The Story of Us

‘If it’s meant to happen, then it will happen.’

Savannah’s brows furrowed, and she could not help but sigh deeply as she saw a slogan on a billboard. She was currently riding alone in a taxi to Central Park, and it was still somewhat dark at five in the morning. However, the road they were passing through was bright because of the streetlights and tall buildings.

Savannah’s eyes were puffy from crying the night before, but luckily they weren’t red. If the taxi driver noticed them, he might think she had overslept. The driver estimated the travel time to be almost five and a half hours, so Savannah decided to close her eyes, even though she wasn’t sleepy.

She had rented the taxi and driver so she could pay later at a fixed price. Therefore, she didn’t need to monitor the price meter anymore and could close her eyes whenever she wanted.

“Ma’am, is it okay if I turn on the radio? I will change it to the radio station you like…” The taxi driver asked Savannah through the rear-view mirror. She nodded while keeping her eyes closed.

“You’re a Filipino, right? A radio station plays OPM songs here…” the driver added.

Savannah’s brows furrowed for a second as she wondered how the driver knew she was Filipino. She wasn’t in the mood to converse with the driver, so she just said, “Just do what you want…”

“O-okay…” The taxi driver switched the radio station to one that usually played OPM songs and looked back to the road.

As soon as the radio station changed, a very familiar song for Savannah began playing. Its instrumental was very dramatic because of the emotional piano tone, causing a small pinch of pain in her heart.

That song was very memorable for her since Trevor sang it for her back then, even though his voice wasn’t really admirable. But it was still one of those moments that was very clear in her memory because, for her, every moment with Trevor was a memory worth remembering. She always said that to her friends whenever she told stories about him.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m all alone, wondering what I have done wrong…”

As the song started, Savannah remembered Trevor’s last text message from the previous night.

“Thank you so much, Dr. Savannah Perez. I hope to see you soon!”

One simple text message… but it hurt Savannah so much because she knew that ‘see you soon’ was impossible, that meeting him was impossible because that’s what she chose as their fate — the fate of both being alive.

“Maybe I’m just missing you all along… when will you be coming home back to me?” she thought to herself.

Savannah was sure that Trevor did not remember anything because that was the consequence of what she did — everyone would not remember everything about her and Trevor, except for her. She remembered every single moment that she had with Trevor, but it was all just memories, and there was no proof that could prove that those moments happened — no pictures, no videos, no text messages, no call histories, nothing. Every single thing that connected them did not exist.

This was the reason why when Savannah told her friends about her and Trevor, they did not believe her right away. Her friends only started to believe her when she told them some personal things about Trevor, and they were able to confirm that all of them were true when Trevor was interviewed on a famous TV show.

“There were times I felt like giving up… haunted by memories I can’t give up…” she heard from the radio.

As Savannah sighed deeply, tears started to stream down her cheeks. She wiped the tears away while her eyes remained closed.

“I wish that I never let you go and slip away, had enough reasons for you to stay…” the song continued.

She gulped and breathed deeply once again, trying to stop her tears as she opened her eyes and told the taxi driver, “Please change the radio station… I’m not in the mood to listen to OPM songs right now. Thanks,” before the emotional chorus of the song started playing.

After she said that to the taxi driver, she closed her eyes again, and the driver immediately changed the radio station to one that played new pop songs. Savannah didn’t really like pop songs, but she didn’t hate them either, so she didn’t complain anymore and just stayed quiet. After ten minutes of closing her eyes, she finally felt sleepy and slowly fell asleep.

***

After seven and a half hours — almost five and a half hours of travel time and two hours of stopover — they finally arrived at Central Park. Even though it was already sunny because it was 12:30 pm, the air was still cold, so Savannah did not remove her cardigan.

“I’ll be back after a few hours… I’ll contact you once I’m done roaming around,” Savannah said to the taxi driver as she got out of the taxi.

It seemed like the taxi driver was about to say something to her, but she had already walked away so quickly that she probably wouldn’t have heard anything he might have said.

As Savannah walked, she had no idea where she would go.

“Austin… why did your family emergency have to be today when we already made plans?” Savannah said as she sighed deeply while looking around the park. Austin, Savannah’s colleague and friend who was supposed to come with her, knew the place well because he had been there before. But because of a family emergency, he was unable to come.

After taking a few steps, she remembered that she needed to record herself so that she could have footage for her vlog. She needed to do this because she promised her subscribers that she would upload a vlog right after visiting the park. She then took out her vlogging camera, flipped the LCD screen so she could see herself, and pressed the record button.

“Good day, my Savvies!” Savannah waved to the camera with a big smile. “And as promised, I am now at—” She stopped speaking when she saw her eyes on the camera’s LCD screen.

“What the fuck…” Her brows furrowed as she zoomed in the lens of the camera to her own eyes and then looked at the LCD.

Her eyes were too puffy (which they were not before because she looked at herself in the mirror), and it looked like she had cried a lot!

She then scratched her head out of frustration, and because she did not want her followers and subscribers to worry about her, she decided to record only the places and keep all of the shots from her point of view. She had not vlogged like this before, so she was sure that her viewers would love it because it was new for her.

She started walking while holding her camera in a position that was kind of aligned with her eyes.

As she walked through the park, she saw some people walking with their families, some kids running around chasing each other, and leaves continuously falling from tall trees. There were also small food stalls. She showed all of these things through the video as she walked with her camera.

Everything was just a simple scenery… until she saw the only man she had ever loved. The man who had messaged her last night, the man she loved so much, the man she was currently loving — the man who was her best friend. The man with whom she had so many memories, but she was the only one who remembered them. The man who did not know her. The man who did not remember her. The man she could never be with anymore. The man who was already drawn in destiny and the stars, whom she would never see again — Trevor Jill.

That simple scenery immediately turned into a dramatic one for Savannah. The environment around her seemed to turn blue, and it became bluer when she saw Trevor with his girlfriend, Jillianne. Yes, she knew Trevor’s girlfriend because she was a silent stalker of Trevor. She had already read the different news articles about him and had watched every single interview that Trevor had done for Philippine television.

Savannah stared at them for a few seconds, and just when she decided to look away and walk away, she saw in her peripheral vision that Trevor knelt on the ground and pulled out a ring from his pocket. Shock and pain immediately filled her heart. The camera she was holding slipped from her hand, and then it fell to the ground as she heard Trevor ask Jillianne, “Will you marry me, Jillianne?”

Savannah’s eyesight slowly became blurry as tears started to fill her eyes. She tried to gulp and force back all those tears, but after a few seconds, those tears were already streaming down her cheeks. She wanted to cry so loudly. She wanted to make Trevor get up from the ground and stop him. She wanted to say to Trevor that she should be the one for him, but she could not do it because, technically, they did not personally know each other. That was how it had been since she decided to wipe out all of the things that she had rewritten in their story. She did not own a big part of his life anymore. Trevor did not even know her the way she knew him. She was just a famous doctor whom he was currently seeking help from.

She felt weak as she picked up her camera that had fallen to the ground just seconds ago. She immediately removed all the dirt that was attached to it, and when all the dirt was removed, she walked away so fast without even looking back.