When He Left

Chapter 3

WHO is Jonathan Life Valientes?

For everyone who doesn't know who really is Jonathan Life, he's a heartthrob boy next door. A boy at his teenage years who already had countless of girlfriends because of his undeniably good looks and playful smirk. A boy who's an achiever not just in academics and sports, but also an achiever for stealing girls attention with no sweat.

As for his family, he's their one and only pride. He's the sun to their gloomy days. He's the only child, the reason why he was spoiled by his parents. But he didn't let all of it get inside his head, because he was raised by his parents to be good and fair for everyone. He was humbled at a very young age.

For my family, he's a heir and a good example, a role model I should be getting an inspiration from. That's when I started to think that Jonathan Life was a threat, an enemy who will steal my parents away from me. He can always steal everyone's heart easily while I was always left out, trying so hard to be a good daughter they expect me to be.

He's my complete opposite, kaya itinatak ko na sa isip ko na hindi siya dapat kaibiganin. I always feel that I am in a competition with him because even my parents were so into him! Just look at it. Who am I? I'm not born with the golden spoon on her mouth. I'm just a plain ass girl that was born from a middle-class family and has been called by everyone a spoiled brat countless of times.

I'm just a girl with nothing special in her. I can't be called a good girl, neither a bad girl. I am not smart, I am not pretty, I am not talented, and most of especially, I am not a boy. I'm just a girl that can be easily deceived by anyone. A girl who is weak, and a girl who relies everything to her parents. I'm just a girl na madaling madala sa emotions niya.

I'm still a girl and just a girl for everyone.

But my family and his family never made me feel that way, it is the people that surrounds my family and I. It's never their fault that I think and feel that way, it's mine's fault. I let everything get inside my head, I let them corrupt my mind and let my emotions speaks for me. They're right, I am weak because I'm an emotional little girl. If only I became a boy, I will surely be the biggest pride of my parents.

Jonathan Life's parents and my parents are best of friends since their childhood. Nakakapagtaka lang na hindi sila nagsawa sa mukha at sa ugali ng isa't isa. Heto at nagdesisyong pang maging magkapit-bahay.

Well, I think that's how faith, loyalty, trust and the whole love for friendship works. It's also because of that, they fell in love with each other and the rest was history. Because of that too, ipinanganak kami ni Jonathan Life, they also decided to live in the same neighbourhood after they all get married. That's how it started for us.

Unang pagkikita pa lang yata namin ni Jonathan Life ay nagkaroon na agad ng koneksiyon sa aming dalawa na bawal kaming maging magkakonekta nang matagalan. Dahil ang kuwento sa amin ng mga magulang namin tuwing may salo-salo ang dalawang pamilya, tuwing ipinagtatabi kaming dalawa noong baby pa lang kami, palagi kaming umiiyak nang malakas. Everytime we share the same space, we will cry loudly and that will last for minutes. That went on until we were toddlers and pre-schoolers, palagi kaming nag-aaway at nagsasabunutan. There's also one time we pushed each other on the mud of the playground of our pre-school because we were so fed up of each other's presence. That's when our parents decided to separate us for a while, hanggang sa hindi na namalayan ng lahat na nakasanayan na lang namin na hindi magpansinan at hindi pagtabihing dalawa.

Siguro hanggang acquaintance lang talaga kami. We're not that close yet we're not that stupid para palakihin pa ang kung ano man ang nasa pagitan naming dalawa nang ma-realize naming lumalaki na kami, dahil alam naman namin na mag-best of friends ang parents namin and we can't do anything about that. We're just their child and they know each other since we're not in the picture, they can't trade anything for that friendship.