Facade (Romola 1)

72: Your Fault

Romola set her palm on the wooden door that separated Bukky's house from the other house on the second floor of the apartment complex. She had dragged herself, and what was left of her dignity, across one half of Lagos.

Bukky opened the door and Romola trudged past her, finding a spot on the carpet to rest her bones.

The house owner stood akimbo. "Let me guess, you fell off another bike?"

Romola struggled to find words to describe what had happened but she ended made incoherent bawls. Bukky shut the door then turned to Romola.

"Babe, just tell me what happened."

Romola shifted her buttock to provide Bukky with ample space on the floor. Bukky took up the space and cradled Romola's head on her laps as the injured girl related a brief version of all that happened in the past two weeks. Romola placed emphasis on how the apartment-hostel security had dragged her downstairs and threatened to take her to the police station. Yetunde and her mother had seen to the termination of her housing contract.

"I feel so useless and stupid. I don't know how I could not see that she was so useless and irritating." Spittle mixed with catarrh and tears on her face.

"I asked you to go to the hospital, you went to fight."

"But it's my hostel too. I paid for it." Romola sucked a deep breath and wrapped her hands around her shoulders. "I could barely find my things when I went back to the school hostel."

"So what will you do now?" Bukky's gaze strayed from Romola's bruised body to the clock.

"I don't know." She turned to Bukky. Her eyes ran down Bukky's body and she shivered slightly at the sight of the black spandex skirt that ended mid-thigh on Bukky's body. Bukky's sleeveless sequin dress hugged her body and gave more volume to her curves. "You're dancing, tonight?"

"I have to pay the rent somehow you know." Bukky's eyes remained on the clock.

"I thought you stopped."

"I did but Nkechi wasn't paying wasn't enough. You're lucky that you get to teach classes." Acid filled Bukky's voice. "Why didn't you just go back home?"

"You want my father to kill me?"

"I don't know." Bukky raised her voice. She pushed Romola's head off her legs and walked to the wooden table in the centre of the room. She picked her heels and strapped the strap around her ankle. "Why are you even here?"

"Can I stay for a couple of days. At least, till I can sort out the accommodation issue. I want to try to talk to the hostel manager to change my room."

"So, you have nowhere else to go?"

"Is it because I asked if you were still dancing?" Romola met Bukky's gaze.

"How is that your business? You don't want to be a pole dancer or a striper. Fine, but you want to live in the house that I rented with the money I made from it. Yet, you're judging me."

"I'm not judging you," Romola raised her voice above Bukky's. "I'm just surprised that you went back to that type of dancing after all I said."

"At least I am not ashamed of who I am. Most of your problems were your fault. Not Yetunde's. If you had come clean at the beginning. She wouldn't have had anything to use against you."

"Are you saying that everything is my fault?"

"The sooner you see it, the better for you. I won't be back until tomorrow morning. Lock the door on the way out."

"You're sending me away. Me? Bukky, I'm your friend oh."

"I don't know how you expect me to feel. We were close but you found Yetunde and left me. You had the better job. The better life but now that Yetunde has proven to be a snake, you think you can just crawl back into my life?"

"I need help, please." Romola had the grace to look remorseful.

Bukky eyed her. "I'm only letting you stay because we are still in the same dancing group but if you so much as mention another thing about my type of dancing, I swear, you'll sleep under the bridge."

"Thank you so much Bukky. You're an angel. Thank you. I'm sorry."

"You should be." Bukky grabbed a small clutch purse and walked out of the house.

Romola locked the door behind Bukky and then flung herself back to the carpet. What if Bukky had spoken out of spite rather than the truth? They used to be close. They had discovered Nkechi's dance group together but they separated after Bukky announced that she would be dropping out of school to dance full time. That was about the time that Romola and Yetunde's friendship began to grow.

Romola tossed on the carpet as she replayed the conversation, she'd had with Bukky. She hadn't meant to choose Yetunde over Bukky but she was in the same department as her ex-best friend. There was some truth to Bukky's words. If she'd been truthful from the start, none of this would have happened. She would have to set things right. 

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