The Best Friend Facade | JHOCEY

UNO

It started in, of all places, a dress shop, with her cousin.

"Does she want the blue dress or the red one?"

"List says blue."

Jhoanna unhooked a blue dress from a rail and tossed it over the pile of clothes dangling across her arm. She had a bag hooked on both of her little fingers, and was dragging another along with her foot. Her cousin, on the other hand, was carrying nothing but a scrap of paper, her arms folded and toes tapping.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Because they asked us to."

"You remember that day four years ago when there were 18th birthday signs and cups full of vodka in our hands?"

"I didn't do anything like that for my 18th," Jhoanna said, absentmindedly checking the price tag for another dress on the rack.

"How are we related?"

"Your point?"

"Ate Jho," she said. "We're adults. We can do whatever we want. We don't have to be out here doing our parents bidding just because they asked."

Jhoanna turned away from the rack and waddled towards the till, still way-laden down with all the bags and clothes, resisting the urge to give a long sigh.

Her cousin was a part of the reason she'd moved away from Laguna.

Jhoanna's voice was all in one tone as she spoke again, "We're here because our parents want us to do something for them and they somehow think it'll be a bonding experience for us and bring us closer, and trust me, it's just as excruciating for me as it is for you, Shee, so if you could just take one of these bags and pull your weight for once, we can be out of here as soon as possible."

She'd been calling her cousin Shee since she was a kid. Her real name was Sheena, but toddler Jhoanna hadn't been able to pronounce it properly–it always came out as Shee, and the name had stuck.

Sheena wrinkled her nose and scowled but she bent down and picked up two of the bags that Jhoanna had been shuffling along with her feet.

She paid, and the two of them high-tailed it out of there as quickly as possible, neither of them with any particular desire to look at any more dresses after being there for a good half an hour.

"Where now?" Sheena asked, shifting to the side so that Jhoanna could take the list from where she'd lodged it between her arm and side when she'd picked up the bags.

Jhoanna scanned the list. "Cake shop."

Sheena's eyes brightened, a smile appearing on her face for the first time since they'd been out. "Food?" she said hopefully, licking her lips.

"No taste testing. Just got to pick some stuff up." Jhoanna said, her attention focused on the list, mentally calculating how long it would take to get all of these items and drop them off at home.

"Why do you have to ruin everything?"

"Genetics."

The cake shop was across town, a quaint family owned business that her parents had fallen in love with, and as the two of them entered, a girl behind the counter offered her a wide smile after she'd recited the order.

"So, are these for anyone special?" she said brightly, the same overly polite service she used for everybody.

Jhoanna opened her mouth to answer, but Sheena got in there first. "Fat chance of Ate Jho ever finding anyone special. She doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase sex appeal," she said, sparing a wink to the cashier. "Unlike me, of course."