Search This Blog

Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Please Look at What You Can't See

What you are about to read is my most disturbing and darkest secret. I've kept this secret for so long. This is me. The real me.


I am the third child in the brood of five. My mother is a high school principal in one of the well-known schools in the province. My father is a lawyer. My eldest sister Abby, is the prettiest among us. She would join beauty pageants and would win every time. The second one Kaye, got most (if not all) of my parents' brains. She had always been at the top of her class. She was the most intelligent and the brainiest until she got pregnant by some good-looking homosapien who fooled her that he was sterile. My younger sister, Melissa excels in sports. She's the team captain of the school's volleyball varsity team. And she can sing! The youngest, William, he's the 'boss' at home. Being the only boy, he's quite a big monster. Everybody spoils him. I am just left in the middle. I'm not the brightest in class but I've always been in the honor roll. Thanks to my mom who's quite a martinet when it comes to studying. But compared to my other siblings, I'm not too intelligent nor too pretty, just plain and ordinary.


I have always looked up to my dad. I wanted to be a lawyer just like him. I 'was his number one fan. But I was never his favorite until that one fateful night. I was in high school. I caught my father having an affair with my adviser. That night had led my life to a 360-degree turn-around.


I was told to shut up of course. Shutting up meant gifts, dresses and cold cash. Dad would always shower me with everything I ask him. I graduated valedictorian in high school. Mom was so proud. What she didn't know was I threatened my adviser that I will report her illicit affair with my dad to the school principal if she wouldn't give me copies of exams. And they thought I was just average?


"He would buy me gifts. I knew it was just a ploy to get under my skirt but I didn't care. I love gifts. Anyway, I was doing my sister a favor. If it was not me, it would have been someone else."
I never pursued my dream of becoming a lawyer. I wanted to get even with my dad. And the only way I could do that is to be surrounded by men. I took up Civil Engineering. And was it fate or what? My biggest competitor was my adviser's niece. Lianne was everybody's favorite. She's clever and sharp-witted. Boys just love her and she didn't even need to flirt. She plays billiards so darn well and that's why I hate her more. I was never good in sports. I couldn't even make the volleyball ball reach the net. I hate competition. I told her cousin (who's a flaming imbecile to have believed me) that his cousin is pregnant and that she's sleeping with every boy she knows. Her mother was furious. Her mother withdrew her enrolment. She was explaining her heart out but her mother was too deaf to hear the truth she was screaming. Who would believe her anyway? She had her tongue pierced.


School had been okay ever since. But at home, it was a little shaky. Abby got married right after graduation to the mayor's son. She never took the nursing board exam. Everything was alright at first until she caught her husband dancing horizontally with her best friend. Typical male huh?! They did not separate though. The mayor wouldn't let them. It would ruin his career in politics, he said. Well, I don't care.


It was not long before Kaye got pregnant courtesy of his hunk boyfriend as she would always arrogantly boast. Well, her hunk of a boyfriend (with an undersized brain) left her after finding out she was pregnant. I saw how she begged for him to stay, knelt, and cried her heart out but he still left. Pretty dumb move for somebody who had always been at the top of her class!


My hatred for my father seemed to have grown into my hatred to men in general. Abby's husband started hitting on me. He would buy me gifts. I knew it was just a ploy to get under my skirt but I didn't care. I love gifts. Anyway, I was doing my sister a favor. If it was not me, it would have been someone else. Abby didn't seem to notice. She thought her husband is a changed man. Though it would have been more appropriate to say, her husband has changed his woman.


School started to get tough. I needed to maintain my grades. I started doing favors for my teachers. I would do everything to stay on my throne. And I mean everything. Aside from my affair with my brother-in-law, I had an affair with one of my teachers as well. He's married too. Damn those married men! They all should be buried in an underground dungeon allowed up only for breeding purposes. But there's one good thing about them. They know how to keep a secret. Unlike women who would never stop whispering unless everybody hears their secrets. I have nothing against my own kind but I think that's what makes us stupid. We could never keep a secret unless maybe everyone is dead. But I intend to be an exception. Or so I thought.


I have very exciting news about my younger sister too. She borrowed a top from me and while I was looking in her drawers for it, I found a half-used pack of birth-control pills. And she's only 17! Wow, impressive family. My brother is not to be left out of course. He started bringing girls (yup, that's plural) at home whenever my parents are out. I never stopped him. The reason why boys treat girls as toys is because some girls really are.


I thought everything was going perfectly well until I fell for Jay. I befriended him, confided secrets (only those he needed to know) but he never seemed to notice. And being with him seems like torturing myself because he is everything I ever wanted but I couldn't have. And what hurts more is that, I can't show him the real me because I know he would be nauseated.


I seemed to have continued digging inside the hole I've created. I couldn't get out as much as I wanted to. But I was determined to change. For him. I stopped seeing my brother-in-law and my teacher. They didn't seem to bother. Well, both of us benefited anyway. But no matter how hard I try, everything still seems not enough. In desperation, I 'whispered' to everybody that the two of us are already a couple. Everybody knows he is my boyfriend. Except him.


Everything seemed to go as planned. But not long enough, I found out he has a girlfriend. And was it some joke or what? His girlfriend is Lianne.


I was furious. I was mad. I was infuriated. Is this what they call karma? She has been the pebble in my shoe all this time. She has been the dirt in the other side of the glass I couldn't get no matter how hard I clean it. She has been the pest that is slowly attacking the crops I am about to harvest. I've got to find the means to get her out of my way because the story, the real story is just about to begin.. LSZ

My Happy Ending

Love? I thought i was a good thing, but so far it has caused me nothing but pain.

I had a friend. Actually, it's an understatement to call him a friend because he's more than just a friend to me. he is my best friend in the whole wide world. His name is MJ. He's no Michael Jordan. Michael Jackson? No, not even. He is just plain MJ. It was not even clear to me what those letters stand for. They're just letters anyway. All I care about is how I enjoyed his company.

He's more of the silent type. Hmm, not that silent. Maybe, i was just way too talkative. I do all the talking and clowning around and he does all the listening and laughing. I was like that to everybody, but i became 'too' aware of him because I have given a different meaning to his stares and his actions toward me. I've become conscious of his presence.

"I went home early because i'd gotten a headache. Funny how my head aches at my left chest."

I could always catch him staring at me, and when I would look to meet his stares, he'd pretend to look somewhere else. He would always tease me until I'd get mad with him, though I had to admit that I've never really gotten mad with him. I was just playing pretend. I had to, so he'd make-up with me, because the making up part is oh-so-sweet.

Everbody enjoys our arguments. Everybody loves to see us making-up. Everybody was expecting us to be 'us'  I was beginning to expect myself. But it never happened. Never did.

One day, a friend told me he was courting somebody else. You know how it feels to be hit by lightning? t happened to me at that instant. I got numb but I could feel my heart crushed into a million pieces. He was never mine but i felt I've lost a very big part of me. My heart.

I went home early because i'd gotten a headache. Funny how my head aches at my left chest. I haven't even noticed the big truck as I crossed the street. I walked all the way home; and home was like 10 kilometers away.

It was already dark when I arrived. MJ was there, his eyes swollen. Is he crying? Why would he? And what was he doing here? I hid behind the door. He's holding a picture. Is that my picture?

"I love you.. so much." He sobs as he kisses my picture.

I'm confused. He loves me? Funny how I could get this excited but I could not feel the beating of my heart. I ran to him so I could tell him how much I love him so. I was way too overwhelmed I've forgotten I was hiding behind the door. But I did not hit the door, the door didn't even move.

Tears flooded my eyes. He loves me. Yes, he loves me! And it had cost me my life just so he would realize. LSZ