Shotgun Love

Flashback: Kevin Dropped Out

A few days had passed, but that strange girl’s voice kept echoing in Keira’s ears.

Stop calling him.

It was maddening. Sharp, teasing, humiliating. Several times she almost gave in to the urge to stalk Kevin’s social media again, thumb hovering over his profile picture, but she always paused. She already knew what she might find new photos, new tags, new reminders that she wasn’t the “baby bear” anymore. And she wasn’t sure she could take it.

Her throat had ached the past few days, a dull soreness that felt like it came from holding back tears. She was too tired to cry. Kevin had left her hanging, ignoring every call, every message. By now, it was obvious that he had blocked her completely.

And yet… instead of the usual heartbreak, all she felt was exhaustion. Years of understanding him, of bending herself thin just to carry them forward, had finally hollowed her out.

Flashback...

There was a time when it wasn’t like this. Back then, they were campus idols. She sang while Kevin strummed his guitar, their voices and music blending like they were made to fit. They even had a band, a ridiculous name and all "The Idols". Jules had founded it, roping in Kevin and a few classmates before peeking into Keira’s classroom to recruit her as vocalist.

She remembered that day how Jules grinned like he already knew she would say yes, how Kevin lingered at the back, too shy to even speak.

Keira wasn’t just a singer. She played keyboards too, though the microphone was where she truly came alive. Soon enough, the group of boys was orbiting around her presence, calling her “idol” until the nickname stuck. Girls from Jules’ section threw her jealous looks, but Keira never asked for their attention. She only wanted to sing.

Kevin kept his feelings hidden at first. It took him months before he confessed, stuttering but determined. And when he did, everything seemed golden. The songs they wrote together, late-night practices, laughter over cheap food after gigs. That was before college. Before reality.

College changed Kevin.

At Solenne University, he seemed to shed his music skin and slip into one made of excuses. Where Keira grew hungrier for education, Kevin grew lazier, more interested in luxury than lectures.

Keira knew what scarcity was and how hard her parents worked for her tuition, how many would give anything to sit where she sat in class. And Kevin… Kevin could buy his way through the entire campus, but he didn’t even see the value of it.

The differences in their lives seeped into their love, but she endured. Kevin still had his soft side, though. Sweet words in the middle of arguments, spontaneous dinners, little gifts for her parents. Mira, Keira’s mom, adored him. She couldn’t understand why he was always absent from class, but Kevin’s charm was hard to resist.

Keira understood, though. She saw the cracks he tried to plaster over with smiles.

One morning, tired of being kept in the dark, Keira found herself standing in line at the registrar’s office. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, guilt gnawing at her ribs as she slid Kevin’s ID number across the counter. The staff already knew them as a couple, no one even blinked at her request.

The screen lit up with Kevin’s records.

Her breath caught.

He had dropped several subjects as early as his first year. Some he re-enrolled in, blending them with the few he managed to take alongside Keira. But the truth could no longer be ignored. Kevin wasn’t keeping up. He was slipping, slowly unraveling beneath the weight of expectations he never admitted to. What stung even more was the discovery that he hadn’t even paid his tuition in full. Keira knew he had carried with him more than enough money to settle the fees, yet for reasons she could not understand, he chose not to.

She walked out of the office with a weight she couldn’t share, not even with him. Not yet.

But secrets don’t stay secrets for long.

Kevin’s mom eventually noticed. She noticed his long hours locked away in his room, the way he left the house at night only to return too early, as though circling through places without purpose. He wasn’t the boy she thought she’d raised, something was off.

One evening, when Keira dropped by their house, Kevin wasn’t home. Elvira - poised, elegant even in her worry, sat her down at the dining table.

“Keira,” she began softly, folding her hands together, “I know my son. He’s hiding something. He’s been… different. You’ve noticed too, haven’t you?”

Keira’s throat tightened. She wanted to protect him. To lie, to smile, to carry his burden just a little longer. But then she remembered the registrar’s screen, the red marks of dropped subjects, the wasted privilege. She remembered the ache of her own sacrifices, and how much she believed in education while he threw his away.

Her voice cracked when she finally spoke. “Tita… it’s his grades. He hasn’t been going to class. He dropped a lot of subjects.”

Elvira’s face paled. She pressed a hand to her lips, eyes glassy with disbelief.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” she whispered.

Keira lowered her gaze, guilt pressing on her chest. “Because he doesn’t want you to see him failing.”

And in that moment, Keira felt like she had betrayed him, yet also, somehow, like she had saved him from drowning alone.

"I'm so sorry, Tita El, I tried my best to help him but he pushes me away every time".

Elvira handed Keira the exact figure of Kevin’s remaining balance. It turned out he had only settled the initial fee for enrollment, leaving the rest unsettled until his mother was forced to shoulder the full amount. Quietly, Keira returned to school and paid off the balance herself, never once breathing a word of it to Kevin.

Elvira sat very still at the dining table after Keira left. Her tea had long gone cold, untouched. She had always known her son was reckless, but reckless with school? With his future? That was something she hadn’t been prepared to face.

The next morning, she decided not to wait any longer.

Kevin’s Room

Kevin was sprawled across his bed, earbuds in, scrolling through his phone with the usual detached ease. He didn’t notice his mother enter until she yanked the curtains wide open.

“Mom! What the hell?” He shielded his eyes from the flood of light.

“Stand up, Kevin,” Elvira said firmly. “We need to talk.”

He sat up slowly, irritation painted across his face. “What is it now? Another lecture about me staying out late?”

Elvira crossed her arms, her voice low but sharp. “About your classes. Or should I say—the classes you’ve stopped attending.”

Kevin’s smirk faltered. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play games with me,” Elvira snapped. “I know you’ve been dropping subjects since first year. I know you’ve wasted semester after semester while I pay every single centavo of your tuition.”

Kevin’s chest tightened. He swung his legs off the bed, standing tall but defensive. “Who told you that? Keira?”

Her silence was answer enough.

Kevin’s jaw clenched. “Unbelievable. She had no right!”

“She had every right!” Elvira’s voice cracked like a whip.

“You’ve been lying to me, Kevin. To all of us. Locking yourself in here, sneaking out at night, pretending you’re doing fine when you’re not even fighting for your future!”

Kevin turned away, raking a hand through his hair. “You don’t understand. Business Administration isn’t for me. None of this is for me!”

“Then what is for you?” Elvira demanded. “Wasting your time in computer shops? Chasing after girls who won’t care about you in a few years? Throwing away every opportunity because you’re too spoiled to take anything seriously?”

“Stop it!” Kevin’s voice rose. “You think money fixes everything, don’t you? You think because you can pay for tuition, it means I have to live the life you planned for me. Well, I’m not you, Mom! I’m not perfect.”

Elvira’s lips trembled, but she stood her ground. “I never asked you to be perfect. I asked you to be responsible.”

For a moment, the room fell silent except for Kevin’s ragged breathing. His fists were clenched, his chest heaving with unspoken words.

Finally, he muttered, “I can’t believe Keira told you. She’s supposed to be on my side.”

Elvira’s eyes softened just slightly. “She is on your side. That’s why she told me because she loves you more than you seem to love yourself.”

Kevin turned his face away, but the sting in his eyes betrayed him.