I am caught smoking by my relatives.. Not literally caught but its close to that.. They knew it and my parents too..
We decided to go out with our cousin who lives at Australia and came here for a vacation. It’s like our despidida dinner with her.
I’m dismissed at 6pm so I went straight to McDonald’s Nepo Quad. That was our meeting place. When we were already complete we went to NYS and ate there. After finishing our meals, we walked arounf nepo Quad and we wanted to chill and drink hot coffee or something. We obviously didn’t want to go home that is why we were looking for a place to hang out.
We went to 7’Eleven to buy a half pack of malboro black.. Patrick and I smoke. They all knew about us. Danica too, but she does it occasionally. We decided to go to Camalig and we got excited and walked as fast as we could. Walking around past nine is hella scary. So we ran up to a kid selling cigarettes and we asked him if we could swap to a half-pack malboro ice blast because they were my favorite..
We reached camalig and we ordered, Tequila Sunrise. Kathryn loves Teq and does I. I now have my tequila buddy. Who hates tequila??? Anyway, we were chatting like for two hours. I think. While we were talking, Patrick and I were smoking.. Then we asked Kathryn if she’s allowed to smoke one and she said Yes. Her mom allowed her but even though she wants too, she can’t because she has Asthma. I had asthma too! But the first time I smoked, I coughed a lot then it was suddenly gone after a few days.
In the middle of our conversation, Danica took one cigar. She lighted it. Inhaled. Exhaled. That’s my girl. Wait, for the record, I didn’t teach her. Ok? I’m not even with her when she tried it the first time.. But here’s the important part. We were talking to Kathryn and our topic was about smoking. She said, she wanted to try one but she’s scared because her asthma might trigger. We were not telling her to smoke one, I actually tried to stopped her from doing it. I just said don’t do it if you can’t but if you really want to, it’s your decision..
After telling my “club tragedy” story to Kathryn, she took one cigar! I was so surprised and she said she’s really going to try it. I made a big mistake and that mistake was lighting up the cigarette for her. I’m such a big asshole to my cousin. Why did I do that? I should’ve stopped her from doing it.. I got guilty about it! I know we all did a wrong move, not just me. All of us in that scenario.
I think that was monday night and I was busy talking to my boyfriend when Danica surprisingly texted me in an All-Caps text saying:
I was confused by the time I read her text.. I replied. “What?”
She said, “Kathryn and her mom is at HongKong right now because her asthma triggered..” I got nervous, my heart beating faster and faster. My hands were shaking.. My body felt numb. I’m afraid that they might blame me with my irresponsibleness, because I was the one who set up the despidida dinner with Kathryn. I’m sure Tita Irene is ranting about us all the time. She even said that, we were such a “Bad Influence” to Kathryn. Maybe the next time they’ll go here again, she will never allow Kathryn to go out with us..
Here’s the question, how did they know what we smoked that night?
Guess what, my cousin.. HE SPILLED THE BEANS.
He told everything that happened that night to her father. Everything.. Detailed.. We got mad at him because, he should’ve talked to us first so we can make plans.. We can say that, we did it out of curiosity but there’s nothing we can do. He said it all. The worst part is, he even told him that Patrick and I were total-smokers. Which is true, we smoked but not every damn day. I think he said “everyday”.
Hello? You went through our private life and that’s not your obligation to tell them. We were so pissed at you that time.
The morning after we knew what was happening.. We, my cousins decided to have a meeting at Mcdonalds at 9 am. We were complete, even Trisha was there but she wasn’t involved. So we talked to my COUSIN, you said you told everything. You were saying that we should tell the truth to our parents because obviously they already know the truth! I know what you were talking about. Its us, being honest to our parents. Even though we make a mistake..Our parents will never ever leave us. They’d still love us no matter how bad the shit we made. Somehow, you made a point. I still love you, mojan.
I got home and we were still talking about it on viber. We were having a group chat because they said all of my relatives will have a meeting later including us at Patrick’s house. Because Tito Lito (kathryn’s dad) called Tito Jun (patrick’s father) when he knew what happened to Kathryn. Tito Lito was so angry at us and that’s why Tito Jun wanted to talk to us. Luckily, it was postponed..
That night, I took a bath and I was crying.. I was thinking that maybe my mom already knows it. She’s just waiting for me to talk to her because the whole day she was not talking to me. I sensed it. I dressed up and went to my sister’s room and hugged her. I was seeking for an advice and she told me, “Tell mom the truth”
Admitting to my mom would take a lot of risk.. There was this time, we were inside the car and I asked my parents “what if I smoked?” Then my mom answered “I will slap you in the face” and my mom even said this line which hit me the most “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are” ….
I finally made up my mind.. I told my sister, go get mom and my heart was pounding really fast.. When I saw my mom, I bursted into tears.. All I said was sorry.. Then she told me, she already knew about it and she was just waiting for me to make a move. So I was right. I explained what happened and told her I was really smoking.. She didn’t get mad but I felt that she hated me that time and she said I should stop smoking. She made me feel realize that it was clearly our fault, we should’ve took care of Kathryn while she was staying here…
I thought she was going to slap me in the face.. I thought she’ll never forgive me. My thoughts were all wrong.. She still accepted me and loved me..
I felt a relief that night.
I’m glad my dad didn’t get mad at me because when he’s mad. He is too physical. He’d punch you in the face.
I’m just worried for myself too, because my aunties and uncles knew the incident. They might view me as the spider in the cobweb, in short, I’m the BI. But I’m not.. :’(
Days passed and now here I am typing my story. I know Kathryn’s family will forgive us too, in time. I am very sorry for what happened. I learned my lesson and I will never ever do it again.
I seriously stopped smoking, I’m three weeks nicotine-free.. :)
P.S Be honest all the time and no matter how bad your mistake is your parents will still love you, kiddo. ;)
"Till we meet again, Malboro Ice Blast."
Joke. I miss smoking. Joke.