Kristi woke up when she heard her mother calling her name. She took her cellphone and hid it below her bed.
She opened the door and she saw her younger brother who was yawning. She smiled but her smile faded when she heard her mother going near them.
“Kristi!” Margaret shouted her name.
Alessandro opened his bedroom door. He looked directly to Margaret, her stepmother, who kept shouting to wake them up.
“Mom, what happened?” Jake asks her mother. He looked at his brother who had the same face as him. Alessandro shakes his head.
“I want you to join me in eating breakfast,” Margaret used her authoritative voice and turned her back to them.
“Kristi,” Alessandro called her. She looked at Alessandro using her icy gaze.
“What is it?” she asked. Alessandro sighed. He wanted to hug Kristi tightly but he knows his limitations.
“Tour me here after we eat,” Alessandro simply told her. Jake pouted his lips to his siblings. He wanted to go with them but he knows that her mother will be furious.
“Do you want to come with us?” Kristi asked him. Jake looked down and looked at Kristi.
He knows his mother and he doesn’t want Kristi to get punished for touring him around.
“I don’t like it, Kristi. I want to stay in my room and watch movies,” he faintly told her. Kristi feels sad that her younger brother grows up like a man.
“Don’t you love me anymore? I’m your sister, Jake,” Kristi says. They followed Alessandro.
Jake was silent.
At his younger age, he knows there is something wrong with her mother. He knows that whenever Kristi is attached to him, she will be punished physically.
“Kristi, you’re my only sister in this world. I love you but I don’t want you to get hurt because of mom,” he reasoned. Kristi’s eyes watered.
Hearing what her younger brother says makes her cry. She stopped herself and wiped her eyes secretly.
“But I want to play with you, Jake,” Kristi says.
Jake nodded his head and looked at Kristi with full adoration. They both looked at Margaret who didn’t have emotion in her eyes. Kristi did the same quickly.
“Kristi, sit beside me,” Margaret commanded.
Jake gulped in fear, he thought that her mother caught them talking to each other.
Kristi obeys her. She sits beside Margaret. She looked at her brother who was in front of her.
“I want you to enjoy your vacation here but after a year, I want you to handle our company,” Margaret was tasting her coffee. Kristi nodded as a response.
She didn’t want her mother’s company but she needed it. She wanted to be free from her mother’s hands.
“Yes, mom,” Kristi answered her like an obedient lady. Margaret smiled and looked at her only daughter. She patted her head with a full of sarcasm on her face.
“Kristi, let me warn you, I don’t want you to disobey my rules. You know what I could do,” she simply informed her. Kristi stopped herself from swallowing heavily. She knows her mother’s schemes.
Margaret was the cruelest in business. She didn’t have the heart to have a conscience and she wanted her only daughter to be like her.
“What I always told you, Kristi?” Margaret asked again. Her eyes were full of threats.
“Showing emotions can make me weak, I can’t trust anyone,” she repeated her mother’s words.
“Good girl, I don’t want you to get attached to anyone in this town,” Margaret added while nodding her head. She was pleased with her daughter. She was smiling but her eyes were nothing.
“You will thank me because you will be strong like me, no one will dare to bully you or scoff at you, my daughter,” Margaret sweetly told her daughter.
Alessandro looked at his plate. He didn’t like how Margaret was doing, but he didn’t have the power to disobey her.
“Did you understand me, Kristi? I want you to be strong, I want you to be more powerful than me,” Margaret added. Her face has a devilish smile.
Kristi acted like she was hypnotized. She nodded but she wanted to gnash her teeth. Her mother always controlled her and she didn’t like it.
Benjamin woke up and quickly looked at his cellphone, thinking that maybe Kristi would reply.
He pulled his hair in frustration. He was worried that maybe Kristi didn’t just like the idea of meeting his parents.
“Kristi, what happened?” he whispered. He looked at his cellphone again and tried calling her.
He can’t reach her number. He wanted to tell and smash everything.
He heard a knock on his bedroom door. He walked toward it and opened the door. He saw Antonio’s sleepy face.
“Bro, Auntie said it’s time to eat breakfast,” Antonio said to him. He looked at Benjamin who had an irritation on his handsome face.
“What’s wrong with you? Did something wrong happen?” Antonio can’t help himself to ask his friend.
“My girlfriend didn’t even text me or called me,” he says. He walks toward his bed and sits on its bed.
“Maybe, she’s busy,” Antonio told him. He can’t believe that Benjamin has a girlfriend now.
“But it’s her first time doing this to me, I know when she’s busy, she won’t even dare to turn off her cellphone,” Benjamin reasoned.
Antonio looked at his friend and scratched his head. His head was aching because of Benjamin.
“That’s how relationships work,” Antonio simply stated.
“If he didn’t go here, I would be mad at her,” Benjamin told Antonio.
Antonio wanted to laugh at his friend. Benjamin acted like a kid.
“This is why I hate having a relationship with someone, it’s too irritating,” Antonio expressed.
“But you should trust your woman, maybe she’s busy. Try to understand her,” Antonio advised Benjamin.
Benjamin decided to eat breakfast when his mother kept shouting his name. His mother looked at him with concern in her eyes.
“Benjamin, honey, why was your face grumpy today? Aren’t you excited that I will finally meet your girlfriend?” Joana asked his son.
Benjamin didn’t answer his mother. He can’t even enjoy his breakfast. He wanted to fetch Kristi and ask her what’s the problem.
“Auntie, he missed his girlfriend so much,” Antonio was the one who answered.
“Benjamin, stop being too clingy,” Joana advised her son.
Benjamin chewed heavily on his food. He can’t accept the fact that his mother called him clingy!
“I’m not a clingy mom, and I love her that’s why I’m acting like this,” he bluntly replied. He stood up and looked at his mother with a death stare.
“Benjamin, stop acting like this, what’s wrong with you?” His father shouted. Benjamin sighed.
He went out to their house and decided to go to Kristi. He knows that Kristi was in the park.
Alessandro and Kristi, we’re roaming in the park. They both looked at the children who have the freedom to play.
“Do you feel envious when you watch them playing?” Alessandro went nearer to Kristi when he saw the sadness in her eyes.
Kristi closed her eyes and looked at Alessandro.
“Why are you asking me if you know the answer?” Kristi can’t stop herself from being sarcastic. Of course, she wanted to be like them! And Alessandro knows it.
“Why are you mad? I’m just asking you,”
Kristi feels even sadder when she hears Alessandro use his unhappy voice.
“You’re not the only one who didn’t experience playing in the park Kristi,” Alessandro told her. He went to her back and hugged her.
Kristi closed her eyes and felt the comfort that Alessandro gave her.
“You know that I love you, Kristi, right?” Alessandro whispered in her ear.
“Alessandro, you know that I can’t, I love you as my brother and I love someone. I wanted to be with him, I wanted to build my future with Benjamin,” Kristi honestly told him.
Alessandro felt that his heart was aching. He smiled. He was happy that Kristi finally had a boyfriend but he couldn’t stop his heart from mourning.
“I’m happy for you Kristi even though it’s not me,” Alessandro sadly says.
Benjamin can’t believe what he saw. His heart thumps fast and feels furious.
“Kristi!” he enraged and shouted Kristi’s name. They both look at him. When he saw Alessandro’s face, his jealousy finally consumed him. His body was shaking and he wanted to punch the man who was hugging Kristi tightly.