Skipper

6| Darlene Aiyana

TRICIA

I smiled back at the people greeting me as I walked down the lobby of my father's company. It was a long and tiring day, but everybody expect me to be smiling back at them and stay calm and poised even how bad I feel.

Sometimes, I want to be just like my sister, Tiana. She can roll her eyes when she's annoyed, she can say whatever she wants or comment on whoever she finds ridiculous no matter who the person is. She can act immature and careless. She simply can live her life the way she wants. She has her own rules and she's enjoying life to its fullest.

"Good evening, lady Tricia," my driver greeted as he opened the car's door for me.

Laila, my personal assistant sat on the front seat of the car and Justin, the head of my security sat with me at the backseat.

It's my father's request for me to have my own security team. I don't know if I really need this or he's just being paranoid.

When Tiana found out about our personal security team, she went nuts and complained right away. According to her, she can take care of herself and it's creepy to have people following her around. After days of bitching out, she won the argument against Dad. But I heard from Tito Nate that Dad still have her followed everywhere without her knowledge. She still has her own security team but they're hiding in the shadows.

"Lady Tricia, you're invited to a party to be hosted by your cousin Carrack. It's a victory party with theme 'wet' and guests were required to wear beach attires. Will you go?" Laila asked while holding her journal.

I looked out the window.

The party will definitely be awesome like their other parties. It'll be a waste to miss this one, but me being me, I have to decline. It's not the type of party people will expect me to attend. It's not my cup of tea.

"Send my apologies," I said after minutes of my silence.

"Lady Tricia, you've never been to parties like that," Justin said. Even without looking at him, I know he's intently watching me.

I was seventeen when I met him. He's a son of a retired soldier and right after his graduation on a military academy, he was hired to be my protector. 

"It's not a place for me," I answered.

In my mind, I already imagined myself getting drunk on a nightclub, dancing wild on parties, banging my head in a loud concerts, and other things that normal people enjoyed. Those are the things that I really wanna do. I wanna get wasted and curse all the saints I knew for my hangover. I wanna be free and dance hippie on beach parties. I wanna get drunk with friends of the same age. I wanna sing-along with Adam Levine on a Maroon 5 concert.

Sadly, I could only do those things on my imagination.

I never really enjoyed something my whole life. I was caged in the expectations for the 'perfect' Tricia. I was groomed to be well-mannered, always be prim and proper, calm and modest, and always do the wise thing. I am the eldest of Terrence Luer Amante, a business tycoon, and I should live up to the expectations from me.

My Mom's busy on the kitchen when I got home. I kissed her cheek then sat on one of the stools so that I can watch her grace the kitchen.

They said that I'm like my mother. She's the ideal girl. But Mommy said that I am way far better than her. She had me when she was sixteen. She married a man fifteen years older than her. She has been a martyr wife for the wrong reasons. She said that she's not as pure and as perfect as the people around her see. And for that, I envy her. Once in her life, she enjoyed her freedom as human to make mistakes. She bent the rules and did failures at some point.