Ma bro & I haven’t fought fo’ ages. It used to be not a day wud pass when we’d grab @ tha chance to pummel each otha & wreck each otha’s stuff. Bein tha small waif I am to his 5’11 frame & not thinking of backing away as an option, I’d usually end up as tha more bruis’d sibling. Oddly enuf, I’ll also end up calmer & less piss’d than tha irritable kuya. Since those days are gone, I thought I cud manage a day wit him & tag’d along Saturday wen he was goin’ out. On our trip to Quiapo, both of us were normal & let each otha buy & see wut tha other wanted. He bought pirated CDs, identity bracelets fo’ him & his gurl, silver watches for his gurl & ma mum [he ask’d me if I wanted one too as an afterthought but I refused] and I bought a yellow Jelly Kelly watch, a silver & gold bangle & zipper earrings. Then we were off to Mega Mall. We were supos’d to go home early that day since Paver wanted us to buy pansit & came home before birthday gurl Maver leaves fo’ church but since it took 40 years fo tha letters of tha names in bro’s bracelets to be completed, we were runnin late. So wen we arriv’d, bro juz ask’d to meet me @ tha store I was ‘bout to buy stuff in while he went his own way to buy tha food as well. Well, I headed straight fo’ tha store we agreed to meet in & thirty minutes into tha store, he was already bombardin’ me wit psycho calls & txt messages on ma phone. “Asan ka na? Nakabili na ko ng pagkain”, was tha first message. But before I was even thru reading it, he was already callin me on ma phone which seem’d to be havin tha same defect ma phone had weeks before coz he can’t seem to hear me tho’ I was practically shoutin ma exact location @ him. Hence, another message: “Putsa! Tatanga-tanga ka naman! Uuwi na nga eh! Ano ba?” And then a series of calls punctuated by growls from ma psychotic bro @ tha otha end of tha line ensued [in w/c he still can’t hear me & hes thinking am not speakin on purpose] Judgin from tha elevatin’ quality of urgency & lividness in ma bro’s voice, it diden surprise me wen havin located me finally, he clamp’d an iron hand on ma fist & madly dragg’d me outa tha line towards tha exit so that he caus’d ma shades & ma new Jelly Kelly watch to toss away [taking minutes to find] & elicited gawks from strangers. And so I diden git to buy anythang @ Mega Mall becuz of lack of time & yet wen we passd tha foodcourt on our way out, bro –sorta like tryin to make it up to me- suddenly ask’d me if I wanted anythang to eat on tha way home. [I juz frown’d & said “Hindi na!” all angry-lookin’ & wounded pride] But since he insisted [“Dali na nga!”] & I was honestly famished, I headed @ tha first store @ tha bukana [which was a Nestle ice cream stall] & told tha guy behind tha counter I wanted a parfait. [I was still kinda mad so I chose an expensive dessert] But findin’ out tha price on tha list, bro told me he won’t be payin & I shud pay it ma’self since I order’d it. We ended up not buyin anythang & juz headed home but I felt I miss’d on compensation I realized I shud rightfully have fo’ gettin’ embarrass’d in fronta peepz so I kept ma eyes open fo’ food chains on tha way & finally pointed out A&W and declared “I’ll have coney fries instead” to ma tyrannical bro. He relented & bought a root beer float too. Both tha drink & fries were gone even before we hail’d an FX.