Silver Lining in the Clouds (Erudite Series #2)

Kapitulo 18

"I wasn't serious about him at first,"

"And now you are? You like this sport-focused boy?"

"Yes, I like him."

"Did you follow your mother? Did you stop seeing him? Because based on the posts I saw recently, nakita na naman kayo sa kung saan-saan."

"I didn't,"

"See?" mahinahon na sabat ni Mommy.

"Why didn't you follow your mother?" Daddy questioned me as I put his phone down. I couldn't look into their eyes, my fear would consume me and I'd... forget I ever wanted to disobey.

"I didn't see a reason why I should."

"And you see a reason why you should continue dating this boy?" Mommy asked; her tone almost on edge already.

"Yes. He's perfectly fine to date. Matalino siya, salutatorian nung high school; active, he's a UAAP player for a reason; talented din sa sports. What's so wrong about wanting to date him, Mommy?"

"Anjel, atleta siya. Atleta! Walang plano 'yan sa buhay kundi maglaro sa court. Anong hindi mo magugustuhan sa ganyang tao? Ang mga kilala kong nakipagrelasyon sa athlete, palaging nauuwi sa divorce dahil hindi 'yan tapat! The embarrassment, my! Hindi ka na nga valedictorian nung high school, maloloko ka pa sa college!"

"That's a hasty generalization, Mommy. I thought you hated that because every experiment has a different result than the other?"

Kumunot ang noo ni Mommy at lumapit sa akin. Her next move shocked me. She slapped my cheek, very hard, very loudly.

I only spoke the truth. Sinabi niya iyon sa akin nung bata ako! I was merely repeating her words from the past and...

"You do not get to smear my old words to me in a situation where you are wrong,"

When was I ever right?

"You said you weren't serious with him at first, what changed?" Daddy continued to interrogate me as if his wife didn't just physically hurt me.

Hindi ako sumagot dahil kinakapa ko pa ang mukha ko. I knew it was already red. Mamaya, baka magkapasa ako. They slapped me a few times, but it wasn't always. I didn't think about those painful hand-and-face contacts because they were only rare moments. When they were furious. When they were uncontrollable like today. I was more concerned about their words, more often than not, because they spoke more than they slapped.

"I'm asking you, Anjel." My tears began to form, but I tried to stop them. "I don't know what changed, Dad. I just... want to be him now, exclusively."

Scoffing, Mommy walked a few steps away from me before her hands touched her head and waist. Looking so problematic, she closed her eyes.

"We let you choose that ridiculous program, and we let you continue when you failed to become a first honor student. Now, you're repaying us with rebellion! All for an athlete! All for that unworthy boy?"

"He is not unworthy. He is very worth it." I told my mother before facing her. Then, I continued. "River is smart, talented in the court, and honest. I don't see why you dislike him so much when you've never even met him."

"You being gossiped about and him staying still already says a lot about what type of person he is! He didn't even say anything to his idiotic fans!"

"He stood up for me, Mom! He told his fans to back off when they found out about us. What you saw was just an online tabloid that a news outlet posted because they needed to write something about."

"And did you read the comments below the tabloid? Huh?"

Mommy gave Daddy's phone to me. I scrolled and saw... undesirable words thrown at me. I knew what I was going to face because of River's fame. I knew. I did. This didn't surprise me. What astounded me was that my parents weren't mad at me for merely seeing an athlete, they were mad because they didn't want other people speaking ill about me.