Shout-Out to my Ex [✓]

Four

Cover art by mellycoco__

Tilewa rushed out of the kitchen at the sound of her phone ringing in the living room.

"Hello mummy"

"Olatilewa bawo lo wa?"

"I'm fine ma"

"Se o ronu pupo"

"No mummy, I'm not thinking"

Her mother had taken to worrying over her mental health ever since her break-up and had developed the habit of calling her twice during the week, one on a working day and the other on the weekend. After seeing a Facebook documentary on how break-ups lead to depression and suicide among teenagers and young adults, Mrs Gbadegesin made sure to keep in touch with her daughter in a bid to ward off depressive thoughts and its cousins; it was completely different from their once or twice a month interaction and it warmed Tilewa's heart to know that her mother cared enough to do that.

"Okay o, don't think o, have you spoken to Jeremiah since then?" her mum asked.

"Mummy what do you expect me to say to him, he is the one that walked out of the relationship."

"Ehn, to see if you guys can patch things up nooni" her mum said into the phone.

Tilewa had told her mother about how her fiancé broke off their engagement however, she had conveniently excluded the part where he instantly got back with his ex.

"Mummy, any man that can call things off the way Jerry did is not ready to be serious with his life or with mine. Do you want such for me?"

She heard her mother sigh before she finally said "Okay o, I just want to check on you ni."

"Thank you ma. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Tilewa heaved a sigh of relief after getting off the call. She hated lying to her mother, but there were some truths best left unsaid. She was her mother's second child and first daughter. After her father died when she was 12 years old; Mrs Gbadegesin had managed to single-handedly raise three children on a school teacher's salary.

The first child of the family, Olawale was five years older than Tilewa. When they were kids, they'd play tag and disturb the neighbours, knocking on their doors and running away just before they opened to see who it was. A few years later, he received a scholarship to study outside the country. He settled there and built a life for himself after his studies. The distance and busyness in the lives of the two siblings had strained their relationship over the years, but whenever they got talking, it was always for considerably lengthy amounts of time. The last time he was in Nigeria was six years ago, when he got engaged to his secondary school sweetheart and longtime girlfriend. The couple had married and was living happily abroad.

Tilewa's younger sister and the last born of the family, Maria was two years younger and was the closest to their mother. In fact, she was the one who informed their mother of Tilewa's split with her boyfriend. Maria had tied the knot with her long-time boyfriend the previous year amid various family squabbles over why the last born and the second daughter should get married when the first daughter was still single.

Some of their aunties had made a huge fuss before the wedding saying that it was not proper for Maria to get married before her older sister and had also begun to put even more pressure on Tilewa to get hitched as soon as possible with any man in sight. It was one of the worst experiences of Tilewa's life. She was truly happy for her sister, but the ridicule it brought to her especially from their family members was unbearable. She had been lectured to the point of embarrassment countless times before the wedding, and the memories from that period were so traumatic she wished she could completely forget the experience.