Kao
The rain fell on my head as I tried very hard to gather all the clothes and clutched it closer to my chest to prevent it from slipping through my arms.
Of all the times my back pack's lock would give up and it chose to give up now.
I bit on my lower lip as I squeezed my eyes shut and fluttered it to shake the raindrops off.
I snickered bitterly as I shook my head.
If you look at me from the outside all wet and tired with only a thin shirt on and a very weary and old house shorts with a five year old adidas slip ons-all soaking wet, on a deserted and now flooding street under a very heavy down pour of the rain on that stormy night, you would think that I was filming a very emotional MV-a music video that was meant to move everyone who would happen to see it.
But no-this isn't and MV, this is real life.
My life.
A very shvtty life at that.
And to top it all, it was my birthday.
It should have been a joyous occasion. But not for me. It stopped being one five years ago when my parents died from a car crash leaving me alone.
My parents were small time business owner who traveled a lot buying and selling farm produce.
Life was good then.
We had a house and a car, apart from the one we had to use for traveling the products from the province to the city.
We ate more than three times a day and could afford pleasure travels once in a while and I could have anything I want.
I had friends and was attending a private high school.
But a drunk driver changed everything in just a matter of seconds when his motorcycle crashed into the car my father was driving on their way to the city from a business meeting in the province.
The driver died on the spot while my parents were both unconscious in the hospital for a couple of weeks before the finally succumbed to their injuries and died almost at the same time.
I had no clear recollection of the events that had happened right after I was informed about their accident.
All I remembered was I cried the whole night at home while they were in the hospital and I refused to see them and it was only Aunty Tal, my mother's distant cousin who helped arranged everything.
After that, I was on the hospital with them day and night, not speaking and or talking to anyone-I couldn't even bring myself to drink and eat if not only for my body protesting.
I guess, over those days I was with them in the hospital, I unknowingly had prepared myself for the worst to happen.
But still, I hoped.
I prayed so hard for my parents to be okay, but in the end they didn't.
And that was when some more things changed.
Even Aunty Tal, who was very kind to me then.
She was my only relative as both my parents were also orphaned and were only child of their respective families.
She took me in and promised to take care of me.
But it only lasted as long as my parents' assets did.
She would not have made me attend college back then only if I didn't promise her I would work part time and not bother her with the expenses.
In the end, I could only give myself two years of college since my work as a part time crew at a fast food chain couldn't afford sending me to school and providing for myself and my relative at the same time.
