Chapter 13: Diane's Siblings

Diane’s P.O.V.

After that, I went to the kitchen and ate the food that Mom had prepared for me—it was rice and fried chicken. Most likely, my two siblings were already done eating because there was a pile of dishes again in the sink. I ended up washing them because I didn’t want to see anything dirty.

I was about to leave when I saw David Cristoff in our small living room—he was one of my siblings. He was second to me, and our youngest was Denise Camille. All of our names began with the letters D and C. We couldn’t blame our mom though. Our mom, Cecille, might be really in love with Dominic, our late father.

“I’m currently running for the class valedictorian, big sis!” he announced while winking at me.

“Really, Dave? Wow, that was indeed great news! You will surely get a full-scholarship grant in college… and of course, you should go to a better university than the Quego del Mar Public University. I’m so proud of you!” I ecstatically told him. At the same time, I messed up his hair. It was already evening, yet his hair was still gelled and on posture as if he would court a girl by this time.

At least, the hard feeling of studying and working at the same time was somehow lessened because of what my brother had told me. It was such a nice feeling that my siblings were not rebel and disobedient, even though they could sometimes forget to wash the dishes. Because of that, my headache suddenly left me, and I was ready to enjoy working again. David would soon step into college, so I had to earn more money and continue to do my best.

Of my two siblings, only David knew that I was a club dancer. I let him know the situation, and despite his young age, he quickly understood it. I also promised him that once I graduated from college, I would stop working in the club and would become one of the sought-after accountants in the country.

He would like to stop going to school to help me with work, but that was one of the things that I would never allow him to do. I told him that he could do that when he finished college too.

On the other hand, Denise was too young to understand these kinds of things. Maybe, time would come that I wouldn’t be able to do it alone, that was why I didn’t have the right to complain about going to work. I had to save for her future… for their future.

“Hey, sis! Can you stop it?” David whined while fixing his hair that I slightly ruined. I smelled my right hand, and my nose creased upon smelling that the hair wax he used seemed to be stuck on it.

“Why? What about it? Can I no longer caress my brother? Hmpft! It was about time to sleep, so do you still need to fix your hair like that?” I wanted to laugh, but I chose to pout my lips to signify that I was quite fretting over his reaction. “Please be honest to me, David. Are you courting someone?” I asked after.

Denise unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere and interfered with our conversation. “Big bro already has a girlfriend, big sis! Believe me, he even went to that girl’s house,” she divulged to me while her round eyes seemed to dilate and grow much bigger than usual.

Then, I threw David some menacing stares and spoke to him seriously. “Hey, David Cristoff! Why don’t you focus first on your studies before you decide to have a girlfriend? The odds will be greater that instead of being the valedictorian, you will end up going back to being a fourth-year high school student! Can’t you see? I don’t even have time for that so-called love life, and here you are, trying to precede me? Stop thinking about that love life, okay? After all, that can wait. Are we clear?” I sermonized him.

“Did you really believe Denise, sis? Helena is not my girlfriend! She was so peevish and couldn’t even last a day without avoiding me. She always tended to walk out! And one more thing, I went to their house because we had to work on our Annual Camp project. That’s it, nothing more and nothing less!” David’s face flushed as he tried to explain his side. Yet, he sounded too defensive. I couldn’t stop him from growing up. My brother looked more of a teen now.

“Mom was already asleep. Have you ensured that she took her medicine on time?” I changed the topic.

“Yes, sis. Do you still have doubts about me? You know that you can count on me for such things.” David nodded at me, but his eyes were looking at Denise intently. It was as if his eyes were threatening her with the words, “Get ready with yourself later!”

Our youngest sibling just stuck her tongue out to David before she said, “Of course, why would you even forget? You also took care of your crush and gave her medicine, correct?”