Go Against Destiny ✓

destiny 13

Not everyone who was bound by the red strings had a happily ever after. Not even those who had ended up with each other. That was probably the reason why his parents always considered these mysterious threads to be the root of their misfortunes.

His father and mother used to be the envy of people in their generation. She was the campus queen who had aspired to become one of the top models one day. He was a varsity player who had dreamed of making a name in professional sports. They were two young souls who had a bright future ahead of them. A pair of soul mates who had met and decided to stay with each other because they had believed that nothing else could go wrong when even destiny was leading them to that path. It might have been with that same logic that they had not prepared themselves for the sacrifices that they had to make in case they wanted to have a child at a young age.

Parenthood was not always puppies and rainbows, but the Nieves couple might not have come as far as thinking of that possibility. When reality had set in, they had become utterly frustrated and wound up taking their dismay to the things that they had believed were the origins of their troubles. They condemned the red string for giving them the delusion that everything else in their lives would be like in the fairy tales, as well as the child who, according to them, had gotten in the way of reaching their dreams.

JP remembered it now—the reasons why his parents hated him so much. He remembered how they would tell him that if only he had not been born, they would have been more successful and would have had a better life by now.

As usual, it was his grandmother who would often reassure him that it was not his fault at all. If anything, he was the biggest victim of these parents, who were not only ignorant but also lacked a sense of responsibility. They didn't want to accept the failure they themselves had caused, so they had resorted to putting the blame on other people and things. Granny would say that JP's father and mother were not even in a position to call the red string a curse in their lives because it was them who had chosen not to make any further effort to achieve their goals.

The young instructor had long been taught not to take his parents' words seriously, but as he lay on his bed and observed his hand, which now had lost any trace of the mysterious thread of destiny, he acknowledged that their negative belief might actually have some bearing. JP understood that at times, the ability to see the strings could be a source of someone's misery, and one would be better off not knowing about them. He envied those who were oblivious to their existence. Envied them for being able to love without any inhibition.

He rolled to his side on the bed and let out a sigh. It had been a week since the red string had disappeared from his little finger and since the last time he had seen Sky. The assistant professor might come back from his seminar today. Not that it mattered; there was no chance they would come across each other anyway.

It was Saturday. JP had called in sick this morning because he had woken up not feeling well. His head was heavy, his temperature was high, and his whole body was aching. He closed his eyes when the wall before him appeared as though it were spinning.

A series of beeps chimed from his bedside table, startling him and causing his eyes to fly open. He forced himself to sit up and paused for a brief second to calm his body when nausea charged at him. After he took hold of the ringing device, he reclined back on his bed.

One look at the screen of his phone told him that it was Angela calling. His first reaction was to wonder if something had happened in one of his classes while he was not around or if there was any issue with the papers that he was supposed to submit today.

The young instructor turned on the speaker before placing the phone next to his head and shutting his eyes again.

"Hi, Angela, what's going on? Has there been any problem with my kids or my reports?" he asked, the throatiness of his own voice catching him off guard.