Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

W hile my inability to keep my temper in check was a blessing in disguise that led me to knowing Cholo again, it was also responsible for the chain of events that undid everything we had worked for.

Had I known what was coming, I would have stopped it but my head was too high up in my ass.

The week that led up to the launch was quick and nowhere near enough for our preparations. I worked until 2 a.m. on Thursday and Friday to finish the last-minute revisions that Miss Mikayla asked for. It took a toll on me as I had other academic requirements now and I had not factored the video editing in when I made my study schedules. There were times that I felt Miss Mikayla was just intent on making life harder for me and I had to remind myself that she was Miss Co’s sister.

Saturday came and Liana shook me awake that morning. It was thirty minutes after I was planning to wake up, and that was enough to send me over the edge. I inadvertently yelled at Liana for not waking me up earlier, shouted at Tita Cris for taking my party dress away from the spot where I had put it ( “Sorry, but it was so rumpled, I had to steam it,” she tearfully replied) and talked back to Dad when he asked me not to raise my voice at Tita Cris like that.

He understood, though. After packing the breakfast that Cris had prepared for me, he just asked me to get in the car and that made me feel even worse. It was one of the longest drives of my life and when we got to Makati, I was not able to hold it in any longer.

“Sorry, Dad,” I started before I could lose the apology I had been cooking up in my head. With its current sleep-deprived state, I did not trust my mind to help me out right now. “That was wrong. I was angry at myself more than anything. I mean, duh, whose fault was it anyway that I woke up late?”

Dad laughed and I stared at him in disbelief as we came to a full stop on the Ayala-EDSA intersection. I folded my arms.

“Wow,” he said, looking at my defiant expression. “I haven’t heard you apologize in a long time. It’s good to know you still know how.”

“Dad!” I sputtered and he laughed harder.

“Don’t apologize to me. Text Cris and Liana and say sorry to them. I’m sorry for laughing, though. It’s just that I never imagined you ever saying that to me. I never thought I’d have you back but I’m grateful.”

I was touched but was spared from having to say anything in reply as the light turned green. I did as I was told, texting my apologies, and both replied saying it was okay. My mood improved significantly after my dad hugged me goodbye and helped me with my stuff. He drove away and I went inside the venue, carrying my backpack and laptop.

I was going up the stairs when I heard two people talking.

“What a mess!” a shrill voice was saying. I took a couple of slow steps, wondering if I should back off. “I should have asked someone else.”

“Ate Mikayla, I’m sorry, I had other things to bring,” said another voice, which I now recognized as Cholo’s. “I can just drive back and get it now.”

“And what? Waste another hour? Sobrang iresponsable mo!” she scolded. My fists clenched at my side. “We’re co-presentors! Do you have any idea what my boss would say if he found out that you managed to bring your club tarps but not the company standees? You’ll get blacklisted!”

I took a couple more steps up and saw Cholo standing in front of Miss Mikayla, looking like a little boy being scolded despite the fact that he was taller than her.

“It’s because your brothers are too soft on you. Even Patsy treats you like a baby and that’s why you just can’t learn. You think everyone’s on your side. Palibhasa, you’re Angkong’s favorite.”

Holy mother of ad hominem. Did she really have to say all that?

“Ate Mikayla, please. I can ask Vinnie to get it from my house?—”

“Oh, please. She’s just as much of a nuisance as you. Do you know how unprofessional your girlfriend is? Those last few changes on the video took so long and were of poor quality, too. You can’t even hold your own stuff together or keep your grades up, now you have to date that?—”

“Please leave her out of this,” Cholo cut her off, gritting his teeth, calm demeanor gone. I saw the fire in his eyes even from where I stood.

“Sumasagot ka?”

Cholo bit his tongue but stared at her, determined not to bow.

“Huh. I wonder where you’re getting it but it makes sense. Like attracts like. I heard she’s doing this to make up for causing a brawl. Is that true?”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Ate Mikayla,” he said. “I have always listened whenever you raised your voice at me without complaint because I respected you like an older sister but I am not going to let you talk about my girlfriend like that.”

I felt a huge rush of affection for Cholo.

“Oh, things must be serious. You thinking of bringing that girl to Angkong?” Miss Mikayla said, getting all up into Cholo’s face. “Didn’t you say you wanted to prove yourself to our titas? You were better off with that first girl from the student council two years ago. Why are you associating yourself with a brat like that now?”

“You and our aunts have always thought of me as useless, anyway, even before Vinnie came along,” Cholo retorted.

“I thought you wanted to change that?” Miss Mikayla said. “Aren’t you afraid that she’s going to turn you into something exactly like your Kuya Chip?”

“There is nothing wrong with Kuya Chip and Ate Ania,” Cholo snapped. “And Vinnie is a good person, not that I have to prove that to you. You’re just bringing this out on her because you’re angry with me.”

Miss Mikayla stared him down. I got this overwhelming desire to barge in and yell at her but it was not my place to do anything. It frustrated me that I couldn’t do anything. The words she said burned through my veins like poison. I could not even imagine what Cholo was feeling now.

“I guess it’s too late. You’ve always been on that side of the tracks, anyway. Beyond saving,” she said, shaking her head. I had no idea why the line sounded familiar but I was sure I had heard it before.

Cholo’s face paled as Miss Mikayla had delivered a verbal death blow. “If you want to get the brand standees at home, go ahead. I’m stressed enough without you here.”

She left and bossed the other officers around. Cholo shook his head and took out his phone, dialling, and sure enough, mine shook in my pocket just moments after. I waited ten seconds before I appeared around the bend.

“Yes, yes, I know I’m late,” I said, trying to smile and look like I was joking. “What did I miss?”

Cholo smiled at me tiredly and took my bag from me. “You okay?” I asked innocently.

He tried to arrange his features with a smile but ended up with a grimace. “Nah, just hungry.”

“Great, I brought food,” I just answered, taking his hand.

While Cholo was driving home to retrieve the standees, Miss Mikayla assigned me with the tech guys and our Logistics Team to check the system and projectors. Once that was set up, I was supposed to do a test run of the montage featuring Miss Mikayla’s brand.

By 2 p.m., the projectors were fixed and the venue personnel had called for a lunch break. I was near the control booth and fixing the Ephemere logo tarp in front of the DJ station when Summer appeared, holding a cup of yoghurt.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked. “I saw Cholo going somewhere else.”

“What do you want?” I asked directly. I was doing a good job of not letting her get to me. I better not break that now.

“I’m just worried about you guys,” she replied, shrugging. “I don’t want Cholo or you to get hurt.”

“Sure,” I said, mocking her. I suddenly remembered how Miss Mikayla brought her up before this so I tried to use that to my advantage. “Look, we don’t need your concern. If he got rid of you and you want him back, talk to him, not me.”

That looked like it hit a chord as Summer stopped smiling. She went up to the DJ booth and from that vantage point, she was looking down on me.

“Haven’t you figured him out yet? Cholo is obsessed with fixing things. What he can’t fix for himself, he tries to fix in others. Surely you’d have understood that by now?”

“Damn, girl, you must have been hopeless,” I replied. That was a low blow but I needed to get back at her for attacking Cholo behind his back for his parentage.

“I let him go because he’s a control freak and I wouldn’t change for him,” she replied. “I wouldn’t expect you to see it from my point of view but it’s a close parallel. In your case, he insists he wants to help you with your grades. It’s only a matter of time before he starts making decisions on your behalf. Tomorrow it will be for an internship or a job you wish to get and after that, it will be for his family. Clothes, attitude—there will always be something he’ll want to change. Is that something you can put up with?”

“If Cholo never grew to like you for what you were, that’s not my fault nor my problem. Telling me all this doesn’t change anything.”

“Are you sure he likes you and not the image of you in his head that he’s hoping you could be?”

“Summer!” Miss Mikayla yelled from the next room, saving me from having to reply. It was a good thing as the last statement had hit a nerve and I would not have had time to come up with a suitable retort as what she said had sent my mind reeling.

I tried to stop myself but my thoughts had started spiraling out of control.

All hell broke loose when it was time to play the montage I had lost countless hours of sleep for.

“Where is it?” I was screaming as I flipped every bag in sight. “I brought it! I’m sure I brought it!”

“Vinnie, it’s just here somewhere, we’ll find it,” Seth told me but I could see cracks in his calm demeanor as well. I was not the only one who got bossed around the whole day and our team especially was on edge because we were the ones who came here early.

“I saw it here, just beside your laptop. Or was that Seth’s?” asked Cholo, looking again in the DJ booth.

While Seth, Erika, and Cholo went around looking for my hard drive containing the video, I sat down and tried to think straight. The panic was clouding my thoughts and I could think of nothing but the worst scenarios possible.

Of course, Miss Mikayla had to come in at that exact moment and open Pandora’s Box.

“Um, hello? The laser light cue’s long done!” she demanded and I looked at her blankly. Her frown went deeper. “Okay. What’s happening?”

“We’re just looking for the hard drive,” Cholo answered, back to his polite tone. “Can you give us five more minutes?”

“Hard drive?” she repeated. “Goodness, we came up to this moment only to get impeded by a hard drive? Who had it last? Don’t you have a backup, Lavinia?”

“We’re looking for it already, Ate,” Cholo pleaded.

“Looking for it! Working on it! Empty words all fucking day!” Miss Mikayla cursed. “Wala ka na bang gagawing maganda? Well, what can I expect, seeing as your mere existence was a mis?—”

“Hoy!” I now shouted, my hot temper back in place as I marched towards her with fists clenched. “You’re going way too far!”

“You dare talk to a sponsor like this?” Miss Mikayla demanded, rounding on me.

“No, I’m talking to you as a person, as Miss Mikayla, as Ate Mikayla,” I snarled, making quotation marks in the air. “Is it normal for you to treat people from your family like this?”

“Please. This illegitimate thing is no family to me.”

“What did she just say ? —”

“Oh my god ? —”

I heard my clubmates whisper among each other. My vision went hazy as my anger clouded my judgment. No one in our team knew about Cholo’s family history and I just felt furious on his behalf. That was foul.

“Must be sad being less loved than the illegitimate thing , then?” I retorted and Miss Mikayla glared at me, seething.

“You—”

“Vinnie, let’s go outside, please,” Cholo said, coming to my side and putting a hand on my arm as our other clubmates did the same with Miss Mikayla, who was ready to lunge at me.

The space made me uncomfortable so I fought hard to be released from Cholo’s grip but he was determined to keep me at bay. The resulting force made me lose my balance and bump straight into Miss Mikayla, who had just advanced at me. Next thing I knew, we had both landed on the tiled floor.

Miss Co came up to the booth at the worst possible time and came to her sister’s aid.

“That’s it!” Miss Mikayla screamed, getting back on her feet and looking down at me. “I’m pulling out of this event!”

My head spun as Miss Co tried to plead with her sister.

“Atsi, please be reasonable?—”

“That girl pushed me!” Miss Mikayla replied, turning on her. I wanted to reason that it was an accident but I did not want to make it any worse than it already was. “Look. Either she’s out of the team or Exonerate cancels the entire deal. Take your pick.”

It was not an empty threat. I knew how people like Miss Mikayla worked—she would make good on that promise. Feeling ashamed, I fled from the scene to compose myself.

I had just made it to the lobby when I ran into Summer, whose eyes flashed at the sight of me.

“Looking for this?” said Summer, walking towards me with a triumphant smile and holding up my hard drive.

I stared at the thing on her hand in horror.

“Funny how I didn’t even have to say something,” she taunted. I froze in my spot, not even thinking of grabbing it from her. “I just had to hide this and wait for you to mess things up yourself.”

“How low can you get?” I asked, hardly able to absorb any of this.

“Well, you happened to be under the illusion that you were better than me and they had this idea of you that Cholo planted in their heads. You all needed the wake-up call. They needed to see you for what you really are.”

I had nothing to say to that. She was right. I had dug my own grave. It was all my fault. Hiding the hard drive was nothing compared to me ending up pushing someone else because I was angry.

She shoved the hard drive in my hand.

“It’s a good thing I have a backup or this launch would have been a failure,” she said. “Would you mind me going back in there to save the day?”

With a last smile, she regally turned on her heel and walked out the door, leaving me devastated.