Free Icon of the Indecisive by Mina V. Esguerra

started talking to him.
    One guy was doing all the talking, and he was the one who hit first. It was a kick to Justin's groin, or slightly above it because the aim was off. Justin fell, hitting the pavement on his side, but was soon back on his feet because two other guys pulled him up. The loud guy then punched him again near his midsection, several times, and then finally his face. It couldn't have taken more than five minutes, and the attendant took that long to get out of his booth, yell at the attackers, and grab his cellphone to call Ford River security.
    The guys got back in their car —black, heavily tinted, new and without a license plate yet—and sped off. Justin dropped to his knees on the sidewalk.
    He was brought into the clinic at 7:55 a.m., according to the same nurse's log. His vitals were taken when he arrived, and the head nurse was the one who noted that his two patients that morning had the same pattern bruising.
    Right cheekbone, ribs, arms above the elbows, abdomen.
    Ms. Farrah insisted on creating her own report, to start an investigation on the involvement of "non-sanctioned student organizations" in the incident, but it was soon dismissed because Justin's attackers had been identified, and my injuries mysteriously disappeared within an hour.
    The nurse wrote it up instead as a coincidence.
     

Chapter 20
     
    Justin and I each got our own clinic bed, and we lay there alone together for a few minutes, when Ms. Farrah and the nurse excused themselves to discuss what they would do next.
    I knew as soon as I saw him brought in that what happened to him was what had happened to me —except it happened to me a few hours before.
    "Who was it, Justin?" I asked, without even introducing myself. We didn't have time for small talk.
    "Jessica's brother," he said, groaning into a pillow, much like I did last night. "I don't know why... He said she's pregnant..."
    "She is," I said.
    "Shit."
    "Exactly. Do you know her brother?"
    "What? No. I don't—never even met him. But I know he's a politician." He twisted with difficulty so he could look at me. "I'm dead, right? He'll kill me."
    The question directed at me was full of fear, and guilt. But it had love underneath it, and that was how he let me in.
     

     
    He liked her first, was how he rationalized it.
    Jessica was the stunning one, and he did approach them at the wine society party that first time because he wanted to get to know her. But when one conversation turned to two, and three, and more talking, he discovered that he couldn't take how loud she was. And how unsophisticated some of her opinions were, despite the money and education she grew up with. He was glad that he had never said anything that first time, because he at least got to meet Marlee too; she was always with Jessica.
    Marlee. So witty, and soft-spoken, and loving of her friend without being submissive to her in any way. Justin and Marlee bonded over long phone conversations, or just keeping a chat window open as they studied and killed time online. He preferred being with Marlee and was smart enough to choose her.
    But he was also dumb enough to not stop being attracted to Jessica.
    She sensed it, early on. He was sure that he would have never had a chance with her, except Marlee finding him interesting actually made Jessica want him. Marlee never talked about it but there was some history between them he didn't understand.
    They first kissed on Marlee's birthday. There was a small dinner with her family and friends, but she didn't want her parents to know just yet that they were together. It was one of Marlee's quirks, she just asked him to trust her on it, so he enjoyed the dinner sitting across from her, not being able to hold her hand even. Jessica sat to his right and was extremely touchy, to the point that Mrs. Manansala, Marlee's mother, figured that they were together. It was awkward.
    He drove Jessica home. She claimed to be tipsy but she started being touchy way before the