Chapter Six

Chapter Six

By the time Reya woke up from her sleep it was already noon, but instead of standing up and fixing herself she decided to stay in her bed and stare at the ceiling. Finally, after a long time of enduring she has freed herself from that toxic place.

She has been working as a teacher for three years. At first, she loved her job because she loved teaching those little kids. In fact, sometimes it did not feel like a job; it started feeling more of like a happy place – she got to play with the little kids. It was tiring yet was worth it especially when you get to see them smile and celebrate the simple achievements that they have done, and receive the sincerest thank you’s coming straight from their big little innocent hearts.

After minutes of contemplating about her life, she finally decided to stand up and fix herself. 

Yes, she is free from her job but she still has to clean her desk at the university, but before leaving the house Reya took some time to tidy the whole place up – she did some sweeping, vacuuming, washed some dishes, and done some laundry work.

She did all sorts of tiring physical work but she did not feel exhaustion. Why? Simply because she loved it with all her heart, and it had nothing to with dealing with a toxic environment; she was not compromising herself.

After cleaning, she went straight to the bathroom to take a shower. It was probably the longest time that she had been in the shower, because she enjoyed the bubble bath that she had prepared for herself.

“This is day one of moving on.” Reya said as she smiled and stared at her reflection.

Then she dressed herself with a casual attire – a simple fit white shirt, which she paired with some faded jeans and comfortable sneakers, and then styled her hair into a simple ponytail. She did not care to put on some make up because she wanted to give her skin a chance to breath.

As usual Reya walked her way to the bus station like how she normally would except for the fact that this time she boards the bus as an unemployed woman in her early twenties. After 40 minutes the bus she rode arrives at the last stop.

Reya slowly walks out of the bus and looks at the tall gates of the university. She takes a deep breath and displays a small smile on her face. She knew that this day will come – the day when she will be saying goodbye to her happy place. She just never thought that it would be this soon.

She then slowly walks her way to the gates. Her heart is pounding a little fast because of mixed feelings – she is feeling happy, but she can’t deny that a part of herself is feeling sad as the memories of her first day flashed in her mind.

A small sad smile made its way to her lips as she looked at her employee card – she remembered the first time she scanned her employee card to open the barriers just so she could enter the campus. Today will be the last day that she could do this, because she has to surrender it to the dean. 

She then takes a deep breath before shifting her attention to the guard on duty, Manong Jun.

They had known each other for three years now. Manong Jun is definitely one of the people she will miss when she leaves especially because this man became a father figure to her.

“Thank you for being always being here manong.” Reya smiled.

The old man smiled at her and said “I’ll miss you, Teacher Reya.”

His words touched Reya’s heart and it almost made her cry. Teacher Reya. She’ll definitely miss being called by that name.

Small tears started forming in the sides of her eyes, so she slightly looked away and bit her lower lip to stop them from falling. No matter how grand the feeling of finally being free, she cannot deny that the thought of leaving this place that was once part of her biggest dreams sent daggers straight to her heart.

Then she takes a deep breath and restores the simple smile on her lips before once again stepping inside the university premises –every step she takes as she walked towards the faculty room made her heart feel heavy.

“Are you really leaving?” Josephine asked as she helped her place her things inside the box.

Reya nodded and gave her a small choice. She did not want to leave the place, but she has to, she needs to in order to treat herself better and straighten her life out.

“I do not want to... but I need to.” She replied.

“When you leave... I’ll have to deal with Krisha and the dean alone,” Josephine sighs. “It should be them who needs to leave!” she pouts.

Reya smiles and lets a small chuckle out as she listened to her friend’s rants. Within the three years of working in the university, she only had one real friend who is always there for her – Josephine.

“Oh, look who we have here...” Krisha said with a victorious, evil and bitchy smile plastered on her lips. “I can’t believe that you still have the guts to show your face after what happened.” She added.

“We don’t need your presence here, Krisha.” Josephine responded. “So please get lost or blast yourself off to another universe.” She added.

A small smile made its way to Reya’s lips when she saw how Josephine’s remarks made Krisha pissed. 

Way to go girl! Reya mentally cheered for her friend.

“I am not talking to you.” Krisha scoffed and rolled her eyes before shifting her attention back to Reya.

“That’s right. You should clean up those trash collection of yours.” She insulted. “If I were you, I would have never returned to collect those cheap things.” She added and she disgustedly looked at Reya’s possessions.

Reya took a deep breath and calmed herself down. Krisha has always been her enemy, but she never really understood why because she never did anything wrong to her. 

“What did I ever do to you to hate me this much?” She calmly asked. 

Krisha fell silent for a moment as she thought of an answer. 

“You can’t give me an answer, right? Because in the first place I never did anything wrong to you.” Reya spoke. “If my mere presence is the reason why you hate me, I think you better go and see a doctor. I was not born for you to notice, nor does the world revolve around its axis just to adjust to your conditions.” she added.

Krisha tried to open her mouth and speak but Reya cut her off. “And for your information, these things here,” Reya pointed at her stuff. “Are far from being trash and cheap, in fact they might even hold a greater value than an irrational, toxic and insecure person like you,” she smiled.

“So, if you’ll excuse me, I shall take my leave now.” Reya said as she lifted the box of her belongings and walk her way out of the room and not wasting any more time by listening to Krisha’s words.

Krisha was left dumbfounded – Reya did not do anything physical but her words managed to slap her with the rational and logical truth, and it pissed her.

“Nice one, girl!” Josephine cheered as she followed Reya from behind.

“I only did what’s right; I don’t want to be looked down by anyone anymore,” Reya chuckled and smiled.