A Lifetime of Adventure

Chapter 3

Shantelle's POV

After a few minutes of uncontrollable crying, I am now standing in front of the mirror looking at my puffy eyes. Every time I look at myself in the mirror after crying, I always remember what I experienced during the final year of my college life. 

*flashback*

During the first few years of my college life, I love going to school since I have many good friends, who I treat like my own brothers and sisters, surrounding me. Another reason why  I am always in campus is because my happy crush is there!! 

He is around 5'9", chinito, always looks clean, smells really good, respectful, and is really really smart. He is the type of person who doesn't skip any of his classes and participates actively during class. We had several academic and non-academic encounters during my freshman year. However, I wasn't able to approach him for a relationship since he has a crush on my best friend.  

One rule that I follow for myself is prioritizing friendship over finding love. I gave up pursuing my crush so my friend could have a happy and healthy relationship. Despite keeping my relationship with my crush as friends, he became my source of motivation whenever I feel down or tired from studying. 

I didn't realize that those times were the last stretch of my real happiness. A great economic recession struck the Philippines and my father's business greatly struggled to stay afloat due to declining sales that could defer expenses. My family was struggling on a daily basis, we had to cut out a lot of our expenses and sell our assets to be able to afford daily necessities. 

As the first born daughter in the family, I had to work part time at a local store nearby so I could have some money for my school allowance and household expenses. In addition to this, I also started helping my father out in the business since it is understaffed due to inability to pay salary.  

Juggling school, working part-time, and helping my father at the same time made me feel like giving up on a daily basis. In addition to all these, my father also developed anxiety which led to our family slowly falling apart. I was forced to stand as a parent to my two younger sisters and learned to rely only to myself and my capabilities in everything that I do. 

Due to this experiences, I learned to repress my emotions. Especially fear, anger, and sadness. I tried to always look fine and strong on the outside although my world is crashing down inside. 

*end of flashback*

I reached for the counter and grabbed few sheets of facial tissue to wipe off the smudged mascara under my eyes. Afterwards, I reached for the cushion foundation in my handbag to retouch my eye makeup. 

Looking satisfied with my appearance, I headed out of the women's restroom and went back to my seat on the table. My mom and sisters glanced at my face for a bit before continuing to do their own activities. I looked at the people around the table, they seemed to be so carefree and recovered from what happened in the past.

Lunch ended around 2 in the afternoon, I headed straight home and went up into my bedroom. I quickly changed into comfortable clothes and laid on the bed. My hand automatically reached out to a medium-sized bear stuffed toy nearby, pulled it closer, and wrapped my arms around it. 

"I had a bad day today" I said 

"It still really hurts. I don't think I can fully recover from this yet. All I wanted is to have my old family back." I sobbed. After spending a few moments staring at the wall, I drifted to sleep. 

I had a slight headache the next morning. Pushing it aside, I stood up and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I wore a white blouse with puff sleeves, light brown trousers, and white sneakers. I also added a gold dainty neclace and some bracelets to complete my look.

After taking few pictures in front of vanity mirror. I went down to the dining room, greeted my parents, and ate breakfast before leaving the house.

While driving to the office, I decided to stop by a newly opened coffee shop owned by a friend to buy my favorite matcha drink.

The coffee shop is quite busy this morning. I stood up in line for about a few minutes before reaching the counter and placing my order.

Since the shop was quite busy, I decided to sit down on a nearby table while waiting for my order. My eyes scanned the people inside the cafe and instantly locked eyes with the cafe owner.

Levi, the cafe owner was casually chatting with his other friends; but when he locked eyes with me, he excused himself and stood up to approach me.

Damn. He still looked hot while wearing a casual gray dress shirt and black pants.

By the way, he was my happy crush during my college years.

"Hey Shantelle! Its beeen a while. You still look good as ever" he said while waving his hands to me

I stood up from my seat. "Long time no see! Congrats on the new business venture." I said

He smiled at me and said "Thank you, thank you. I hope this becomes you favorite cafe" then chuckled.

Damn, that smile. I missed that.

He then asked me if I wanted to meet his friends. I gladly accepted it. I love meeting new people but sometimes, I simply get scared to approach them.

I silently followed him to his table.

"Guys, this is Shantelle, a friend from college. Shantelle, this is Kurt, Gab, Sean and Alex." He said while pointing from left to right.

"Hi! Its nice to meet you" I said and smiled.

Gab suddenly stood up from his seat and reach out his hand and said "Hi Shantelle, its really nice to meet you. Can I take you out sometime?" His smile obviously looked like he had intentions behind it.

I awkwardly shook his hand and said "Sure! Why not."

I then heard the barista call out my name. I concluded my conversation with them, took my order, headed out of the cafe and went to work.

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