𝙼𝙾𝚂𝚃 𝙰𝙳𝚄𝙻𝚃𝚂 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 𝚃𝙾 𝙿𝚁𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙽𝙳.
Most of them are just pretentious kids inside of an old, delicate body, pretending to know better than the younger ones—pretending to be wiser.
Felicia Victoria used to think that nobody ever actually matures. Everyone just gets a little bit more experience and a little bit more time to see just how cruel the world is. But no one actually becomes an ‘adult’. They either stay kids until the day they lay quietly in their coffins—or lay peacefully with their masks on.
Yet, there were actual kids who were forced to grow up. Kids who thought they knew better because they saw the truth earlier than they were supposed to. Forced to think they were ahead, only to break and regret all the time they had wasted.
Alam iyon ni Felicia Victoria, dahil naging bata rin siya na piniling magpanggap na mas malaki siya kaysa sa mundo.
That was how she viewed the world . . . or at least that was how it was before she met him at that riverside.
Johandrille was the same as she was. Noong unang magtama ang mga tingin nila, alam niya nang pareho nilang pinagmamasdan ang mundo sa mapagpanggap na paraan—nagpapanggap na kinakaya ang lahat ng hamon sa buhay; nagpapanggap na matanda kahit pa parehong mga bata na nakakulong sa nalalanta nang katawan.
But she could only ever really hope to be wiser, to grow older and better and see everything through the lenses of a grown-ass adult. That way, she wouldn’t have failed to understand that grownups, no matter how tough they look on the outside, are still kids yearning to be seen, all hopeful and crying out for help.
How she wished she grew up a little more that day by the riverside, where both hers and his soul collided. That way, she wouldn’t be regretting everything just because she didn’t take off her mask.
Had she been wiser, they wouldn’t both be floating over the river, with only the ripples to console the void inside them, and still be pretending to the very end that they all grew up.
Only to realize that they will never be.
At least, not anymore.
BINABASA MO ANG
By the Riverside
General FictionFelicia Victoria was a complete wreck after rejecting her three-year boyfriend's marriage proposal. Emotionally distraught and almost suicidal, could her already chaotic life become any more chaotic - especially when she unexpectedly had a one-night...
