Hanggang sa Huli

9-A

~ DECEMBER ~

Pam's flying to god knows where for Christmas with her family, thank god. 

Which means, she was free to spend the holidays with Anntonia without the looming threat of Pam suddenly coming up with a plan to ruin it. She thought of going through with her previous birthday surprise of hiring that private house overlooking Taal, but her friends coaxed her into spending it with them instead.

Aside from Rhian's boyfriend Sam, Max was her only other friend who knew about the whole Pam fiasco so their plan was to have a small get together with just them and Max's son at Max's place. 

Michelle wanted to tell them that she was fine with just spending it alone with Anntonia but Rhian sat her down and told her that it's the one chance of giving Anntonia some sort of normalcy without hiding her from the world and just having the two of them in it. So it could be said that she was sort of guilted into agreeing, though she really should have thought of it that way in the first place. 

On the night of the 23rd, she already felt something was off before they went to bed, but she figured it was nothing a night of good sleep can't get rid of. As soon as her head hits the pillow, she was out like a light. The next thing she knew, she feels someone's gently jostling her and she feels a cool hand against her forehead, "Baby, it's already 8. Hmm, you feel warm."

She tries to get closer to Anntonia's hand, seeking its coolness and the relief its providing, "I don't feel so good."

"Think you're running a fever." 

"No, I'm okay," she says. "It's Christmas eve."

"I'll go tell Rhian we won't make it. You need to rest," Anntonia says as she removes her hand from Michelle's forehead, making her groan in protest due to the absence of her momentary relief.

"No, I'll be okay by later," she mutters.

"Mich, you can't even open your eyes."

"Yeah, I can," she insists, but doesn't really attempt to. She really was too weak at the moment. But as Rhian told her, this was one of her few chances to give Anntonia some sort of normalcy and she wasn't about to rip her of that again just by being sick. 

"I'll go get you some paracetamol and some water, okay?" 

She feels Anntonia get off the bed. 

"Don't tell Rhian yet," she calls out with every ounce of her remaining energy.

"We'll see," Anntonia says on her way out of the door. 

-

Anntonia does tell Rhian but instead of them canceling the dinner, they decided to just change venues and so Max and her son just brought everything over to their house instead.

She stays on the living room couch cocooned under a duvet as the others prepare for their noche buena. Anntonia paused in the middle of the preparations to give her her dinner and so she was now sitting up as Anntonia sat down beside her.

"I'm full," she whines. 

"Just one more subo," Anntonia coaxes.

"Ugh," she protests but opens her mouth nonetheless and receives the spoon with the lugaw Anntonia was holding in front of her. 

"Here, drink some water," Anntonia offers her the glass of water. 

"Orange juice?" she asks with a little pout. 

"Let me go see if we have some," Anntonia nods as she places the glass of water back down on the coffee table and stands up with the empty bowl in her hand.