The next week dragged slowly into the next and Oma got worse and worse with each passing day. She was too afraid to leave her hostel, too nervous to even move around within her hostel. She felt like the whole world knew, that they were all watching and judging. But they weren't wrong. She deserved to be judged. She'd let herself get pregnant, again!
"You took the pills, didn't you?" Asa asked her.
She was the only one who actually knew and didn't judge.
A week and half ago, Oma had burst into their room, miserably crying and cursing herself. She'd told her everything, from having had a baby before her possibly carrying another one. Asa didn't seem surprised. She'd guessed it months ago and hadn't let Oma's flimsy excuse dissuade her. She'd even written about it in her diary.
Oma nodded without moving any other part of her body.
That was their routine.
Asa would ask if she was hungry, thirsty, tired or how she felt generally and Oma would either nod or shake her head in response.
She almost never even ate. Not only because she had no appetite but because deep down, she hoped that if there was really a baby in there, she could starve it.
It was almost two weeks and Oma still stayed in that position on her bed staring at the wall and falling in and out of sleep, only getting up to urinate or shower once in a while.
Asa answered all her calls which weren't many, giving the callers one flimsy excuse or the other for Oma's absence. Nia, Obi and Asher never called, so each excuse worked perfectly fine.
Luck seemed to be against her in every aspect but one; their exams had been postponed till two weeks. That was the only good news she received, she couldn't imagine writing her first exams with the possibility of a foetus inside of her, there was no way she would pass. She'd done that before and there was no way she was ever doing it again.
No matter what it took.
She already had enough issues academically when she was mentally fit.
"Okay, this has gone on for long enough. Can you stop being unreasonably paranoid?" Asa mused. "You took the morning after pills right after it happened. There's no fucking way you're pregnant and even if you are, Lying down all day and starving yourself won't take the baby away, if it exists."
Oma wanted to snort. What good would pills taken after the deed be, since she'd still gotten pregnant two years ago, even after all the numerous pills she'd stuffed into her system.
Apparently, nothing could kill her foetuses until after she'd grown attached to them.
Oma fidgeted with fear as she dropped the tube which had the power to mar her life a second time, too afraid to look at it. She'd still have to. It was just a matter of time.
Asa was by her side, patting her and telling her not to worry. She'd taken her in, made her get a grip over herself, purchased the morning after pills for her because she'd been too ashamed to buy them herself and later on some pregnancy strips because she just had to know and didn't trust pills. T
hey sat tensed up in their room the next day, waiting patiently, praying there would be no second line to doom Oma's life.
Oma could remember what Asa'd said about Asher after she told him he'd asked her to leave.
"Human beings will be human beings. I don't like him personally, but I'd also be taken aback by the news if I were him. Give him some time. If he comes back, you'll know he's the one but if he doesn't, be grateful for the little time you had."
Oma didn't want to lose him. He was genuine, he loved her for who she was. Perhaps he was afraid she still had the first baby, or he thought she had its father lurking around somewhere. She wasn't going to correct him. She'd take Asa's advice and wait for his own green light. But for now she had to settle the most pressing need, which was finding out whether she was pregnant or not.
"Two minutes have passed." Asa said and Oma's face fell. She knew what that meant.
"Please check it for me. I don't want to be the one to check it." She replied with a shaky voice.
Asa placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's not the end of the world, Oma."
She nodded, wanting to believe Asa's words. She bent her head because she didn't want to see Asa's facial expressions before she declared the news. Her heart was racing so much she was sure it would burst from too much activity.
Her stomach churned as well, the possibility there could be a shapeless unformed foetus in there terrified her.
She'd had enough time to prepare for this, yet she couldn't stand it. Nothing could prepare her for a child she didn't want.
What would she tell her mum? She thought as tears welled in her eyes. Nia would be beyond disappointed. Not many teenagers ever got pregnant and only the dumbest ones got pregnant, twice!
She felt stupid. Just weeks ago, she'd called Dan pathetic because he'd made someone else pregnant, when she was just as pathetic as he was, if not more. Maybe there was something wrong with both of them. She was a little grateful for Phil's death, he would have probably done worse if he was given a chance to grow, coming from two crazy pathetic parents.
She snuck a look at Asa, wondering what was taking her so long and at once she wished she hadn't. Asa was looking at the strip which contained her urine closely with a bitter look in her face. She knew what that meant.
No, no, no. She screamed on the inside. Her tear ducts swole up until she couldn't hold them in anymore.
She shut her eyes,trying to hold it all in ."Oh God, if you make this test turn negative, I'll never have sex with any man again!"
She would give anything to not be pregnant right now, even if it meant not ever being able to get pregnant again.
"Two strokes means it's positive, right?"
Asa asked solemnly and Oma felt her last resolve crumble. She was on the verge of falling off the bed and screaming. Her body was vibrating like a reed in a tornado wind. She was only waiting to hear the blow, the words that'll finally send her to a mental asylum.
"Oma. You're not pregnant."
It took a while for the words to register. Her mind was already prepared for the bad news it didn't know how to react to the good one. Her tears began to fall profusely, while her body quaked with each drop, it was difficult to ascertain which she'd actually heard.
Asa was by her side in seconds.
"It's negative, see. Why are you crying? Did you want to get pregnant? I'm confused."
Oma snuck a look at the seemingly harmless tube in Asa's hands, the first of many that they were yet to check. There was a single faint red stroke which assured her she wasn't pregnant. She squeezed it and mumbled "check the other ones". She couldn't rejoice just yet.
"They're all negative."
"Oh." She breathed and a faint smile graced her teary face. There was no baby. She hugged Asa and cried for a few moments as her body settled on being happy. As she sniffled and wet Asa's shirt with her tears and nose fluids, she wondered what she'd have done without her.
She wasn't pregnant! She was free. Nia wouldn't be disappointed. She wouldn't have to have an abortion. She was the happiest person in the world for that moment, the tears on her eyes were now grateful tears.
"Are you done now?" Asa asked playfully when Oma finally lifted her face from her shirt. She replied with a thin smile that slowly turned to a frown.
"Wait. Why did you ask what two strokes meant, when you actually saw a single stroke?"
"Payback."
"For what?"
"For leaving me for two nights in a row." Asa said sharply, but the smile on her face kept the situation from being too serious. Oma hugged her again.
"Thank you so much, Asa. You're..." She pondered telling her. She was understanding, she probably needed to hear it, she...
"I'm what?"
Not today. "You're like the sister I never had."
****
"The stupid man asked me to just try and make him happy. That I should follow him to his house and sleep with him. Imagine! Ugly poverty-stricken old man that had a very big ring on his finger. His stupid excuse was that his wife was not 'servicing' him well. Tufiakwa."
Femi recounted and they all laughed.
It was a Friday and for the second week in a row, Asa and Oma hadn't neared their classes. Oma still wasn't ready to near the outside world according to Asa, while Asa said she was never a fan of the outside world in the first place.
"Assuming he was young and handsome and extremely rich, would you have 'tried to make him happy'?" Asa chirped in.
Femi grunted but a sly smile she tried to hide crossed her face.
"Hmm. Well.."
"Be completely honest." Asa pushed.
"I'm not a saint, so yes! He doesn't even have to be handsome or young, who that one help? Once he has the money..."
Oma was zoning in and out of their conversation. With her knees pressed to her chest on the bed, she kept thinking about Asher. It'd been three days, but he still hadn't called or texted or tried to show her he was still interested in anyway. No amount of jokes or fighting could make her feel better.
"So you're willing to sleep with a married man just for money? What if you were 'this married man's wife?" Asa accused. She was scowling but she still managed to keep her voice even. She was obviously taking this personally.
Femi shared her scowl.
"What is your business? Is it your husband? Whether or not I sleep with a married man, my future husband is still going to cheat. It's in their nature. So why bother myself and form what I'm not?"
"Aren't there better ways of making money? You're just busy making excuses for them..."
"Which job? In this economy?" Femi jested. "Anyway, I know why you're so angry. No man, married or not will ever be willing to sleep with you."
Before the bomb which was Asa could react, Oma held her down before it was too late. She'd never seen Asa fight before, but with those muscles of hers, she could bet her money on loosened teeth.
"Can you guys stop?" She tried.
"Which guys? Tell your friend to stop. She cannot insult me and expect me not to insult her back." Femi grunted with her feet planted on the ground facing the door, in case anything drastic happened.
"I didn't insult you! I just asked you questions. And based on what you've answered, I can tell you're a cheap prostitute." Asa spat.
Oma didn't know who to hold anymore. Femi looked even more pissed. The insult hadn't gone well with her.
She'd been wrong. This had taken her mind completely off Asher. Oma waited patiently, ready for a heavy fight between the two in which she'd have to be the middle man.
She was wrong again. Instead of charging, Femi looked like she'd eaten a lemon.
"Call me a cheap prostitute!" She shouted, tears beginning to stream down her face. "Because you haven't tasted poverty. You don't know what it's like to go for days without food. You probably haven't even had to beg for food once in your life. All you aje butter children. Just because you have parents and a secured future, you think everyone else is like you. You don't know people are actually suffering. How do you think I pay my fees? Why do you think I hang out with you people? Go ahead and call me a cheap prostitute. At least I can survive things you can't even think of."
She left and banged the door behind her.
Both of them were frozen on the spot for seconds.
Asa's anger was justified. Her father had left them for someone who had no problem sleeping with a married man and bearing children for him.
Oma's disgust was justified. Her father had left Nia for someone who was equally willing to sleep with a married man, marry him, have a daughter for him and curse him on her death bed when he repeated the cycle.
"I never liked that girl honestly." Asa said, finally breaking off from the spell and moving to her bed.
Oma was surprised. Asa had been all over Femi for helping them out. She'd always cooked, cleaned, shopped and sometimes even washed for them.
Could that have been the only reason they'd both accepted Femi?
She sighed as she sat on her bed. Another thing to feel bad about, she thought.
The booming noise of BTS woke her. She had to change her ringtone.
As per habit, she didn't check the caller before answering.
"Hello." She grunted sleepily.
"Hey, Oma. How are you?"
"I'm fine." She said yawning, then her eyes popped open when she realized who it was.