Chapter 1. The Beginning of Their Story

Gloomy light. Two beds paralleled each other. White curtains and mattresses. Bluish-colored walls. Frightening noise coming from two heart rate monitors that were flatlining. Her grandfather and grandmother from her mother’s side were both crying as they hugged each other, and her aunt was hugging the cold, dead body of her father.

Those were the things eight-year-old Savannah saw and heard the night her parents both died of cancer. Her mother, Sabrina, died of cervical cancer, while her father, Brent, died of lung cancer.

Some people say that most kids do not understand death yet, but for Savannah, even though she was just eight years old, she cried so hard when she couldn’t make her mommy and daddy wake up anymore. She cried so hard when the heart rate monitors showed a flat line and rang a deafening alarm. When she didn’t know what to do, she immediately woke her grandparents up, and they were the ones who called the doctor. Back then, her hands were trembling so much as her tears continuously streamed down her face.

Sabrina and Brent, Savannah’s parents, both had a two-day funeral service before being buried in an expensive cemetery. Both families—Brent’s and Sabrina’s—were wealthy, so they decided to split all the costs in half.

After that, Savannah was adopted by her grandparents (her Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally, the parents of her mother; Lolo and Lola are Filipino words for “grandfather” and “grandmother”). This was also the agreement between both families, since it was clear that Savannah was especially close to her grandparents—and because her aunts and uncles on her father’s side were all busy with work and couldn’t really focus on taking care of her.

“You’ll be living with us, Savannah, okay?” her Lolo Sandino said, patting her head.

She really didn’t want to leave the house her parents built for her, because she was still kinda hoping that they would come back someday. But then her Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally thought she needed to leave that house so she could finally move on. For them, Savannah staying there would make the moving-on process harder, since she would remember her parents in every part and corner of the house.

“Are we… are we going to stay in Manila?” Savannah asked with teary eyes. “What will happen to this house if I move there? What if Mommy and Daddy come back here?” She started to cry after asking. She was sobbing—her back constantly moving, her lips pouted. Her whole face was flushed, too.

“Mommy and Daddy won’t come back anymore because they’re in a better place now… you know that, Sav, right?” Lola Sally said gently, caressing her face and wiping her tears. She also kissed Savannah’s cheeks and forehead to comfort her.

“Manila is a very, very big city… you’ll have many friends there…” Lolo Sandino tried to convince her. “Besides that, your room there will be so big…” He even raised both his brows and pinched her cheeks, as if that would help persuade the eight-year-old girl.

And what her Lolo Sandino said was true. In Manila, her grandparents had friendly neighbors, and most of them had kids around Savannah’s age. She would also inherit her mother’s old room—the one her mom used when she was still living with them. That room had her mother’s many doll collections.

Like any kid adjusting to change, Savannah became very shy when they finally moved to Manila. Every time someone her grandparents knew greeted her, she would just give them a small smile. Sometimes she’d wave, but she wouldn’t talk.

Days passed, and Savannah still hadn’t made a friend. Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally were sure it was because she kept playing alone in her room and only watched the other kids playing from her window.

“Don’t you want to go outside with them? I know all their parents and grandparents, Sav…” Lolo Sandino asked her one time when he caught her hiding behind the curtains, watching the kids outside play a Filipino game, Piko.

Savannah immediately acted like she hadn’t been watching. She shook her head and went back to playing with her dollhouse.

“If you want to play with them… just tell me, okay? I’ll go with you outside and introduce you to all of them…” Lolo Sandino kissed Savannah’s forehead, and she just nodded.

Lolo Sandino really wanted to convince her to go outside right away, but then Lola Sally told him that they should let her play alone for now—and slowly, gradually, they would try to encourage her.

And that was what they did. They let Savannah play alone with her dolls, stuffed toys, and Gameboy Advance for a week.

Savannah’s shyness finally faded a week later, on a Sunday morning—at exactly 10:05 AM—right after she and Lola Sally attended a holy mass at a nearby church.

When Lola Sally saw her friend’s grandson at a mini convenience store, she came up with an excuse to leave Savannah with him for a moment. His name was Trevor.

“Sav, can you stay here for a while? I’ll just buy some vegetables over there…” Lola Sally pointed at a store that was a street away from where they were.

“Can’t I come, Lola?” Savannah pouted. She even folded her hands as if begging her grandmother to take her along.

“Just… just stay here so I can walk faster, okay?”

Since Savannah had no choice, she just nodded with a frowning face and let her grandmother go buy what she needed. She sat down on a small, brown-colored, creaky bench and looked around.

As she was looking around, her attention was caught by a boy who was probably the same age as her. The boy had dark brown hair, a pointed nose, and thin, rosy-colored lips. Even though Savannah was still young, she could already tell that the boy was handsome—that he was the type of boy she would consider labeling as her crush.

But what really caught Savannah’s attention wasn’t the boy’s physical appearance, but what he was doing. The boy had two strings knotted around his wrist, each holding a white helium-filled balloon (the kind that floats). One balloon was floating in the air, while the other was resting between his legs as he wrote something on it with a black permanent marker.

Even though Savannah didn’t know the boy, she was certain of one thing—he looked sad too, and he was alone, just like her. No friends beside him.

Because she was curious about what the boy was writing on the balloon, she slowly walked toward him and peeked at what he was doing.

As the boy was writing on the balloon between his legs, he saw in his peripheral vision that a girl was peeking over at him, so he immediately turned his head and asked, “Do you want to read it? Wait… do you know how to read already?”

Savannah’s brows furrowed. She even took a step back, a bit confused—because the boy seemed so nice. Back in their province, kids probably would’ve gotten annoyed by what she just did.

“Aren’t you… aren’t you mad?” Savannah asked as she scratched her head.

The boy immediately shook his head, so Savannah took a few more steps forward to get closer to him.

“Do you know how to read already?” the boy asked again.

“Yes…” she nodded proudly, chin lifted. “I’m already in 2nd grade.”

The boy nodded. “Me too… we’re in the same grade because I’m already in 2nd grade too.”

After a few seconds, the boy continued writing, and Savannah just watched him.

“I miss you, Bruno :(”

“Who’s Bruno?” Savannah asked as soon as she saw he had finished writing.

“Bruno’s my dog… he just died,” the boy answered simply.

Since he was done writing, he let go of the balloon between his legs and replaced it with the one that had been floating.

“To whom are you going to give this other balloon?” Savannah asked him again. She even sat beside him.

“This is for my cousin… he was also my best friend.” The boy then wrote on the second balloon:

“I miss you, Will. Please guide Bruno and keep him company there!”

“What will you do with these balloons after?” Savannah asked for the nth time.

The boy put the permanent marker in his pocket and stood up.

“I’ll let them go… so they can read my message. I’m doing this because I’m afraid they don’t hear me when I pray to them at church…” He then untied the strings from his wrist and let the balloons go. They both looked up and followed them with their eyes.

“You know, my Lola Sally said… God and everyone in heaven hears our prayers, so you don’t have to worry…”

Their eyes were still on the two balloons, which now looked like tiny dots because they had flown so high.

“My Lola said that too… but my mom was the one who told me about this—about how this is another way to let our loved ones in heaven know what we want to say to them.”

“Wait…” The boy turned to Savannah. “What’s your name? We’ve already had a long talk, but I still don’t know who you are…” He scratched the back of his head.

“I’m Trevor…” he said, offering his hand to her as he sat on the bench.

Savannah sat back down too and accepted the handshake. “Savannah is my name. You can just call me Sav…”

As they shook hands, Lola Sally saw them—and a big smile formed on her lips. My plan worked!, she thought.

Since that day, Trevor and Savannah had become inseparable. They played almost every day, and they always attended mass at that church every Sunday.

Lola Sally was overjoyed as she watched her granddaughter finally have a friend.

Because Lola Sally and Lola Josie (Trevor’s grandmother) were close too, they decided to enroll Savannah and Trevor in the same school.

At that school, Trevor and Savannah experienced everything together. Their teachers got mad at both of them for being too talkative during class discussions. They taught each other lessons when one of them didn’t understand. They always shared food at recess and lunch. They went to school and came home together. They even made new friends.

Savannah met two girls at school, Shirley and Sandra. The three of them clicked instantly in grade school because they all liked watching SpongeBob and The Bratz. Trevor also met two boys, Drake and Seth, who at first were his enemies (because of a petty argument), but eventually became his friends.

Even though they both had new friends, nothing changed between Trevor and Savannah. They still did everything they used to do, and because of that, even though they were still young, most people thought they were already in a romantic relationship. Usually, when that happened, the two always denied it. They even acted disgusted and always said they’d never, ever have a crush on each other.

“Why do I feel like you’re going to leave me once we become high school students?” Savannah said as she sat on the swing at the park near their school.

Trevor sat beside her and covered her face with his hand, clearly annoyed by what she said. “You’re saying things that are really impossible to happen…” he said, rolling his eyes.

“So… you’re not going to leave me?” Savannah raised a brow at him.

“Of course I won’t…” He shook his head. “Why would I leave you… when you’re my best friend?” Trevor raised his brow at her, mimicking what she had just done.

“Okay… I’ll take that as a promise…” Savannah pointed her index finger at him like she was warning him.

“How ‘bout you? Are you going to leave me once we become high school students? Are you going to replace me with whoever your boyfriend will be?” Trevor raised a brow again and even squinted his eyes, like he was telling her she better say the right words.

“Why would I ask you that question if I was planning to leave you, huh? Common sense, Trevor!” Savannah shook her head and laughed.

When both of them finally became high school students—that’s when everything changed for Savannah. She started to feel something toward Trevor—something weird, something that made her heart beat fast, something that felt so forbidden to her—or at least that’s what she thought. And she only told Shirley and Sandra about it.

“You should admit your feelings already!” Sandra said, hitting Savannah’s shoulder.

“True! What if he feels the same too?” Shirley agreed with Sandra.

Every time Savannah told a story about her and Trevor, Sandra and Shirley always said the same lines. They kept pushing her, even though Savannah didn’t want to admit it to Trevor, who only treated her as his best friend.

Sandra and Shirley also kept arguing that Trevor might feel the same way too, and that it seemed like the two of them were just waiting for each other to confess. But Savannah had already proven that wrong—because Trevor had already had girlfriends.

She confirmed this when Trevor got his first girlfriend during their second year of high school. The day she found out, it felt like her world crumbled. It was a Thursday—a day that had started off great but quickly turned into the worst day ever. Aside from the jealousy she felt because she secretly loved Trevor, she was also annoyed that she wasn’t the first one to find out.

Savannah ignored Trevor for a week. They only talked again when they were paired for a group activity at school. When they finally spoke, Trevor admitted that he and his girlfriend had already broken up.

Trevor wasn’t really sad about the breakup, so Savannah didn’t need to comfort him much.

She thought it would take a long time for Trevor to get a new girlfriend, but just two months later, Trevor introduced someone new. This time, Savannah was the first to know.

It was in a coffee shop at the town center. Trevor had invited Savannah so he could introduce his new girlfriend.

Because Trevor didn’t know about Savannah’s feelings, she acted like everything was okay… that she was happy for him.

But Trevor noticed how low her energy was.

“Aren’t you happy for me?” Trevor asked, pouting. He also noticed that Savannah’s smile wasn’t genuine—because he knew what her real smile looked like.

“Of course I’m happy for you…” Savannah then flashed a big smile at him.

“I know that’s not genuine…” Trevor shook his head.

“What do you mean it’s not genuine?” Savannah rolled her eyes. “I’m really happy for you—because finally, I won’t be the one you’ll keep bugging every time you’re bored. But honestly, I feel bad for Gelly because she has a boyfriend as ugly as you…”

Trevor playfully smacked her on the head, and after that, they chased each other around while laughing so hard. That moment made Savannah’s nervousness fade—because the whole day, she’d been worried Trevor would bring up the fake smile she’d given him earlier.

Trevor and Gelly’s relationship lasted three months, and Trevor was badly hurt after the breakup. So Savannah had to be the one to comfort him.

As far as Savannah knew, Trevor was the reason they broke up. According to Gelly, Trevor was too controlling.

“Why didn’t you let her wear shorts? And why didn’t you let her hang out with her friends?!” Savannah winced as she said that. Trevor was crying beside her, and she was just patting his back, as if that alone could help him feel better.

“I just… I just wanted to protect her,” Trevor cried even more. After a few seconds, he rested his head on Savannah’s shoulder—which made her heart beat even faster.

“You’re my friend, Trev, but honestly, I think what Gelly did was right. You’re too controlling. Don’t be like that next time—no one likes that. Gelly probably felt like she was choking… like your hands were already around her neck.”

Thankfully, Trevor didn’t take what Savannah said the wrong way. He knew she said it because she was a true friend and was just being honest.

Two days later, Trevor finally stopped crying, and everything went back to normal. Savannah, on the other hand, started hoping once again that she’d be his next girlfriend.

“Sav…” Sandra rolled her eyes and massaged her temples. “I’m worried for you…”

Savannah had just told Sandra and Shirley about Trevor hugging her after finding out she ranked as the 4th top student in their batch.

“Girl… let her be. Don’t stress yourself,” Shirley said, defending Savannah. “Besides, those feelings she has kind of make her happy… and you’ve seen it—Trevor really is sweet to her!”

“And also… you don’t need to worry about me,” Savannah said, smiling at Sandra. “I’m okay with this situation—it’s more than okay for me to be just his best friend. Because that means… we’ll always have each other. Best friends don’t really break up, eh?”

Sandra sighed deeply. “Just my two cents, Sav… your feelings for him are already getting deeper. What if it gets too deep, and you can’t pull yourself back up?”

Savannah just sighed—and then changed the topic.