Chapter One

Levi’s bed bounced as Clay jumped into it to make him get up. It was a routine the dog has developed since the first day he took him in. Clay was a stray puppy that he and his grandmother I thought were abandoned by his mother. Either that or his mother died or was taken away. The young man was still not sure where the dog came from. One thing he believes though, Clay was sent from heaven. The dog had been his closest friend since he was eight.

Clay is an adorable white dog with black spots, bigger than that of Dalmatians. He's smaller, too. He loves chicken and so does his owner.

Levi has been awake for a few minutes now but he was too lazy to leave his bed. It was a Monday morning and he had classes. Only a few months were left until graduation and he’s very thankful for that. At the same time, he felt bummed out.

He has a scholarship grant from the university in the city far from the place he called home since he was seven. The college here in his town is good but he wanted to achieve better things in life so he chose the university in the nearby city.

He will surely miss his town.

Tanisha Bui, Levi’s grandmother isn't related to him by blood but she adopted him when he was seven. From then on, she's been the only family Levis knows. She's a beautiful woman, one with a good heart and kind eyes. Anyone in their little town respects and adores her.

There's this family Tanisha works for since Levi could remember. She said that she had been employed by the same people since she was younger. The Santillan family. They own roughly half of this town. The businesses here were also mostly owned by their family and relatives. It's unfair if you think about it. It's as if they own the town.

Clay whined as he flopped down next to Levi, subtly complaining over his lazy friend not wanting to get out of bed. The said friend chuckled as he scratched his head, groaning before he sat up.

"I’m up. I’m up. Thank you."

Clay sat up and stuck his tongue out, happy for what his owner said, as if saying, "You're welcome. Now come on! Let's get this day started!"

Levi got out of bed and his dog jumped off with him. He tidied around his room and headed for the bathroom before getting ready to join his grandmother for breakfast.

"Good morning, grandma." Levi gave the most beautiful woman in the world a warm hug as she stood in front of the stove.

"Good morning," she said smiling. "One of your favorite breakfasts is ready. Fried rice and tocino."

"Yes! Gotta love Filipino food," Levi said, rubbing his palms together, his mouth watering. "And cassava cake with custard topping? Dessert, too?"

The old woman chuckled, the side of her eyes wrinkling beautifully as she lay the food at the table. "I made them yesterday but you were too tired to try them so here it is."

"Ooh. If I only knew..." The young man pouted and so did his dog. "You know you can't have anything with sugar, bud,” he said to the pooch begging next to his seat. It was responded with a pitiful whine.

"So how was Emery's practice coming?" Tanisha asked her grandson.

Emery, Levi’s best friend, joined a dance group and he has been practicing with to join a hip-hop competition. This will be his ticket to getting a scholarship grant to the university Levi was planning to go to. He met all the other requirements. He just needed a sponsor to get him from the second semester onwards.

"He's amazing,” Levi replied with a proud smile. “He's been working hard, practicing hard. I know he will win. His team will win.” Emery has always been like a brother to Levi.

"That's great," his grandma commented. "I would be sad to think that you two won't get into the same university. He's family. You need to look after each other."

Levi nodded with a soft smile. Emery is like the baby of their house. He and Tanisha spoil him. Even Clay thinks of Emery as the youngest in the family.

***

After breakfast, Tanisha drove to her work with Clay on her jeep while Levi got on his bicycle to get to Emery's house. The latter waits for Levi and they would go to school together.

"Five minutes late." Emery flashed his grin as Levi stopped in front of his house. Emery’s mother from behind the short fence waved at Levi. She greeted him a "good morning".

"Oh, I'm sorry about that, little prince," Levi said sarcastically. "This chauffeur of yours overslept today."

Emery chortled before he climbed at the back of the bicycle. Smiling to himself, Levi began to pedal and off they went to their school, with chats in between, silly jokes over the whistles they heard, laughter over little things they saw on the way. That pretty much summed up their morning together.

The whistles? Those were from the girls at school. Levi is very popular in town yet unavailable at the moment. Unavailable means he plays nice with them but there was no strings attached.

Levi admitted he’s young and sexually active but his future was more important. He wants to make  his grandmother and his best friend proud. The two are the one family he has. What is love anyway? He often reminded himself that. As long as he has the most important people in his life, I doesn’t need anyone else.

***

"Did you hear?" Levi overheard one of his female classmates ask another in the classroom after lunch was over.

"Hear what?" A classmate asked back. He wasn't one to eavesdrop to other people's conversation but the next thing he heard roused his curiosity.

"Some business tycoon is coming to town to marry Mr. Santillans’ only daughter. What an unfair world, isn't it?"

The other groaned and flopped down on her seat at the news or perhaps a gossip she heard. "No wonder rich people keep getting richer! They keep it to themselves!"

"Hey, Levi!" The first female classmate of his called his name just as he continued walking toward his seat.

He looked back and asked her, "Yeah?"

"Snag a rich girl when you go to college, will you? Make them spread the wealth in this world."

Levi chuckled awkwardly at her proposition. Perhaps it was practical for rich people to keep their money to themselves by marrying off their daughters or sons to their business partners or other people in their circle. He didn't care about it but for some reason, it irked him to think of some rich old man was marrying Tricia Santillan.

He got the shivers.

Then again, Levi never liked Tricia. Mostly because Clay and Emery don't like her. Oh well, they say love can be learned. I hope it can with her. ‘Bless her soul’, Levi thought.

***

"You're working on weekends, too?" Levi asked his grandmother one Saturday morning while she was getting ready to leave the house with him to get groceries. At least that's what he thought they were going to do. She said she had to leave to work for the Santillans that weekend.

"Yes, I forgot to mention it." Tanisha dug into her wallet and gave her grandson the money for the groceries. "Someone very important is coming to this town and the Santillans are hosting his stay here. We have to do a lot of preparations at the mansion and around their property."

"Well, I can help," the young man offered. "My part time job doesn't need me on weekends anyway."

The old woman gave me her grandson a sweet smile and pinched his cheek which she had always done ever since Levi could remember. "Okay. I'll tell Mrs. Santillan that you will be working with me this weekend."

Now, Emery was going to rain Levi with questions regarding Tricia's doomed future with this rich man he will be seeing soon. Who is he anyway? He heard he's not old and he's actually pretty hot. “Hot? Guh. I gotta stop listening to gossips.”