Totally Hooked

Chapter 26: V&V

All of us was so shock about the revelation Vodka made, that no one spoke up. Vodka stood up straight and one by one she turned us facing a big flat screen tv. She then approached a laptop placed on top of a table in the middle of the room we were in. Tahimik kaming lahat as she clicks away on her laptop. The tv then projected her laptop screen and what greeted us was an old picture.

It was a picture of two girls, both in pigtails, one wearing glasses while the other one wasn't. The images changed showing picture after pictures of the two girls growing up until they were about ten. Then the slide show stopped.

"See, hindi ako ang naging kaklase niyo." She said with the utmost disgust on her voice. No one dared to oppose her because her anger is reflected clearly in her eyes.

"But it doesn't mean na hindi ko alam ang ginawa niyo sa kanya." dagdag pa nito with a matter-of-fact tone in her voice.

"Wala kaming ginawa sa kanya." Sabi naman ni Shin with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Oh, come on! You were the worst!" her voice suddenly rose habang dinuduro si Shin.

"You all made her feel that she wasn't enough. She was always insecure about herself especially when our parents got annulled. She stayed with our dad and my mom took me. They stayed here in this very house." All of us sat there quietly as she tells her story, hanging to every word that leaves her mouth.

"We were so heartbroken when they told us the news. We were together for our whole lives so, imagine the pain we were in, at nine years old we were separated from each other. We were taken away from our best friend, our sister, our other half." She said with a  misty expression on her face as if remembering all the details of the past.

I stayed with our mom at our old house and my dad and Veronica moved here. Kahit na malayo kami sa isa't isa, we still talked every day. Shared everything about anything and anyone. What we did? Who we met? Do you know how happy I was when she mentioned you Miggy?" she asked focusing the question to Miggy.

"Hindi ko man siya nakikita pero rinig ko sa boses niya every time we talk through phone, how much she adores you. And for the first time in my life I knew how confident my sister was feeling.  Hindi pa kita nakikilala pero I liked you back then because you clearly make my sister happy. 

Throughout the year, wala siyang ibang bukambibig other than how good you were to her. Nakahinga ako nang maluwag knowing that someone is taking care of her. I could tell from the way she talks about you that she likes you, possibly in love even, but the year after was a downward spiral for her. 

Being in a new class without you, she got scared. Since hindi ka na niya kaklase, she was a bit scared. Scared to lose the small piece of happiness, attention, connection and interaction that she has with you. Kaya laking tuwa niya nung pumunta ka sa classroom niya on the first day of school, but her happiness turned sour when she realized na hindi siya ang pinuntahan mo, instead you came there with another guy to wait for two other girls." Then she reverted her gazed towards me and Denise na halos magkatabi.

"Thinking that she was losing you, nagdecide siya to put some work in showing you how she feels and maybe, just maybe you feel the same way at ikaw ang unang magtapat sa kanya. She gave you gifts, tried talking to you almost every day, she never did anything to harm you. Pero anong napala niya?" She asked and threw daggers at Shin just by the way she looks at him.

"This guy right here, called her names, and even said that she was a stalker. She tried befriending these two, but she was always treated as an outcast every time she engaged them in conversation. When she bumps into you outside of school, no one starts a conversation with her. You just ignore her hanggang matapos ang pag-uusap nila ni Miggy at muli siyang iiwang mag-isa." Her voice started to rise, and it actually made me tremble and shake.