The Protectors

Chapter 1: Goodbyes, and more goodbyes

Chapter 1: Goodbyes, and more goodbyes

"Just when you thought you didn't have anything, you lost everything."

—

Mom's in the sala, on the phone. "I'm really sorry, Ms. Santos." She sighed. "I'll talk to Nick." Fair. No signs of extreme stress.

Ibinaba na niya ang telepono pagkalipas pa ng ilang segundo. I jumped back to my seat in the kitchen. Palapit ang yabag ni Mom. But then she stopped by the kitchen door. Sumandal siya sa hamba.

Sa akin ang tingin niya. "Why?"

Why does she have to ask? Literally, like, always. I popped open the Tupperware of leftover pasta I pulled from the oven. I dug a huge chunk from it. "Anna started it."

"So...you finished it?"

See? Mom does know! I took another pasta bite. "She's spreading weird news about me and I don't like it."

Anna is a blabbermouth. No one likes her but she still talks to everyone—anyone—a lot. I think it's her way to fill up any lacking love and attention her own home and family cannot fill in. I mean, people have different ways to cope up, and this is hers. Unfortunately, I'm her recent chosen topic.

I already have a reputation in school so all she needs to do is sprinkle some nice pretty details and embellish it with other stupidities. At ayun. Nilunok nga ng mga tao ang kwentong tinahi niya. It's a pretty colorful narration if you ask me.

I am a child of a demon. Thus why only my Mom is around. And no wonder our family never goes to church.

"What did you do?"

Ugh.

"I cast upon her the very poison she despised."

Mom's mouth turned into a silent wow. "Poetry..."

"Barely." I mean, if I really want to do poetry, I'd be writing for the school paper and not being its headline. "As her mouth says nothing but rubbish, I assumed her bag was a trash can."

I want to imagine Mom going hysterical but that's out of the realm of possibility. She's a saint. There's no bad bone lingering in her body. Instead, her eyes soften.

"They want to expel you."

"I don't really care." Itinaktak ko sa tupperware ang naiwang pasta sauce sa tinidor ko.

But I don't really need to say that either. She knows that. Eight hours sitting in a classroom while listening to the worthless blabber of an uninterested teacher bores the hell out of me. Pero ano pa ba ang aasahan ko? She didn't care and still pushed me to continue in school.

Naupo siya sa tapat ko. Her eyes were making that pity look, it's so cringy. "Nick, we need to talk about this....this behaviour—whatever this is."

"There's nothing to talk about." What is there to talk about, really? That I'm getting worse? That's not news anymore. Sumusuko na siya sa akin? Now that's new.

"Look...I trust you."

Thank God, I didn't roll my eyes.

"And I will trust you more if you let me enter that head of yours."

Bull.

Niyuko ko ang pasta na nasa harap ko. The sauce is slimy and grim. Sumubo ako ulit. Too bland. Barely food. Inedible.

"How about we try to have a restart?"

Ibinagsak ko ang tinidor na hawak ko. "We're never going the way you want. 'Wag mo nang pahirapan ang sarili mo, Mom."