Coping Mechanisms

Chapter 1

Elerry's pov

"Tine, time is running really fast noh? parang kahapon lang flight pa natin to Manila, tas ngayon uuwi na tayo sa Mindanao." sabi ko kay Tine.

"Mamimiss ko silang lahat, lalo na si ano." sagot niya sakin with a sad smile.

I sighed and started overthinking about what awaits us when we arrive at our hometown.

Nasa plane na kami ngayon, pauwing Mindanao. We both carried a heavy heart hanggang sa pag arrive namin dahil we couldn't prevent reminiscing all the memories that we've shared together with all our friends there.

We needed to go home dahil back to school na. Tine and I were just silent throughout the ride. I know she's crying because I could hear her little sobs. Hindi ko na siya pinansin kasi kaya niya na sarili niya, masakit den yung ulo ko sa byahe. Bahala na siya!

When we arrived sa mismong place namin, we can't help but to get worried knowing na back to normal ulit kami.

Our life in the province wasn't easy at all. We get to wake up very early to do our chores—which is really fine to us because it's our responsibility to help since we're not successful enough to provide the daily needs of our family.

But the daily and unecessary nagging really irritates the shit out of us—me and my cousin. Them, comparing us with our neighbours who has the same age as us. Them, continuously downgrading and underestimating us. It was a cycle that never in my life I would normalize.

They hurt us, physically and mentally. They called us names, they threatened us, sneered at us, blamed us even for those little things, they keep on pointing out our mistakes, but never our triumphs. Our life is a total compelete mess.

For me, I think Tine and I were like a damsel in distress.

I laughed at my own thoughts.

The first weeks since we went home was not that hard for us, it was bearable, though there's still a lot of nagging every morning and it still annoyed the shit out of us.

We stayed at our Aunt's house for a while because I couldn't keep up with the nagging of my grandparents.

It wasn't the perfect stay I expected it to be, but atleast, there's no nagging early in the morning, and thats what's important for us.

But the short relief has come to an end.

We went back to our gradparent's house—which is orginatedly our house. I thought it will be fine as what they assured us, but it didn't.

It was a total chaos.