17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr63oxNvV0L
Before the silence.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0uaB0MxtZf
Before the sarcasm.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUFKobdYaL
Before the war in Ruthie’s eyes—there was Joy.
Her first real friend.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKEWOHNylIp
Her first traitor.
They were inseparable in Grade 4.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLiRr4eH8N
Magkaklase, magkatabi, magkabarkada.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwbcZTUpavd
Joy had the loud laughter. Ruthie had the sharp mind.
And together, they felt invincible.
“Tayong dalawa lang sapat na,” Joy used to say.
They shared snacks, sleepovers, secrets—17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEd3TfWzo8i
even pain.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScl1FO9jC4
Especially pain.
Joy was the first person Ruthie ever told about her mother’s breakdown.
“Minsan… hindi na siya bumabangon. Minsan, umiiyak lang siya buong araw.”
“Ano ginagawa mo?”
“Nag-aaral. Tapos nilalagay ko earphones para hindi ko marinig.”
Joy didn’t mock her. Didn’t pity her. Just squeezed her hand.
“Okay lang, Ruthie. I’m your family, too.”
Ruthie believed her.
But believing comes with a price.
Especially when you forget people are built to run when things get too dark.
Grade 7.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIQsvYWTbyC
That was when he came.
Mr. Ocampo.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ANN06rJC4
Too charming. Too curious. Too close.
He called Joy “sunshine.”17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJRMbXB032
He called Ruthie “brightest girl in class.”
But his hands always lingered on their backs too long.
At first, they joked about it.
“Creepy, no?”17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUhR1zRHdNg
“Oo, pero baka friendly lang.”
Until one day, Ruthie caught Joy crying in the restroom.
Mascara streaked. Shirt wrinkled. Voice shaking.
“He… he kissed me. On the cheek. Pero hindi lang ’yon—parang…”
She couldn’t finish.
And Ruthie didn’t need her to.
“We have to tell someone.”
Joy’s head snapped up.
“No! Huwag. Please.”
“Joy, hindi p’wedeng palampasin—”
“Ruthie, hindi mo naiintindihan. My mom will kill me. I’ll get blamed.”
“Ako na lang. Ako magrereport.”
“Then don’t say my name. Please.”
Ruthie nodded.
But she already knew: truth didn’t work that way.
She went to the guidance office. Told the counselor what she saw.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq1kgWxNnXO
What she knew.
She didn’t say Joy’s name.
She didn’t need to.
They already knew who he liked.
And so did he.
The fallout came quickly.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs8KHq2POQa
Mr. Ocampo was “relocated.” Not fired.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpQjKXQ0EX7
The school handled it “internally.”
And Ruthie?
She became radioactive.
Whispers in the hallways.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52i04OBzcg
Glares from teachers.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw7xeSz1c3a
Notes that said: “Mapanira ka.”
And worst of all—Joy?
Joy avoided her.
No texts. No eye contact. No defense.
Nothing.
One afternoon, Ruthie finally cornered her by the old stairwell.
“Bakit?”
Joy didn’t answer.
“I did it for you.”
Still silence.
“You said we were family.”
“We’re not,” Joy finally said. “Hindi na.”
“Because I spoke up?”
“Because you ruined everything.”
Ruthie felt like something inside her cracked open.
“You’re mad at me for protecting you?”
“I’m mad at you for dragging me into your mess.”
“He assaulted you.”
“And I was trying to forget. But you made sure everyone remembered.”
That was the last time they spoke.
Joy transferred schools by the end of the year.
And Ruthie?
Ruthie learned two things:
Truth doesn’t protect you.
Even the people you love will choose silence when it’s safer.
Years later, when Ruthie walked the halls of this new school, she still saw Joy’s ghost in every smile that faded too fast.
She stopped trusting girls with warm hands and easy promises.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRN3vDgr0Y9
Stopped confiding.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡECYrM0hAHf
Stopped hoping.
Until now.
Until Jay.
But even that felt borrowed.
Because if Joy—her first friend—could let her drown…
How could anyone else not do the same?
That night, Ruthie sat alone in her room, rereading a crumpled old letter.
Joy’s handwriting.
"Sorry. I got scared. I wasn’t as brave as you."17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO9zoiLCfBD
"But you were right."
It had come two years too late.
And Ruthie never wrote back.
She folded it again.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFQxQQ8ABx
Slipped it into the box under her bed.
Whispered into the dark:
“Hindi ko kailangan ng sorry. Kailangan ko ng paninindigan.”
Somewhere outside, a dog barked. A motorcycle passed. The world moved on.
But inside Ruthie’s chest, the ache remained.
Her first friend.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWzzx2Lgae
Her first betrayal.
And the wound that never fully closed.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuYwyk0dEnU
