The Lamborghini Veneno bumped into the Bugatti Divo. The emergency services arrived after the accident on Taft Avenue.
HEARTBEAT MONITOR BEEPING...
As he slept, a beautiful lady stared at him, choosing to stay for a long time. For five years, she cared for the man in his bed, with long black hair and pale reddish skin.
On a gloomy night, she continued to hold on, feeling hopeless for a love that unexpectedly ended tragically. Yet, there remained a lighthouse in her heart. Daisy Lunaire found herself grieving, while Lawrenz Tybalt remained in a comatose state.
"Please, let him go. Release him. Why wait when I'm here?" A tall man in a black tuxedo, engaged in formal negotiations with other organizations, closed the door, breaking the night's silence.
"No, I won't give up." As she resisted, the man behind him smirked.
"Giving up is better than futile dreams." He stretched his neck. "What if I end his life tonight?" A devilish smile foreseen.
Daisy Lunaire was astonished. "End his life? Why? Are you afraid of being defeated again by your most formidable enemy? Nick..." The man named Nick frowned at those words.
An enraged man approached her, pulling her closer. "I can defeat him now, not while he's unconscious. When he wakes, you'll be mine. That's his punishment."
Lunaire chuckled painfully. "But I will never love you the way I love him."
The doctor entered, prepared to euthanize his patient, but Daisy resisted as she had every day. It felt unjust, yet this time, she struggled to accept it. Five years had passed since the accident that befell her beloved boyfriend.
"Don't do this to him. He will wake up," Lunaire begged for the life of Lawrenz.
The doctor suddenly stopped. "There's no order to end his life but a warning." A fake doctor smiled at Lunaire. Lunaire slapped the doctor, making a fun.
"Have you read the poem of Anne Bronte? Lawrenz said that his favorite poem of hers is 'A Prisoner in Dungeon Deep.' That's amazing." The fake doctor remained smiling as if it was a good thing to share. "But look at him. He is the one who seems like the prisoner of that poem."
"You betrayed him," Lunaire uttered. "Why?"
HEARTBEAT MONITOR BEEPING...
I am wearing my G-Shock wristwatch and wearing my school ID. As I stare in the mirror, fixing my hair, I hear my mother calling my name.
"Lawrenz! You skipped your breakfast again." Her scary rounded eyes mean she's serious about this.
"Ma, I have this lunch that you prepared for me," I proudly show the lunch bag that I am holding in my hand. "Thank you for this. You're the best!" I run outside of the house to catch the school bus. I wave my hands as my mother calmly watches the school bus going to school.
As I wear thick eyeglasses, my classmates tease me as a loner. As I stare at them with a mischievous smile, they call me weird but cute. Sometimes, I get stubborn and bully some of my classmates.
"You're ugly!" I chuckled at a girl who told me that I am a "Nerd and Fat."
"You are so cruel to me!" she shouted and cried. "Such a fat boy..."
Everybody makes me feel guilty that it's my fault why she is crying. She's weeping so loud, like it's so exaggerated. I pouted when my teacher talked to me.
"He pinched me so bad," she lied.
"I didn't hurt Angela," I honestly said while pouting. I smile at her; she's not an Angel. "Angela, I am apologizing for what I have said, but I am not a liar because it's bad. My parents told me never to hurt people."
"He is so fat and big," Karson said as if it's necessary.
"Hmmm... Angela, he already apologized, and everything is okay. And I will talk to him about this, Angela," our teacher said. Angela goes to her seat, and I face our angelic teacher. "Lawrenz, are you telling the truth?"
I smiled. "Of course, ma'am. Wait!" I used a stop sign. "I remember that there was a surveillance camera where the incident occurred. Can you check that for me, Ms. Lian?"
As she smiled, maybe she figured it out. "That's a brilliant idea, Mr. Lawrenz. I'm so impressed. Go back to your seat."
Angela and I are kindergarten students.
When I got home, I watched my favorite anime series "Detective Conan," and when my father had time to visit my room. He reads about Sherlock Holmes.
"Dad, someday I want to be a lawyer," I told him.
"Okay, young boy. My son will become a lawless lawyer?" he chuckled at me. "I heard from someone that my son is so cruel to others; therefore, you are my son." He is messing with my hair and closing the book.
When I was 5, I thought the world would be good to me. The absence of my parents makes me hungry at home. I always requested our chef to cook for me because I want to eat anything when I'm so bored. I was 7 when I got so big and everyone was pinching my face.
"I'm not cute..." I told my grandmother, who is always giving me chocolate bars.
THE CLOCK IS TICKLING...
"Lawrenz is my name..."
If I could be anything in this world, maybe choice wouldn't matter, but that's not the case. You need to understand why, delving deeper into these obstacles.
Since grade school, people have spoken harshly to me. Ignoring it was hard; it stabbed at me internally. My parents were too occupied to ask about my day, so I kept lying, pretending I excelled in school. They changed because they realized that working is life.
"Hey, why do you have a black eye?" My father asked me one time when he visited in my room.
"I got in trouble; I thought I can have justice in my hands. Therefore, I realized that I can't be a lawyer when the justice system is a grotesque law."
He chuckled. "Then be a lawless fighter."
I had a fight just because I'm big. Other boys treat me like a pig; I can't just let it happen so I need to give them the fist of fury. I thought I was a cute fat boy. Regardless of how my body defines me, I see it through that it's not a thing that people would like about me.
"I accept myself, my body, and my soul," I uttered while writing it in my notes. "This is so weak!" I agree with myself that I am definitely weak.
Family members told me to eat more, calling me fat. I loved eating, but it began affecting my health. Hospitalized, I realized certain foods were harmful to me.
"But if you limit me to eat what I want, I will become more sick," I told the doctor who just laughed at me. "I'm a weak fat
boy," I myself belittle my own.
Food is life: without it, the world will become dull.
"Oops! Not soft drinks nor chocolates. Lawrenz, it's for you to reduce." My mother restricted me every time... Even her kindness is gone to me as her son. A merciless thing that I have seen.
"Well, soup is better but life is not. Maybe I need to exercise and reduce so I can be a skeleton bone," I jested. "But why, I'm not a piglet nor a monster." My mother suddenly stopped and when she can resist, she smiled.
I only ate soup; my mother stopped buying other foods for my health. It was distressing. My father, a businessman, guided me to sell my toys to cousins, fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
I was on the verandah, and the breeze of serenity makes me feel good at this moment. I remember; I failed. While watching the bright sky, my future is undetermined.
I'm just 12 years old and in the state of dreaming. But I am deeply scared that I might fall because I see myself as a failure.
"Too fat to be a basketball player."
"You do not belong here on the soccer team."
"Swimming for a big boy... Such a shame. Maybe you will be floating around or submerged under the water."
Those words of people make me feel regretful because I never realized that I should take care of my body. Lying in bed is my favorite daily routine. But there's a thing that I cannot do. When my pillow fell, I couldn't reach it because my hands were too big to pick up. No, it's too heavy to pick it up.
A big body with low energy. A thin body with keen power and flexibility.
I just wear my eyeglasses; in this way, I can clearly see how vague to understand people around me.
"I really love reading William Shakespeare's works, especially his sonnets," I told a classmate who shared my literary interest. Yet, rejection became a daily experience.
They like me because I am good academically, especially in Literature. They ignored me like I wasn't good when there were no teachers around.
"It's lunchtime. Why are you still studying?" Angela asked me.
"I must be good at least in academics."
"Yeah, be good at it because no one will like you if you are dumb and fat." As she chuckled after she left. I realized that people don't care at all. The truth is you 100% care about what people will say about you.
"Angela, I don't like you," I uttered. Her eyes widened.
"Ewww! I don't like you too... You're so delusional like a green monster in the forest," an outrage in her voice.
"So frustrated, huh?"
I never expected this up until High school. Angela and I will be classmates. Just a thing that I never expected that she became so beautiful and famous in our school. Even I fell in love with her beauty, attitude doesn't matter but still hurting me.
When I got home, my parents are smiling at me. "How's your school? I miss you, my son," my mother hugged me like it was the first time she saw me.
"Lawrenz is already grown up. He's not a baby anymore, don't worry too much about him. Because I know he is brave," my father said and hugged me too.
"Your joke isn't funny; you seem like a child too!" My Mom jested to him.
_______________
"Spelling has a tremendous impact on people. Double 's' letters, irregular verbs, even metathesis have huge implications in everyday life," our teacher explained, sparking my genuine interest.
The game began. I might not have been better than Nick, but I excelled in spelling.
"Repertwa?" Nick said in confusion.
I raised my hand after he misspelled it. "REPERTOIRE." As I spelled it right, I got 10 points already while he got 8.
"DENOWMA?" Nick is always confused about the words.
I did it again to win the spelling bee. I take the chances to spell it right. "DENOUEMENT."
The host praised me and announced the winner. Everyone gives us a round of applause.
"It wasn't difficult," he said to his friends. "I just empathize with him, being a loner fat boy."
"But you're still a loser."
That day, I walked tall, determined to prove my worth beyond the hurtful words. I found solace in words, in their intricate spellings and meanings. Each morning, an affirmation became my shield against Nick's taunts.
TO BE CONTINUED...