Something Beautiful

12•something reversed

The rumors spread around campus that same night. And by Monday, the whole school buzzed, especially louder, when Umi entered the gates with her styled short hair and a bolder attitude.

She hated the attention, but she liked how some of them would look away every time she met eyes with the guilty. Perhaps her father used his influence to prevent her and Pauline from being called to the disciplinary office. It didn't matter who he was protecting between the two, but Umi accepted the help.

"If you want to file a case against Jux Puenco about the harassment, we can," her father said, just right after she told him the truth and declined any apology.

She agreed with him and talked to their lawyer over the weekend. A few believed her, a few were hesitant. Jux was also absent from school for days, including Pauline and the brothers. Only Umi braved the public eye, despite some videos at the party leaked.

She went up the rooftop. Now that everything was spilled in the open, it didn't mean that she'd give away her personal space. There, she found Jux, waiting for her.

"Take it back," he bellowed with his red eyes.

"Take what back?" Umi even tilted her head in question, blinking at him. He's not the only one who could act like a sheep too.

"What you said at the party! The case!"

Although fear crept when he shook her shoulders, she no longer trembled and she stared him in the eye.

"Why?"

He was now stunned like an animal cornered in a corral. He let her go.

"Why should I?" Umi asked in her gentle voice. "Because you thought I wouldn't tell? That I had nothing to do but just cry? That no one would believe?"

She raised her palms and caressed his cheeks under the hood, now somehow with his bones prominent to the lost weight. "We'll sink in the mud together. It's fine with me though, I'm used to it. But can you handle the stench?'

She tiptoed, just to whisper in his ears. "I'll never forgive you."

Umi left him despite his calls with a tinge of plea. She didn't finish class and went straight home. With the familiar hum of the AC, white walls and cold floors, she savored the silence and hugged her favorite book.

It was better to be alone again because no one would lie except for herself. Someday, she'll be able to set herself in a default setting, like a numb robot.

Her staring contest against the ceiling was interrupted by the doorbell. She didn't get up, not until minutes later and it still buzzed.

"Hello, Mayumi," an unexpected guest calmly greeted her.

It was her sin, standing on her door. How would one greet one's guilt, materialized into a middle-aged woman, with a smile more gentle than she had seen in the pictures?

Talia Salceda has visited the sinner.

"May I come in?" her father's wife asked.

Umi didn't answer but opened the door wider.

Talia, the picture-perfect wife, praised for her philanthropy was sitting on her couch, saying words such as, "You got your father's eyes."

Your husband's.

"Do you want anything to drink?" asked instead. Great job, Umi. Why would this woman accept a drink from the daughter of her husband's mistress?

"Just water, thank you."

"Why don't you have any photos?" Dalia asked a little later, her eyes sweeping the room, from the empty shelves to the blank walls.