His Perfect Secret

The Relative

Ah, what a tiring day. Gosh, I’m so tired, I do not think I can attend Adony’s art exhibition anymore. I really miss Adony. She’s the only cousin I know. She’s my maternal cousin.

Adoncia is the only person that hasn’t left me in this world. As her name implies, she is so sweet, lovely, caring but really mean when she wants to. I vividly remember when we first met…

Flashback.

14 years ago.  Madrid, Spain.

I was not the babbling kind of young girl everyone thought or expected me to be but Adoncia, my dear cousin, was the opposite of me. I was neither jealous nor hurt about how everybody wanted me to be like her. It wasn’t her fault that she’s being adored by many and am not.

It was the eleventh month of the year when everyone is keen about getting together with their families and relations to prepare for Christmas. My parents never really observed the path that had to do with families coming together ‘cause my dad was really overprotective of me and didn’t like me associating with other people. This made me lack communication skills, but this year was different. My mum hated the fact that my dad didn’t let me associate with our relatives, so she convinced him to let us visit her sister’s family.

We arrived in Madrid at about 8 am on the first of November. I was excited to see my cousin ‘cause I thought that she would bring out my inner self and she did. My parents and her parents went inside first to catch up all the years they have spent apart. I was left alone to feed my eyes with the beauty of nature that surrounded their house. Adony popped outta nowhere and she scared the crap out of me. I was so frightened that I jumped a little. She surely noticed how scared I was.

“Oh, my goodness! I am sorry.” She apologized.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to surprise you. Hola prima!” (Hello cousin).
Her smile was indeed contagious, it made me smile too.

“Hola, soy Leona.” (Hello I’m Leona)

Adoncia hopped to her room and I followed her trying to keep up to her pace.

“This is my room. Well, it’s kind of our room now. Mother said we should stay in the same room, so we can bond quickly. ¿Bueno?” (Ok?).

I didn’t know what to say, I just nodded. She continued talking on how we were gonna share the room, have fun, and make the most of this time together.
“I know you are a neat-freak, so I made sure to arrange your bed.” She chuckled.

“I hope you can teach me to be neat too.”

The maid called us for dinner. Adony raced me to the dining room, gosh! She’s so fast, before I could say Jack she had sat on her chair.

“I got here first, Leona.”, she said smiling.

Dinner was fun. I got to know that Adony was in love with food…

***

I love my bed, it’s like my comfort zone, it’s the only thing that understands my hidden emotions, I was about to lay on my bed, when I heard my phone ring as ‘outlaws' played by Alessia Cara, one of my best songs.

On the other side of the phone, I heard my cousin scream
“Hola, prima!” (hello, cousin).

Ugh, speak of the devil, I groaned.

I just had to answer her and break the bad news to her.

“Hey, Adony.” I said.

“You’re coming to my exhibition, right?”

I could tell she was happy from the sound of her voice.
I have to tell her, I have to.

“Look, Adoncia I can’t make it. I’m really sorry hon. I’m so tired.”

I did it! Ok now, what’s she gonna say?

“I’m gonna turn deaf ears to whatever you just said and assume you’re coming with lots of gifts. I’m hanging up now.”

Oh no! ¡¿Que hice?! (What do I do?!) I did a facepalm. This is so not good for my health. I need my beauty sleep. I wiggled my legs and pounced on my bed in frustration.

Oh! No! Ugh! I don’t wanna go but I gotta go.

Typical Adoncia likes having things her way. I kept groaning but that didn’t help, I’ll have to go either way. I jumped outta my bed to prepare for the art exhibition.