Late Eighteen

39| Chapter thirty nine

Ruth's POV (Point of view)

It's been three months.

The best three months of my life, cue the ever exaggerated eye-roll. Things have been going well, if I do say so myself.

I finished therapy a week ago. And so far, these past few days have been the best days of my life. I won't say the therapy changed me because it didn't. I find it absolutely absurd talking to a complete stranger about the feelings that have been bottled in me for years. If I couldn't heal myself, what makes you think you can heal me?

Such a waste of my precious time. And money on the part of my parents.

On the good side though, it gave me an escape from home— and reality in general.

I lied. I lied when I assumed things were good. My life has been a complete maze of a collective rollercoaster of emotions. These past few months have been hectic and trying to cope with everything all together doesn't seem so easy either.

I mean, home is good since my parents; my mum in particular, has lessened her tight hold on me. Don't get me wrong, she's still as strict as ever but she's been surprisingly lenient. I don't think she could ever change, parents were structured that way— particularly Nigerian parents.

Even though therapy didn't do so much for me, I still appreciated going. The stuffy environment of my therapist didn't help either, but I still managed to endure just about so many sessions of absolute hell in her closed off office. Atleast I had an opportunity to converse with someone professional, so many people out there suffering the same plight as me, or even worse situations than I am can't as much as speak their problems with fear of the unknown.

On the good side too, I finished all of my exams a few days ago, so I don't have to worry about waking up remotively early to attend classes. To be completely sincere, that's just about the only good news in my life. Experiencing secondary school was one of the best stages of my life, but I can confidently stand to say I'm genuinely happy I am over that part of my life.

My parents also don't want me to school in Nigeria anymore, same goes to my two siblings too. In short, we've all concluded to relocate back to the United States during fall to start our new lives over there. I have applied to a few universities, and so far, things look so promising so I really don't have to worry about anything. It was about time I changed environments anyway, Nigeria alone has shown me enough shege.

I sighed as I relaxed on my queen sized been, switching apps from Instagram to tiktok and from tiktok to Twitter all at the same time. Ever since I finished school, I have done nothing but stay indoors and it's slowly starting to get on my nerves. God knows I'm not the introverted type so mastering the art of staying alone still seems so foreign to me, I almost want to go back to secondary school.

Almost.

My phone rang, disrupting me from my thoughts, only to see Mike's name flash across the screen. And to confirm your thoughts, yes, we've been more on the talking stage. Things are okay between us now I guess, we're more like best friends now if I do say so myself. He's been there for me when I needed a friend, and more particularly, we talked about things and decided to go back to being friends. For now.

With a smile across my face, I slide my hands across the screen to pick the call. "Hey Mike, how're you doing?"

"My babe." That's what he calls me, don't question it. I'm also too timid to ask if he means more to it, so I simply just let it be. Besides, dreams can never become realistic, might as well just leave it at that. "Just came back from my early morning jog, what have you been up to?"