Hardly Theirs

Chapter 26

Chapter 26
Coco

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Coco was a mosaic of everything—of all the characters she played and all the people her light have touched. She was a collection of everything she ever was.

She knew that very well. People like her for all the things she portrayed, but never her. Not quite.

She doubts if they do. Because if that's the case, then people won't easily decide they don't like her anymore when she's useless—when she no longer gives them a sense of joy, when she's not the pretty girl they thought she'd be, when she's no longer the entertainment she has always been, when the spark they often look for is gone.

But they don't know her well, do they? Her chest rises from heaving a breath. The water trickled down her face as it wash off the suds. Coco wanted to melt away and allow everything to go down the drain.

Her teeth digs inside her lip. Or maybe, she thought . . . if they knew her well enough, they might have fallen out of love with her within the split second. 

Who knows? After all, dispensable naman siya. That's how it usually feels. One day they're painting the sky with how much they love and adore her, the next, they're as cold as ice. Disposing her in ways a person could be disposed. And she'll never know why they don't like her anymore. They just do.

Wala naman siyang choice do'n. Coco has to be okay with it. She can't force people to like her, to invest in her. Just like what her parents would always say, you win some, you lose some.

She entered the business, so Coco should know what she signed up for. This was part of it and all she has to do was be okay with the circumstance and focus on the job.

Keep everyone at arms length and focus on the craft. Don't get too attached. Don't get too familiar. Everyone is gone by the second.

Whether she likes it or not . . . but as they say, the world doesn't adjust for anyone. Her stardom was nothing but a speck of dust. So why would everyone adjust for her?

A roll of breath escaped her lips as Coco turns off the shower.

That's how it's always been. Lilipas lang. Nothing is truly permanent.

It's also undeniable she's unfamiliar to a love that knows no reason. Everything was conditional. Transactional. Shallow.

Sometimes she couldn't help herself from thinking her family only loves her because they share the same DNA. Loving and caring for a family member was something that was always required, not wanted.

Still conditional.

And perhaps she's wrong.

She wraps her hair in a towel before going out from the bathroom in a matching peach pajamas.

Coco wouldn't want anything else than be proven wrong.

"Matutulog ka na ba?" Her eyes find him sitting at the foot of her bed. He was now wearing a set of pambahay he apparently leaves in her closet.

Her eyes narrowed. It's been something so normal for the both of them, something they've been doing since they were little. But why does he have a space in her closet again?