After Her 18th (Ongoing)

Prologue

I looked around my room, and to my luggage on one side. I've already finished packing for my flight tomorrow.

It's been a week.

A week... at hindi ko na talaga siya nakita.

Abigail FaceTimed the group, telling us about her dorm and she also gave us a tour of UPenn. I was waiting for her to at least mention something, anything about him... but a topic about him never came up.

Alam ko na hindi ko na dapat siya iniisip. Nagkasundo na kami, and that was how we ended. We had a closure and it wasn't even a breakup, it wasn't anything like that.

We just had the mutual decision of understanding that our paths may no longer cross again. He had a life he had to live, and I had mine to discover.

Nothing really revolved around just us. We couldn't be selfish, I couldn't be selfish. I can't make him choose between me or his life that he lived before he even met me.

Masakit? Oo.

Masakit parin hanggang ngayon. Palagi pa rin siyang nasa isip ko, hindi siya madaling kalimutan. Pero hindi ko naman hahayaang lamunin ako ng kalungkutan sa pag-alis niya.

We went our separate ways, I accepted that.

I just had to give myself time to fill the gap he left in my heart.

I heard a knock on my door pulling me away from my thoughts, "Isla."

"Come in, dad." Bumukas ang pinto at iniluwa nun si daddy.

"I guess you're all set?" Anito nang nakita ang mga bagahe ko.

"Yup. I think I got everything." Umupo siya sa higaan ko kaya tumabi ako sa kaniya.

"College, huh?"

I raised my brow at him with a smile, "Are you giving me the talk?"

Tumawa siya habang naiiling, "Should I?"

"I think mom already did that way before all of this." Sabay kaming natawa dahil totoo naman 'yun. We both know how mom is.

"I just want you to enjoy life. You're eighteen now, a lot of things will be different." I know. Even before I became eighteen, I already experienced different things from my usual day to day life. Sometimes I think it was a preparation for something big.

"Yeah... Legality." It's just one word, but as a woman my age, it matters.

Turning eighteen is not just something we celebrate for the extravagance of it. Once we enter that stage of our lives, we are being introduced to the real world. The world of maturity, the world of decisions, the world of duties and responsibilities.

With the coming of this age, we are being tested. Here, our eyes are being opened to the challenges that'll come to our lives as adults... and it prepares us.

At eighteen, it's like we're in the middle. We can enjoy being teens but also understand our new roles in life.

Inakbayan niya ako at hinila palapit sa kaniya, "But you'll always be my baby girl." Of course. I'll always be a baby to my parents, kaya nga alam kong may mga bawal pa rin sa'kin kahit na nasa tamang edad na ako.

I wrapped my arms around his waist, "I know."

"How was I not invited here?" Sabay kaming napalingon sa pinto at nakita si mom na nakapamewang habang nakatingin sa'min.

"Come here." Dad reached out his arm out to her and her narrow eyes were immediately replaced with a smile.

Mom and Dad helped me settle in my dorm in campus, but they didn't stay long. Agad rin silang umuwi sa sumunod na araw kasi may trabaho pa si dad at naintindihan ko naman 'yon.