20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9VEnm4Kup
Before the silence.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDj0AjHfNKE
Before the sarcasm.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQcENGz155
Before the war in Ruthie’s eyes—there was Joy.
Her first real friend.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkYyYIrjpgu
Her first traitor.
They were inseparable in Grade 4.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxu0LD628Sl
Magkaklase, magkatabi, magkabarkada.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnyRfIFbsn
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—20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjRmL3KnLZM
even pain.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLaiFd8SENq
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 7.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCec09N5z0k
That was when he came.
Mr. Ocampo.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kAhLCeE6K
Too charming. Too curious. Too close.
He called Joy “sunshine.”20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5cPWyinT2
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?”20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMGMFEqLBe
“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.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimhQuzq0uY
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.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKDfVZcdzZ
Mr. Ocampo was “relocated.” Not fired.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9BSVP6Qhh
The school handled it “internally.”
And Ruthie?
She became radioactive.
Whispers in the hallways.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0yJBNRBxJ
Glares from teachers.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI02zkRgnIv
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.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbHkCGn1A7M
Stopped confiding.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWypuPOXC7D
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."20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJorIhNfsy
"But you were right."
It had come two years too late.
And Ruthie never wrote back.
She folded it again.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotQi2LJ9c4
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.20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uAXN7HWEE
Her first betrayal.
And the wound that never fully closed.
20Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gKjuqLZUo
