[ Sunday, December 25]
The clock struck at 12 am, a hint that it's already December 25th. The Barron family, my family and the Monteverdes are all together in the villa. Everyone went to the living room and sat down on the couch, and my beloved future wife, Amethyst, sat next to me. Sir Gabriel sat in front of everyone near the Christmas tree and picked one gift. Just like the old tradition, he's the one who'll pick the gift and call who the gift is for and who it was from. We've been celebrating Christmas with them for four years now, but it's the first time with Shawn's family.
"This gift is for Summer, from her beloved, Shawn." Sir Gabriel said, grinning at Shawn. Summer stood up from her seat and walked towards Sir Gabriel and received the gift.
"Actually," Summer pressed her lips together, her hands and voice shaking. She looked at Shawn and smiled and Shawn seemed to comfort her with his reassuring smile. "Shawn … proposed to me just yesterday," Summer continued, showing the ring on her finger.
Everyone's eyes widened, some with their mouths open to an 'o' shape. Without any second thought, Amethyst immediately reacted soon after Summer announced the news. "When are you guys getting married?"
"As far as I know, we should still ask for our parents' blessings, both sides." Summer taps her fingers on her white pants, pale and restless – while Shawn is slightly looking down, wearing a facial expression that I couldn't clearly read. As far as I know, my soon to be in-laws don't know Shawn that much yet and talking about marriage like this might be questionable. I passed through the eye of a needle just to win the approval of the Monteverde family and I doubt that it'll be too easy for Shawn. Not only that. Sir Gabriel's favorite daughter is Summer. Knowing this, he might be more overprotective with Summer than what he did to Amethyst. I can be wrong, however, because my issue before was the social status. I'm not a rich guy like Amethyst's family. Therefore, I was thought to be a gold-digger.
Shawn, on the contrary, is a son of a rich man. James Barron, Shawn's father, is a politician.
Politicians are rich, aren't they? Also, James and Gabriel are friends so I suppose there won't be a problem in that case. It's all about Shawn now.
"We'll … talk about this later … in private," Sir Gabriel said, as if in control with his words, sounding hesitant. I believe he's not planning to ruin the current family gathering, so he'll set aside those for later. Again, I can be wrong, but that's how things look like, judging on his reactions. The weird part is, hardly anyone else bothered to say something as if they don't know what to feel about it.
I'm happy for Summer because even though they kept their relationship for years, they stayed strong even though they had a cool-off. I can't judge Shawn, because I don't know the guy well. All I know is he's a son of a politician, compassionate with the orphans in the island and loves helping people even if it means is to sacrifice what he has and lastly, he's the one who rescued and accommodated Amethyst when she was missing. I'm not thinking that the two of them did something wrong when Summer and I aren't aware of, because I have faith in Amethyst. Summer too has faith in Shawn.
I don't want to entertain the thought that they cheated on us. Because if that's the case, I don't think the two of them would bother to show up on our faces and talk about marriage.
----------------------------------------
[ Saturday, December 31 ]
Just as I expected, Amethyst's family would invite the Barrons and my family for a family dinner now that it's New year's eve. Sometimes, it makes me think that perhaps, the tradition should be changed because, for a couple of years, it has always been like this. My idea is, perhaps our families can have a vacation somewhere instead of just celebrating always in the Monteverde villa. Things might be more interesting that way.
I went outside the house to get some fresh air, with the goal of spending time alone to reflect on some things, leaving the rest of the people chatting together, as if they haven't seen each other for years and it's only been six days since Christmas. As I walk to the garden, I found Sasha, and my presence was felt by her, making her turn around to face me. Our eyes met, and she gave me a smile full of sadness. Whenever I see her like this, I can't help but wonder if she already moved on from all those feelings that she invested to me. Because that 'love' of hers brought everyone to trouble. It was a cause of a serious disaster a few months back, especially to me.
"Hey," I whispered, breaking the ice between us. I walked towards her and she broke eye contact when I got closer, at least two meters away from her.
"What are you doing here?" her voice was shaking, a bit hesitant to respond. Now that I think about it, I can't blame her for feeling awkward around me. After all, we haven't talked since the incident happened between the four of us.
"I have no particular reason. I just wanted a little space from the gathering. I want to gather my thoughts, but I don't mind to have some company." I answered. Sasha nodded, hiding her face. She shrugged as if to say that she doesn't know what to talk about.
"You know, I don't know if I should be saying this, but thank you, Vaughn. For everything," I narrowed my eyes as I heard her reply, for I don't see its relevance to anything that I said. "You might be asking why," she added as the corners of her lips rose and formed a sad smile.
"Because of you, I learned what my mistakes are. I managed to see the silver lining of that nightmare. That is, to wake me up from the dream that I'm not supposed to be having. You're my sister's fiancé, and I'm supposed to be supporting the two of you and hope for your happiness. But that wasn't the case. If that accident didn't happen, I wouldn't realize that I was wrong all this time. Now that I see what's right and wrong – and see how harmful the wrong path is, I realized that I should go back and take the right path. Of course, it took me time to get over everything – to get over you, but that's a part of it. I know that everything happens for a reason, and my experiences taught me a lot. Now, I'm grateful about the things that I have. Little by little, my relationship with my sisters is getting healthy and I found my real mother. That's something I should focus on for now, because I didn't treat her right the first time I met her. It's … another relationship that needs mending. I'll work on that and build a better image from what I've learned."
I never thought that her reflection about what happened would be this deep, but it's a good thing to know that finally, the stubborn Sasha who won't listen now finally understands how things are supposed to be, not just for herself, but for everyone else. I can't say I'm not thankful to God that finally, things are better between us because she'll be my sister-in-law soon.
A few minutes later, the rest of our family members went upstairs and entered the veranda and looked up to the sky. I glanced at my watch that flashes 11:58 pm. In two minutes, it'll be January 1st. This makes me think how fast time comes by, but at the same time, I can't help but think about when will be my last day on earth. They say that I have to go through multiple surgeries to remove the tumor in my head, but it returns. Knowing this fact makes me think that there's no sense in trying too hard to live for long. I don't want the Monteverdes to spend a lot of money just to keep me living because it's where people go. Everyone's going to die one day and it so happened that my life might be shorter than a normal person. But even with all these in mind, the only thing I have left is to make sure that it'll be a worthy life.
10 … 9 … 8 ….
That even though I'm going through a lot of pain, what matters is to give it my all and live my life to the fullest.
5 … 4 … 3 ….
And be thankful for everything that I have, even the bad ones. What matters is, my life will not be put into waste and I won't live for nothing.
2 … 1! The loud and colorful fireworks are flashed in the sky, lighting and spreading one by one and fade few seconds after showing up and it gets replaced by new sets of fireworks.
"Happy new year!" most of us yelled, myself excluded. Everyone's wearing smiles on their faces, but even though I'm showing them a smile and how happy I am, deep inside, part of me mourns for my death that is yet to come.