Lights, Camera and Alden Richards ➣ AlDub/MaiChard

fifteen

Author's note: This is the part where I narrate a part of the story of what happened to Maine's family. And the part where Alden is still a grade-A as.shole. -_-

Happy reading! Don't forget to vote and leave comments!

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JUNE 2016

Maine never wanted a perfect family.

When she was younger, she never really saw her family as perfect. She knew that no family was perfect, no matter how hard everyone seems to try to make theirs flawless. She saw her family as ordinary but happy. When she was eight, and the only source of income they had was their father's small business, she was happy. Even when they moved from their home in Bulacan to the metro, she could say that she was happy she met her best friend Jacob. Even when she was twelve in first year high school, and her mother was unable to buy her a new bag and a new pair of shoes for the school year because her ate Nikki had just started college, she was happy. Even when her prom dress wasn't the fanciest and most glamorous among all, she was happy. But then three years ago happened.

Three years ago, she was just eighteen, a happy college scholar with her own definition of perfect life. Her father's business wasn't as huge as the dela Rosas, their long-time family friends, but it was big enough to have their house renovated again. Her kuya Nico and ate Nikki had graduated and were already working at their father's business by that time and Coleen was only a few months away before she had her own desk in the corporate. Maine was a different story; she did not really want to be a part of the business—she wanted music. But of course, her debt of gratitude won over her love for music, so she studied financial management instead of applying for a music scholarship in UP. But nevertheless, she was happy.

Until that day of grief came and everything else went downhill.

February 28, 2013—three days before Maine turns 19. Her party was all planned by her Nanay. She had been busy about it since January. Although Maine claimed that they did not need to prepare a huge party because it was her nineteenth birthday and not her eighteenth, her Nanay insisted that they should. Her party last year never happened because Maine suffered from chickenpox. Her Nanay thought that it would be great if she celebrated the party she had always wanted.

Maine was in her room, beside Coleen's, while she waited for Coleen to come back from the store across their street to get some acetone. She was just casually polishing her nails with yellow when Dean, their youngest sibling, came barging into her room, shaking and crying. Maine got up from her bed. Sure, she and Dean always had petty fights and stupid pranks against each other, but she dearly loved him—even though she never said it to him. She thought that it was just some stupid girl who had—yet again—broke his heart. But God, how she wished it was just some stupid girl.

"Meng," her brother sobbed when she went over him and hugged him, even when her nails weren't dry yet. "Sina Nanay."

And Dean did not need to say more.

Maine pulled him up and ran downstairs, only to see Coleen on the floor with their housekeeper crying and tightly gripping her phone.

Sina Nanay comprised of her Nanay, her Tatay and their kuya Nico.

When Coleen was just entering their house, her phone vibrated from her pocket. She casually answered it with a "Hello, Tay?" but a medic responded from the other line. The medic was stuttering and she could barely understand what he was trying to tell her, but she understood the part where he said "sorry po, ma'am, pero how quick can you get to Divine Word General Hospital?" and then she dropped her phone and with a shaking voice, she called Nico, who was playing a game of Call of Duty in the living room.