I was a Joey Potter

Nowadays, it’s fairly common for girls and boys to have platonic relationships. I grew up in a household with 10 male members. So, I was never at awed with boys.

I grew up watching them burp and smelling their farts on a daily basis. So I basically knew how to deal with them. My sidekick – or as he would argue I was his – was my cousin. I played with three male cousins while growing up, so I have never been intimidated by the male homo sapiens.

Needless to say, it has always been fairly easy for me to build friendships with the opposite sex. I always had male friends.

My first male best friend was Marlon.

Balon was my guy best friend in High School. Several girls were crazy about him – and I was his best friend (still am, in fact!). I remember being confronted with this group of girls who were crazy about him.

I remember sitting in front of seven or eight girls who crowded over me and told me that they were having problems with me “flirting with Marlon.”

”Huh?!”

At that time, I wasn’t yet in a Joey-Potter-mooning-over-Dawson-Leary state that I later was, so I was highly amused.

Balon and I had a good laugh over the whole thing. I still teased him over one of those girls, and his reaction never fails to amuse me.

He was the one I used to go jogging with at 5 o’clock in the morning. He used to come over and sleep over at our house, and my father wouldn’t bat an eyelash. Well, that is, after he understood that we were just really friends.

At first, my father didn’t understand the boy-girl friendship. I remember him scoffing and saying, “Lalaki? Best friend?!” As if I said my best friend was a gay two-headed alien who eats Catholic priests for breakfast.

Ryan, one of my best buddies in College, would usually come over during lunch time for chats.

This usually prompted my father to call me up and mutter, “Yaon na si Intsik.”

He honestly thought Rye was courting me – and he called him “Instik” because as per Daddy’s FYI, Chinese guys do their courting at noon.


I’d usually shout back, “Ta Dadi! Friend ko lang yan si Ryan!!!”

Guy friends have special names for me as well. Marco called me, “Tetet”. A name my closest friends call me, but Dadi was - and still is -- oblivious to this.

One night, the phone kept ringing and this was always followed with Daddy shouting, “Ta mayo ngani digdi, noy, ning Titit! Kasubago ka pa! Makuliton ka!” Poor Kiko. He should have said “Tere” and Dadi would have given me the phone immediately.

A couple of weeks ago, Bobet came over and he was looking for “Achi” (Chinese for big sister). Daddy recognized Bobet but he didn’t understand that I was Bobet’s achi. He said, “Tere, may naghahanap saimo, si Archie.” :)

Despite all the misunderstanding surrounding male best friends though, having one is pretty neat.

You have someone to listen to you when you are having boyfriend problems. You would definitely get the male opinion from his perspective. Ryan and Bobet were my sounding boards during my P and R days.

You are the only girl who he would let his guard down- well, aside from his wife or girlfriend, of course. This was not the case with Balon though who used to run to me instead of his girlfriend (Tin) when he was having problems. His mother once told him we'd likely end up together. Not happening!

A guy friend is someone who you’d allow to see you while you are wearing a ratty shirt or a pair of shorts. He’s the kind you can call at 2 in the morning without worrying if he’d come or not. You can call him several times a day without worrying that he’d block you or delete you from his list.

Yup, there are a lot of benefits to having guy friends or best friends—just don’t fall in-love with one, like I did. I had countless male friends, but I only fell in-love with one. I discovered way too late that’s the foolproof way to ruin a really good friendship.

P.S. Napansin nindo ang mga nasa pictures puro singkit? I never had a thing for chinitos. Ah-hah! There lies the revelation why I managed to maintain platonic relationships with them. :)

FYI, All three are named Marlon. Marlon Martinez, Ryan Marlon Edem and Marlon Olavides. :)