"Speak. I will listen." says the woman, watching the girl struggling how to start.
"Why do you speak like it was all my fault? I don't care about our past anymore," she felt pang in her chest as soon she uttered those words. She thought that her feelings for the woman betrayed how she stand for something that will value herself as a human.
All this time she realized how she fooled herself by telling that she was free from all the things that inflicted her, even the person who caused it.
But she was wrong.
"Then stop bringing them back," the woman calmly said.
"I don't," she paused, "mali bang gustuhin ko lang malaman mo kung gaano mo ako nasaktan noon?" her tears fell again. The woman swallowed lightly as she couldn't stand seeing the girl crying, but she thought that it wasn't like as before-- that she can freely pull the girl for a hug-- to comfort and assured her that everything will fall into places and she's going to be fine. She's grown up, not the ordinary girl she will involve herself into-- but a girl that her son will marry, a person that her son cherish the most.
Irene remain silent while looking at the dark area of the ocean, waiting for the girl to talk again.
"I sometimes think that maybe you didnt love me, that you just treated me as a joke--and you considered our relationship as platonic even though something happened between us before," she sniffled, causing the woman to look at her.
Irene took step forward and tell that the girl's thoughts were far from how she treasured their little love story eight years ago.
"I've never treated you that way," the woman delicately uttered.
"But you made me feel it," Ariella painfully said, staring back to the woman. Her eyes were already tender from crying, "ang tanga ko na umasa ako na babalik ka pa, kahit alam kong napakalabo na," she already let out a consecutive sobs as she couldn't take it anymore.
The woman step closer and was about to held the girl's hands but she abruptly step back.
"Do you have any idea how much you hurted me?!" resented the girl and rested her palms in her knees, feeling drained from how she resisted everything inside her.
Ariella
Year 2012...
I gasped, and I felt like I rose from temporary death. The blinding gleam of a light in the ceiling made me shut my eyes tightly, the sounds of a frantic, distinct voices from the room deafens me. All I know is..I'm alive.
Single drop of tears rolled down at the side of my face, feeling thankful that I still woke up in a torturing nightmare of my life.
Doctor and nurses rushed to my hospital room and monitored my condition, my heartbeat and the state of my whole body. I could even hear the low sobs of my mother.
"Your daughter successfully fought for her temporary coma, she's already stable and we're hoping that it'll continue until she can already get up and walk," the doctor says after some minutes of checking me.
"Thank you so much, Doc," my mother replied, holding the doctor's hand.
After that, my mother went to my bed and asked a lot of questions of what I feel and what something she could do but I just stare at her and turned my gaze to nowhere. My body felt very tired, making me not to speak.
It took me an hours before I finally went back to my full consciousness, "mom.." I weak uttered, she immediately went closer.
"What is it, anak? Are you okay? Do you feel hurt?" she consecutively asked.
