(Disclaimer: This chapter contains depictions of self harm and abuse)
Mason sat in the bathroom of his small home, staring at the mirror, staring at his own reflection as he had done a thousand times. His eyes were sunken in from lack of decent sleep, some bruises lined his face from another instance of his father’s drunken rage. He could hear his parents yelling in the room again, his father already about to continue giving his mom another strike, as he always had. It was something Mason was so tired of dealing with. His eyes looked back at the reflection of the mirror, before his eyes looked back down at the sink. The water had filled with red from his torn open wrists, a razor blade on the side that he had broken open himself and started to take to his own wrists, large wounds that had gone down his arms in a vein attempt to just escape from this never ending cycle of fearing to go home, not wanting to go to school. Ever since he heard about Sammy’s own tahanan life, and how it had gotten to him, he had started to wonder what his purpose was. And yet even still some how, he knew that this wouldn;t get him out of his broken cycle. He knew that sa pamamagitan ng tomorrow, his wounds would be all healed. He didn’t know why his wounds, his bruises, his cuts and his injuries all healed faster than normal. He never had any life threatening injuries or any deadly viruses, but anything else, it was gone sa pamamagitan ng the susunod araw and he didn’t understand why. But he hoped this time would be different. He knew it wouldn’t be, but somehow he hoped.
Sammy was already walking down the walkway to make her way into town to pick up cat food. Her appearance had changed drastically from when she had started her time in Ohio. She was dressed in leggings and a skirt, a denim dyaket hiding her band t sando as well as wearing a had and some shades wherever she went. She had this punk rock appearance to her that kept others away from her, that and her rough attitude and reputation. Known around school as the rich girl who no one could mess with, and it made her far madami vilified than Mason ever was. She didn’t care. She knew it was going to happen but she never wanted to admit it, Not until she made it happen herself. She didn’t care anymore what others thought. What mattered to her now is what she thought. She preferred not having people near her. At least that’s what she thought. As she was walking down the sidewalk, the cars zooming sa pamamagitan ng on the road in a blur, she would hear him approaching
“Sammy, wait up”
Sammy let out an annoyed grown, slowly turning to see what she was dreading. Andrew ran behind her, waving to her, a look on his face like that of a brain dead puppy. His pace slowed down as he got closer, this look of pity on his face. Sammy didn’t even bother waiting for him to talk. She turned back around and started walking. Andrew however stepped susunod to her and started walking along side her as he spoke, “Come on, Sammy, you gonna keep ignoring me?”
“You put yourself in my life and tried to controil me like everyone else did. So, yeah” Sammy stated sternly, making her comment as blunt and straightforward as possible as she kept walking
“I was trying to-”
“To what?” Sammy sinabi as she kept walking, not even giving him the satisfaction of giving him her full attention. “Save the oriental new girl so that you can feel better about yourself? I don’t need another fancy rich guy trying to decide what my life should be. You stepped that line and I ain’t making that mistake again”
“It wasn’t a mistake, Sammy” Andrew defended
“Well, glad you see it that way” Sammy stated as she started to pick up the pace
“Sammy” Andrew sinabi sternly, trying to keep pace with her. “Will you listen to me?”
“I’ve heard all I needed to hear, Andrew” She remarked. “But feel free to suck up to my dad. He is fond of dogs”
“You-!” Andrew cut himself off before he would say something rash. But he did react to her response. He reached out and grabbed her sa pamamagitan ng the wrist, holding it tightly and making her stop in her tracks. Sammy turned around to see Andrew holding her wrist in a firm grip. But her expression wasn’t one of fear or worry, it was of annoyance. She didn’t respond with words. She responded with a fist. She punched Andrew directly in the face, sending him reeling back into the concrete, clutching his nose in pain
“You fucking bitch!” Andrew shouted through his hands in a muffled scream as he held his bruised nose.
“Been called that a lot” Sammy sinabi as she took the time to adjust her sleeve and nodded, “Goodbye Andrew”
Without so much as another word she walked down the sidewalk, leaving Andrew there in the open to scream in pain, clutching his nose in disbelief and in a stinging pain.
Sammy walked through the woods where Lola’s tahanan was. She had made sure to buy a good set of canned pagkain at the store, and even pitched in to get some treats for Lola, knowing how much she liked those. Mason and Sammy had visited Lola every day, even making sure to ilipat her house somewhere else in the woods to ensure ibon ng dyey and Michah wouldn’t try their stunt with the shotgun again. She was hoping to see Mason there playing with the cat as usual, waiting to crack jokes with him, and enjoy another araw after school without any of the bullshit from the school or their parents. Instead, she would see Mason standing at the house, holding an old Nike shoe box in his hands, a sad expression on his face as he was holding the box. Sammy walked over, bag slung over her shoulder as she waved, “Yo, Mason, what’s with the box?”
Mason didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if he could. Sammy tapped her foot casually as she looked around the woods, her left hand patting at her thigh before she spoke up, “Where’s Lola anyway?”
Mason finally looked up at Sammy. There was this sadness in his eyes, one that was different from his usual sadness, before his eyes looked back down at the box. He knew that he didn’t have to say anything beyond that. The way Sammy’s own rhythm in her head seemed to stop and how her body stiffened and her expression melted into one of realization was all he needed to see to know that she got the message.
It took the two a good oras to bury her susunod to the house, deep enough to where any coyotes wouldn’t try to dig her up. Sammy stood up, dusting the first onto her denim dyaket with Mason doing the same with his brown jacket. Sammy looked at Mason with a sad glance before she spoke, “Well, Mason, you did the best you could”
“The best I could?” Mason repeated
“Yeah. I mean, she was pretty old and well… Not the best of health, but you did what you co-”
“My best, Sammy?” Mason repeated again, but his voice had a crack, his tone was not realization, but frustration. He paced away from the grave, hands resting on his head as he shouted loud enough to make the forest echo. “I’m so goddamn sick of doing my best, Sammy! I’m sick of it! I don’t wanna do my best. I want to do something right for once. I want something to go right in this goddamn town! I can’t do anything right! I can’t have a decent tahanan life. I can’t have a decent school life. I can’t care for an animal. I can’t even kill myself right, Sammy. How is that even possible?!”
“K-Kill yourself?” Sammy repeated softly, feeling a bit of worry as Mason was going through his emotions
“Yes, Sammy” Mason admitted. “I slash my wrists and they just heal. Not even a scar. What the fuck is wrong with me that I can’t even do that. It’s like I’m living a nightmare that doesn’t ever want me to wake up. Every time I feel like I’m about to wake up, the nightmare just drags me in deeper and I can’t- I can’t Sammy. I just can’t”
“H-hey come on” Sammy said, approaching Mason as he had finally calmed down enough to stop his pacing. The girl wrapped her arms around the larger mans waist from behindm trying her best to comfort him. “You do things right, okay Mason? You have your skills. You have this kindness in you despite all the bullshit. It’s what brought me to you. You’re a good guy.”
“Is being a good guy enough, Sammy?” Mason asked
“I don’t…” Sammy cut herself off before she could answer. “It’s gotta count for something, man.”
Mason wasn’t sure what he could say at this point. Sammy wasn’t sure either. They knew that nothing they could say would help them feel better. Not in this moment. But they knew that just having each other was enough. The two remained there in silence, as the evening sky changed from blue to kahel above them. They remained there in silence, in each others company
It was the half period at school, around after lunch. Sammy knew she was going to have to go to French class soon. She never liked it. Especially since she knew that the teacher was always bad mouthing her for some sort of deep rooted racism towards Chinese people, but she didn’t care. She was just going to cheat her way through the class anyway. She had some of the notes in her locker all set up and ready to get through the test. It was a lot harder to try nad unlock the locker without Andrew there to break through her rusted lock, but she really didn’t care. That was until she noticed the lock was already done. Did she forget to lock it? And that made her wonder if someone had been in her locker. She didn’t think about what was inside, rather what wasn’t inside, and that made her panic as she threw the locker open. And suddenly, something long and black fell from her locker and out onto the floor of the crowded hallway. Inside fell a shotgun, the same one that ibon ng dyey and Michah had been carrying in the forest a few months back, and inside Sammy’s locker were a few shells as well, at least twelve. Sammy looked at the gun that lay before her, and as she looked up, she would see all eyes were on her now, the entire hallway froze looking directly at Sammy and the gun that fell from her locker. She didn’t know what could have happened, or how it got there. When did anyone have time to plant the gun in her locker? Why would they plant the gun in her locker? It was a lot racing through her head. Not even what was going to happen to her. She was fully aware of what was going to happen to her now. What she was worried about was what would happen to Mason.
The news of the incident broke out across the school for the entire day. Everyone knew about it. Sure enough the principal, all the teachers and the school board had heard about it. And through word of mouth, Mason had heard about it, about how the promising student, Samantha Nguyen, had been relegated to a common thug and had brought a loaded gun to school grounds. But no one was asking about the locker being unlocked or how she could have acquired the gun. None of it mattered. They just pinned the blame onto Sammy as a would-be school shooter and called it there. No doubt her time in the school was over. But Mason knew better, and Mason knew exactly who it was. He had gone to the field that araw and saw Andrew there, speaking to some new girl, probably someone he was hitting on after Sammy fell through. Mason didn’t even try to ease in. He grabbed Andrew and spun him around, a bandage on his nose no doubt broken sa pamamagitan ng Sammy.
“Mason” Andrew replied with a smile, “Where’s Sammy?”
“You know where Sammy is. You opened her locker” Mason answered coldly
“Please, don’t throw blame onto me” Andrew remarked. “She clearly brought it with her.”
“You know that that gun was from ibon ng dyey and Michah. What the fuck were you doing hanging around the guys that messed with her for so long while you two were dating?”
“Well, if that were true” Andrew lied. “Why not? Sammy is a goddamn menace. She’s violent, arrogant, swears like a sailor, practically chooses to be stupid, and has no control over her own frustrations. The way I see it, she saw it as a way of protecting you.”
“You’re saying it’s my fault?” Mason said, “You don’t think I feel that kind of regret that I may have ruined her life”
“Oh come on, Mason” Andrew sinabi with a laugh, “She was going to ruin her life anyway. You just got the ball rolling a little early. But at least she didn’t become a mass shooter for some trailer trash, you gotta admit that-”
Mason didn’t know how to throw much of a punch, but he could feel his anger reach the boiling point. He reached up and grabbed Andrews broken nose, squeezing it as tightly as he could to cause him to scream out in pain, screaming loudly as the bandages started to seep red from the blood as Andrew struggled to get him off. His screams were madami nasally as his nose was being crushed sa pamamagitan ng someone larger than him. It wouldn’t take long before the staff of the school would have to pull Mason away. It was not something Mason was proud of doing, even if Andrew deserved it. But he was so frustrated, so exhausted and tired of all the fighting and insults he got from everyone, but hearing those insults thrown at Sammy when she wasn’t around. That was something that really got under his skin, something that pushed him to do things he never wanted to do. How quick he could hurt someone, how quickly he was prepared to harm someone without thought, it scared him a lot. He never wanted to let that kind of anger boil over again. He couldn’t.
“Expelled.” Sammy’s father repeated at the table. “Do you understand what that means, Samantha”
Sammy sat at the table, her father standing at the end of the mesa as she was forced to sit down and listen, her mother at the sink cleaning the dishes in an almost robotic manner.
“Dad will you listen to my side of the story. I didn’t put the gun in there. I don’t even know where to get a gun” Sammy shouted in defense
“Please, you expect me to trust you?”
“Yes!?” Sammy answered with an offended tone. “I’m your daughter”
“And what a hellish daughter you’ve been these last four years. Ever since we’ve come here, it’s been fights, smoking, drinking, cursing, disobeying, and still you go out with that white trash boy from the other side of town who’s caused all this trouble”
“It’s not his f-”
“Enough!” Her father interrupted her, pacing around the table. His hands brushed against the mesa as his other hand rested in his pocket, looking out down the hall with a frustrated look on his face. He turned to Sammy and ordered, “Pack your things”
“What?”
“Go to your room and pack everything. We’re leaving sa pamamagitan ng susunod week”
“What? Where?” Sammy asked
“To Maryland.” He answered. “I already bought a house there hoping that we could keep a secret until after you finished school, but apparently you couldn’t even do that right without getting into trouble. So we’re leaving now and we’re getting as far from this hellhole as we can.”
“Wha- I’m not leaving” Sammy spoke
“I’m not asking you, Samantha. I am giving you an order. Go upstairs right now, pack your things, and have them ready sa pamamagitan ng susunod week. I’m not going to tell you again”
Sammy looked to her father and over to her mother, who hadn’t chipped in once as she was still clining the silverware from last nights dinner. The words filled Sammy’s head with madami frustration, madami disrespect. Until she could no longer hold it back
“No” She replied clearly
“Samantha-”
“No. I’m not leaving here. I have never been remotely happy since I came here, and I’m sick of you taking away that happiness for your own selfishness”
“It’s not about you,” Her father said. “It’s about the good of this family”
“Like how it was good for the family when you had sex with that secretary? Was that good for the family and why you and mom haven’t talked since I was in grade school?”
The words struck a nerve within her father. He was silent, his expression practically shifting to contain the anger that was starting to boil over like a pot. But even he couldn’t contain it. His hand swung and slapped Sammy across the face, sending her reeling back. It was the first time she had ever been struck sa pamamagitan ng her father. In her own anger, she shoved him back against the sink, his hand crashing into the dishes and sending several plates and silverware falling to the floor and smashing into pieces, one of the knives slicing through her fathers hand. He reeled back, holding onto his bloody hand as the kutsilyo had slashed his palm, blood dripping onto the brown tiles of the kusina floor. Yet even despite that, his expression showed no pain, not even an exhale from him. He grabbed one of the napkins from the roll, Sammy’s mother having remained still, but she had stopped cleaning the dishes sa pamamagitan ng this point as the chaos had erupted. He placed the napkin over his palm to stop anymore blood from getting onto the tiles, and looked at Sammy, speaking as calmly as he ever had.
“You’re no daughter of mine” He stated. “I want you out of this house now. I never want to see you again.”
“Pfff, some father. Mom, you’re going to let him say that to me?” Sammy said, turning her attention to her mother and asking for any help, any at all. “I mean, this guy has cheated on you and you’re going to-”
“Shut up!” Her mother shouted, her voice piercing through the silence of the house until nothing was left sa pamamagitan ng but the faint sound of the ticking clock at the end of the room. Her mother turned around and stormed towards Sammy, doing the same as her father had and slapped her across the face, hard enough to send her falling out of the chair. “Shut up! You’ve ruined the family! You’re not out daughter, your a worthless whore who’s been a constant burden. So what? He cheated on me cause I had you! It’s always been you! Get out of this house! If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you!”
Sammy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She really thought she had gotten some kind of upper hand over her parents, after finally telling them no, after standing up for herself. But then it all had come out so suddenly. Her mothers jealous hatred, something that had always been there. And her fathers disregard for her for her failures. It was all coming toward her so suddenly. She couldn’t let them see her cry. She told herself she’d never cry. Not for them, not for anyone. She stood up from the floor and made her way to the door, not giving them another word as she pushed through the front doors of the house for the last time. She knew she would have to see Mason as soon as possible
Mason was sent crashing to the floor in pain, coughing as he could feel the gash on his head started to drip down his face and leave his head covered in blood.
“Fucking suspended? For what, some stupid slant eyed cunt?!” His father shouted, throwing a serbesa bottle at Mason as he lied on the floor. The bottle crashed against his forearm and shattered, scattering glass all over the serbesa stained carpet floor. Mason was picked up from the floor and thrown against the wall, his father standing over him as he held onto another serbesa bottle in his left hand, his figure standing over Mason as he shouted, “Having to come, pick your worthless asno from that school when you know we’re short of money”
Mason was covering his head for another strike, unsure of how he would even defend himself sa pamamagitan ng this point. His eyes looked up to see his mom pressed against the pader of the living room, her breathing heavy as she could only look on in terror at the sight of it. She was slowly sliding away into the hall where her room was. Mason was sure she was just going off to hide herself again. Mason looked up at his father, who was standing over him and shouted, “You gonna say something about it? Huh?”
“If… you weren’t drinking…. We’d have money” Mason spoke softly
“What?” His father shouted, grabbing Mason and lifting him up so he could press him against the wall, seeing the blood run down the side of Masons head. “You wanna say that to me again?! You wanna fucking say that to me against”
He grabbed Masons face as tightly as he could, he dirty nails digging into his cheeks as he started pounding the back of Masons head against the wall. Mason wasn’t sure how much madami of it he could take before he would fall unconscious. He never felt any sort of pain like this before. So much blunt force to his body, his head, it was slowly putting his mind into a blur. But he was still in reality enough to see his mother walk behind his father with a pistol aimed at him
“Get off him!” She spoke
Masons father would turn around to see the gun aimed at his back, only finally loosening his grip on Mason so that he could slide to the floor in pain, his mind still a blur of pain and confusion.
“You don’t even know how to use that, do you?” His father spoke
“I’ve been practicing” She stated, clicking the hammer of the gun and keeping it aimed at him. “I’m leaving with Mason. I’m sick of this.”
“You listen to me you stupid cunt” He spoke, slowly approaching her with his fist raised and his hand still clutching the half empty bottle. “If you even think of taking my son from me, I’ll fucking kill you myself”
“I’m warning you!” She shouted, aiming the gun up with both hands and holding it.
“I’m not going to hurt you, honey” He sinabi with a faint hint of hostility. “I’m just going to beat you fucking senseless until you can’t walk. Now you’re going to put that fucking gun down and you’re going to regret even opening your stupid m-”
Bang! The gun fired. The bullet strikes him in the shoulder, sending his body lurching back a bit as the wound went in deep. Be it the drunken stupor or the shock, he was barely reliant on the pain. He looked back at her again and lurched pasulong at her, sending him and her crashing to the ground with him on top. He laid on tuktok of her and started throwing manuntok after manuntok into her head, his other arm with the bullet in his shoulder lying on tuktok of her to kep her down as he screamed curse words and insults at her. Mason could only watch in fear at what he was seeing, curled up against the pader at the sight. He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t sure if he could do anything. But as he could hear manuntok after manuntok sounding madami like he was pounding into ground beef with his fists, Mason told himself he would have to try. He rushed over as his father kept screaming and grabbed hold of both his arms
“Get the fuck off me, you worthless piece of shit!” He shouted in rage, trying to throw Mason off of him before he was dragged off her, far enough to where Mason could get him off. He would however break from Masons grip and send him crashing to the floor
“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” He proclaimed in a horse tone from the screaming and the whiskey burning his throat, sounding like a wretched corpse of a human being as he turned to see Mason on the floor. And as he towered over Mason, looking down at him with sunken in eyes like a skeleton
Bang! Bang! Two madami shots pierced through his fathers chest, one hitting his lung, the other his heart. And as he sat there looking down at body, he would eventually collapse onto the floor in front of Mason, air wheezing out of his body slowly, his eyes slowly moving around the room to try and find something as he could feel himself slowly losing his grip on reality, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Mason looked down in shock at the body of the man that had made his life and his mothers a living hell. And somehow, he still felt shock, fear, sadness, like he was going to puke right there. And as he looked at the body, feeling like he needed to scream, his mother crawled over to Mason, her head and her hear sticky with blood, pulling Mason close to her as she hugged his head, and whispered to him softly, “It’s fine, baby. It’s fine. It’s done with. He won’t hurt you anymore”
Mason was unsure how to feel. Scared? Relief? Warmth? Sad? Disgusted? His mind was both in physical pain from the beating and now in confusion on how so much had happened so quickly. He wasn’t able to describe it. As he sat there with her, she pulled Mason away for a moment, hands on his shoulders as she spoke. “Mason, dear, take the keys to your fathers van. Go and get dressed in some nice clothes, okay? Go see that friend of yours. Just don’t… come back for the night. Okay?”
Mason wasn’t sure what he could say. He didn’t have the right words. He had a million questions, a billion. All racing through his mind wanting to come out in a flurry from his mouth. But all he could do was nod. He was dead silent. He stood up from the floor, his head still throbbing and slowly made his way to his room. He washed the blood off his face, dressed himself in a clean t sando with The Flaming Lips logo on it and some jeans, and took the keys off the key ring. His mother was still there in the living room, drinking a glass of water to calm herself down, turning to Mason when he was already making his way out the door.
“Mason” She spoke dryly, giving a sigh as she took another gulp of water. “I pag-ibig you.”
Mason wasn’t sure how to respond to it. pag-ibig and affection, it was almost completely foreign to him. He wanted to say the same, but it felt… unnatural to him. But he could see that it was important to her. He looked up with a somber expression and nodded. “I… pag-ibig you too, mom”
Before he could say anything else, or feel himself get any sicker, he closed the door behind him, unable to tell what he could say. He climbed into his dads van, looking over the assortment of tools that were going to go to waste now, but didn’t let himself think about it too much. He didn’t try to think about anything. He would only get a text from Sammy as he got into the car
S: Hey, you busy?
M: Not really
S: You think we could meet
M: Sure
S: The old bus stop?
M On my way
Mason drove the car out of the cul-de-sac and made his way towards the bus stop. As he did, he would hear police sirens behind him. No doubt his mother had called. He was certain that she wouldn’t get in trouble. It was a self defense case, how could she. It was just not possible that she would get blamed for it.
No charges would be pressed and no trial would happen. She would die two weeks later from a blot clot in her brain from the beatings she received that night.
Sammy sat at the bus stop, carrying nothing on her but a few hundred dollars and the clothes on her back, her arms crossed as her feet were shaking with frustration and anxiety. It wasn’t long until she would see the headlights of Masons van. She picked her head up when she saw him step out of the van and take a upuan right susunod to her on the bus stop. Mason looked to her and replied, “Hi”
“Hey”
There was an awkward silence between the two, and both could tell that something was up with the other.
“So what’s up” Both of them spoke at the same time, before the both looked at each other with embarrassment and awkwardness
“Sorry, you go first” Mason said
“No, it’s fine, you go first, dude” Sammy replied
“Uh, okay” Mason sinabi as he looked at the ground “I can’t go back to my house”
“Oh, really?” Sammy remarked
“Yeah”
“Yeah… same here”
“Really?” Mason spoke
“Yep. Got kicked out.”
“Oh” Mason remarked
“Yeah, kinda bullshit, but ya know, fuck em” Sammy tried to play it off casually, trying to hide what she was feeling.
“I uh… just can’t go back” Mason spoke with a half truth. “Things got… too much to deal with”
“Hmmm, yeah” Sammy sighed. “I feel you”
The two remained in awkward silence for a bit more. Until Sammy finally spoke up, “Lets ditch this place”
“What?”
“Ohio. Let’s get the hell out of this place.”
“B-But where?”
“Who cares?” Sammy said. “Just out of here. Far away. We’ll work on our stuff. Make your Pagsulat dream come true. We’ll do something away from our parents, from this school, from this goddamn city. We’ll be completely free from this hell”
“But…” Mason was looking for something to say to make as an argument, but he knew deep down that he had no argument. He had wanted to leave long before he had met Sammy, and he knew this was his chance to finally see himself out of this place. He looked to Sammy, who was looking back at Mason with a smile, waiting for an answer. And Mason could only give a chuckle and reply, “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, let’s get out of this place tonight, No need to stick around for long, right?”
“Yeah, fuck this joint. I got all the cash we need at least for a little bit”
Sammy held out her hand, and Mason could only give a smile as he took it. He didn’t know why. He wasn’t sure what it was about Sammy that gave him some sort of comfort, but she just did. And that was enough to keep his mind off so much going on. He could never know how much he did the same for Sammy. Not yet.
Two Years Later
Mason looked over the news artikulo on the aklatan computer about the homicide that took place in Ohio, the one that involved his mother that would result in her own death. Even though the case was thrown out since Mason had remained hidden after all that, the town had gotten a stigma as the place that resulted in so much violence and death from that single incident. He knew that he could never return to that town. He doubted that he would ever want to. He had to shake it off and return to the message board. He got back to the website and typed.
M: uy HECTOR
H: Wtf is up, May-May 😀
M: I think I got another photo. One of some strange water creatures near California
H: Ooooh, u sure its not muscle guys XD
M: Please, I’m a professional
H: Rite, rite. No getting horny on the job XD
M: Do you want the mga litrato or what?
H: Ffffffffine. Send them over
Mason shared the mga litrato that he had Sammy toss into the see, some tabing-dagat balls that he and Sammy bought and painted blue to give the impression that they were something different. Enough to maybe trick HECTOR into paying them this week
H: Hmmmmmmmmmmm
H: good shit mate. Cameras a tad fucky but still good
M: Glad to hear. Wild to find some strange stuff like this at night
H: Tru tru. So, five hundred dollars as per usual?
M: If you’re offering
H: Cash money is no issue my compadre. You got the pics, i got the pennies
M: Thanks, HECTOR. I’ll be heading to Florida soon
H: Florida? 😮
H: I better send an extra two hundred for travel expenses
M: HECTOR, I couldn’t
H: I wasn’t asking >:(
H: Let me be generous gosh fucking dangit
M: Okay, okay. I gotta get going now, HECTOR
H: Good doing bidness partner. Peace out
Mason let out a sigh and closed out of the computer, stepping out of the aklatan to see Sammy standing outside wearing a far madami fashionable clothing, a piece of gum in her mouth to try and stop smoking since she knew Mason hated the smell of cigarette smoke.
“Did he fall for it?” Sammy asked
“He thinks we’re in California, not realizing we’re only at some sandy lake in Georgia. I still feel kinda bad tricking him like that.”
“He sinabi money was no issue, so it’s no issue.” Sammy shrugged
“I guess so. Anyway, here’s like… fifty cents.” Mason said, as he handed Sammy some money that he got cashed out at an ATM. “Not sure why you only need that”
“Just gotta make some phone calls, that’s all” Sammy said. “Some calls I’d rather not make on my cell phone”
“If you say so” Mason shrugged casually as he made his way back to the van, allowing Sammy to run over to the gas station across the kalye of the small town they had stopped sa pamamagitan ng in. Sammy hurried inside, glad to have found a single working payphone at some point in the rural part of the world. The man at the counter was a middle aged man, looking over the newspaper with little care for who was walking in. His beady eyes would glance up when someone walked in, but would prefer to not interact with people. Samm stepped over to the pay phone, putting in the coins with a rumble of the shaky rusted payphone. She looked over the phone number on her cell phone, a number that read “Dad” on the description. She wasn’t sure if the number was the same, but she wanted to check and make sure. She dialed the numbers and stood there, waiting patiently as the phone would ring.
And ring.
And ring
And ring
And then-
“Hello?”
The voice of a young child, who couldn't be older than five years old, picked up the phone. Sammy was confused when she heard it, but wasn’t sure how to reply. The child spoke again, “Hello, is this one of daddy’s imported calls?”
Sammy was even madami confused now when she heard that reply. Her eyes darted around in confusion until she heard it
“Samantha, what are you doing with the phone?”
“There’s somebody on the phone, daddy”
“That so?”
Samantha? Why would that be her name? And the voice, she wasn’t sure she recognized it. Not until
“Hello, this is He-Yung Nguyen, who am I speaking to?”
Sammy froze completely when she heard the voice of her father again after two years. And the first thing she would hear wasn’t even him, but another child, another child named Samantha. What was going on?
“Hello” Her father called out. “Hello, who is this?”
Sammy immediately hooked the phone in a rushed manner, feeling like her breathing was only getting worse at what she had found out. She wasn’t sure what she was going to find from calling him. Perhaps some satisfaction knowing that her parents' lives were empty without her. That running away from them was the right thing to do. But all she found was that they had moved on without her, that she was the one who was completely forgotten. She stepped away from the phone, before rushing out of the store and making her way back to the van as quickly as she could.
Night had fallen over the city a lot quicker than expected. It was Mason's turn to sleep on the reclining upuan of the van so that Sammy could use the mattress in the back. As Mason stirred, he woke up with a groan, turning around to hopefully get a bottle of water to help ease his tired throat. But as he looked up, he would see an empty mattress where Sammy was supposed to be. She was sitting with the van doors open, looking at the starry sky as the van was parked just out of town at the country side, miles and miles of fields that were long since harvested, the November season slowly started to get colder and colder. Mason climbed out of the upuan and made his way to the end of the van, sitting right susunod to Sammy, looking up at the starry sky.
“Something on your mind?” Mason asked casually
“No, nothing” Sammy lied. “Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just like a lot of Nguyens. Absolutely nothing on my mind, my mind is clear of any bullshit, Mason”
“It sounds like there stuff on your mind” Mason reiterated
“Well, don’t worry about it” Sammy said, her arms crossed as she tried to fight any of the thoughts that were coming to her mind. Thoughts that would only come to the forefront when she would feel Mason pull her closer and his large arms wrapped around her, holding her closely in a warm embrace.
“Well, if nothing is on your mind, then that’s good. That means that your doing good, Sammy. But if you are ever in need of anything, you let me know. Okay?”
Sammy could feel the sincerity from him, in his hold on her, in his voice, in his presence. Sammy promised that she never would. That she would never do it in front of him, not for anyone. But as she was held so closely, she could no longer hold herself back.
For the first time, Samantha Nguyen cried. She let all her pain out then and there, crying and sniffling as she looked at the sky. She let it all fall out as she spoke through chokes and weeps, “What kind of person can ilipat on knowing that their family saw you as a burden their whole life and moved on as soon as you leave without any issue? How do you get over that?”
“You don’t, Sammy” Mason answered immediately. “No one can get through that easily. It doesn’t make you any worse a person because of that. That’s their fault for not seeing you for what you are. There will be people who pag-ibig you and see you for what you really are, Sammy. It’s why I pag-ibig you, dude”
Sammy could only feel madami tears falling form her eyes as she tried her hardest to look up at the starry skies, giving a few madami sobs, her hand reaching up to her eyes to wipe away any stray tears and giving another sniffle as she looked up.
“Is there anything else on your mind? Anything else you want to get out there, Sammy?”
Sammy let out a sigh, still shaking from the sadness and the tears as she spoke, “Do you ever… want to talk about your family. Why you left?”
“My mom killed my dad to protect me and then she died in prison” Mason sinabi rather bluntly
“Damn… You just ripped that bandaid off, huh?”
“I had my time to process it. Don’t take it personally, I wanted to tell you, Sam. Just-”
“No, no, don’t worry about it. I understand. It took me this long to tell you why I left my family. I… I need to really process a lot of that”
“Right. But… I’m glad”
“Yeah, I kinda am too.” Sammy admitted. “Nice to just… get it all out there. No madami secrets”
“None?” Mason asked. “No other secrets you got?”
Sammy stirred a bit with anxiety, but there was a smile on her face as she admitted. “I think I like girls. Like… like like girls”
“Guess I rubbed off on you then”
“Yeah you did you big gay. Still into guys too, but just… girls too”
“Huh, well… that’s nice… Anything else?”
“Come on, don’t you have any secrets you wanna share?”
“Nah. I got out all I had. Nothing left for me to hide” Mason stated with a sense of pride
“Well aren’t you perfect. Fine then” Sammy sinabi with a smile, still wiping away any tears she may have missed. “I like anime too”
“Really?”
“And I wanna dye my hair. I’m thinking blue. Or maybe green”
“Green? Seriously?”
“You don’t think it would look good on me?”
“No, not really” Mason stated
“Fine then. How about blonde”
“Hmmmmm…. Maybe. A hard maybe”
“You seriously don’t have any other secrets you wanna tell me?”
“I can tell you about my first time with a guy when we were in Washington”
“Ugh, forget I asked”
“He was nice, but the sex-”
“Stop! Just stop right there! I don’t need to hear about my van mates sex life”
“Oh, unlike how you tell me about me needing to pick you up after you have your one night stands”
“Hey, only picking me up. I don’t tell you about the flavor condom he uses”
“One of these days you’re going to get kidnapped and put into trafficking”
“Never. I’m Samantha Nguyen, pro dick kicker”
“Sure, whatever you say. Maybe one araw you’ll become a pro fighter”
“Yeah, that’d be sick”
“With crazy kung fu abilities and can take down whole groups in one swing”
“Yeah, I would be pretty cool like that, huh?”
And the two went on for a good hour.
Mason sat in the bathroom of his small home, staring at the mirror, staring at his own reflection as he had done a thousand times. His eyes were sunken in from lack of decent sleep, some bruises lined his face from another instance of his father’s drunken rage. He could hear his parents yelling in the room again, his father already about to continue giving his mom another strike, as he always had. It was something Mason was so tired of dealing with. His eyes looked back at the reflection of the mirror, before his eyes looked back down at the sink. The water had filled with red from his torn open wrists, a razor blade on the side that he had broken open himself and started to take to his own wrists, large wounds that had gone down his arms in a vein attempt to just escape from this never ending cycle of fearing to go home, not wanting to go to school. Ever since he heard about Sammy’s own tahanan life, and how it had gotten to him, he had started to wonder what his purpose was. And yet even still some how, he knew that this wouldn;t get him out of his broken cycle. He knew that sa pamamagitan ng tomorrow, his wounds would be all healed. He didn’t know why his wounds, his bruises, his cuts and his injuries all healed faster than normal. He never had any life threatening injuries or any deadly viruses, but anything else, it was gone sa pamamagitan ng the susunod araw and he didn’t understand why. But he hoped this time would be different. He knew it wouldn’t be, but somehow he hoped.
Sammy was already walking down the walkway to make her way into town to pick up cat food. Her appearance had changed drastically from when she had started her time in Ohio. She was dressed in leggings and a skirt, a denim dyaket hiding her band t sando as well as wearing a had and some shades wherever she went. She had this punk rock appearance to her that kept others away from her, that and her rough attitude and reputation. Known around school as the rich girl who no one could mess with, and it made her far madami vilified than Mason ever was. She didn’t care. She knew it was going to happen but she never wanted to admit it, Not until she made it happen herself. She didn’t care anymore what others thought. What mattered to her now is what she thought. She preferred not having people near her. At least that’s what she thought. As she was walking down the sidewalk, the cars zooming sa pamamagitan ng on the road in a blur, she would hear him approaching
“Sammy, wait up”
Sammy let out an annoyed grown, slowly turning to see what she was dreading. Andrew ran behind her, waving to her, a look on his face like that of a brain dead puppy. His pace slowed down as he got closer, this look of pity on his face. Sammy didn’t even bother waiting for him to talk. She turned back around and started walking. Andrew however stepped susunod to her and started walking along side her as he spoke, “Come on, Sammy, you gonna keep ignoring me?”
“You put yourself in my life and tried to controil me like everyone else did. So, yeah” Sammy stated sternly, making her comment as blunt and straightforward as possible as she kept walking
“I was trying to-”
“To what?” Sammy sinabi as she kept walking, not even giving him the satisfaction of giving him her full attention. “Save the oriental new girl so that you can feel better about yourself? I don’t need another fancy rich guy trying to decide what my life should be. You stepped that line and I ain’t making that mistake again”
“It wasn’t a mistake, Sammy” Andrew defended
“Well, glad you see it that way” Sammy stated as she started to pick up the pace
“Sammy” Andrew sinabi sternly, trying to keep pace with her. “Will you listen to me?”
“I’ve heard all I needed to hear, Andrew” She remarked. “But feel free to suck up to my dad. He is fond of dogs”
“You-!” Andrew cut himself off before he would say something rash. But he did react to her response. He reached out and grabbed her sa pamamagitan ng the wrist, holding it tightly and making her stop in her tracks. Sammy turned around to see Andrew holding her wrist in a firm grip. But her expression wasn’t one of fear or worry, it was of annoyance. She didn’t respond with words. She responded with a fist. She punched Andrew directly in the face, sending him reeling back into the concrete, clutching his nose in pain
“You fucking bitch!” Andrew shouted through his hands in a muffled scream as he held his bruised nose.
“Been called that a lot” Sammy sinabi as she took the time to adjust her sleeve and nodded, “Goodbye Andrew”
Without so much as another word she walked down the sidewalk, leaving Andrew there in the open to scream in pain, clutching his nose in disbelief and in a stinging pain.
Sammy walked through the woods where Lola’s tahanan was. She had made sure to buy a good set of canned pagkain at the store, and even pitched in to get some treats for Lola, knowing how much she liked those. Mason and Sammy had visited Lola every day, even making sure to ilipat her house somewhere else in the woods to ensure ibon ng dyey and Michah wouldn’t try their stunt with the shotgun again. She was hoping to see Mason there playing with the cat as usual, waiting to crack jokes with him, and enjoy another araw after school without any of the bullshit from the school or their parents. Instead, she would see Mason standing at the house, holding an old Nike shoe box in his hands, a sad expression on his face as he was holding the box. Sammy walked over, bag slung over her shoulder as she waved, “Yo, Mason, what’s with the box?”
Mason didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if he could. Sammy tapped her foot casually as she looked around the woods, her left hand patting at her thigh before she spoke up, “Where’s Lola anyway?”
Mason finally looked up at Sammy. There was this sadness in his eyes, one that was different from his usual sadness, before his eyes looked back down at the box. He knew that he didn’t have to say anything beyond that. The way Sammy’s own rhythm in her head seemed to stop and how her body stiffened and her expression melted into one of realization was all he needed to see to know that she got the message.
It took the two a good oras to bury her susunod to the house, deep enough to where any coyotes wouldn’t try to dig her up. Sammy stood up, dusting the first onto her denim dyaket with Mason doing the same with his brown jacket. Sammy looked at Mason with a sad glance before she spoke, “Well, Mason, you did the best you could”
“The best I could?” Mason repeated
“Yeah. I mean, she was pretty old and well… Not the best of health, but you did what you co-”
“My best, Sammy?” Mason repeated again, but his voice had a crack, his tone was not realization, but frustration. He paced away from the grave, hands resting on his head as he shouted loud enough to make the forest echo. “I’m so goddamn sick of doing my best, Sammy! I’m sick of it! I don’t wanna do my best. I want to do something right for once. I want something to go right in this goddamn town! I can’t do anything right! I can’t have a decent tahanan life. I can’t have a decent school life. I can’t care for an animal. I can’t even kill myself right, Sammy. How is that even possible?!”
“K-Kill yourself?” Sammy repeated softly, feeling a bit of worry as Mason was going through his emotions
“Yes, Sammy” Mason admitted. “I slash my wrists and they just heal. Not even a scar. What the fuck is wrong with me that I can’t even do that. It’s like I’m living a nightmare that doesn’t ever want me to wake up. Every time I feel like I’m about to wake up, the nightmare just drags me in deeper and I can’t- I can’t Sammy. I just can’t”
“H-hey come on” Sammy said, approaching Mason as he had finally calmed down enough to stop his pacing. The girl wrapped her arms around the larger mans waist from behindm trying her best to comfort him. “You do things right, okay Mason? You have your skills. You have this kindness in you despite all the bullshit. It’s what brought me to you. You’re a good guy.”
“Is being a good guy enough, Sammy?” Mason asked
“I don’t…” Sammy cut herself off before she could answer. “It’s gotta count for something, man.”
Mason wasn’t sure what he could say at this point. Sammy wasn’t sure either. They knew that nothing they could say would help them feel better. Not in this moment. But they knew that just having each other was enough. The two remained there in silence, as the evening sky changed from blue to kahel above them. They remained there in silence, in each others company
It was the half period at school, around after lunch. Sammy knew she was going to have to go to French class soon. She never liked it. Especially since she knew that the teacher was always bad mouthing her for some sort of deep rooted racism towards Chinese people, but she didn’t care. She was just going to cheat her way through the class anyway. She had some of the notes in her locker all set up and ready to get through the test. It was a lot harder to try nad unlock the locker without Andrew there to break through her rusted lock, but she really didn’t care. That was until she noticed the lock was already done. Did she forget to lock it? And that made her wonder if someone had been in her locker. She didn’t think about what was inside, rather what wasn’t inside, and that made her panic as she threw the locker open. And suddenly, something long and black fell from her locker and out onto the floor of the crowded hallway. Inside fell a shotgun, the same one that ibon ng dyey and Michah had been carrying in the forest a few months back, and inside Sammy’s locker were a few shells as well, at least twelve. Sammy looked at the gun that lay before her, and as she looked up, she would see all eyes were on her now, the entire hallway froze looking directly at Sammy and the gun that fell from her locker. She didn’t know what could have happened, or how it got there. When did anyone have time to plant the gun in her locker? Why would they plant the gun in her locker? It was a lot racing through her head. Not even what was going to happen to her. She was fully aware of what was going to happen to her now. What she was worried about was what would happen to Mason.
The news of the incident broke out across the school for the entire day. Everyone knew about it. Sure enough the principal, all the teachers and the school board had heard about it. And through word of mouth, Mason had heard about it, about how the promising student, Samantha Nguyen, had been relegated to a common thug and had brought a loaded gun to school grounds. But no one was asking about the locker being unlocked or how she could have acquired the gun. None of it mattered. They just pinned the blame onto Sammy as a would-be school shooter and called it there. No doubt her time in the school was over. But Mason knew better, and Mason knew exactly who it was. He had gone to the field that araw and saw Andrew there, speaking to some new girl, probably someone he was hitting on after Sammy fell through. Mason didn’t even try to ease in. He grabbed Andrew and spun him around, a bandage on his nose no doubt broken sa pamamagitan ng Sammy.
“Mason” Andrew replied with a smile, “Where’s Sammy?”
“You know where Sammy is. You opened her locker” Mason answered coldly
“Please, don’t throw blame onto me” Andrew remarked. “She clearly brought it with her.”
“You know that that gun was from ibon ng dyey and Michah. What the fuck were you doing hanging around the guys that messed with her for so long while you two were dating?”
“Well, if that were true” Andrew lied. “Why not? Sammy is a goddamn menace. She’s violent, arrogant, swears like a sailor, practically chooses to be stupid, and has no control over her own frustrations. The way I see it, she saw it as a way of protecting you.”
“You’re saying it’s my fault?” Mason said, “You don’t think I feel that kind of regret that I may have ruined her life”
“Oh come on, Mason” Andrew sinabi with a laugh, “She was going to ruin her life anyway. You just got the ball rolling a little early. But at least she didn’t become a mass shooter for some trailer trash, you gotta admit that-”
Mason didn’t know how to throw much of a punch, but he could feel his anger reach the boiling point. He reached up and grabbed Andrews broken nose, squeezing it as tightly as he could to cause him to scream out in pain, screaming loudly as the bandages started to seep red from the blood as Andrew struggled to get him off. His screams were madami nasally as his nose was being crushed sa pamamagitan ng someone larger than him. It wouldn’t take long before the staff of the school would have to pull Mason away. It was not something Mason was proud of doing, even if Andrew deserved it. But he was so frustrated, so exhausted and tired of all the fighting and insults he got from everyone, but hearing those insults thrown at Sammy when she wasn’t around. That was something that really got under his skin, something that pushed him to do things he never wanted to do. How quick he could hurt someone, how quickly he was prepared to harm someone without thought, it scared him a lot. He never wanted to let that kind of anger boil over again. He couldn’t.
“Expelled.” Sammy’s father repeated at the table. “Do you understand what that means, Samantha”
Sammy sat at the table, her father standing at the end of the mesa as she was forced to sit down and listen, her mother at the sink cleaning the dishes in an almost robotic manner.
“Dad will you listen to my side of the story. I didn’t put the gun in there. I don’t even know where to get a gun” Sammy shouted in defense
“Please, you expect me to trust you?”
“Yes!?” Sammy answered with an offended tone. “I’m your daughter”
“And what a hellish daughter you’ve been these last four years. Ever since we’ve come here, it’s been fights, smoking, drinking, cursing, disobeying, and still you go out with that white trash boy from the other side of town who’s caused all this trouble”
“It’s not his f-”
“Enough!” Her father interrupted her, pacing around the table. His hands brushed against the mesa as his other hand rested in his pocket, looking out down the hall with a frustrated look on his face. He turned to Sammy and ordered, “Pack your things”
“What?”
“Go to your room and pack everything. We’re leaving sa pamamagitan ng susunod week”
“What? Where?” Sammy asked
“To Maryland.” He answered. “I already bought a house there hoping that we could keep a secret until after you finished school, but apparently you couldn’t even do that right without getting into trouble. So we’re leaving now and we’re getting as far from this hellhole as we can.”
“Wha- I’m not leaving” Sammy spoke
“I’m not asking you, Samantha. I am giving you an order. Go upstairs right now, pack your things, and have them ready sa pamamagitan ng susunod week. I’m not going to tell you again”
Sammy looked to her father and over to her mother, who hadn’t chipped in once as she was still clining the silverware from last nights dinner. The words filled Sammy’s head with madami frustration, madami disrespect. Until she could no longer hold it back
“No” She replied clearly
“Samantha-”
“No. I’m not leaving here. I have never been remotely happy since I came here, and I’m sick of you taking away that happiness for your own selfishness”
“It’s not about you,” Her father said. “It’s about the good of this family”
“Like how it was good for the family when you had sex with that secretary? Was that good for the family and why you and mom haven’t talked since I was in grade school?”
The words struck a nerve within her father. He was silent, his expression practically shifting to contain the anger that was starting to boil over like a pot. But even he couldn’t contain it. His hand swung and slapped Sammy across the face, sending her reeling back. It was the first time she had ever been struck sa pamamagitan ng her father. In her own anger, she shoved him back against the sink, his hand crashing into the dishes and sending several plates and silverware falling to the floor and smashing into pieces, one of the knives slicing through her fathers hand. He reeled back, holding onto his bloody hand as the kutsilyo had slashed his palm, blood dripping onto the brown tiles of the kusina floor. Yet even despite that, his expression showed no pain, not even an exhale from him. He grabbed one of the napkins from the roll, Sammy’s mother having remained still, but she had stopped cleaning the dishes sa pamamagitan ng this point as the chaos had erupted. He placed the napkin over his palm to stop anymore blood from getting onto the tiles, and looked at Sammy, speaking as calmly as he ever had.
“You’re no daughter of mine” He stated. “I want you out of this house now. I never want to see you again.”
“Pfff, some father. Mom, you’re going to let him say that to me?” Sammy said, turning her attention to her mother and asking for any help, any at all. “I mean, this guy has cheated on you and you’re going to-”
“Shut up!” Her mother shouted, her voice piercing through the silence of the house until nothing was left sa pamamagitan ng but the faint sound of the ticking clock at the end of the room. Her mother turned around and stormed towards Sammy, doing the same as her father had and slapped her across the face, hard enough to send her falling out of the chair. “Shut up! You’ve ruined the family! You’re not out daughter, your a worthless whore who’s been a constant burden. So what? He cheated on me cause I had you! It’s always been you! Get out of this house! If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you!”
Sammy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She really thought she had gotten some kind of upper hand over her parents, after finally telling them no, after standing up for herself. But then it all had come out so suddenly. Her mothers jealous hatred, something that had always been there. And her fathers disregard for her for her failures. It was all coming toward her so suddenly. She couldn’t let them see her cry. She told herself she’d never cry. Not for them, not for anyone. She stood up from the floor and made her way to the door, not giving them another word as she pushed through the front doors of the house for the last time. She knew she would have to see Mason as soon as possible
Mason was sent crashing to the floor in pain, coughing as he could feel the gash on his head started to drip down his face and leave his head covered in blood.
“Fucking suspended? For what, some stupid slant eyed cunt?!” His father shouted, throwing a serbesa bottle at Mason as he lied on the floor. The bottle crashed against his forearm and shattered, scattering glass all over the serbesa stained carpet floor. Mason was picked up from the floor and thrown against the wall, his father standing over him as he held onto another serbesa bottle in his left hand, his figure standing over Mason as he shouted, “Having to come, pick your worthless asno from that school when you know we’re short of money”
Mason was covering his head for another strike, unsure of how he would even defend himself sa pamamagitan ng this point. His eyes looked up to see his mom pressed against the pader of the living room, her breathing heavy as she could only look on in terror at the sight of it. She was slowly sliding away into the hall where her room was. Mason was sure she was just going off to hide herself again. Mason looked up at his father, who was standing over him and shouted, “You gonna say something about it? Huh?”
“If… you weren’t drinking…. We’d have money” Mason spoke softly
“What?” His father shouted, grabbing Mason and lifting him up so he could press him against the wall, seeing the blood run down the side of Masons head. “You wanna say that to me again?! You wanna fucking say that to me against”
He grabbed Masons face as tightly as he could, he dirty nails digging into his cheeks as he started pounding the back of Masons head against the wall. Mason wasn’t sure how much madami of it he could take before he would fall unconscious. He never felt any sort of pain like this before. So much blunt force to his body, his head, it was slowly putting his mind into a blur. But he was still in reality enough to see his mother walk behind his father with a pistol aimed at him
“Get off him!” She spoke
Masons father would turn around to see the gun aimed at his back, only finally loosening his grip on Mason so that he could slide to the floor in pain, his mind still a blur of pain and confusion.
“You don’t even know how to use that, do you?” His father spoke
“I’ve been practicing” She stated, clicking the hammer of the gun and keeping it aimed at him. “I’m leaving with Mason. I’m sick of this.”
“You listen to me you stupid cunt” He spoke, slowly approaching her with his fist raised and his hand still clutching the half empty bottle. “If you even think of taking my son from me, I’ll fucking kill you myself”
“I’m warning you!” She shouted, aiming the gun up with both hands and holding it.
“I’m not going to hurt you, honey” He sinabi with a faint hint of hostility. “I’m just going to beat you fucking senseless until you can’t walk. Now you’re going to put that fucking gun down and you’re going to regret even opening your stupid m-”
Bang! The gun fired. The bullet strikes him in the shoulder, sending his body lurching back a bit as the wound went in deep. Be it the drunken stupor or the shock, he was barely reliant on the pain. He looked back at her again and lurched pasulong at her, sending him and her crashing to the ground with him on top. He laid on tuktok of her and started throwing manuntok after manuntok into her head, his other arm with the bullet in his shoulder lying on tuktok of her to kep her down as he screamed curse words and insults at her. Mason could only watch in fear at what he was seeing, curled up against the pader at the sight. He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t sure if he could do anything. But as he could hear manuntok after manuntok sounding madami like he was pounding into ground beef with his fists, Mason told himself he would have to try. He rushed over as his father kept screaming and grabbed hold of both his arms
“Get the fuck off me, you worthless piece of shit!” He shouted in rage, trying to throw Mason off of him before he was dragged off her, far enough to where Mason could get him off. He would however break from Masons grip and send him crashing to the floor
“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” He proclaimed in a horse tone from the screaming and the whiskey burning his throat, sounding like a wretched corpse of a human being as he turned to see Mason on the floor. And as he towered over Mason, looking down at him with sunken in eyes like a skeleton
Bang! Bang! Two madami shots pierced through his fathers chest, one hitting his lung, the other his heart. And as he sat there looking down at body, he would eventually collapse onto the floor in front of Mason, air wheezing out of his body slowly, his eyes slowly moving around the room to try and find something as he could feel himself slowly losing his grip on reality, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Mason looked down in shock at the body of the man that had made his life and his mothers a living hell. And somehow, he still felt shock, fear, sadness, like he was going to puke right there. And as he looked at the body, feeling like he needed to scream, his mother crawled over to Mason, her head and her hear sticky with blood, pulling Mason close to her as she hugged his head, and whispered to him softly, “It’s fine, baby. It’s fine. It’s done with. He won’t hurt you anymore”
Mason was unsure how to feel. Scared? Relief? Warmth? Sad? Disgusted? His mind was both in physical pain from the beating and now in confusion on how so much had happened so quickly. He wasn’t able to describe it. As he sat there with her, she pulled Mason away for a moment, hands on his shoulders as she spoke. “Mason, dear, take the keys to your fathers van. Go and get dressed in some nice clothes, okay? Go see that friend of yours. Just don’t… come back for the night. Okay?”
Mason wasn’t sure what he could say. He didn’t have the right words. He had a million questions, a billion. All racing through his mind wanting to come out in a flurry from his mouth. But all he could do was nod. He was dead silent. He stood up from the floor, his head still throbbing and slowly made his way to his room. He washed the blood off his face, dressed himself in a clean t sando with The Flaming Lips logo on it and some jeans, and took the keys off the key ring. His mother was still there in the living room, drinking a glass of water to calm herself down, turning to Mason when he was already making his way out the door.
“Mason” She spoke dryly, giving a sigh as she took another gulp of water. “I pag-ibig you.”
Mason wasn’t sure how to respond to it. pag-ibig and affection, it was almost completely foreign to him. He wanted to say the same, but it felt… unnatural to him. But he could see that it was important to her. He looked up with a somber expression and nodded. “I… pag-ibig you too, mom”
Before he could say anything else, or feel himself get any sicker, he closed the door behind him, unable to tell what he could say. He climbed into his dads van, looking over the assortment of tools that were going to go to waste now, but didn’t let himself think about it too much. He didn’t try to think about anything. He would only get a text from Sammy as he got into the car
S: Hey, you busy?
M: Not really
S: You think we could meet
M: Sure
S: The old bus stop?
M On my way
Mason drove the car out of the cul-de-sac and made his way towards the bus stop. As he did, he would hear police sirens behind him. No doubt his mother had called. He was certain that she wouldn’t get in trouble. It was a self defense case, how could she. It was just not possible that she would get blamed for it.
No charges would be pressed and no trial would happen. She would die two weeks later from a blot clot in her brain from the beatings she received that night.
Sammy sat at the bus stop, carrying nothing on her but a few hundred dollars and the clothes on her back, her arms crossed as her feet were shaking with frustration and anxiety. It wasn’t long until she would see the headlights of Masons van. She picked her head up when she saw him step out of the van and take a upuan right susunod to her on the bus stop. Mason looked to her and replied, “Hi”
“Hey”
There was an awkward silence between the two, and both could tell that something was up with the other.
“So what’s up” Both of them spoke at the same time, before the both looked at each other with embarrassment and awkwardness
“Sorry, you go first” Mason said
“No, it’s fine, you go first, dude” Sammy replied
“Uh, okay” Mason sinabi as he looked at the ground “I can’t go back to my house”
“Oh, really?” Sammy remarked
“Yeah”
“Yeah… same here”
“Really?” Mason spoke
“Yep. Got kicked out.”
“Oh” Mason remarked
“Yeah, kinda bullshit, but ya know, fuck em” Sammy tried to play it off casually, trying to hide what she was feeling.
“I uh… just can’t go back” Mason spoke with a half truth. “Things got… too much to deal with”
“Hmmm, yeah” Sammy sighed. “I feel you”
The two remained in awkward silence for a bit more. Until Sammy finally spoke up, “Lets ditch this place”
“What?”
“Ohio. Let’s get the hell out of this place.”
“B-But where?”
“Who cares?” Sammy said. “Just out of here. Far away. We’ll work on our stuff. Make your Pagsulat dream come true. We’ll do something away from our parents, from this school, from this goddamn city. We’ll be completely free from this hell”
“But…” Mason was looking for something to say to make as an argument, but he knew deep down that he had no argument. He had wanted to leave long before he had met Sammy, and he knew this was his chance to finally see himself out of this place. He looked to Sammy, who was looking back at Mason with a smile, waiting for an answer. And Mason could only give a chuckle and reply, “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, let’s get out of this place tonight, No need to stick around for long, right?”
“Yeah, fuck this joint. I got all the cash we need at least for a little bit”
Sammy held out her hand, and Mason could only give a smile as he took it. He didn’t know why. He wasn’t sure what it was about Sammy that gave him some sort of comfort, but she just did. And that was enough to keep his mind off so much going on. He could never know how much he did the same for Sammy. Not yet.
Two Years Later
Mason looked over the news artikulo on the aklatan computer about the homicide that took place in Ohio, the one that involved his mother that would result in her own death. Even though the case was thrown out since Mason had remained hidden after all that, the town had gotten a stigma as the place that resulted in so much violence and death from that single incident. He knew that he could never return to that town. He doubted that he would ever want to. He had to shake it off and return to the message board. He got back to the website and typed.
M: uy HECTOR
H: Wtf is up, May-May 😀
M: I think I got another photo. One of some strange water creatures near California
H: Ooooh, u sure its not muscle guys XD
M: Please, I’m a professional
H: Rite, rite. No getting horny on the job XD
M: Do you want the mga litrato or what?
H: Ffffffffine. Send them over
Mason shared the mga litrato that he had Sammy toss into the see, some tabing-dagat balls that he and Sammy bought and painted blue to give the impression that they were something different. Enough to maybe trick HECTOR into paying them this week
H: Hmmmmmmmmmmm
H: good shit mate. Cameras a tad fucky but still good
M: Glad to hear. Wild to find some strange stuff like this at night
H: Tru tru. So, five hundred dollars as per usual?
M: If you’re offering
H: Cash money is no issue my compadre. You got the pics, i got the pennies
M: Thanks, HECTOR. I’ll be heading to Florida soon
H: Florida? 😮
H: I better send an extra two hundred for travel expenses
M: HECTOR, I couldn’t
H: I wasn’t asking >:(
H: Let me be generous gosh fucking dangit
M: Okay, okay. I gotta get going now, HECTOR
H: Good doing bidness partner. Peace out
Mason let out a sigh and closed out of the computer, stepping out of the aklatan to see Sammy standing outside wearing a far madami fashionable clothing, a piece of gum in her mouth to try and stop smoking since she knew Mason hated the smell of cigarette smoke.
“Did he fall for it?” Sammy asked
“He thinks we’re in California, not realizing we’re only at some sandy lake in Georgia. I still feel kinda bad tricking him like that.”
“He sinabi money was no issue, so it’s no issue.” Sammy shrugged
“I guess so. Anyway, here’s like… fifty cents.” Mason said, as he handed Sammy some money that he got cashed out at an ATM. “Not sure why you only need that”
“Just gotta make some phone calls, that’s all” Sammy said. “Some calls I’d rather not make on my cell phone”
“If you say so” Mason shrugged casually as he made his way back to the van, allowing Sammy to run over to the gas station across the kalye of the small town they had stopped sa pamamagitan ng in. Sammy hurried inside, glad to have found a single working payphone at some point in the rural part of the world. The man at the counter was a middle aged man, looking over the newspaper with little care for who was walking in. His beady eyes would glance up when someone walked in, but would prefer to not interact with people. Samm stepped over to the pay phone, putting in the coins with a rumble of the shaky rusted payphone. She looked over the phone number on her cell phone, a number that read “Dad” on the description. She wasn’t sure if the number was the same, but she wanted to check and make sure. She dialed the numbers and stood there, waiting patiently as the phone would ring.
And ring.
And ring
And ring
And then-
“Hello?”
The voice of a young child, who couldn't be older than five years old, picked up the phone. Sammy was confused when she heard it, but wasn’t sure how to reply. The child spoke again, “Hello, is this one of daddy’s imported calls?”
Sammy was even madami confused now when she heard that reply. Her eyes darted around in confusion until she heard it
“Samantha, what are you doing with the phone?”
“There’s somebody on the phone, daddy”
“That so?”
Samantha? Why would that be her name? And the voice, she wasn’t sure she recognized it. Not until
“Hello, this is He-Yung Nguyen, who am I speaking to?”
Sammy froze completely when she heard the voice of her father again after two years. And the first thing she would hear wasn’t even him, but another child, another child named Samantha. What was going on?
“Hello” Her father called out. “Hello, who is this?”
Sammy immediately hooked the phone in a rushed manner, feeling like her breathing was only getting worse at what she had found out. She wasn’t sure what she was going to find from calling him. Perhaps some satisfaction knowing that her parents' lives were empty without her. That running away from them was the right thing to do. But all she found was that they had moved on without her, that she was the one who was completely forgotten. She stepped away from the phone, before rushing out of the store and making her way back to the van as quickly as she could.
Night had fallen over the city a lot quicker than expected. It was Mason's turn to sleep on the reclining upuan of the van so that Sammy could use the mattress in the back. As Mason stirred, he woke up with a groan, turning around to hopefully get a bottle of water to help ease his tired throat. But as he looked up, he would see an empty mattress where Sammy was supposed to be. She was sitting with the van doors open, looking at the starry sky as the van was parked just out of town at the country side, miles and miles of fields that were long since harvested, the November season slowly started to get colder and colder. Mason climbed out of the upuan and made his way to the end of the van, sitting right susunod to Sammy, looking up at the starry sky.
“Something on your mind?” Mason asked casually
“No, nothing” Sammy lied. “Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just like a lot of Nguyens. Absolutely nothing on my mind, my mind is clear of any bullshit, Mason”
“It sounds like there stuff on your mind” Mason reiterated
“Well, don’t worry about it” Sammy said, her arms crossed as she tried to fight any of the thoughts that were coming to her mind. Thoughts that would only come to the forefront when she would feel Mason pull her closer and his large arms wrapped around her, holding her closely in a warm embrace.
“Well, if nothing is on your mind, then that’s good. That means that your doing good, Sammy. But if you are ever in need of anything, you let me know. Okay?”
Sammy could feel the sincerity from him, in his hold on her, in his voice, in his presence. Sammy promised that she never would. That she would never do it in front of him, not for anyone. But as she was held so closely, she could no longer hold herself back.
For the first time, Samantha Nguyen cried. She let all her pain out then and there, crying and sniffling as she looked at the sky. She let it all fall out as she spoke through chokes and weeps, “What kind of person can ilipat on knowing that their family saw you as a burden their whole life and moved on as soon as you leave without any issue? How do you get over that?”
“You don’t, Sammy” Mason answered immediately. “No one can get through that easily. It doesn’t make you any worse a person because of that. That’s their fault for not seeing you for what you are. There will be people who pag-ibig you and see you for what you really are, Sammy. It’s why I pag-ibig you, dude”
Sammy could only feel madami tears falling form her eyes as she tried her hardest to look up at the starry skies, giving a few madami sobs, her hand reaching up to her eyes to wipe away any stray tears and giving another sniffle as she looked up.
“Is there anything else on your mind? Anything else you want to get out there, Sammy?”
Sammy let out a sigh, still shaking from the sadness and the tears as she spoke, “Do you ever… want to talk about your family. Why you left?”
“My mom killed my dad to protect me and then she died in prison” Mason sinabi rather bluntly
“Damn… You just ripped that bandaid off, huh?”
“I had my time to process it. Don’t take it personally, I wanted to tell you, Sam. Just-”
“No, no, don’t worry about it. I understand. It took me this long to tell you why I left my family. I… I need to really process a lot of that”
“Right. But… I’m glad”
“Yeah, I kinda am too.” Sammy admitted. “Nice to just… get it all out there. No madami secrets”
“None?” Mason asked. “No other secrets you got?”
Sammy stirred a bit with anxiety, but there was a smile on her face as she admitted. “I think I like girls. Like… like like girls”
“Guess I rubbed off on you then”
“Yeah you did you big gay. Still into guys too, but just… girls too”
“Huh, well… that’s nice… Anything else?”
“Come on, don’t you have any secrets you wanna share?”
“Nah. I got out all I had. Nothing left for me to hide” Mason stated with a sense of pride
“Well aren’t you perfect. Fine then” Sammy sinabi with a smile, still wiping away any tears she may have missed. “I like anime too”
“Really?”
“And I wanna dye my hair. I’m thinking blue. Or maybe green”
“Green? Seriously?”
“You don’t think it would look good on me?”
“No, not really” Mason stated
“Fine then. How about blonde”
“Hmmmmm…. Maybe. A hard maybe”
“You seriously don’t have any other secrets you wanna tell me?”
“I can tell you about my first time with a guy when we were in Washington”
“Ugh, forget I asked”
“He was nice, but the sex-”
“Stop! Just stop right there! I don’t need to hear about my van mates sex life”
“Oh, unlike how you tell me about me needing to pick you up after you have your one night stands”
“Hey, only picking me up. I don’t tell you about the flavor condom he uses”
“One of these days you’re going to get kidnapped and put into trafficking”
“Never. I’m Samantha Nguyen, pro dick kicker”
“Sure, whatever you say. Maybe one araw you’ll become a pro fighter”
“Yeah, that’d be sick”
“With crazy kung fu abilities and can take down whole groups in one swing”
“Yeah, I would be pretty cool like that, huh?”
And the two went on for a good hour.
