Why do I lose everyone? Am I cursed? She came back to me, but she left so quick. I think I am cursed. Why does everyone leave you, if you keep them with you? That day when I saw her, I thought I wasn't going to lose her again, but everything happened so quickly. In a snap of a finger, she was gone. I still treated her like a sister even though she had changed because of her mother, and I waited for years for her to call me Fish sauce again, and it happened, but it was her decision to end everything. I couldn't blame her for that. I am glad that Aunt Maria is in jail now,while Rebecca and Kevin are in an orphanage. Virnah mentioned before that Aunt Maria was the least favorite of their parents. She always received punishment. Aunt Maria is the eldest and my mom is the youngest. Mom was the favorite and all the things she wanted were always provided, but Aunt Maria wasn't able to receive anything maybe because of her attitude. She poured her revenge on me. I felt bad for her when she w
Auggie's Chapter (Backstory) My name is August Manzano and I have Severe Combined Immunodeficiency or SCID. I have a low number of T cells-a type of white blood cells that make up the immune system to keep me from getting sick. I am not able to fight off germs. To protect me from infections, my parents isolated me and separated me from them. We are following a strict protocol during my isolation including limiting who enters the house that I am in right now and washing hands before entering and touching me. All my life I've been staying here without meeting new people. I wonder what the outside world looks like. I really want to go outside and swim in the ocean, and explore beautiful places as I see on TV and in magazines. I found a way to escape, not literally escape and leave the house, but to create a whole new universe inside my head. I spend the day with my earphones on and exploring the universe that I created. The universe that I believe is the reflection of the rea
"Find your partners, and we will be doing a treasure hunt," our camping instructor said. Theo went beside me. "Reign, are you okay?" he asked. "No," I replied. He hugged me. "I am so sorry that I left you alone," I said, crying on his chest. "It is okay Reign." August lied just to be with me and spend time with me. He even rented a house and enrolled in Crestview High. He had been diagnosed with a rare disease yet deadly, but he sacrificed his safety just to find me and explore the real world. Maybe it's true that I am cursed. That everyone leaves. If I lost Theo, I don't know what I am going to do with my life anymore. Auggie was isolated and unconscious in Crestview Private Hospital. I couldn't even see him in The Yarn. I miss him so much. I couldn't eat nor sleep thinking about him and blaming myself. I prayed for him to hold on and stay. If I knew that all of these things would happen, I should've ended my life. "I said to find your partners, not find yo
"You ready for today?" Theo asked. I just nodded. It is Cupid's day. We were wearing red shirts and red pants. We looked like menstruation. I was going to perform the song that I sang when I was with Auggie in the children's park. I hope Auggie is happy wherever he is. I wish someday, we would meet in The Yarn again."Let's go?""Let's go"Everyone was wearing red, it was like we were in a sea of blood. Some were wearing headbands with the photo of cupid. We went to the auditorium."There are lots of students here. Are you nervous?" Theo asked."Yeah," I replied, rubbing my hands because I felt so tensed. I have never performed in front of a crowd before."I think I am going to pass out." Theo gave me a bottle of water. I know, I am not a good singer, but I have a voice to show. The song was for August Manzano, the one that made me realize that love is real. They announced the first one who will perform, and it was Mark."What the heck?" Theo was confused. Everyone cheer
About the Author John Phrey Claro is a college student from the Philippines taking up a bachelor’s degree in Financial Management. He is a self-published author and a poet. He believes that because of poetry and fiction, he found his real melody and his purpose. He started to appreciate the beauty of the world because without him, the world is monochrome.
They say that I am a completely different person when I am on my earphones. Walking back and forth, pretending I am performing in front of ten thousand individuals. When I hear my heart thump, I know already that he is watching me. It is even weirder that whenever I put my earphones on and, that scenario comes in. My eyes always witness how the walls cave in. Upon creating this whole new universe, I knew that it would be hard for me to identify which is real and which is not, but I want to escape reality and create my plot. My life right now is like pressing the ESC button one hundred times just to remove this unwanted program in my life. Maybe I have been programmed to be tethered in this surreal universe where I am the main character, and I can control everything, and I am just like, "Yeah, this is what I want." When in fact, I am the puppet. There is a resemblance between my life and earphones. One cable splits into two – one left one right. At first glance, my life is a straigh
When monotone beep rings at 12:30, I always go to the cafeteria to order. I usually take my lunch at the 4th-floor veranda of the school campus. I was eating a sandwich and I was trying not to think about what happened during the class of Mr. Forester when Rico Turner puked in front of the class because he was so nervous to deliver his humorous speech about him putting a Lego in his nose and end up crying because it was stuck. I headed back to the classroom when the beep rang at 1:00. I sat beside Theo Santiago and we discussed what might actually happen if a worm has claustrophobia. Theo loves to talk about silly things like how the breath of Kurt Callister could knock us down and how addicted Sara Elordi is to the smell of lard that she could spend her whole day inside the cafeteria. “Guess who took her sleeping pill this morning,” Theo said, giggling. While Susanna Ramirez was sharing her discovery about Mona Lisa and her mailbox in the Louvre, Mrs. Kingston was
Fighting the temptation to use my earphones is not new to me while tutoring. The stress of making sure he gets the topic is a challenge. Theo’s parents did not hire me. I have been doing this for the rest of my 12th grade because of one incident. I called him a douchebag in the cafeteria last month when he cut the old earphones that I bought using the pennies that I collected. At that time, I wanted to earn money to satisfy my needs because my aunt stopped giving me allowances. Theo grabbed me by the arm and he brought me to the old bathroom. He made a deal and confessed that he did it because he wanted me to be his tutor due to my academic ranking here in Crestview. I asked him why he had to cut my earphones and his reply made me laugh. He said that it was the only way to get the attention of a psycho. To ruin things? He was wrong, if you ruin a property of a psycho, they would let your taste your own medicine. I did not accept the deal immediately and it took me