45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBeHOyPB8V
Before the silence.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnExOtZ8KyM
Before the sarcasm.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcccW8If87q
Before the war in Ruthie’s eyes—there was Joy.
Her first real friend.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDDigCbZyy
Her first traitor.
They were inseparable in Grade 4.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntZxjYNNar
Magkaklase, magkatabi, magkabarkada.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQYdNBtmoW
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—45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCv2JD30ipe
even pain.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJoRR1JyL6
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 7.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsmml3wCSx
That was when he came.
Mr. Ocampo.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ujIxcDB7t
Too charming. Too curious. Too close.
He called Joy “sunshine.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwCAmVixyd
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?”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBlbSEvedes
“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.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhnRI3vqQbW
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.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLnrOZs15W
Mr. Ocampo was “relocated.” Not fired.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfsuCO7qIEi
The school handled it “internally.”
And Ruthie?
She became radioactive.
Whispers in the hallways.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkoB5549Cuo
Glares from teachers.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuO7CXTUaM
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.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvdFom4Hr4w
Stopped confiding.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDl6KBm3JHj
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."45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXF559igtAN
"But you were right."
It had come two years too late.
And Ruthie never wrote back.
She folded it again.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq15CfIwEB0
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.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡElhgWg2nLZ
Her first betrayal.
And the wound that never fully closed.
45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZEi8hTbDDT
and then Add to home screen.