sweetheart, where's my reward?

SPECIA£ CHAPTER 3 - lily jane, my lily jane

And this is how easily they just give it to me like I'm their own son.

"Ali..." Tita called, her hand moving. I knew she wanted to reach for my hand so I held her weak hands. She smiled at my gesture, trying to grip my hand back weakly. "I hope it's not much to ask you to please take care of her for us. Please, keep her loved."

"We'll leave her in your care, Ali," it was tito this time. When I looked at him, his eyes were looking at me with trust.

Despite the heaviness in my chest seeing their state, I felt like I could breathe easily again. They trust me and that's all I need. 

"Thank you po. That you can trust me. I promise I'll keep her safe and loved."

Shortly after tita and tito gave me their blessing, a month passed and they finally passed. Their pain was finally over.

I stayed with LJ and became her pillar of support and comfort as she grieved the death of the only parents she knew. I kept it together for her sake because I know how much she's going through. It's painful for me since her parents have been nothing but caring for me but I can't imagine how much her pain is.

My job is to stay. So, I stayed. Not just for her but for myself too.

I don't want her to be alone, especially now that it's just us against the world.

The world that was cruel to us. The world that has left us. We were two souls lost, wandering and trying to find what it means to live.

I found her, my meaning. And she found me.

I couldn't be more grateful that she arrived in my life. In the darkness that was once my comfort, I always search for the light. I was content with the darkness because it's all I knew. But when she came, I knew I wanted her.

She gave me a reason to live. I wasn't doing it anymore just for the sake of validation from my parents, for the sake of the lie that they bathed me with. Finally, I wanted to live not because I was told to do something but because I really wanted to. To experience a day with her, to feel alive again.

I was not afraid of the camera anymore because of her. I wanted to always take pictures of her, to capture moments with her that I cannot go back to. I want to take pictures of her so that when she leaves me, I still have her in me, in my camera. She won't be just a memory.

But she never left me. She was always there for me even though I'm not the best person for her. I kept to myself but she was patient with me. Even when I didn't love myself, she loved me.

She didn't become just a memory to me. She became my life. And we share that life together.

It all started when I first laid eyes on her. Then suddenly, I was in her atelier with my camera, taking pictures of her. We met in different places, we shared moments together. We talked and we listened to each other. We ate ice cream to ease the stress that life has been throwing at us.