Jeremiah
I hurried down the hallway, as fast as I could. I knew I needed to be at least thirty minutes early, if I needed to catch up with my mother, the moment she closed from the hospital. The hospital was big enough to see her without getting caught, but there was one little problem, I couldn't find my phone.
I could have sworn I left the mansion with it that morning, and I took it to class. The question was, I didn't know exactly where I had dropped it. My day hadn't gone exactly as I had hoped it would. I might have forgotten it in one of the two places I had been to, since I saw it last. It either had to be the music room, or the swimming pool. I had checked the music hall a bit earlier, and it was no where, the swimming area had to be the next place, and if it wasn't there, I knew I was just going to accept the fact that I had misplaced it, and get another one eventually, especially since it didn't have any password lock. I opened the door quickly, and walked in.
I had twenty five minutes left. I hurried up the stairs. The diving area happened to be my favorite part of the abandoned swimming pool. It was where I always sat when I was there, because it let me see everywhere else, especially the water, but skip all of that. I was having a real hard time finding my phone. It wasn't there. I exhaled, and rubbed my forehead.
Where was it?
I hurried down the stairs as fast as I could. I barely had more than fifteen minutes left now, and that was when I heard it. It felt like I wasn't alone, like there was someone else there, crying. I froze a bit. It was faint. More like whoever it was, was being suffocated. I slowly turned, taking a quick scan around the pool, wondering where the voice was coming from. The glass door leading to the changing room was a bit open. That was weird. It was never open. Was that where the voice was coming from?
Don't get involved, Jer.
The tiny voice in my head told me, even as I took hesitant steps towards the door, to see who it was, the fact that I was running out of time, escaping from my mind. The voice became even clearer, as I walked into the room on my guard, taking one step at a time towards the direction of the distressed voice. I couldn't shake off the feeling that whoever it was that owned it, was in some sort of trouble. I looked towards the sink area, narrowing my gaze to the figure on the floor, with a black coat and broad shoulders. What was going on?
I walked even closer towards them, just as the voice got really close. It was only that minute that I knew what was wrong, only that minute I could recognize who had the voice, and then I saw what was going on, what the boys in masks were trying to do to Kora.
It looked like the one on the ground was struggling so hard to take off her skirt, while Kora kept trying and struggling to stop him, even when the rest were pinning her down. I had no time to think about anything else. I didn't want to think about anything else. I ran into the scene as fast as I could, it looked like the rest saw me before the first one did. Too bad for him, I kicked him as fast and as hard as I could, without giving him a chance to make a run for it, watching to make sure my kick flung him far away from Kora, giving the rest an opportunity to let her go, and try to defend themselves.
They began to come at me one by one. I took them on, I knew I could. I guess that was one of the advantages of being a world class bully and thug, back in high school. I had to learn how to fight, just in case I ever needed to defend myself from competing bullies. You should have seen the way they came at me, you could tell they barely had any experience in actual physical fight. They couldn't even land a straight punch to my face, no matter how they tried, but I did, I made sure each and every one of them got a taste of my fists and strong legs, until one of them placed a hand in his pocket, and got out a knife. He pointed it towards my direction, daring me to come any closer, teasing me with it, while I tried to dodge.
"Drop the knife." One of the boys beside him told him. He had better taken that advice. "You can't point a knife at him, I thought we weren't supposed to use weapons, drop the knife."
He wasn't listening. He took a few steps towards me, right before I hit him as hard as I could, my elbow to his nose, he fell to the ground immediately.
"Let's go!" One of the boys yelled, as he hurried to pick the first one from the floor, while the other picked the second one. "Let's go!"
There was no way in hell I was going to let them leave. Not without knowing who they were, not without identifying them, so I could report them to the authorities during school hours. They were really fast, as fast as lightening. I couldn't catch them all, but I managed to catch one, before he joined the rest to run. I held him by his collar, and he turned to me and punched me on my belly. I cringed back, taking a sharp breath, just as my grip on him loosened, giving him an opportunity to make a run for the door. I couldn't let him leave, I tried to run after him, to run after them, but they were long gone before I got to the door. I stopped, taking deep breaths and stomping my foot once on the ground, to show my regrets. My heart was racing, and I was breathing so fast. I knew if I went after them, I could catch up with them, but I couldn't. I couldn't leave her behind.
I turned quickly.
"Kora!"
I yelled her name, as I ran back to her. She was still on the ground, sitting there, lost in her thoughts, shaking all over, trembling under her uniform, while she tried so hard to clasp the two sides of her shirt together. They had exposed enough already. I could see the tears in her eyes threatening to fall. It looked like she was still in so much shock to even cry.
I exhaled, and then walked the remaining distance to her. I squatted in front of her, making sure I maintained the same head level with her. I didn't even know what to say. I was almost losing my mind, seeing her sitting the way she was, seeing her so numb and terrified. I slowly reached for her left shoulder. I touched it gently.
"Hey," I hoped she could hear me, even though she wasn't looking at me. Did she even notice I was right there? "Are you okay?" How could I even ask that, when it was so obvious that she wasn't?
I watched her raise her hand to mine. She slowly pushed my hand away. Maybe I was being really insensitive, maybe it was too early to touch her. She was shaking so much, and kept tying to fix her shirt. I exhaled. and then reached for my jacket. I quickly took it off.
"I'm just going to put this on you." I told her, looking at her, to make sure she was okay with it. She didn't move, she didn't move a muscle. "Okay." I tried to lean closer to her, so I could put it on her, but she pushed my hand away yet again, till my jacket fell right on the floor. I looked at her and exhaled.
"You're bleeding." I grabbed her arm as gentle as I could, the moment I noticed the blood coming out of it. How on earth did she hurt herself so bad? "Stay still." I told her. "I can help you."
"Let go of me."
I paused for a second. I raised my head slowly to look at her, she slowly turned to look at me too. The tears in her eyes weren't there anymore. All I could see was just - sadness, anger. I was too lost in her eyes that I was beginning to let go of her arm without even knowing it. I practically became numb too, and powerless. I could feel some sort of emptiness in my heart. She pulled her arm away from my hands, and then sniffed. I watched her turn quickly to her phone, which was lying some paces in front of us, she reached for it, and got up slowly, without saying another word. She held on to the sink for support, like she was scared she'd fall if she let go. I could see her legs tremble, while she closed her shirt with her other hand, taking slow steps away from me, away from my sight. I just sat there, as numb as I could, watching her. Not being able to say a word, or to move.
Was this my fault too? Was Kingsley right? Had the one thing I had done contributed greatly in what had happened to her minutes ago? Was it me? Did those guys just try to force themselves on her because of me? Because of the black card? What would have happened if I hadn't come in? What had I done?
She was out of my sight now, and I heard the door close shut with a thud. That was when I knew she was out of the room for good, but I could still hear her fast breathing from where I sat. She had not entirely left the room. I could hear her loud sobs from outside the door. She was crying.
What had I done?
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Two hours.
It had been exactly two hours since Obianuju had opened the door, right after I knocked, and then slammed it in my face the moment she saw it was me. She wanted me out of her life so badly, but I knew better than to give her the satisfaction of watching me leave. The hope of being reunited with my mother one day was the only thing that kept me going. all my time in the states. I was going to do everything I could to get her to look at me again, to get her to talk to me. I had so much to say, so much to tell her and I was going to wait. I was going to be patient, until she actually got tired of running from me.
It would have been really easy if I had just met her at the hospital in time, at least that way, it would have been really hard for her to avoid me, and I wouldn't be sitting helplessly outside her house, in the rain, freezing to death. and hoping she just let me in and talked to me. If only I had arrived thirty minutes earlier.
I tried to keep my eyes open, even as the water from the rain kept tickling down my face. I was wet and dripping all over. I was a bit cold too. I just sat right there, in front of her house, watching the cars that drove by. I swallowed hard. Even though a part of me was ready to wait till my mother had just let me in, the other part of me couldn't stop thinking about her, thinking about Kora. Everything that happened at the changing room had happened so fast that I had even lost track of time. I remembered how I sat inside waiting for her, hearing her cry as hard as she could. I had never heard someone cry so hard in a long time. I waited until I had actually stopped hearing her voice, and when I walked to the door, she was long gone. My entire journey was filled with thoughts of her, I couldn't stop myself from feeling so guilty. I couldn't help but wonder how she was, and what she was doing. If she was okay.
I managed to keep my eyes open. I slowly got out my phone, contemplating in my head if I should just call her. I didn't know if calling her was a good idea. I wasn't even sure she was ever going to want to talk to me. My whole emotions were in conflict with each other, and I was just as confused as to what kind of strange feelings I was starting to have, concerning everything around me. Concerning Kora. I let out an exhale, and buried my head on my legs, trying to get distracted by the loud splattering sound of the rain, as it met the ground, rubbing my arms to keep myself warm. Just how long did I have to wait? Was she really going to keep me outside? Keep me under the rain for so long?
I got out my phone again, and opened my messages, ignoring the fact that the rain drops were all over my phone's screen. I quickly searched for her name. "My woman."
"Are you really not going to open the door? Aren't you scared that I might freeze to death?"
I clicked on send. If she wasn't going to listen to me, or pick my calls, at least I knew she was definitely going to read my text messages. I waited patiently, hopefully for a reply, even though I knew I was never going to get one, not even in my wildest dreams. I knew her too well, she never came short of my expectations. Avoiding me, was all she lived for. I wasn't going to stop anyway, I was going to keep texting her, and trying to reach out to her, until she opened the door, or texted back at least.
"Woah!" I kept on texting yet again, the moment I had noticed that she had actually read my text, and left me on R. "Obianuju, you're really mean. How can you leave your precious son under the rain like this? Aren't you scared that I might actually get hurt? What if I get kidnapped, or I freeze to death? Who is going to look after you when I'm gone? 😡"
I took a deep breath, staring at my phone's screen, right after I clicked on send. I bit my fingers nervously, still shaking slowly under my wet uniform.
Churn
It was a text message from her. She had actually replied. I opened it immediately I got the notification with a huge smile on my face.
"I don't want to see you. You're starting to upset me. Go home and never come back!"
I frowned quickly, and clicked my tongue. I hit my phone's screen, to show my frustration. Why did she have to be so straight to the point all the time? She couldn't even pretend to want to see me, to save her life, even if she was dying to. I sneered.
"I'm not going to leave. I'm going to sit outside here till tomorrow, until you open the door. If I'm going to die, I'll die in front of your house. I'm your responsibility after all 😒. If anything happens to me today, my blood Is going to be on your hands. Dad, and my step mother won't forgive you."
Delivered and read. Yet she didn't text me back.
"Do you know how special I am? Do you know how many people would kill to get random visits from me all the time? Do you know how special I am to people all over the world? How can you treat a star like this? Is this how to treat a VVIP that pays you a visit? I'm a star. One word about this to my fans, and you're going to be the most hated person on the internet. Do you know how angry Dad is going to get with you, if I catch a cold? 😪 Everyone is going to hate you, if they find out what you're doing to me. You're abusing my human rights. I can sue you for this. I can sue you for abandoning me, as a matter of fact, I'm going to call my lawyer, and make you settle for all the damages. 💰 Twenty million. You're going to have to work really hard to pay that off. If you really want me gone, pay me twenty million and I'd leave. You won't see me again🙄."
I was trying too hard. Really hard to get her to notice me, or even text back. I was subconsciously tapping my feet now, staring right into my phone, waiting for her to at least open the text and drop an emoji. It was still on delivered. She had not opened the text yet, but her status showed she was online. It meant she was deliberately ignoring me. I let out an exhale. My plan to force a text from her didn't work after all.
"Mum," I paused for a second after I typed those words and then took a deep breath. "Are you really not going to let me in? It's really cold out here. I'm currently going through a lot, and I don't know what to do, or who to talk to. I just need five minutes. You don't have to say anything, or look at me, I just want to look at you for five minutes. Is that too much to ask?"
I slowly dropped my phone, the moment I had sent the text. What was the use anyway? It was obvious she was never going to text back, or open the door. I let out a weak exhale, tightening my grip on my phone, and rubbing my arms again. What was the use of any of this anyway? Until when was I going to listen? Until when was I going to give up this endless chase? Getting rejected over and over again was getting really exhausting, even for me.
I cleaned the raindrops off my face, so I could at least see what was in front of me. There was a woman running under the rain, holding her child's hand in one hand, and an umbrella to protect them both in the other. She stopped, the moment her son slipped on the ground and fell down. I watched her turn, and then hurry back to him. The rain was too loud, so I couldn't really hear what she said to him, or see her clearly, since it was messing up my vision too, but I watched her pick him up from the ground, and carry him in her arms, managing to hold on to the umbrella too. A tiny smile forced itself on my face. Seeing them, brought back memories of what used to be me and my mother. I still remembered, I still had memories of us trying to beat the rain. Memories I'd do anything to relive. I heard a crack sound from behind me, followed by the rattling sound of keys.
I quickly turned. The front door was open, and my mother poked her head from inside.
"Well?" She asked me. "Are you going to get inside or not?"
I smiled.