JAY JAY POV
"Hey Jay-Jay and Jare!" Tita Gemma said, welcoming us in with a warm, maternal smile that always made me feel a little guilty for the chaos we usually brought with us.
"Hi Tita," Jare and I both said in unison.
"Aries is upstairs. Go on, I'll call him down. You guys go sit in the hall," Tita said, gesturing toward the lounge area.
I nodded and went to sit in the hall, my mind still stuck on the conversation Jare and I had in the car. Every time I adjusted my seat, the wool of my turtleneck rubbed against the marks Keifer had left, a stinging reminder of the "debt collection" from last night.
Jare slumped into a chair opposite me, his eyes restlessly scanning the room. He looked like a soldier in a trench, waiting for a grenade to drop. To be honest, I felt the same way—except my grenade was currently hidden under a layer of wool.
"Give me your phone," Jare muttered, reaching out his hand.
"Why?" I asked, pulling my bag closer.
"I need to play games. My phone is at its lowest battery percentage, and if I have to sit here in silence with my thoughts, I'm going to lose it," Jare said, looking genuinely pained.
I rolled my eyes. Typical Jare. Even in the middle of a high-stakes social minefield, he just wanted to level up in some mobile RPG. I reached into my pocket and handed it over.
"Don't look at my notifications, and don't go through my gallery," I warned, pointing a finger at him.
"Yeah, yeah. Like I want to see your 500 selfies with that Snorlax," he grumbled, instantly tapping into his favorite game.
I sat back, trying to breathe normally. The silence of Aries' house was different from Keifer's. Keifer's house felt loud, even when it was quiet—like a thunderstorm was always about to break. This place? It felt like a deep, dark well.
I looked at the stairs, waiting for Aries. My mind drifted back to the pharmacy pill, the "physics lesson," and the way Keifer had whispered wifey in my ear.
Stay focused, Jay, I told myself.
Jare's thumbs were flying across my screen, the light reflecting off his focused face. I just hoped Keifer didn't decide to call or text me right now. If Jare saw a message from the "King of Assholes" popping up on my lock screen, especially after our talk in the car, I was going to have to find a new twin.
Suddenly, a woman's voice drifted in from the front door.
"Gemma?" the voice called out.
Tita Gemma appeared in the hallway, her expression shifting into one of genuine shock. "Jeana!" she exclaimed.
I immediately stood up and signaled Jare to do the same. This looked like "Adult Business," and the Mariano twins weren't about to be caught slouching.
"Why?" Jare whispered, eyes still glued to the screen.
"Respect, you dumbass," I hissed, giving him a sharp, warning look.
Jare didn't move fast enough, so I delivered a precise kick to his shin. He winced, scrambling to his feet. "Devil," he muttered under his breath.
I reached over and whacked the back of his head. He glared at me. "What?! Am I wrong?"
"Yes, you're wrong," I snapped.
"Not really," he grumbled, but before I could land another hit, two women walked into the hall. One was a younger woman—Jeana—and beside her was an elderly woman who carried herself with a lot of authority.
"Gemma, who are these young people?" the grandmother asked, her sharp eyes scanning us from head to toe.
"Ahh, Mom... these are Jay-Jay and Jare," Tita Gemma explained, her voice slightly strained.
As soon as our names left her mouth, both women froze. Their faces went from curious to completely shocked, their eyes widening as they looked between Jare and me. The silence in the room became heavy, almost suffocating.
"Is it just me, or is there something going on here that we don't have the answer to?" Jare whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
I nodded slowly, my intuition screaming at me. They weren't just surprised to see guests; they looked like they'd seen two ghosts.
The tension was broken by my phone vibrating in Jare's hand. The ringtone—a custom one I'd set for my parents—echoed through the quiet hall.
"Give it to me," I said reaching out. Jare handed it over, his eyes still fixed on the strange reaction of the women.
I slid the screen to answer, pressing the phone to my ear. I tried to ignore the fact that four pairs of eyes—Tita Gemma, the younger woman, the grandmother, and now Aries from the stairs—were currently burning holes into me.
"Hi, Mom," I said, my voice sounding a bit smaller than I intended.
"Hey hon! How is it going over there?" Mom asked. I could hear the clinking of plates in the background; she was definitely in the kitchen
"Good enough," I said, leaning against the wall. That's the thing about talking to Mom—the second I hear her voice, I completely forget about everyone else in the room. The tension, the secrets, even the itchy turtleneck—it all just fades into the background.
"That's good! I saw your post from the theme park, hon. You guys look like you had a blast," Mom said warmly.
"It was fun! Did you see the part where Jare was yelling like a total girl?" I asked, shooting a smirk at my twin just to piss him off.
"I did not scream!" Jare barked from the sofa, his face reddening.
"RUNNN!" Papa's voice suddenly boomed as he popped into the frame behind Mom, clearly re-watching the vlog.
I laughed, but then I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. The grandmother and the younger woman hadn't moved an inch. They were staring at my phone screen—at my parents—with expressions that looked like they'd just seen a rift in the space-time continuum. Tita Gemma looked like she wanted to pull them away but didn't know how.
"Mom, wait," I said, switching the call to speaker and turning the screen toward the room. "I want you to meet my friend. Mom, this is Aries."
I walked toward the stairs where Aries was standing. He didn't move. He just looked at the screen, his gaze moving from my Mom's smiling face to my Dad's silhouette in the background.
"Hello, Aries!" Mom chirped, her face bright and cheerful as she waved at the camera. "It's really good to see you! Has our Jay-Jay been bothering you?"
"No, Tita," Aries said happily. He actually looked relaxed for a second, a genuine smile tugging at his lips as he looked at the screen.
"Oh, that's good," Mama laughed. "I know how she can get when she's been away from London for too long."
Then, in a split second, the atmosphere shifted. As Aries went to hand the phone back to me, it slipped from his fingers.
"Oh, shit! Sorry, Jay-Jay!" Aries cursed, his hand brushing mine as he tried to catch the phone before it hit the carpet.
But Tita Gemma was faster. She scooped up the phone with a graceful, steady hand and handed it back to me. Her expression was unreadable, a strange flicker of something passing behind her eyes before she smoothed it over with a practiced smile.
"Be more careful, Aries," she said, her voice soft but firm.
Aries nodded, stepping back onto the stairs, but he wouldn't stop looking at me. I looked down at the screen and realized Mom's face had completely frozen. She wasn't moving, her eyes wide as if she were staring at something behind me.
"Mom? What happened? The screen froze," I asked, tapping the glass.
"Nothing, hon," Mom said suddenly, her voice snapping back into that bright, slightly forced cheerfulness. "I... I have something on the stove. I will call you later. Enjoy your visit!"
And just like that, the line went dead.
I stood there for a second, staring at the black screen.
Mom never hangs up that fast—especially not when she's mid-sentence about Jare's vlog.
I cleared my throat, feeling the weight of the silence in the hallway. The younger woman, Jeana, and the grandmother were still standing there, their eyes practically boring holes into my skull.
"Sorry about that," I said, tucking the phone into my pocket and offering a polite, slightly embarrassed smile. "My mom can be a bit... chaotic when she's cooking. She forgets the world exists once the stove is on."
"It's okay," Jeana said softly. Her voice was Kind, but she was still looking at me with that intense, watery gaze that made my skin crawl.
"Thanks, Tita," I said to her, trying to be respectful despite the weird atmosphere.
Tita Jeana nodded, her hand clutching her chest. Aries, on the other hand, let out a sharp, audible huff and rolled his eyes at her. It was clear there was some major family drama bubbling under the surface that Jare and I weren't privy to yet.
"Jay, like I was saying," Tita Gemma interrupted, stepping forward to smooth things over. "This is my sister, Jeana, and this is my mom."
I smiled politely, and Jare followed suit, though I could tell he was just as weirded out as I was.
"Call me Lola," the grandmother said. Her voice was gravelly but suddenly much softer than it had been a moment ago. She reached out as if to touch my hair but pulled her hand back at the last second.
"Okay, Lola," I said, nodding.
"Okay, kids!" Tita Gemma clapped her hands together, her tone brightly forced. "Please go and have fun. Aries, take them upstairs. Jay, Jare—call me if you need help or anything at all, okay?"
I nodded, feeling a wave of relief at the dismissal. Jare and I followed Aries as he started back up the grand staircase. I could feel the three women watching our every move from the hallway until we rounded the corner of the landing.
The second we were out of sight, Jare leaned in, his voice a frantic whisper. "Jay, did you see their faces? They looked like they were looking at a ghost. And why did that old lady want us to call her 'Lola'? We just met her!"
"I don't know, Kuya," I hissed back, my hand unconsciously going to the high collar of my sweater. "But Mom hanging up like that? Something is definitely wrong."
We reached the end of the hall, and Aries pushed open a heavy door, stepping into a room that was surprisingly modern and filled with tech. He didn't sit down. He just turned around and looked at us, leaning against his desk.
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