Pantie Rule

22 | Realization

I frowned, then scowled; then anger took over. "You're not thinking straight!" I lashed at him. "You're a fool to think so. Ah, ah!"

"Or you are the bigger fool, Omotara." He snapped back and stared at me with his characteristic bored eyes, then his countenance changed to that of seriousness as his eyes burned in mine. "You're a big fool to have seen those gashes on her wrists and not have suspected a thing."

"Those gashes?" I murmured to myself in puzzlement. "Those gashes. She fell in a gutter. She fell... I practically tended to her wound."

He shook his head and mimicked me. "You practically tended to her wound..." Motioning his head the way Bollywood actors did in ZeeWorld movies.

"You killed that girl." He puzzled me. I... Why did he keep on saying that! I was dumb of words as everybody-which was technically four boys-were staring at me and definitely not minding their businesses.

I flashed a small smile to one that just stared at me and quickly spoke: "You want me to kill you to?" The boy blinked, and nervously turned away. "Who's next?" I said to the others but it seemed they'd become deaf all of a sudden, just the way I wanted it.

"Don't be a fool, Martin. We have to keep this a secret. This whole thing..." I whispered. Shit! I was sounding like a murderer now. "I did not kill Fatima." I said, trying to mentally convince myself I didn't because I was beginning to think I did, thanks to Martin. "She wasn't suicidal either. I was closer to her than you'd ever think. She told me everything that was happening to her..." I trailed off. He was clicking a key on the keyboard continuously, and had distracted me. He sure wasn't listening to what I was saying.

"Are you listening to me at all?"

"She didn't tell you she had sex with Nabil, did she?" He snapped. "Did she tell you she was attempting suicide on various occasions? Did she tell you her Dad disowned her for having a sex tape of her sent to him through his WhatsApp? Did she tell you somebody in this school was blackmailing her and her dad?"

What?

I stared intently at him. "Is this a joke?... Is today first of April or something?" I turned to one of the boys who was very focused on a newspaper(I thought we had a library). "Hey! What's today's date?"

"Would you shut up, Omotara!" Martin barked.

"You're joking, right?" My brain would've burst if I didn't blink. Twice. I was totally thoughtless and voiceless. I managed to recollect my thoughts and I gulped hard, really hard and my stomach churned as my heart banged hard against my chest. "Am I this stupid?" I managed to let a croaky sound out of my mouth, I drew in a deep breath exhaling shakily. "Wait, wait... how did you know about all these things?"

"I was in her life, and not over her life, Omotara, like you were."

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't play that Mister Overseer stunt with me." My shoulders slacked. "Fatima, she would never do such things na." I pushed back the tears that tried forcing themselves out of my eye sockets.

"At least, you were overprotecting and sitting over her like you were her mother hen, while you missed out on what was actually happening in the egg-in her life." He paused and stared at my forehead. "The egg you've been sitting on was rotten all this while."

Realization hit me. My eyes widened. I was remembering when she'd told me she'd never had sex before and asked if I had, when she'd told me someone was asking her out and I'd told her tell him to fuck off  turns out she had told him to fuck her. I blinked myself back into existence. "This is shocking," I finally let out, absentmindedly. "How did you know all these things." I stared at him suspiciously. "No, prove this shit you're telling me."