The Year We Became Invincible by Mae Coyiuto [Excerpt]

Out this month! Thank you to author Mae Coyiuto for providing this excerpt!

Book description:

Dear Future Reader,

If you’re reading this book, it’s either:

1. You’re my future partner

2. I’m famous and my writings have been immortalized

3. You’ve violated my privacy and these are not meant for you

Let’s hope it’s not the last one. Before this year, I had my life all planned out. This book contains the story of the year that changed my life (well, my life so far). It’s the year I learned how to be invincible. That wasn’t really specific, but I guess you have to read on to see what I’m talking about.

Love,

Camille

Excerpt:

Hello Hi Dear future partner,

It’s pretty funny how we may be complete strangers right now. It’s even funnier to think that we may not be strangers. I read somewhere that 80% of the population would have met the person they were going to marry by the age of 18. Considering how large 80% is and that I’m turning 18 next year, there is a huge probability that we’ve already met.

‘Why am I writing to you now?’ you may ask. I don’t have a direct answer for you, but I guess everything that happened today got me thinking.

Today was my older sister Lea’s birthday, and she brought her boyfriend Martin over for dinner. They have been going out for a while now. Martin dresses really well. I remember that he wore yellow pants the last time he came over. He was the kind of guy who could pull off yellow pants.

“How’re your parents? Please tell them hi for me,” Mom would always say.

“How’re things going in the office?” Dad would then ask.

My mom calls Martin “perfect.” “Perfect” is not a simple word that can be used to describe just anything. It takes something or someone special to be called “perfect.” I wonder what made Mom decide to call Martin ‘perfect’. After we had dinner, Martin gave Lea a fancily wrapped box. It was a bracelet with shiny charms dangling from it. My little sister Nikki and Mom squealed. Dad smiled in approval. Lea said she loved it and kissed Martin on the cheek.

Later that night, as I was going to bed, I looked into Lea’s room and saw her put the bracelet in a cardboard box.

She saw me and asked, “Do you want it?”

“I don’t really like flashy jewelry.”

“Yeah, same here.”

I saw that there were lots of other similar gifts in the box. She put the lid back on and slid it under her bed. I thought that telling Martin the truth would be easier than having to hide all that stuff. I guess my sister thinks differently.

If I’m with the person that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with, I would want him to know that I didn’t like jewelry. I want to be able to tell him what I don’t like and mean it when I say, “I love it.” That’s why I’m writing to you now, future partner, so that you could get to know me – the real me.

Hopefully you wouldn’t like me less after reading all of these letters.

Looking forward to meet you,

Camille

The Year We Became Invincible by Mae Coyiuto, Anvil Publishing, 2015.

Tags: excerpt, mae coyiuto

Mina V. Esguerra