The Princess and the Greek God

19 Horn-rimmed Glasses (Bonus chapter)

“Forget everything, at least try.” I told myself a million times already as I walked the streets in this hot summer month. It’s been a few months since I came here and taking an advance summer class wasn’t such a bad idea.

I’m still mad at my dad…mom passed away and he didn’t even come home to attend her funeral. Not even an excuse…not even a single phone call to say he couldn’t make it. Not even a simple ‘sorry.’

This was all his fault. How can he leave mom for another woman when he knew it would certainly kill her – and eventually it did. I’ve always imagined myself hitting him in the face, heck that wouldn’t be enough to make him feel the hurt mom and I went through. For my mom, it’s a million times harder and a million times painful. What my dad did was unforgivable. I swear, one day, I will prove myself to him that I never needed him; that I can do it without his help.

Sweat trickled on the side of my face as I walked nearer the snack shop I always go to when I’m feeling down. The owners are a nice, middle aged Filipino couple who make the best Filipino snacks that’s to die for; and my favorite? Halo-halo. No, not ‘hay-low hay-low,’ it’s pronounced as ‘hah-loh hah-loh.’ It’s the equivalent of the Japanese shaved dessert, kakigori or the Korean shaved iced dessert, patbingsu. Halo halo has more ingredients like evaporated milk, sweetened beans, garbanzo beans, sliced plantains, jelly, corn kernels, tapioca pearls, ube, leche flan and macapuno. Yeah, those last three ingredients, I had to ask what those are because they had no English translation for it – but yeah, it is yummy. It’s a very filling snack / dessert perfect for the hot summer days and for those who have a sweet tooth.

I walked faster as I couldn’t tolerate the heat anymore, when I heard a couple of high pitched laughs coming from behind the dumpster in the alley. I would have ignored it and walked away but I heard someone cry out,

“Leave me alone…”

I stood there for a few more seconds when I saw books and notebooks went flying into the air and more high pitched female laughter. I took a few steps to get a good look at whatever’s going on and I saw five uniformed high school girls, one of them cornered by the other four. Her hair was a mess, as well as her uniform and she was crying.

They were calling her names; which only meant one word – fat.

She’s not even attempting to fight back…poor girl was so scared which made her bullies do more mean things to her. They pushed her, pulled her hair and her uniform and tear the book that was left inside her bag.

I found myself approaching them. My feet moved by themselves, my brain chanted at me to scare the hell out of those four bullies and rescue the – I stopped for a few seconds to look at the girl who was being bullied. Our eyes met and in that moment, everything went dead silent but her eyes screamed for help.

“Pick up your things and go,”

I told her much to the surprise of the four bullies whose glare was enough to incinerate me on the spot. They were pretty, I must admit, but nothing about them is pretty, especially with what came out of their mouths. I never imagined so much profanity used in one sentence, and it had to come from these girls.

“You, did you hear what I said? Pick up your things and go, now.” I ignored the four bullies and called the attention of the frightened chubby girl; she seemed to be planted on the spot where she stood that it took her a few seconds before she made a single step.

If I were a woman too I’d be in a cat fight just about now. How I wanted to bitch slap all of them and well, maybe cut their pretty blond curls…no, maybe shaving their heads would be better. Too bad I was a guy and those girls just got lucky.