If Only

Chapter 1: Levi

Levi

My bed bounced as Clay jumped into it to make me get up. It is a routine he has developed since the first day I took him in.

Clay was a stray puppy that my grandma and I thought was abandoned by his mother. Either that, or his mother died or was taken away. I'm still not sure where he came from. One thing I know though, he was sent from heaven. He's been my closest friend since I was eight.

Clay is an adorable white dog with black spots, bigger than that of Dalmatians. He's smaller, too. He loves chicken and so do I.

I've been awake for a few minutes now but was too lazy to leave my bed. It's Monday morning and I have classes. Only a few months were left until graduation and I'm very thankful for that. At the same time, I feel bummed out.

I have a scholarship grant from the university in the city far from this place I called home since I was seven. The college here is good but I want to achieve better things in my life so I chose the university in that city.

I will miss this place.

My grandmother isn't related to me by blood but she adopted me when I was seven. From then on, she's been the only family I know. She's a beautiful woman. Anyone in this little town respects and adores her.

There's this family she worked for since I could remember. She said that she had been employed by the same people since she was younger. The Santillan family.

They own roughly half of this town. The businesses here were also mostly owned by their family and relatives. It's unfair if you think about it. It's as if they own this town.

Clay whined as he flopped down next to me, subtly complaining over his lazy friend not wanting to get out of bed. I chuckled as I scratched his head, groaning as I sat up.

"Thanks, buddy."

Clay sat up and stuck his tongue out, happy for what I said, as if saying, "You're welcome. Now come on! Let's get this day started!"

I got out of bed as he jumped off. I tidied around my room and headed for the bathroom before getting ready to join my grandmother for breakfast.

"Good morning, grandma." I gave the most beautiful woman in the world, Mrs. Tanisha Bui, a warm hug as she stood in front of the stove.

"Good morning," she said smiling. "One of your favorite breakfast is ready. Fried rice and tocino."

"Yes! Gotta love Filipino food," I said, rubbing my palms together, my mouth watering. "And cassava cake with custard topping? Dessert, too?"

Grandma chuckled, the side of her eyes wrinkling beautifully as we lay our food at the table. "I made them yesterday but you were too tired to try them so here it is."

"Ooh. If I only knew..." I pouted and so did Clay. "You know you can't have anything with sugar, bud." What I said made him whine pitifully.

"So how was Emery's practice coming?" My grandma asked.

My best friend, Emery, joined this dance group and he has been practicing to join a hip-hop competition. This will be his ticket to getting a scholarship grant to the university I'm going to. He met all the other requirements. He just needs a sponsor to get him from the second semester onwards.

"He's amazing. He's been working hard, practicing hard. I know he will win. His team will win," I told grandmother, my chest filled with pride for him. He's always been like my brother.

"That's great," my grandma commented. "I would be sad to think that you two won't get into the same university. He's family."

I nodded with a soft smile. Emery is like the baby of our house. Grandma and I spoil him. Even Clay thinks of him as the youngest in the family.

***

After breakfast, grandma drove to her work with Clay on her jeep while I got on my bicycle to get to Emery's house. He waits for me and we would go to school together.

"Five minutes late." Emery flashed his grin as I stopped in front of his house. His mother from behind the short fence waved at me as she greeted me a "good morning".

"Oh, I'm sorry about that, little prince," I said sarcastically. "This chauffeur of yours overslept today."

He chortled before he climbed behind me. Smiling to myself, I began to pedal and off we went to our school, with chats in between, silly jokes over the whistles we heard, laughter over little things we saw on the road. That pretty much sums up our morning together.

The whistles? Those were from the girls at school. Yours truly is popular in this town yet unavailable at the moment. Unavailable means I play nice with them but there's no strings attached.

I'm young and sexually active but my future is more important to me. I want to make grandma and Emery proud. My family. Besides, what is love anyway? As long as I have the most important people in my life, I don't need someone else.

***

"Did you hear?" I overheard one of our female classmates ask another in the classroom after lunch was over.

"Hear what?" Our other classmate asked back. I wasn't one to eavesdrop to other people's conversation but the next thing I heard roused my curiosity.

"Some business tycoon is coming to town to marry Mr. Santillans’ only daughter. What an unfair world, isn't it?"

The other groaned and flopped down on her seat at the news or perhaps a gossip she heard. "No wonder rich people keep getting richer! They keep it to themselves!"

"Hey, Levi!" The first female classmate of ours called my name just as I continued walking to my seat.

I looked back and asked her, "Yeah?"

"Snag a rich girl when you go to college, will you? Make them spread the wealth in this world."

I chuckled awkwardly at her proposition.

It's practical for rich people to keep their money to themselves by marrying off their daughters or sons to their business partners or other people in their circle. I didn't care but for some reason, it irked me to think of some rich old man was marrying Tricia Santillan.

I got the shivers.

Then again, I never liked her. Mostly because Clay and Emery don't like her. Oh well, they say love can be learned. I hope it can with her. Bless her soul.

***

"You're working on weekends, too?" I asked my grandma one Saturday morning while she was getting ready to leave the house with me to buy our groceries. At least that's what I thought we were going to do. She said she had to leave to work for the Santillans this weekend.

"Yes, I forgot to mention it." Grandma dug into her wallet and gave me the money for the groceries. "Someone very important is coming to this town and the Santillans are hosting his stay here. We have to do a lot of preparations at the mansion and around their property."

"Well, I can help," I offered. "My part time job doesn't need me on weekends anyway."

My grandmother gave me a sweet smile and pinched my cheek which she had always done ever since I could remember. "Okay. I'll tell Mrs. Santillan that you will be working with me this weekend."

Now, Emery is going to rain me with questions regarding Tricia's doomed future with this rich man I will be seeing soon. Who is he anyway? I heard he's not old and he's actually pretty hot. Hot? Guh. I gotta stop listening to gossips.