Best Regards, Feli

Chapter 21

Fatima went home one weekend so it was an opportunity for them to have some kind of sibling hang-out.

The five of them went to the community park. They chose a small food stall with makeshift tables and chairs. There were huge multi-colored umbrellas placed in the middle of each table there.

Since she was the only one who had a source of income, she offered to treat them with street food and soft drink.

"Why did you even bring that?" Feli asked, pointing at J.R.'s graduation photo.

Her brothers carried J.R.'s framed picture of himself wearing the high school graduation coat and cap, and placed it on the vacant chair.

"This way, it'll feel like the six of us are complete. It strengthens the sibling bond," August replied.

Her brother asked the store clerk to take a photo of all of them with J.R.'s presence symbolized by his grad pic.

Then, August immediately sent the group photo to J.R.'s Facebook messenger. Felicia knew that his brother's talk about sibling bond was pure bull crap. He only carried the grad pic to goad J.R. and to make him jealous that he wasn't present in their ritual bonding.

Consequently, Fatima kept on telling her that she was so stressed from all the exams she had in the past months. Still, the stress wasn't evident on her sister's face. Feli wondered how Fatima was able to be radiant with her glowing brown skin and bouncy hair.

"You shouldn't wonder, Ate. Aside from the fact that I take care of myself, my boyfriend is also taking care of me," she wiggled her eyebrows.

"Fatima!" She hissed. "There are kids around," she whispered, as she glanced at Aaron, Andre, and August who were seated around the table.

"Tss. What do you think of us? Children? I understand what taking care means in your context," August replied.

Then Aaron frowned. "Is there another meaning for it?"

"Sure. It means that Ate Fatima and her boyfriend are—"

"Oh, would you look at the sunset, Aaron! It looks like the sun is setting," Andre scrambled for words to interrupt August in time.

Feli narrowed her eyes at August while Andre and Aaron decided to take photos of the sunset wherein the sun looks like its setting. She would've rolled her eyes at Andre's lame attempt of distraction, but surprisingly, Aaron's attention was drawn by the sky.

"What? Aaron's fourteen so he must've had some ideas about such things. You'd be shocked by the amount of information we get from the internet these days," August said nonchalantly.

"What sort of information?" Feli asked suspiciously.

"For example, porn. It gives a lot—"

Feli hit her clenched fists on the table. "I can't do this. Fatima, take over this conversation."

She couldn't believe it. Never in her existence did she think that her younger brothers would talk to her about this. Sure, August wasn't pure minded but Andre was shy and quiet. And Aaron was like a saint and just too innocent, still a baby in her eyes. She didn't want to face the reality that they were teenagers who are a breadth away from being adults.

"Relax, Ate. It's reasonable for teenagers to be hormonal and curious. They're in the later part of puberty, after all," Fatima tried to make her calm.

"It's only natural, Ate. You're not our parents. You're our Ate so we should be able to open up about these kinds of things with you," August added.

Feli was about to be touched by her brother's words. She was about to be joyful knowing that her little brothers are comfortable enough to talk about personal stuff.