Josh Cullen's Child

Chapter 16

"Your friends are here, waiting for you," my Mom said on the other line. Nothing's changed with her for the past weeks I haven't seen her. She's still beautiful as she is.

"Mom, I told you that I'll just stay here," naiinis na sagot ko. She kept on insisting that I should go home dahil may plano daw sina Kuya Ace na out of the country. And when you say Kuya Ace, that includes my friends in Manila. But I really wanted to stay here.

"You are enjoying there, don't you?" I smiled and nodded ny head.

"And Mom, I told you, we have training sessions so, I don't think that this is the right time to rest." I reasoned out. Good thing, she buys it.

"Alright, I will tell your Kuya Ace that you'll not going with them," she said before bidding goodbye.

Palagi naman kaming nag-uusap nina Kuya. It's just that si Mommy talaga ang passage namin whenever ayaw ng isa sa gusto ng isa. You see, Mom is our negotiator.

I walked outside. First day pa lang ng semestral break kaya nasa bahay lang ako. Sa Wednesday pa kasi namin binabalak ni JC na gumala because he has things to do. Wala din naman akong ideya kung saan niya ako dadalhin. Basta sabi niya lang, siya na ang bahala.

It's funny, nasa bahay lang ako but I want to stay here and there's Kuya na inaaya akong pumunta sa Iceland pero umayaw ako.

I swim on our pool and when I got tired, I took my lunch on the hut. When night came, JC arrived.

"Tara," and just like the usual, he pulled me without even telling me where are we going.

He just brought me in the town. We ate mami and such street foods. Unlike the usual town during night, buhay na buhay ito ngayon. May event daw kasi.

Just like that, my day ended. Quite simple but one of the memories that I can treasure.

It was midnight when we got home. I took a half bath first before going to sleep.

"Take a picture of her!" The voice of a girl whispered. I am still sleepy to open my eyes so I kept it closed.

"She's still beautiful even she's sleeping," a guy commented. All the people inside chanted yieeee.

That's when I realized that something's odd. Naabalikwas ako ng bangon at mga pamilyar na mukha ang bumungad sa akin.

"Good morning pretty!" Ly greeted and jumped on my bed to hug me tight. I almost got choked.

"You have a lot of things to explain." Mataray na sambit ni Mags habang naka-cross arms pa sa gilid ng kama. I scanned the whole room.

My friends are here. Lyla, Margareth, Faye, Sophia, Diem, Aia, Carson, Wyatt, Gray,  Landon, Xander, Hayden, Timothy, amd Kuya Ace' dear friend, Bryce.

It took me a lot of time to realize that they are here in San Lorenzo. "I thought, you are all going to Iceland?" If they are going, they shouldn't have wasted their time with me here.

"Duh, use your brain. If we are going to Iceland, we aren't here. Well, might as well think that we are your conscience," Sophie said sarcastically. Alright, I am well aware that I just ghosted them all. But what can I do? I am  avoiding Bry. If I contacted to any of them, surely, they'll know where I am and I don't want Bry following me here. That crazy ass!

There I saw him looking at me with a wide smile.

"Amber, I love you." That phrase played on my mind. I told him that he should stop it because I only see him as a brother and I don't want to hurt him but he was too persistent. He kept on bugging me.