Queen of the Clueless (Interim Goddess of Love) by Mina V. Esguerra Page A

had said "serial killer's hideout." The blood momentarily drained from his face, but then he sort of shook it off.
    "You okay?"
    "Yeah, it's just... I've been to these things before. Not my favorite."
    At that moment I got treated to an instant flashback of a friend of his mother coming on to him during the salsa, and tried not to smile. "We should have a secret signal, like if you need me to rescue you."
    "I'm just going to say 'Hannah, rescue me,' is that all right?"
    I wish I knew what to say to make this a better memory for him, but my phone had started to ring.
    Crap, my mother.
    She usually called on Friday night. Because every few weeks I'd travel back to Manila for the weekend, and she'd check in the night before to find out if I was coming.
    "Mom," I said. " I'm not coming over this weekend."
    " Oh, okay, I thought… well why not?"
    " I'm actually in a birthday party right now? Sol's mother Tita Annie? I told you about her before."
    " Sol's mother is in Manila?"
    I never lied to my mother. She and I had each other, relied on each other completely since my dad left us. Even when the truth hurt, I never hid it from her. So even though every other teenager already in too deep would probably do the opposite, I still told her the truth. "No, I… I'm actually in Naga right now."
    There was a pause. And then, " What? How did you get there?"
    " I flew."
    " How did you… you've never been on a plane!"
    " It was easy, I got a ticket, it's not that expensive and I had the allowance saved up from the scholarship…"
    " Did you go by yourself? That's just… I can't believe you did this without telling me."
    I looked over at Robbie, who had turned away out of courtesy and was checking out the dolphin, and imagined my mom's anger levels rising already. "I'm actually with, um, Sol. And Robbie. You remember Robbie, right?"
    " Yes I remember Robbie. What is this, an out of town date? You were planning to tell me this when?"
    " I'm sorry , it was just really sudden. And it's not like that, it's not a date—"
    He pretended not to hear that, but I knew he did, and I knew that it jabbed at his heart a little.
    "What could be so important that you'd hop on a plane without telling me?"
    " It's a long story… I'm sort of staging an intervention… Sol's boyfriend is really bad news and I'm trying to get her to, well…"
    " Hannah, I can't believe this. I've told you… you can't just tell people how to feel about things. Are you seriously telling me that you went all the way to Naga because of what you think Sol should do about her boyfriend?"
    My mother didn 't know I was the Goddess of Love. For now. But what she said still stung. My eye actually twitched.
    " Mom, we're actually in the middle of Tita Annie's party right now. Can I call you later? It's really not as bad as you think."
    " Call me as soon as you can, Hannah."
    " Yes, yes I will."
    I dropped the phone into my bag and didn 't care where it fell.
    " Was she mad?" Robbie asked.
    " Yeah."
    Breathe , I told myself. You can do this. But it didn't help.
    " What did she say?" Robbie was now right in front of me, obstructing what would have been my entire space to breathe.
    " She said she told me before not to tell people what to feel."
    " You do this a lot?"
    I cringed. "Yeah. I kind of started with her."
    Robbie took my hand. "Look, you came over here with an instinct, and you care so much about your friend. You might as well finish what you started."
    " But maybe I can't," I said. "Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe he's too much for me to handle, and I should just let him and Sol figure it out. It's not like she asked me to do this or anything."
    " I think that's what makes you a better friend. You don't wait for someone to cry for help. If you think you know what needs to be done, you should do it."
    Did Rob bie really believe that?
    He did.
    I had his keys, was at his wheel, he was my passenger. There was something… empowering about this.
    " You're the best person I've ever met," I