HEY, I REMEMBER YOU!

FIREBLADE'S BLOG - THE PRESENT

"Hey guys!

I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm genuinely sorry.

I've been in a really dark place.

I've been there for a really long time now. But I'm going to keep doing what I do, one dish at a time.

Today, I'm going to be talking about...peas!

They are perhaps one of the most overlooked food ingredients I know. No one seems to miss them when they're not there. But when they're there, they add more color to the dish and make you think,

"Ha! That's what's been missing!"

Feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong. Or better yet, prove me right; send in your recipes (along with pictures) of various dishes garnished with peas.

So, feel free to leave your comments.

You know where to send them.

If not, check below.

Thanks for sticking with me, dudes and dudesses!

Fireblade away."

D. J SERRANO'S POV

"It was dark in the closet. I couldn't see. Every breath I took into my lungs reeked of Dad's cologne. He locked me up here; among his suits and shirts...in his wardrobe. All because I broke a vase. I already told him I was sorry!

'Help! Help!' I screamed when my claustrophobia got too much. 'Let me out of here! Please!'

My voice faded away.

All along, Rimsky- Korsakov was playing in the background.

He pressed one wrong key on the piano and the whole thing got out of tune. I cried out again, when I realized he had to start over.

Enrique had to get it right. Until he did, Dad wouldn't let him come to my rescue.

I couldn't stop crying..."

When I woke up from the nightmare, my pillow was far from dry. I had been crying in my sleep. Again.

When would the memories stop coming?

Would the nightmare never end?

I got up, wiped my cheeks, checked my wrists and went into the bathroom. This was the one place I didn't enter with my wristbands; the entire purpose of wearing them in the first place wasn't to hide my scars from myself. It was to hide them from everybody else.

To me, they served as a reminder of just how far I had come. Of how much further I was willing to go, to escape from the life I lived.

But Dad wasn't here now. I could breathe.

I got out of the shower and put on my new uniform. All the while, I kept telling my nose, 'Breathe, you stupid organ! Smell the fresh air. The soap. The perfume from the laundry detergent. Anything but that cursed cologne that's virtually imprinted in my brain!'

"D.J, you're already up?"

Lalanita was surprised when she saw me all dressed up for school. The last time she had seen me, I was a kid who loved to sleep in.

I smiled.

"How could I resist the smell of your cooking, Lalanita? It woke me right from my sleep."

I placed a kiss on her cheek.

"How was your night, D. J?" she asked, touching my face lightly. She was worried about me.

I knew I had circles under my eyes; I'd been up for a while.

"It was fine, grandma. Like I said, I only dreamt about your fantastic dishes. How was yours? Why didn't you leave the maids alone to make breakfast? I don't like you stressing yourself." It was easy to change the subject.

I told myself that I didn't tell her about the nightmares because I didn't want her to worry. But that wasn't true. I just couldn't bring myself to.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. I wanted to make you a big breakfast on your first day of school. Rico needs it as well. He has a big meeting this morning with the investors."

I nodded.

She gave me a leveled look.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?"

I nodded quickly and looked away from her steady gaze, moving to the fridge to get some juice. I didn't like lying.

But what else could I do?

The truth was just too painful.

Besides, I had a duty to hide my scars. Not just the physical ones, but the emotional ones as well. They were mine to pick at and deal with however I saw fit. There was nothing anyone could do for me, anyway. That reminded me...

"Lalanita, I was wondering about your neighbors. Do any of them have girls?"

"Looking for a girlfriend already, Daniel? You promised to focus on school." Enrique enquired in a stern tone.

I hadn't heard him come in.

Regardless, I didn't pass up the chance to rile him up.

"I met a girl last night, bro. She was...interesting."

That's the only word I could come up with as I thought about my conversation with the stranger.

I smiled at the memory.

'Yeah, she was definitely interesting.' "Fascinating, really," I added aloud. "I want to see her again, but I don't even know her name."

As I said voiced this, it really dawned on me that my behavior last night had been very...awkward. If someone I didn't know came up to me and said all those things I told her. Well, for sure, I wouldn't have called an ambulance. I would have called the police.

She had handled it very well- gracefully too- with spunk and just the right type of anger. I found it refreshing to be able to tell someone- a person I had never met- the sick fantasies running through my head and have them just react. Without bias. Without any guilt or worry that they were somehow responsible for how I felt.

I needed to see her again.

"An instant romance on the beach?" Lalanita mused with an indulgent smile. "Remember that girl you brought to my house years ago?"

"You mean the girl he kidnapped and brought to your house without her parents' permission?" Enrique amended disapprovingly.

I chuckled. "It wasn't my fault. She said she had never seen the beach. Her dad had to run a restaurant so he didn't have any time to take her. And her mother was always away for work. I couldn't just leave her like that. Not when my favorite grandmother practically lived by the ocean. It wouldn't have been right."

"So you took her on a forty-minute drive to the Lalanita's house. All the way from her father's restaurant. You convinced Mom her dad was okay with it. Because of you, we never went back to that place after that day. And it was the best restaurant around."

My brother's accusatory tone only made my smile bigger, even though the both of us- and even Lalanita- knew that wasn't the entire truth. The real reason why we'd never gone back to that restaurant was because Mom had gone back to Manila.

But it was not something we discussed.

"Her dad said she could play with me for as long as she wanted. He was just worried when she didn't show up until nightfall," I quipped back.

"With good reason!" Enrique exclaimed. "You told him the two of you were only going outside to play!"

"And we did go outside, Enrique," I pointed out with false innocence. "Although, we may have gone a little further than he anticipated."

"You are so annoying," he scoffed and took a sip of his coffee. Then, he unfolded a newspaper and began to peruse it.

Now, he was ignoring me.

I chuckled again.

It felt good to get on my brother's nerves.

I could never tire of our banters; they were a display of affection.

"You know, she lives here now," Lalanita announced with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Who?" I asked, a little confused.

"M.K- Emmy...the little girl your brother says you kidnapped."

"Really?" This was news to me. "Since when?"

"About five years now," Lalanita said, as she began to dish out the food. I grabbed the plate from her hand.

"Don't worry, child."

She tried to wave me away.

"Let me do it, Lalanita!"

All the while, two of her maids watched us, looking so unsure of whether they should intervene or not. After all, this was their job. I couldn't stop smiling. I was amused by their discomfort.

"Tell me about her," I urged my grandmother as I started to pile food on a plate.

"Give me a large helping, Daniel," my brother pipped up from where he was seated.

"You got it."

"From what I heard, her mother remarried and now we're practically neighbors. She comes to visit me every now and then," my grandmother said, shaking her head. "You may bump into her from time to time. I think she even goes to your new school."

"That's...interesting."

I didn't know what to make of it.

"She also likes to take long walks on the beach," Lalanita added.

There was that twinkle again.

EMMY MENDOZA'S POV

I was going to kill them. I was just going to end those two demons and rid the world of evilness.

"Merry!"

It was the first thing I screamed when I entered the dining room.

I completely ignored my mother and Eddie, and zeroed in on evil Demon Number 1, my step-sister, Merry.

"Did you and your sister go into my room yesterday? Did you touch my wardrobe?"

'How did they even get in?'

"Yes," she replied coolly.

"Mom asked us to take your laundry up to your room," Noelle added less annoyingly. I saved her number on my phone as "Demon 2," because she was the nicer one of the two.

"And you decided to rearrange my closet? How dare you touch my things?"

Noelle looked shocked by the vehemence behind my words. "We were just-"

"Don't. Don't ever 'just' anything in my room ever again!"

"Emmy, now-"

"Please Mom!" I cut my mother off. "You're the one that gave them the keys to my room, in the first place."

"We thought we'd do something nice for you for a change," Merry said. "Hate to break it to you, sis. But your closet was in need of some serious coordination."

"Oh! I believe that. It's not like you were looking for anything," I said bitterly.

"Like what?" Merry quipped back sarcastically. "You don't even have a diary in there. I checked."

Ooh, I wanted to hurt her. "Oh, you little-"

"Emmy! It was my idea," my mother said firmly. "I see now that it was a big mistake. It won't happen again. The girls saw me arranging things in your closet and decided to help. We thought you'd be happier with some more...coordination in your things."

"Right," I scoffed. Then, I took in a deep breath.

I couldn't afford to lose complete control of my temper.

And they were right. My closet was a mess. I'd been putting off arranging it for a few days now. Weeks, actually.

"Can I have my keys back?" I asked calmly, stretching out my hand.

I gave my mother a tight smile. "I have no problem doing my own laundry. You don't have to worry about me."

"Emmy, I can't do that. You know I can't do that. Half the time, you're up there alone, locked up in your room. Even when Sara comes over, you don't like leaving the door unlocked. Anything could happen; there could be a fire, you could be unconscious..."

"Alright. I get it. Just...don't go in anymore. Unless you're sure there's a fire or I'm unconscious and even then, these two aren't allowed in. Okay?"

"I have no problem with that," Merry said, with a satisfied smile.

I got the feeling that she was imagining me burning in a fire.

'Dream on, idiot,' I thought with dark humor.

"Merry!" Mom chides softly. Noelle sends me an angry look; because of me, Mom was scolding her sister.

"Now that the issue is all cleared up, can we have breakfast?" Mom asked.

"Sure." Why not? I pulled out a seat for myself.

"Good morning, Emmy," my little brother greeted, now that he was certain he had my attention.

"Good morning, Eduardo."

Eddie resembled my mother so much, it was surreal. He shared some features with my step- sisters as well, like the shape of his nose and the color of his hair, his eyes. But he didn't look like my father. He looked like Jose Hernandez; my stepfather.

Eduardo was the living proof of why I resented my mother.

Yet, I loved him so much.

"Are you excited about starting kindergarten?" I asked with a warm smile that comes straight from my heart.

"Yes," the little nugget replied, after giving it some thought. "I heard we get to color all day!"