death by a thousand cuts (lenrisa)

a place where we could be free (a better love sequel)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

#NowPlaying: free love - honne (dream edition)

"She laughed, and I kissed her.
"We're home," I said. This wasn't my home. We'd never lived here together before. But she knew what I meant.
"Yes," she said. "We're home."

– The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

"Ma, between you and Tita Leon, whose crazy idea was it to not meet A WEEK before your wedding?" Kiko jokes. I share a laugh with my soon-to-be brother-in-law. We joke a lot about how it's weird how we'll call each other siblings-in-law, but it's a different aspect of life. Pero sa tingin ko, broken lang talaga humour naming magkakapatid.

As expected, our mothers are going to pull a sort of ploy that would leave us holding onto our foreheads in utter annoyance and hilarity at the same time.

Of course, of course.

Of course, they would decide to not meet a week before their wedding for shits and giggles, at least that's how it looks from our end.

But according to Mama, they feel as though the time away should be enough to make them yearn for each other's presence for the rest of their golden years.

"Kiko, love, it's tradition!" Tita Reese bellowed jokingly at Kiko as he pulled some of his pang-aasar to our parents.

"Ma, the tradition is before the day of the wedding, not a freaking week! Now Ian and Ate Jess keep on coming back to the apartment to get her things, tapos nagrent pa si Tita, hirap magpalaki ng magulang," Kiko, being the only man in the family, was left anxious and worried about Ian and me, and eventually stressed on how unnecessary the carousel of back and forth is.

No one in the family owns a car and we were left going back and forth from our Mamas' actual apartment to the AirBnB Mama had rented so she and Tita Reese could be far away from each other.

"Eh.. we have our "golden savings" naman, we didn't get bashed and be made the "face of fake news"," Tita Reese and her affinity for doing the air quotes, "for us to not spend our savings in things as such now, Love. You'll understand it when you're a senior na."

"Ma, I'm already a dad. What I'm seeing are two lolas acting like their apos!" Ian laughs at how Kiko is pissed at the situation. I put my hand on his shoulders to calm him down, it's as though our parents are enjoying putting us through this misery because we once brought chaos into their lives growing up.

"True, Kuya Kiks. Charot."

I reveled at how Ian and I intervened in the conversation so smoothly as if we weren't going to get scolded by Mama once we got home. We have decided to take the week off of work to manage the parents' errands. Mama insisted on doing it herself, but we dissented.

"Haynako, mga loves... Let us be na. Distance makes the heart grow fonder."
Tita Reese insists, a familiar guffaw is heard from her iPad.

"Oh my god, Mama and Tita! Distance makes the heart grow fonder pero lagi kayo magkavideo call ni Mama!!!! Ughhhh, seniors???" Ian protested jokingly.