CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2

When I was able to remove my whole face that bumped into the hard locker, I quickly felt dizzy. It was like my surroundings were spinning all around and I felt like throwing up. I tried to stand up properly even though my whole face is already hurting but my dizziness became more serious that I was almost stumbling from where I stood but thank goodness that I was still able to quickly try to get hold of some things that can be handled here, and as soon I tightened my hold on it, I immediately balanced myself while my eyes are closed, hoping that I can control my dizziness but it did not happen.

I could easily feel the pain in my whole face, especially on the part of my forehead and nose because of the strong force of Madam Baby's push on me. I am sure that the sound of my whole face hitting the hard locker earlier echoed throughout the whole room.

Just the moment when I touched my forehead, I immediately felt something wet dripping from it and down to my nose. My heart immediately pounded so fast because of the nervousness I suddenly felt and because of an idea that just came into my mind and also the possibility that what was that wet. I slowly lowered my hand that was just touching my forehead earlier and when it was already leveled in my eyes, I realized what was that wet, and it is nothing but my own fresh blood.

My eyes widened and my body was quickly wrapped in fear but that fear also suddenly disappeared when I realized that I could still stand and walk regardless of what was happening.

The broken glasses were still buried on both of my palms and every time I am moving my hands, I quickly feel the pain that it brings.

My tears uncontrollably even more flowed into my face when I decided to look at myself in the mirror here in the staff room that was attached to the white wall. Even though the mirror is dirty, I can clearly see what I look like right now from where I stood.

My hair that was just fine earlier is already messy and I can see some strands of it on the floor because of Madam Baby's tight hold and pulling on it. My eyes and nose, as well as my face, were also red from crying so much. I also have some scars on my face that I no longer know when and where they came from because I just became numb while Madam Baby is hurting me earlier, physically and with her words.

The polo shirt I am wearing that was just color white earlier has color brown now because of the sticky foods that fell on the floor and also the dirt on the floor that also stuck on it while I was dragging by Madam Baby. There were also some bloodstains on my polo shirt that came from the blood on my hands and some broken glasses that were buried in my stomach.

Because of my look right now, I can hardly recognize who I am. I feel sorry for myself for what happened today.

I just stared at myself in the mirror while my tears were still uncontrollably dripping and as my heart seemed to be stabbed because of the pain I was feeling.

Do I really deserve this kind of treatment? All I want is just to work in peace so that I can support and still continue my studies but why do they have to do this to me? Why do they have to hurt me? Are they really happy every time they are hurting me? Do they have any conscience left in them?

And before Madam Baby even came back here in the locker room, I had already started arranging my belongings even though I still did not remove the broken glasses buried in my palm.

I will just remove them later when I get home because maybe if I will do that now, Madam Baby will surely still see me here and will immediately call the police.

I just keep on putting my stuff inside my bag and I am doing it fast because I do not want to be in jail. I know that Madam Baby can make it possible for me to be arrested by the police because she knows a lot of people here in our town.

I would love to try again. I really want to beg Madam Baby not to fire me anymore because this is the only job that keeps me alive and supports me to finance my education but I am also afraid that she might hurt me again and might do worse on me so I would no longer do it, I will not try anymore.

I will just try to look for a job here in our town again even though I know I will have a hard time finding one because almost all of the establishments here are the ones that are only accepting an employee who is of legal age already.

I am only seventeen years old that is why I am very sure that it will be really hard for me to find a new job but I will never lose hope and I will just keep on finding and applying until some business establishments hire me.

Luckily, after I arranged my belongings, no one saw me leaving the eatery, even my coworkers and even Madam Baby because they seemed to be busy taking care of our customers because of the chaos that just happened earlier.

Auntie Cecille and I just live near the eatery, so I got to our house right away by running because of the looks that our neighbors were giving me and they are making me uncomfortable with their stares. But when I was almost near to our house, I slowed down my walk and stopped for a while when I saw Auntie Cecille throwing my belongings outside our house.

My eyes widened and I ran quickly towards her as she was about to throw the laptop that Mother Myrna gave to me as her gift which I really took the most care of. And it broke my heart so bad when I saw it fall so fast and spread its parts on the ground along with my other belongings.

It is gone... It is broken... My first laptop is already broken!

"A-Auntie, why did you do t-that? Mother Myrna gave it to me," I still politely asked her while my tears were dripping again into my face even though I was already feeling very angry towards her.

She was still able to smile at me and still looked very happy with what she did even though I was already crying in front of her.

"It is only because of your stupidity! Do you think that the stupidity you did earlier in Baby's eatery will not reach me, huh?! You are a shameful child! Because of you, our friendship might be ruined or worse, get tainted! You have always been a piece of bad luck since then you were born so leave my house now! I do not want you here anymore!" she furiously said as she kicked my clothes and other belongings that are still on the ground that made it more broken and dirty.

I quickly knelt down and picked up the things she kicked while I was sobbing and hurting because of what she is doing to my precious things.

Most of my things are from Mother Myrna that is why I really treasure all of them. Mother Myrna really saved and worked enough when she was still alive just to buy my needs in school but this is just what will happen. I never expected that Auntie Cecille would be the one who is going to break them.

I was almost discouraged when I saw that my other belongings, such as my books and notebooks were already looked like trash. Even some of my ballpens did not let Auntie Cecille's waves of anger pass because some of them were already broken and chopped.

"A-Auntie, stop it. S-Stop this already, please. I-I will not do it again. I-I will just look for a new job here in t-town. I will fix everything, just please, do not let me leave this h-home. I have nowhere to g-go. P-Please Auntie, I-I am begging y-you," I said while crying and begging her but she did not even get affected by my pleading and she just quickly grabbed me by my hair that made me shout because of the pain it brought.

"I do not care about you! I do not care if you have nowhere to go! And I do not even care if you will die today! I will be very happy if that happened!" she gritted and furiously said.

"A-Auntie, do not do this to me, p-please. I-I am your f-family. I am your n-niece."

I could barely recognize my own voice because of my uncontrolled too much crying and sobbing.

When I am already kneeling on the ground while Aunt Cecille was still holding my hair, tweaking me, I could hear the whispers of our neighbors, and as like earlier in the eatery, no one, as in no one even dare to help me especially when Auntie Cecille gave me a slap on both sides of my cheeks that immediately made me stumble on the ground.

I flinched and I immediately felt the pain when my palms immediately fell on small rocks on the ground that made some of the broken glasses that are still stuck on my palms go deeper.

"I do not have a niece like you! I do not consider you as my family and I am not your family! You are really just a piece of bad luck! You ruined my life! You ruined our life! Because of you, my brother died! He is the only one ..." her voice cracked and I could clearly see the beginning of her tears, "He is the only one I have in my life but because of you, he is gone now! I hope it is just you! I hope it is just you who died that night and not my one and only older brother! He could have supported my studies and I could have fulfilled all his dreams for me! We could have a happy family but you came into the picture and ruined everything!" she said, even more furious at me.

I covered my mouth and cried even more as I watched her tears flow uncontrollably down her face.

This is the first time ... this is the first time I have heard this from her because she has not really talked to me since then and this is also the first time I have seen her cry and it hurts me like hell seeing her like this.

My father could have supported her studies and she could have fulfilled her dreams of him for her if I had not had a fever that night? Really?

"I-I am sorry, A-Auntie Cecille. I-I am sorry if I r-ruined your good l-life. I did not mean that," I said to her as I was controlling my sob and biting my lips as we stared at each other.

Auntie Cecille's face and eyes were also colored red because of crying just like me and I think because also of her anger towards me. And even her shoulders are moving when she is breathing heavily because of being furious at me as well.

I was already having trouble breathing and my eyes were blurring from crying so much. I no longer mind my palms that are already aching so bad. What is important to me right now is to convince Auntie Cecille to not kick me out of our house.

Fear quickly enveloped me when she quickly walked towards me and stood in front of me and from there, she laughed out loud that immediately thundered in the whole place while still crying like me.

"You are sorry?! Are you kidding me, Deandra?! Do you think that my brother would come back just because of your damn sorry, huh?! Fucking no! Fucking no, Deandra! Even if you die right now, my brother would never ever come back! Not anymore! You are the reason why your mother and father have died so get out in front of my house and never ever show up yourself to me again!" She said while widening her eyes because of so much hatred for me. And because I was afraid that she might slap me again after she said those words, I quickly bent down my head while still crying and sobbing so hard that I cannot almost breathe properly.

"P-Please, Auntie. I-I will do anything and everything you w-want just please, p-please, let me stay... l-let me stay here and d-do not kick me o-out," I said and begged in between my sobs, already desperate.

"You will do anything and everything I want?! Okay! I want you to bring back my brother right now! Can you do that, huh?!" she grittily said that made me stop talking and made me cry more. "You cannot do that right?! You cannot fucking do anything and everything I want like you have said! So leave now and just die and be gone forever!"

"And this!" She said while holding and pulling me now with the collar of my polo. "Take this off because I will give it back to Baby! Take it off now, Deandra!" She said and did not let me move or talk because she just started unbuttoning the polo I was wearing.

I quickly shook my head while she was doing that and I looked at her pleading, as I am stopping her from removing my polo shirt on me.

"S-Stop, Auntie, p-please. D-Don't do this to m-me. I-I will just remove this later and change from a different shirt inside our h-house."

She looked at me, still having tears in her eyes as if she could not believe what I just said.

"Your face is too thick to even dare to step on my house! Come on! Get undressed now! Will you take it off here immediately or I will hurt you?! Go choose, Deandra!"

"B-But, A-Auntie, if I will remove this from me, the people around us watching us now could see me almost n-naked."

"I do not fucking care! I will repeat! I do not fucking care even if they will see you being naked! Choose now, Deandra! You will take that off of you or I will be the one to do that while hurting you?! Choose!"

I was already losing my hope that is why I slowly looked around first and from there, I saw our neighbors watching us as if they were happy to see what was happening right now.

I looked at Auntie Cecille again and she has still had a very furious expression on her face.

I moved slowly and reached for the hem of my polo shirt. I slowly lifted it while crying and I cried even more and was hurt when Auntie herself removed it away from my body even if I still lifted it on my stomach.

I quickly picked up the sack bag that had only my clothes inside and I used that sack to cover my exposed chest. I no longer mind if that sack was dirty because what's important to me right now is to cover my almost exposed chest from the people that are here now, just watching everything.

I was only wearing a bra right now and I immediately heard from behind the whistling of some boys there. I know that they can see my almost naked back now but I can not think of anything to cover it up.

"This is what you deserve because you are a piece of bad luck! Get out of my sight now before I can get you bitten by Coby!" She shouted, threatening me.

I stood up immediately after she said that. Coby is a dogger man and like Auntie Cecille, he is also furious every time when he sees me.

I quickly ran away from them while carrying some of my belongings. I even heard the laughter and screams of the people there as I passed them.

The pain I felt got worse as I ran away from them.

Am I really just a piece of bad luck in their lives? Am I really the reason why my mother and my father died? Is it really me? Is it really all my fault?

I just kept on running as I hugged the sack bag, still covering my chest until I stopped when I felt the gradual pouring of heavy rain.

Am I not really lovable? Is there really no one who will come and love me like Mother Myrna did and made me feel?

I slowly looked up at the sky and from there, I immediately felt the rain falling right exactly on my face even more.

"M-Mom and D-Dad, are you happy up there? Can I g-go there now? I am having a hard time here already. Can you please take me now with all of you? P-Promise I will be kind and behave there, just please, take me now" I shouted loudly as I looked up in the sky and at the same time, as my voice broke.

After that, I lowered my head and at that very moment, I just noticed that I was already standing in the middle of the road.

I immediately saw a fast vehicle approaching from my direction. I remained standing and staring at that oncoming vehicle while no longer feeling anything, even nervousness or even fear.

I am ready... I am ready to be with you now Mom, Dad, and Nanay Myrna. Please, wait for me up there...

And just a few moments later, along with the continuous falling of the raindrops, I just fell on the road while having a beautiful smile on my face because I will finally be able to be with the people who really love me and someone who cares about me.