," Lorena said with a grumpy look towards me.

She knew that we would be drinking when I told her I would be with my friends.

"She won't leave me hanging, and they're already working on their annulment with her ex-husband."

Lomi placed the drinks on the centre table.

"You don't have any stock of junk food, Lor," Lomi commented.

She returned to my spot. "What do you want? I'll order," Lomi grabbed her phone again.

"Oh, you're just too easily fooled by men. He didn't love you; if he did, he wouldn't have made you the other woman!" Chimmy said forcefully.

"Loser!" Lorena was no longer in the mood.

"Boom bars!" I teased Lorena, "So you're the mistress, huh?" She was really annoyed. "So you're just a mistress," I taunted.

"Huh? Me?" She pointed at herself. "Look at yourself." She raised an eyebrow at me. "If I'm the mistress, then you have a mistress too."

"Oh, different!" Chimmy said, laughing.

I fell silent.

It was true, though.

"So, what? Are you staying silent now?" She challenged me.

Lomi handed us a bottle of alcohol, and I took it.

"The mistress and another person both have mistresses. You're not any different from each other," Lomi typed seriously on her phone.

"What do you want to eat?" Lorena changed the topic.

"Anything," Chimmy replied.

"No food with the name 'Anything'," Lomi retorted.

"We have one," Chimmy said.

"How about pizza? What do you guys want?" Lomi asked us, ignoring what Chimmy said.

"Okay, anything," Chimmy said.

"Whatever you want to order," I said.

"If I ever have a restaurant, I'll name it 'Lomi the Hot Beef.' And the menu items will be 'Anything,' 'I'm Still Full, Honey Bear,' and 'Bebi,'" Chimmy said jokingly, laughing.

Lomi looked at her awkwardly, and I just watched them intently as they exchanged glances.

"Bebi? Isn't that what you used to call each other?" Lorena asked out of nowhere, and both of them looked away. They were ex-lovers. Now, they each have their own new girlfriends, but they remain friends.

"Mi, why don't you just stay here and sleep? It's far for you to go back home," Lorena suggested to me.

"Sure, as long as your boyfriend doesn't come over."

They can get really loud at night. I once slept over here, and coincidentally, her boyfriend also slept here, and I couldn't sleep because of the noise they made.

"He's not coming. We had a fight."