Chapter 4 Barbie

• He laughed and patted my head. I pouted more. He knows, can't we just be ourselves and tell ourselves? Why do I have to be made to feel ashamed?
• "Where's Olivia?"
• I changed the subject.
• "Dropped by the mall."
• Olivia is my best friend Jax’s younger sister to her mom's.
• While me and Jax’s is Dad.
• Well, our family structure is really a bit messy. So when my teacher asks me for our family tree, I don't do it because it's complicated. One tree is not enough.
• Dad had several women in his life. I don't know if he has many more children that we don't know about but for now all I know is that Jax is my brother.
• Her sister is Olivia and they have the same mother while my older brother Jax and I has the same father. After he broke up with Olivia and Jax’s mom, he met my mom. Which is the only woman he got married into.
• Obviously, I'm the only child of the two. I never had the chance to meet my mother because she died giving birth to me. And so since then, my dad is the only one who raised me.
• Full of love and compassion, spoiled at times but still has limitation. I am also full of love even though I did not have a mother so I never thought of seeking the love of a mother.
• Why would I look for something I don't have when I have a plenty things I should be thankful about? And besides, I'm in good terms with everyone.
• It’s not like some drama where half sisters and half brothers quarrel over parental wealth.
• And also, Jax's and Olivia's mom is like a mother to me too. She's happily married to her husband so I'm almost like a family member sometimes.
• "All right, I'll just call her."
• They do not live here. They seldom come here but Olivia often sleeps over here an vice versa. Dad just sent them here today since we just got back from the US.
• We spent the summer there with my grandparents and now that summer break is over we’re back to the Philippines again. Dad wants to see them and so he asked them to come over. With his future son, of course.
• "It's okay Jade, dreams do come true."
• I talked to myself looking at him. No one cares about me. My brother went straight to where Erato and dad is. I distracted myself by looking at the magazines here and waited to have a chance to stare at Erato again.
• A few more minutes of waiting, I'm starting to get bored. Ms. Jessica should still be here today but since I I made her go home I had nothing to do.
• "I have to study some digest, Jax."
• "It's better to digest when there's a cold beer bra."
• "Asshole."
• I straightened up when I heard the voices of him and brother Jax.
• My sight immediately locked into him. My eyes widened and my heart beat went wild.
• It's been a month since I left the Philippines and it's also been a month since I saw him. I never thought that in the few years that I liked him, it would not fade in the slightest.
• My older brother and I ended their conversation when they saw me. His eyes are lazy looking at me, I'm used to his eyes like this every time I see him. But instead of feeling worse I pursued a slight smile.
• I'm still lucky because he gave me a glance just now. I've experience worse than this.
• I sat up straight just so he could see what I was wearing. I'm wearing a string crop top and a simple plaid skirt. I'm 17 but I'm so sure that I have the figure already. I stood up and folded my hands in front of me.
• "You're going out tonight, brother?"
• Jax chuckled.
• "Not sure. This idiot is going to do something."
• Erato's sight side-eyed Jax. His tongue pushed the inside of his cheeks which made him more handsome. I restrained myself from dropping the jaw staring at his perfectly molded face.
• "Can we join?"
• I asked all smiling and flocking my lashes time to time. Because I know Jax can't resist if I do that.
• "No, kid."
• My gaze quickly shifted to Erato. What did he call me? A kid?
• "I'm not a kid, Erato." I uttered with a bit of offensiveness.
• He sniffed and obviously hid the pissed off smile on his lips. I furrowed my eye brows, getting frustrated. I am slightly hurt hearing those words from him.
• Does he still think that way about me? Child? I believe all those years I've improved! My body and my figure improved and I'm expecting a compliment and at least then all I can hear from him is that I’m a kid or a child?
• "Yeah. There's no way that you'll join us. You're underage, the bouncer won't let you in."
• It was as if the sky had fallen on me because of my older brother's refusal. Underage, child ... what more?
• "Okay."
• Even though I felt heavy, I still smiled at my older brother. I would have won but I can't really hide the sadness on my face because I still can't forget what Erato said.
• I saw that the two of them were staring at me and my older brother noticed me. The difficulty is when you’re so feeling yourself yet your crush just looks at you as a child.
• "Why do you even want to go? Just stay here, sleep over with Olivia and watch barbie."
• "Barbie?"
• I was even more annoyed by what my older brother said. He seemed serious about what he said. I swallowed and looked at Erato who almost laughed at what his older brother said.
• "We don't watch barbie! And I want to go because I'm all grown up now. I want to experience things I should be experiencing at this age." I defensively said.