Let Me Change Your Life.

Prologue: Her.

-Amelia, I don't think we will be able to come..

I knew it. I fucking knew it.

-We would've loved to be there with you right now, but with everything that's been going on, it's really hard to find a way to be there on time for your moving day. We already tried to contact some of your dad's friends out there to see if they can give you a ride  to your dorm on time. Ame, are you listenning?

I put the camera away from my face. I didn't know if I wanted to lash out or just look at them with all the built up frustration from the past two months. I was sitting there, a week away from the start of the semester, in my living room, and both of my parents on the phone, stuck in their hotel room in another country. I was about to move out of state for college, excited to embarque in this new journey, just to find out that I was gonna go through another milestone by myself. Again.
I could feel mom's deception through the phone. Atleast I could feel sorry for her, unlike my dad, who looked at me like my reaction was exaggerated. In a sense, I knew they couldn't control the situation, but I wished that he could've acknowledge that he felt sorry for breaking another promise.

-Ame, why are you crying? You know exactly why it's complicated right now. I couldn't find an arrangement for work, and the pandemic makes the travelling horrible.

I know that.

Dad: I contacted some of my friends, they will tell me their availability in the next few days, so prepare your stuff in the meantime. I will send you money for additional costs. Ame? Can I see you?

I put myself back in the frame. This time, my face looked puffy. My eyes were shot red, and I was trying really hard to hold on to my tears, even though you could see that I was crying for the past 10 minutes. A part of me wanted to hide because I felt embarrassed, but there's another side of me that wanted them to feel guilty for leaving me by myself this way.

Mom: Amelia, don't cry..

I cracked.

Me: But you promised me!

My tears were flowing down my cheeks as I was tired to put on my brave face. I felt so hurt. So hurt to be looking at my dad for the first time in weeks only for him to tell me breaking news. So hurt to see my mom next to him, knowing that she'd left us since the beginning of the year for a « vacation » leaving us to accept the fact that she wasn't coming back anytime soon. Leaving me, my brother & my sister alone, to take care of ourselves when we never wanted our family to be separated like this. I felt like a twelve year old, asking for my parents to come back home from work after not seeing them for 8 hours. But this time it was almost 2 years.

Mom: Ame, you think we wanted this to happen? The cases are going crazy right now. I was just about to buy my ticket the other day, but after a long discussion with your dad, we thought it was useless to do so. By the time we would've arrived, we would have to quarantine for 2 weeks, and therefore miss your moving-day!

But you guys knew. You guys knew for two months. I told y'all how important that was for me. I told y'all that I wanted you guys to be there. But when do we ever think about my feelings, right? For this one time, I wanted you to be present.

I couldn't say anything for the rest of the call. We could only hear me sniffing my pain away. My mom gave me the numbers of the presumed contacts. I looked at the phone one last time at the demand of my mom.

Mom: Bye mama.

My dad looked away, not saying a word. I hung up the phone.