Eighteen

"MAMA, do you hear that? Is someone singing outside?"
Arianna heard Tommy's loud question while she was already in the bedroom getting ready for bed.
Their mother was still in the living room and reading her Bible, while Tommy was in the kitchen. He volunteered to do the marinade for the chicken they were going to cook in the morning.
She frowned.
Now that she heard Tommy, she could also hear the noise from outside of guitars playing.
"Son of a—"
"Tommy!"
"Duck. I meant duck, Mama."
You better not cuss in my house."
"No, Mama. I'll do it outside."
"Tommy!"
"Okay, not even outside, okay?"
Arianna couldn't help but grin at Tommy's tone.
Someone was indeed outside and was serenading her so her brother was being an idiot.
Yes, serenading a woman still happens in provincial villages, especially here in the hacienda. She'd been serenaded a few times. Tommy was seven the first time it happened and he threw a giant tantrum and howled like a banshee that the poor teeners didn't even get to step inside the door.
Their father had laughed so hard.
Tommy didn't like the idea of any man courting his sister. He had this belief that no one was worthy enough to get his sister's hand.
Or at least, no man he's met yet.
Her brother was scared someone else would take her away from him and their mother. He wasn't ready to let her go or suffer her giving attention to somebody else.
Now, his head was peeking at her from the edge of the bedroom door's frame.
"Ate, you have a visitor," he said, a scowl so like an adult's on his face.
"Who is it?" she asked casually.
"Ruel and a friend," he said scathingly.
She was surprised. "Did you mean Ruel Valerio?"
He nodded.
Ruel?
He was a batchmate, the son of one of the teachers at the public school she and Tommy used to attend.
She stumbled on him in the marketplace the other day and he told her he was currently going to college in Manila.
She was even surprised he remembered her because they were never in the same sections.
She didn't see him often, but she remembered him because his mother was a mentor in three of the academic clubs she was in.
So she was surprised when he invited her to have lunch with him as if they had been close friends, but she needed to get home right away so she declined.
She had bags full of what they bought from the market and Tommy was waiting impatiently for her in the tri-bike nearby.
When he asked if he could invite her out on a different day and that some of the kids in school would be there, too, she told him she really was so busy and bade him a good day.
She didn't want to see old batchmates.
Her misfortune caused them to feel like they needed to help her with anything even when she wasn't asking.
Well, she had thought he was being polite like them. She never imagined anything like this.
"Shall I say you're not interested so he could leave?"
Tommy sounded so hopeful she had to catch back a grin. "Hey. They came courteously. We don't treat people badly." She showed him wide e, innocent eyes. "C'mon…"
"You don't have to lead him on," he grumbled.
"That is not leading him on!" she protested.
Then she went to him and placed her hand on his shoulder as they walked towards the stairs.
"We're just going to politely receive them so I can, also politely, tell him I am not ready for any relationship outside of my family. My heart is still too crowded to add anyone in."
Tommy's face lightened up.
Considering he was scowling so hard, it was like seeing Christmas lights turning in a house and he did not mind when she ruffled his hair.
Their mother turned from where she was standing by the window in their minuscule living room. She and Tommy went to her, and she looked outside.
Ruel was there with a friend, and they were both playing guitars.
Ruel was singing and she had to smile because he really could sing.
He used to sing in the church choir when they were in high school. She didn’t know if he still does because she’d never seen him again until the other day.
They watched until the two finished that song and then two more.
They invited them into the house after that. Tommy did not seem to have a problem taking a big chunk out of the bilao of Pancit Malabon they brought with them.
There were flowers and bars of chocolates.
Wow. He really was here to pay courtship. It always felt surreal when someone does that. Traditionally, she meant.
Very few of the young generation do this these days.
"Does your mother know you're here?" their mother asked Ruel.
Ruel blushed slightly. "Eh, no. She actually isn't here, ma’am. She's been in Manila attending a seminar."
"Oh no. Does she know you like my daughter?"
Ruel had more color on his face now. "I haven't actually told her. I saw Arianna..." he sneaked a look at her, "the other day and she has been a crush for a very long time. I felt that I have to start letting her know what I really feel now that we are not in high school anymore, Madam."
"I see. But she's not in school. Is that something you can think about, Hijo? I meant for my daughter to go back to school and finish college. So that means she can't be in a relationship that might distract her from her goal until then."
Ruel was silent for a brief moment.
Arianna was thinking her mother had saved her from having to tell that herself to him instead.
"Ma'am, I can wait. I will not be here in the province as often, but when I'm here, I request to be allowed to at least visit your daughter. I can wait until she can have a boyfriend."
Then Ruel looked at her again, his eyes earnest, and his smile sincere.
"Arianna, you are worth it."
She stared at him. There was silence for a moment, then Tommy was coughing on juice that went down the wrong pipe.
They were given a chance to privately talk.
His friend went outside to smoke and wait for him there, while her mother dragged Tommy to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
Most probably so he would leave his sister in peace.
She was given a chance to tell Ruel what she felt, which wasn't that different from what their mother said.
“I can’t have a boyfriend, and not for a long time, Ruel. I feel you’re just wasting your time.”
"Arianna ... we can be friends. Wouldn't you at least give me the chance to prove to you that apart from family, others can love and support you? I've heard about what you’ve been going through from our classmates. I know it hasn't been easy. Please, let me at least be a friend whenever I'm here."
She smiled. "It is true… but it’s not just me. My family has been through a lot, too, and we support each other, and I'm not ready to give myself to others yet. My mother and brother need all of me. It's not going to be fair to you to wait. I have nothing for you. I'm really sorry."
Ruel's jaw tightened. His eyes were determined. "I'm not ready to give up, Arianna. As I have already said, I'm ready to wait. And as long as it takes."
Arianna sighed. "It's up to you, Ruel. But I would really rather you don’t.”
Ruel left with squared shoulders.
He still wasn’t through with this. He was not used to being rejected by someone.
She sighed. Well, she wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
"Poor thing busted right away," Tommy said without a sign of remorse.
In fact, the rascal was grinning as he closed the door and turned his back to it.
"Don't look so sympathetic. You might trip," she muttered at him.
"It was bad he got busted but I didn't say I pity him. I've seen him in town the past few months dating this girl and then another girl the next week. It's not like it’s the end of the world."
"You think so, huh?"
"And his mother doesn’t like you. Mrs. Valerio would rather have one of the daughters of the politicians or the businessmen in town than you. She's a social climber. So, poor them. They didn't know what they were missing."
"What is it really, Tommy?" their mother asked from the top of the low stairs. "Poor them or poor us?"
He sobered right away. "We're also poor but not in the way they are, Mama," he said in a low voice. "They think not having money is poor. We think not having integrity is poor."
She snorted. "What do you know about that big word integrity?"
"A whole lot!"
But his face lost its grin and he turned and rushed up the stairs to his small bedroom.
He closed the door.
“Ahh. I think you’ve hurt his feelings,” her mother chided. “But never mind. He’s always in a foul mood whenever a suitor visits you.”
She was right about that, but Yna had a feeling it was something else.
It was about Madame Venus' casa and what happened after that. She saw it on his face.
But her mother, who knew nothing, was still smiling as Yna climbed up the stairs, too.
"How wealthy I am to have good, kind, and wise children. He is going to be a good man, your brother. He is going to be like your father someday."
"Mama, he’s already a good man now."
“You’re right,” she nodded, worry on her forehead but choosing to agree with her.
She hugged her mother before pulling her towards the room where they slept so they could finally retire for the night.