Conquering Hamartia

Simula

Alice

"You ready, anak?" My mom asked with her tired eyes. The stress of the past years has taken its toll on her. She's a company owner and a business woman but still managed to be both a mom and a dad to us.

I want to shake my head no but decided to keep it to myself and nodded. I guess there's no turning back now. Besides, I've been running and hiding for quite some time. Now's probably the chance to suck it all up and continue my life there.

She hugged me tight. I stood frozen when her familiar warmth enveloped me, as if comforting me. I hugged her back and leaned on her chest. My eyes watered and I blinked the tears approaching afraid that it might fall. It's a good thing that she's hugging me, this way I can hide even for a while, before anyone notice me crying.

"Sa isang araw na ang flight niyo," she said after letting go of me.

"As if Ice has any other choice," my twin, Axel, said while patting my head. Hindi ko napansin na katabi ko na pala siya.

They call me Ice. It's from the last three letters of my name, Alice. And according to them, Ice suits me more than Alice. They said that I really as cold as an ice.

"Actually she has," a cousin of mine, Amiel, anwered him with a matter of fact tone. He also stood beside me. "Either stay or leave."

It's been three years since my mom decided to send me here in New York. With Axel and Amiel to accompany my stay. Mom followed us after a year, she handled our company before taking a flight to stay with us.

Lahat kami ay Pilipino. But we left the Philippines with the hopes of moving on, leaving everything behind. We wouldn't have stayed here in the first place if it wasn't for a tragedy that scarred me and the rest of us three years ago. It took a while before everything was settled but yeah, here we are.

"Well, it's time to go back," I said in a defeated tone. Parang kahapon lang no'ng nangyari ang lahat. Pero heto kami, aalis na naman. I choose to be brave now.

"You know you'll go nuts without our presence here if you stay," Kevin barged in with a smirk. We were in the living room discussing a matter when he entered the house without knocking. Ofcourse give it to Kevin to arrive in the middle of something important.

"You're interrupting a family meeting here, Kevin," my mom warned. But we know better, she's just teasing him.

Kevin is like a family to us. Naging kapit-bahay namin siya no'ng lumipat kami dito. Unlike us, Kevin is a Filipino-American and lived here for six years. And he decided to come with us since his father lives in the Philippines.

He planned to go next year, but when Mom cracked the news that our flight will be the day after tommorrow, he decided to come with us and booked a flight without second thoughts. Dang, he's loaded.

He scratched the back of his neck before responding, "well, I came here to suggest something."

I have a bad feeling about this. Kevin's ideas are quite... surprising. Oh, well.

"As long as it's not as stupid as how your hair looks," Amiel remarked.

"Hey, apologize!" Kevin exclaimed while stroking his red hair. Kevin has a thing with hair colors. He changes it every year and told us that he's not the only one doing it, it's a family thing according to him.