Runaway's Liberation

Chapter 4

Back in my early high school days, there was this girl who was almost my best friend. Her name was Marcie. Wait, let me scratch the first statement. She was actually 'kind of' a close friend. Not just a friend, but also not a best friend. We were always together, but something about it just never crossed that line. But she was good. She did well in class, and everybody likes her. She was pretty. Her hair was always in braids with yellow ribbons. She also likes wearing headbands. Every boys swoon over her.

She's like this perfect girl in class. Well, at least she was.

We grew close after spending an entire semester as seatmates. I used to be timid and quiet as I am with her around at first, but I loosened up when she saved me from failing a math test. I think... I think that's when we became friends. We would laugh in the middle of class, eat together at one of the school gardens every lunch, listen to Taylor Swift using the same set of earphones and as cliché as it would sound, we were like partners in crimes.

She was a happy girl. She was always genuine.

Dumating nga sa punto na napaisip ako kung may gusto ako sa kaniya. She was just... genuine. I liked her. I liked the kind of person she was. But then, I also realize that maybe we were just platonic. It was okay. I didn't mind. Ayoko rin naman kasing masira ang friendship namin. Isa pa, ang babata pa namin.

Marcie and I... we shared each other's problems in life. We cut classes together when we feel like the world's getting too harsh on us. We bathed beneath the rain when we both failed a chem test.

We were almost like best friends, for I don't know how to call it. 

Her parents were divorced. Marcie, she used to tell me how her mom was addicted to drugs and substances and that there was one time she found her lying on the floor with her vomit on it. She said she was so scared, she thought of taking the drugs her mom intake.

And her father wasn't around.

I think that's one of those things we have in common. Both of our father are absent. I mean yeah, my Pa's still living with us but we don't really feel like he's with us completely. Parang may kahati. Parang wala lang. It was then when I found out Pa was cheating with one of his co-workers.

She lost friends as time goes by as we hang out more. Kumalat kasi ang tungkol sa pamilya niya. Boys started distancing themselves from her. Teachers began giving her cold shoulders when they found out her mom was a drug addict and a divorcee.
I couldn't understand why those happened. I didn't know how. I couldn't quite pinpoint if some of those happenings in her life was partly my fault... that maybe I was being a bad influence to her. For some reason, alam rin pala ng lahat ang nangyayari sa pamilya ko.

Students started calling us as "the broken family duo" and people called us names that were not funny at all.

Then suddenly I found her unconscious with the bottle of pills on her hand. Marcie tried to kill herself. It was because she found out her mom was dating a guy only a few years older than herself, Marcie. She knew it was pedophilia. She was against it. But her mom was unfazed at what happened. Nothing could stop her from dating a guy almost her daughter's age.

It happened numerous times. She always passed out. Marcie, got addicted to illegal drugs, too, just like her mom. I would find her always high, out of herself and she just... changed. Her whole life was a mess. She got worse.

I couldn't understand her. She shut me off. We hangout less. She got into a new circle. She partied more. She got boyfriends.

It was like she forgot about me.

I warned her about the drugs when I caught her intake it while in school. She was already uncontrollable. Marcie could not pass a second without taking any of those. But she got mad at me. She asked why I was always against of everything that makes her happy. She asked why I couldn't understand her. She said I was almost just like her father. That I wasn't supportive. And that I was fading.