Till There Was You

The Decision

A/N: "Courage is knowing what not to fear."-Plato

***

"Do one thing that scares you."

This was the thought in my head when I woke up at six in the morning.

I had a restless sleep because I kept thinking of the conversation I had with Althea before we went to bed.

I've always known that she was a good person.

Despite the bad things that happened to her, she remained strong and steadfast in her belief that people are good and that her situation was temporary.

Nothing lasts forever, she told me once.

Does our relationship belong to the same criteria?

I hope not.

I felt torn with what I'm about to do because I didn't tell her the entire story about my father's meeting with my boss.

It was my conscious decision to leave out some details because I didn't want to give Althea additional reasons to worry about.

What was omitted from what I told her was, Mr. Chan called me at his office after the meeting with my father.

He told me he was pressured by Dada to pull me out from the show.

"I didn't agree with his suggestion because from what I saw, you love what you do Jade, and you have the talent for this," he looked bewildered by the audacity of my father to demand my exclusion from the show.

His words failed to soothe my troubled mind.

The truth was, his kindness aggravated my worries.

I was also embarrassed by my father interference just to get what he wanted.

In my heart, I don't deserve this kind of sympathy because I am causing problems not only to him but to other people as well.

I overheard one girl, a theater actress who was also a part of the show, said that I was going to sink the entire ship because of my being a Tanchingco.

At the time, I wanted to tell her that she has no right to judge me.

Aside from my last name, she doesn't know who I really am.

But David stopped me before I could even make a move to talk to the girl.

"It's not worth it, Jade." He took me outside where we talked about the situation.

"Tito Oscar was very disturb with what you're doing," he revealed and I wondered why my father was discussing my personal life with him.

David sensed my displeasure and he was quick to defend the actions of my father.

"You know how it is in our culture, Jade."

"Our name is very important."

"Once our reputation is tarnished, it's difficult to gain people's trust." He explained.

I shook my head at him.

"What exactly is your point?" I asked, irritated.

He looked at me seriously.

"Your being a........." he paused and he looked uncomfortable.

I raised my eyebrow.

"My being what?!" I challenged him to say the words he couldn't say.

"Your being a lesbian has been gossip fodder in our community for a while now."

"Your father is deeply affected because everyone questions his failure to raise you the right way,"