CHAPTER 14: MEMORIES

My mind was filled with new memories, not just from the earth-shaking and ground-breaking passionate intensity of our love making that Michael had unselfishly shared with me, but more of the thought of how he had built his home according to how I envisioned it way back then that intensely touched my heart. His home was the exact design of what we had planned before and what I loved to live with, six years ago, as our love nest.


What happened earlier and what I’ve witnessed had certainly brought me back down memory lane when Michael and I were still happily and madly in love with each other as a couple. All the memories of those ten years of love and romance have spurred in my mind and made me reminisce about our past.


I remembered how most of our classmates and peers before envied our bond. We were branded as ‘Lovers of the Century’ and foretold by many that our love would last for a lifetime. They often say amongst themselves and to others that we were a perfect match, a match made in heavens, which were inseparable and untouchable.


I once believed and owned those praises and acclaims about our decade of serious relation, in fact, I already had considered Michael as my husband back then and I was his dutiful wife. That the only thing that was missing for us to be called as a happily married couple was marriage itself.


For both of us, what we had back then was something special and extraordinary, but there were others who described it as phenomenally alarming and strange, they were those who were jealous and envious of us. Many once said that for a relationship to last for a lifetime and for it to be called a perfect amorous entanglement, it must undergo some series of tests and withstand huge obstacles. It was said that a perfect love affair was built not only with butterflies and rainbows alone, but with trials and hurdles as well. I was merrily disturbed and always laughed every time I heard comments like those around me.


For the past ten years of our love, there was not once that both of us had quarreled. There was never an incident where we fought with each other's ego or wits, there were no harsh words or curses that were uttered by us towards each other even if it was just the two of us in private. Nothing at all. We never fought, he never made me cry unless with happy tears and there was no negativity present throughout the years of our relationship. Only happy and wonderful memories together. That was how smooth-sailing our love story was during those days, which was a bad omen and quite unusual for many.


But both Michael and I disregarded their warnings and their insights, because we knew ourselves and our love affair better than anyone else. We couldn’t and didn’t force ourselves to create a divergence of fights or issues just to fit in with the norms of our town for our relation to be called as a perfect one. We didn’t believe them by an inch. We considered what we had as an enormous blessing and thankful to God that we never fought nor quarrel unlike other couples.


I remembered what he always tells me before every time I ask him why our relationship was out of this world and not like the others. He said that it’s not wrong to be different as long as we both love each other and respect one another, then no one has the right to question our love and what kind of a magic potion we used to make our relationship spotless and flawless.


I believed Michael with all of my heart and trusted him with my life. For me, what he says was always true and just. I had known him since we were toddlers. His family moved into our small town when I was 5, the same age as his. We were playmates at the playground almost everyday together with my brother Peter, who was two years older than us. I wasn’t aware back then that he would change my heart in the future and that he would be the man of my dreams, who would sweep me off my feet and let me experience true love, because even before I always saw him as my best friend and so was I to him.


The sweet tension all started when our friends started to tease the two of us, that’s when our friendship started to have different hues and colors. According to him as he confessed to me before, he started to feel different towards me when he was nine while I started to fall for him as early as ten. He courted me in his own young heart’s way and announced his feelings the day after I turned eleven, but I secretly answered him and we became a young couple a few months after on the day of his birthday. Starting then, there were no sad moments with him and only pure happiness. We both knew each other so well that we weren’t just lovers in our relationship, but best friends as well.


And that was the secret of why our love and romance lasted for ten out of the ordinary and most envious relationship for years. I have no regrets that he was my first love and was all of my firsts. He taught my heart how to love and care unconditionally, he taught me how to kiss and explore my sexuality together with him. He taught me how to build a solid and long-lasting relationship. He taught me everything and together we grew through the years with respect towards one another and deep love for each other.


But with all the good times and cherishable things he taught and shared with me, he was also my first unforgettable and most painful heartbreak. He taught me how to hate him and so is my sister the most after what they did to me six years ago. He taught my heart on how it could be numbed and hardened with his cries and pleas. He taught me how to stand on my own ground and to be strong for myself, because the one I thought would always be by my side forever and whatever it takes, was also the one who tore my heart into pieces.


I will never forget that day. The day after Penelope’s eighteenth birthday. The day when all of my dreams, hopes, respect and love were shattered and destroyed all because of that one sinful and fateful night that became my worst nightmare.