The Sweetest Downfall

Deux

02|Flames To Dust, Lovers To Friends

People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.
-Paulo Coelho|The Devil And Miss Prym
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C A S S I E

"Gaga ka talaga kahit kailan, ano? Paano kung di ako tinawagan ni Yaya Betty? Edi muntanga kami kakaantay sayo at the airport when in fact, dumating ka na pala sa bahay!"

That, and a sharp tug at my hair were among the first few things I got when my closest girl friends came over to welcome me back (and to make singil their pasalubongs) led by my crazy cousin.

"Aray naman Yin!" I glared at my fave cousin Carynne, who completely ignored me and rummaged through my suitcases for the Blahniks she wanted. "Kaya nga surprise, diba?"

"Don't surprise us next time Cass, praning pa naman yang si Yin. Kanina nga when she received Yaya Bet's call bigla nalang akong hinugot from the gym dahil may emergency daw." My volleybelle friend Alex told me as she put on the gold Stan Smiths I brought home for her. Wala pa kasi ang gold edition sa Adidas outlets anywhere sa bansa, so she asked me to bring her a pair.

"Tumakas lang po ako sa training, at ako pa yung captain. What an exemplary behavior."

"Wow, Alex! Captain, really? Congrats!"

Alexandra Eunice Torralba is, like most of my friends, a well-known campus figure. Paano? She is a member of the Lady Wolves, our univ's women's volleyball varsity team. Needless to say they are as successful in the collegiate athletics field as that of our men's basketball varsity, with back-to-back championship titles under their belt. And now, this statuesque (towers all of us with all her 5'11" height) fair-skinned lady is team captain of the winningest collegiate vball team ever.

"Yan kasi, umalis pa kaya ang daming na-miss."

I laughed awkwardly after that. Alam ko namang may tampo 'tong mga 'to sakin when I left for Switzerland without telling anyone except my parents and my beau. I only told them nung nakarating na ako dun, and I told them na six months lang ako mawawala only to come home a year after. Talk about six months overdue.

"What are the other things I have missed out on?"

After getting their much-anticipated pasalubongs from me, heto at nilalantakan na naman nila ang scones and tea cakes na inihanda ng aming trusted household help sa bahay, my Yaya Betty. Kahit kailan talaga, with these girls it is food>everything else.

"Hmm.." Amanda said, taking a big bite from her frozen brazo de mercedes cake. "What do you want to know? For starters, the fam still hates me and the media still refer to me as the 'wayward Monsanto'. You'd think after a year makaka-recover na sila, but they haven't."

A wry smile escaped her lips. Amanda comes from a prominent family of lawyers and law makers. Her mother specializes in financial law. Her father is former district attorney turned senator. Her paternal grandfather is the Chief Justice. Her maternal grandmother spearheads the PAO. Her elder sister is the youngest partner in a well-known law firm, while her youngest sister is currently on her first year in the Political Science program of SMAU.

When we first started our college courses at SMAU, Mands initially had herself enrolled in a business-related course, a springboard for the fam's plans about her taking up Financial Law afterwards. She even shared some classes with Yin, who is taking up Marketing and Advertising. Ang di alam ng lahat though, is that halfway through our first trimester (yes, in case you didn't know, SMAU operates on a trisem system) she switched career paths and secretly enrolled herself in the Fine Arts department. Ever since naman kasi she has always been the most artistic among us girls, and has often regaled us with her dreams of becoming the youngest National Artist there is.