S2: 02

I could feel the sunlight hitting my face that made me stand up from my bed. I blinked multiple times before finally opening my eyes widely. There I saw my sister, standing at the corner of my room while staring at me with so much disgust and irritation on her face.

"Look at you, wasted as heck, your smell is terrible, and you're late! Seriously, I can't believe you're already in 3rd-year college when you can't even handle yourself. Dude, you're in your 20's yet you act like you're some teenager that needs parental guidance."

Ea Janice, it's early in the morning and you're already getting on my nerves.

"Okay, Ea, at least I can have fun while you can't even if you're at the right age. Go and ruin your life by drowning yourself with too many responsibilities but don't you dare come here to force me to do the same because I will never do that."

I stood up, yawning, and was about to go out when she slapped my back.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I turned around only to see her crying.

I sighed.

"C'mere," I pulled her closer for a hug.

I closed my eyes, "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean what I said. I got too carried away."

She was crying hard and it hurts to see her like this.

"No, you're right. I've been ignoring the fun I was supposed to experience because of my responsibilities. I studied hard every day and night, I feel guilty every time I think of partying or just spending money for myself and then I'll think of mom - she's working hard for us, all by herself, and then here I am, casually thinking of having fun. I don't want to burden mom so I'm doing my best to help her even if it means I'm throwing away my teenage life. I've been studying hard since I'm graduating high school while working so I can pay for my own needs. I'm sorry that I scolded you earlier... I'm just tired."

I didn't know she was feeling like this.

---

I looked up to see if I'm in the right classroom.

As soon as I opened the door, my friends' faces were the first ones I noticed... and that familiar person.

The lady at the bookstore. What a small world, huh?

I shook my head and went straight ahead where my friends were seating. They reserved a seat for me and I'm glad since the room was pretty full and the only seat available was our professor's. Speaking of our professor, he got here just in time. He wasted nothing and got us to sign the attendance. He called us one by one and when it was the lady's turn, I just closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands.

She's Venice Ouicious Truman, in short, like her friends call her, Venus.

No way. I'm never gonna fall in love again after all the things I experienced and not with someone whose nickname is exactly the same as Zyrine's pen name.

She looked in my direction and when my eyes met hers, she made a playful smile.

Yeah, of course, I won't fall for her - she's not my type and she got a different vibe, I bet we won't even be close.