Page 74 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
“Don’t even!” she said, threatening to lob the pancit canton seasoning packets at my head.
“Sorry,” I said, raising my hands. “Couldn’t resist.”
She finished making her pancit canton and set her bowl on the counter. I watched her blow on the noodles before taking a bite and realized I owed her a huge apology, too.
“I’ll just eat quickly and go away, don’t worry.”
“Actually, I’d rather you stayed,” I said, closing my laptop fully. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“I know I said sorry over Christmas, but…I wanted to talk about things properly, without noche buena tasks hovering over our heads.”
Liana raised her eyebrows, her expression a mix of amusement and exasperation.
“‘Di ba, we said okay na ‘yun?” she asked.
“Yes. But that was for your birthday last year and what was said when I had that horror movie moment with Melba. All the other birthdays before that, I haven’t apologized for yet.”
“I’m happy to forget those, too!”
“Liana, please?” I said, putting my hands together for full effect.
“Eww. No. Hindi bagay!” she said, laughing and covering her eyes. “Fine, I’ll listen as long as you stop that. Kinikilabutan ako, eh.”
“Good!” I said, dropping the abysmal attempt at being cute. “So, weeks ago, I had dinner with Cholo.”
Liana raised an eyebrow.
“I promise, this will tie up in the end. So I had dinner with him, right? We weren’t together yet.
Before that dinner, we were stuck in a car from QC to Las Piñas. We talked about a lot of things, and then I ended up calling him out for his bullying when we were younger.”
Liana smiled. “I know. He told us, me and Gian. Then he said sorry. He was so serious about it, even Gian couldn’t help but forgive him. Did he apologize to you too?”
I blinked, surprised. “Yes. He did. I remember the exact moment, too. We just exited Alabang,” I mused. Liana shook her head, muttering“these brats”as she got a huge forkful of pancit canton in her mouth. “You know the funny thing about that? He called me a bully first and that’s when I called him out and said, excuse you, hypocrite, you made our lives hell back then tapos you’re calling me a bully?”
“YES. Tell him, Vinnie.”
“I did! But we can’t deny he was right about that, too.”
Liana looked at me while trying to chew, extra noodles still hanging out of her mouth.
“It was like looking into a mirror. I realized that I felt horrible being bullied by him and being reminded of it when I saw him at school every day. So I thought, how could you have been feeling after I was so mean to you at home every day for years?”
Liana chewed on her noodles and avoided my eyes. She did not seem to expect the conversation to lead to this. I rarelyopened up to her so she must be wondering if I was really her stepsister and not some multiverse doppelganger. I bit my lip, overcome by guilt again, but I told myself to tough it up because Liana deserved a well-worded apology.
“Look, it’s years late. I’ve done way too much at this point to even dare ask for your forgiveness. But Liana, please know how sorry I am about everything I did and said to hurt you.”
“Hey,” she said, going around the counter towards me. Even after everything I did, she was still so gentle and caring. Her hand tentatively brushed my shoulder to reassure me. Why was she so kind? She looked at me the same way she did years ago, like an older sister.
I did not deserve her at all.
“It was after that incident with your friend that it just…hit me. I yelled at you. Cholo heard what I said to you, he…” I said, recoiling, as the memory made me feel actual physical pain inside my chest. “We argued over it and said some pretty horrible things to each other. He refused to talk to me after that. It felt bad. And…you know, it dawned on me how you’re the only person who stubbornly stayed on my side no matter how nasty I was. And even that I succeeded in doing, after the incident with Monique.”
I looked up at Liana.
“I’m sorry it took a childhood bully to realize how high up I was in my own ass. No apology would ever be enough for what I put you and this family through.