Everything Has Changed

VI

Patricia takes a sip of her third round of red wine, sitting on the carpet inside her room, with the bottle of wine and a bucket of ice on the coffee table. Mas marami akong kailangan gawin araw-araw na mas importante rin sayo... Those words keep on repeating on her mind. She just can't forget about it even when she's already hurting too much. This is not about you... She runs her fingers through her hair. Ikaw ang nang iwan at ako ang naiwan... She's starting to see everything blurry and realizes that tears are starting to come out of her eyes. Someone knocks on the door. She rolls her eyes before shouting, "For the nth time, I don't wanna eat! I'm not hungry!" The door squeaks but she doesn't turn around, instead she keeps her eyes on the glass of wine. When she feels someone walking closer, she sighs. "I'm okay.. I just need to be alone. Please."

"But I'm not okay seeing you like this."

She looks up, surprised by hearing a manly voice. She frowns. "Dave? What are you doing here?"

He sits beside her and takes the glass from her. "Aling Cecil called me and told me you didn't want to come out of your room. That you've been here inside, drinking since you got up."

She chuckles. "Why did she call you? Ikaw ba si Dad?"

"She thought that your parents might get worried and scold you if she called them. So she called me instead. Mas makaka-tulong daw ako sayo."

She doesn't say anything.

He swirls the glass before taking a sip then stares at it. "What happened?"

She shakes her head and remains quiet.

"I'm not going to tolerate this time. You're acting quite weird these days. And worse, you're starting to drink again."

"It's been a long time since the last time I got drunk, Dave, come on.. It's been..."

"Ten years. Three years old pa lang ang kambal noon."

***

"Patty? Patty!" -he saw her lying down on the floor, with a stain of beer on her shirt. Cans all over the floor. Then he turned and saw the twins sitting on the floor too. Pippa crying while Dylan was playing with his bottle of milk. He kissed Dylan's head and held Pippa after, tried to stop her from crying. "It's okay, baby.. Daddy's here.. It's okay.." He put his attention back to Patricia again. "Patty, wake up."

She didn't respond.

"Patty!" And he finally woke her up. "What's this?! How long are you planning to be like this?!"

She squinted her eyes and blinked several times before realizing that David was there. "What are you doing here?" -she said, coldly, as she cleaned the floor by taking the empty cans of beer.

"Yan pa talaga sasabihin mo? Can't you see? You're drunk! And the children, you left them here on the floor alone! Paano kung may nangyaring masama?"

"Wala sila Mommy, still working." She massaged her forehead.

"Exactly. Wala kayong kasama. Sana man lang tinawagan mo 'ko. Iinom ka rin lang dyan."

"I'm sorry."

"Patty naman.. Are you still being like this for the same reason? Si Migo pa rin ba?"

She just sighed, still massaging her forehead because of her headache due to drinking too much.

Pippa finally stopped crying so he put her back on the floor and gave her her favorite teddy bear for her to play with it. He took the cans from Patricia, went to the kitchen to throw them in the garbage can, and got a rag to clean up the beer spilled on the coffee table.