Chapter 2. The Beginning of Their Story

A gloomy light illuminated the room. Two beds were parallel to each other, with white curtains and mattresses. The walls were painted in a bluish color. The sound of two heart rate monitors flatlining was frightening. Savannah’s grandfather and grandmother from her mother’s side cried as they hugged each other while her aunt held the cold dead body of her father.

These 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 Savannah, even though she was just an eight-year-old kid, cried so hard when she could not wake up her mommy and daddy anymore. She cried so hard when the heart rate monitors showed a flatline and when they rang a deafening alarm. When she did not know what to do, she immediately woke up her grandparents, and they were the ones who called the doctor. Her hands were trembling so much that her tears continuously streamed down her face.

Sabrina and Brent, Savannah’s deceased parents, both had their burial for two days at a funeral service, and after that, they were buried in an expensive cemetery. Both Brent’s and Sabrina’s families were wealthy, so they decided to split all the costs in half.

Afterward, Savannah was adopted by her grandparents, Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally, who were her mother’s parents. This was also the agreement of both families since it was evident that Savannah was really close to her grandparents and because Savannah’s aunts and uncles on her father’s side were all busy with their work and could not really focus on taking care of her.

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

She really did not want to leave the house that her parents had built for her because she was still hoping that they would come back someday. But Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally thought that she needed to leave the house so that she could finally move on. For them, Savannah staying in that house would make her moving-on process hard since she would remember her parents in every part and every corner of their 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, so her back was constantly moving, and her lips were even pouted. Her whole face was flushed too.

“Mommy and Daddy won’t come back anymore because they are in a better place now… you know that, Sav, right?” Lola Sally caressed her face, wiped her tears, and kissed her cheeks and forehead to comfort her.

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

And what Lolo Sandino said was true. In Manila, Savannah’s grandparents had friendly neighbors, most of whom had kids the same age as Savannah. Moreover, she would inherit her mother’s room — the one that her mother used when she was still living with her parents, and that room contained her mother’s doll collections.

Like any other kid who had to adjust to change, Savannah became very shy when they finally moved to Manila. Whenever someone her grandparents knew greeted her, she would just give them a small smile, sometimes waving, but she would not talk.

Days passed, and Savannah still had not made any friends. Lolo Sandino and Lola Sally thought it was because she kept playing alone in her room and just watching the 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 in the curtains while watching the kids outside play a Filipino game, Piko.

Savannah immediately acted as if she was not watching the kids. She then shook her head and went back to playing with her dollhouse.

“If you want to play with them, just tell me, okay? I will accompany you outside, and I will introduce you to all of them,” Lolo Sandino then kissed Savannah’s forehead, and Savannah 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, and then slowly and gradually, they would try to convince her to play outside.

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 Sunday holy mass in a church near their house.

When Lola Sally saw her friend’s grandson at a mini convenience store, Lola Sally decided to come up with an excuse just so she could leave Savannah with her friend’s grandson, whose name was Trevor.

“Sav, can you stay here for a while? I’ll just buy some vegetables there…” Lola Sally pointed at the 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 Lola Sally to let her come with her.

“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 buy what she needed to buy. She just sat on a small, brown-colored, creaky bench while looking around.

As she looked around, Savannah’s 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 — the type of boy she would consider to be her crush.

But what really caught Savannah’s attention was not the boy’s physical appearance but what he was doing. The boy had two strings knotted at his wrist, and those two strings were holding white helium-filled balloons. One balloon was floating in the air while the other was in between his legs as he wrote something on it with a black permanent marker.

Although Savannah didn’t know the boy, she was sure of one thing — the boy was sad and alone, with no friends beside him. Curious about what the boy was writing, she slowly walked toward him and peeked at the balloon.

As the boy wrote on the balloon, he saw a girl peeking over his shoulder and asked, “Do you want to read it? Wait… do you know how to read already?”

Savannah was confused by the boy’s kind offer and took a step back. “Aren’t you…aren’t you mad?” she asked, scratching her head.

The boy shook his head, so Savannah took more steps to be nearer to him. “Do you know how to read already?” he asked.

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

The boy nodded and then said, “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 watched him.

“I miss you, Bruno :(”

“Who’s Bruno?” Savannah asked immediately as she sensed the boy had finished writing.

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

With the boy done writing, he let go of the balloon that was between his legs and replaced it with the other balloon that was floating earlier.

“To whom are you going to give this other balloon?” Savannah asked as she sat down beside the boy.

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

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

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

The boy put the permanent marker that he used in his pocket and eventually stood up.

“I’ll let them go… so they can read my message. I’m doing this because I’m afraid they can’t hear me whenever I’m praying to them at church…” He then untied the knot of the two strings that were keeping the balloon from flying up, and then they both looked up as they followed the balloons with their eyes.

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

Both their eyes were still on the two balloons, even though they looked like tiny dots in the sky because they had flown up high.

“My Lola said that too… but my mom was the one who told me about this… that this is another way to let our deceased loved ones 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 your name.” The boy scratched the back of his head.

“I’m Trevor,” Trevor offered his hand to Savannah as he sat on the bench.

Savannah then sat back too and shook his hand. “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 face. “My plan worked!” she thought.

Since that day, Trevor and Savannah became inseparable. They played almost every day and attended mass at that church every Sunday.

Lola Sally was happy to witness that because, finally, her granddaughter had a friend.

Since Lola Sally and Lola Josie (Trevor’s grandmother) were also close, they decided to enroll Savannah and Trevor at the same school.

At that school, Trevor and Savannah experienced everything together. Their teachers got mad at both of them because they were too talkative during class discussions, they taught each other lessons that one of them did not understand, they always shared their food during recess and lunch, they came to school together and went back home together, and they both made new friends.

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

Even though they both had already made new friends, nothing changed between Trevor and Savannah. They still did everything they were used to, and that was the reason why, even though they were still young, most people thought that they were already in a romantic relationship. Usually, when that happened, the two would deny it. They even acted disgusted and said that they would never 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 then sat beside her and covered her face, annoyed by what she had just said. “You are 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 not. Why would I leave you when you’re my best friend?” Trevor raised a brow at her, too, mimicking what she had just done.

“Okay… I’ll take that as a promise,” Savannah said, pointing her index finger at him as if she was warning him.

“How about you? Are you going to leave me once we become high school students? Are you going to replace me with whomever your boyfriend will be?” Trevor raised a brow again and made his eyes small, telling Savannah through his eyes that she needed to say the right words.

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

When they finally became high school students, everything changed for Savannah. She started to feel something toward Trevor — something weird, something that involved having a fast heartbeat, something that felt so forbidden to her — that’s what she thought. And she only told Shirley and Sandra about this.

“You should admit your feelings already!” Sandra hit Savannah’s shoulder.

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

Every time Savannah told a story about her and Trevor, Sandra and Shirley always said the same lines. They kept on pushing her even if Savannah did not want to admit it to Trevor, who just treated her as his best friend.

Sandra and Shirley also argued that Trevor might feel the same way and that it seemed like the two were just waiting for each other to confess. But Savannah had already proven this wrong since Trevor already had girlfriends.

She was able to prove this when Trevor had his first girlfriend when they were in the second year of high school. The day she found out about this, it seemed like the world crumbled down for her. It was Thursday, and that day had started off great for her, but it immediately became the worst day ever because of that. Aside from her being jealous because she secretly loved Trevor, she was also annoyed because she was not the first one who found out about this.

Savannah ignored Trevor for a week, and they talked again when they were paired in a group activity at school. As they talked again that time, Trevor admitted that he and his girlfriend had already broken up.

Trevor was not really sad about that break-up, so Savannah did not need to comfort him anymore.

Savannah thought at that time that it would take a long time for Trevor to have a new girlfriend, but after two months, Trevor introduced a new girlfriend to her. This time, Savannah was the first one to know about it.

In a coffee shop in the town center, Trevor invited Savannah so that he could introduce his girlfriend.

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

But Trevor noticed how her energy was too low.

“Aren’t you happy for me?” Trevor pouted right after asking that question. Trevor also noticed that the smile Savannah gave him was not really genuine because he knew how his best friend genuinely smiled.

“Of course, I am happy for you,” Savannah then flashed a big smile at Trevor.

“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 that you have a new girlfriend because, finally, I won’t be the one you’ll keep on bugging every time you are bored. But honestly, I’m sad for Gelly because she has a boyfriend as ugly as you…”

Trevor then smoothly hit her head, and right after that, they just chased each other while laughing so hard. Because of that, Savannah’s nervousness finally faded because, throughout that day, she kept on thinking that Trevor might bring up the fake smile that she flashed earlier.

Trevor and Gelly’s relationship lasted for three months, and Trevor was badly hurt right after that break-up, so Savannah needed to comfort him.

As far as Savannah knew, Trevor was the reason for the break-up because, as per Gelly, Trevor was too controlling.

“Why didn’t you let her wear shorts, and why didn’t you let her be with her friends?!” Savannah winced as she said that. Trevor was crying beside her, and she was just tapping his back as if that would help him be comforted.

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

“You’re my friend, Trev, but I honestly think that what Gelly did was right because you’re too controlling. Next time, don’t be such a controlling boyfriend because someone might not like that. Gelly probably felt like she was already choking because of your hands on her neck.”

Thankfully, Trevor did not take what Savannah said in a bad light because he knew that Savannah had spoken out of concern for him as a true friend.

After two days of crying, Trevor eventually returned to his normal self. Savannah, on the other hand, started hoping once again that she could be Trevor’s next girlfriend.

***

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

Savannah had just told Sandra and Shirley about Trevor hugging her after finding out that she was the top 4 student of their batch.

“Girl, just let it be and don’t stress yourself. Besides, the way Trevor treats you is really sweet!” Shirley defended Savannah.

“I’m fine with the situation, and it’s more than okay for me to just be his best friend. That means we’ll always have each other. Best friends don’t break up, right?” Savannah reassured Sandra with a smile.

Sandra sighed deeply. “Just my two cents, Sav. Your feelings for him are getting deeper. What if they become too deep for you to handle?”

Savannah sighed and changed the topic.