Journey to the new me

Chapter 10------- Dustin

Throughout the biology class I could not concentrate. I kept on checking my watch waiting for the time keeper to ring the bell.

Farida decided to tell me all about Dustin during break today and I can't wait to hear about it.

Immediately I heard the bell, I stood up, packed my books and headed to the music room.

Mide was running and yelling my name but I just kept on jogging towards the music room before Farida changes her mind. She told Mide and I to meet her in the music room during break.

As I was about to enter the music room someone tapped my shoulder and I jumped holding my chest. 'What is it' my voice came out rather harsh before I looked at the person before me.

'Oh... I'm sorry, are you busy?' Sesan asked.

Sesan is a boy from my class. He's not my friend, neither is he my enemy, but we do greet each other and sometimes talk about life in general ...with him doing most of the talking of course.

'I can come back if you're busy now' he added, probably noticing that I was rushing. 'Sure' I replied and entered the music room without looking back. The story of Dustin and Farida was my topmost priority...I love stories.

Mide entered right after me. 'And I've been calling you, why were you flying' she pouted. 'We only have 45 minutes to talk' I rolled my eyes grabbing a chair to sit on.

'And we can always continue after closing time or even tomorrow' Farida replied with her eyes fixed on the piano in front of her.

'You know how much I've been curious about what transpired between you two.....I just want to know why you'd see him and be afraid...I mean, how can someone instill so much fear in you and.....'

'Chill...I'm not afraid of him' she placed her hands on my shoulders. I was frustrated and angry at the same time. I've always wanted to know what happened between those two. Each time we came across Dustin she was always kind of scared or should I say angry..I can't even understand what she feels.

'It was Jss3 first term when Dustin asked me out. He was in SS1 then' Farida started, looking at nothing in particular. 'Since he was the first guy that ever called me beautiful and was the first to ever ask me out, I agreed to be his girlfriend'

She stood up and went towards the guitar placed on a old wooden table at the center of the room, touching the strings and her eyes were glistening with tears.

'The most annoying part....' she scoffed. 'To show you how stupid I was...I knew he was a bad guy, I knew he was a bully, I knew he smoked... Yeah I knew all that' Tears were already streaming down her eyes and I couldn't help but move closer to her. Even Mide was trying so hard not to cry.

'But guess what...I was stupid enough to think I could change him. I was stupid enough to think he would change for my sake. Well....he was nice to me for the first week. He bought all sort of things for me and I felt I was on top of the world even though we kept it a secret. We didn't want the school authority or our parents to find out about it and even most of my friends didn't know about us.'

By this time the tears had stopped and her face remained emotionless.

She cleared her throat and continued 'We continued dating till second term and I noticed that he had this bossy attitude. He started by telling me not to walk with my then friends again. Me being blinded by love..was it even love?' she scoffed again.

'I thought he was looking out for me so I gladly obeyed him. Later he started dealing with any boy he sees beside me. He turned my back to my friends and I became friendless to the extent that no one wanted to associate themselves with me. It was then I knew what I entered.... Later on he graduated to hitting me. Out of all my friends...' she paused and looked at Mide.

'It was only Ademide that stood by me. She kept on being my friend even when I pushed her away, I said all sort of things to her but she continued being my friend... When Dustin started hitting me I was forced to confess to her because she had always asked me what was going on between Dustin and I but I usually denied having anything to do with him..I confessed to her and instead of abusing or yelling at me she consoled me..' she went to Mide and hugged her.

'Thanks for being a friend indeed'. 'Stop it already I'm blushing' Mide said jokingly.

'To cut the long story short...I broke up with him though it wasn't easy but through the help of Mide it was possible.... On breaking up with him....Omo he treated my fuckup (he dealt with me)' we all laughed at her statement.

'He told people all sort of things about me. He told his friends that I was just a cheap slut...that I forced myself on him...that I dated him because of money....Abeg which money dey him hand on top 50 naira biscuit and hollandia yoghurt' we all erupted in another round of laughter. 'I wonder oooo...' Mide chipped in, in between laughter.

'You're laughing...something that they almost gang raped us' 'Seriously?' I was shocked. They were still in secondary school for crying out loud. I mean..who in their right senses does that..some people can be stupid. Just because a girl broke up with you, you set her up to rape her.... All these sounded new to me. Apart from seeing it in movies I didn't know it actually existed in real life.

'If not for our parent's prayers on top our head maybe we'd be carrying our babies now' Mide talked and we all started laughing again. This girl and her silly jokes ehn...

Farida stopped laughing and picked up from where she stopped. 'We couldn't even tell our parents' 'Why?' I asked surprised. They looked at me at the same time and burst into laughter. 'They should kill us abi?' 'But you should be able to tell at least your mums' I tried to justify my statement. Instead of reasoning with me they started laughing again as if they've swallowed laughing gas.

When they were satisfied, Farida looked up and tapped my shoulder. 'My dear, you don't tell things like that to Nigerian parents. Immediately you open your mouth to say you have a boyfriend, they believe you have started having sex all around and start assuming all sort of things...Abeg leave that aside and let's continue. Where was I sef' she looked at Mide for cue.

I was astonished. Like... Is everything they said really true? Is it all Nigerian parents that are like that? I thought children are free to discuss anything with their parents. I mean....my mum usually encourage us to talk to her when anything is happening to us.

'Ehn ehn... We could not tell our parents and we could not let the school authority know so we managed till we finished our Junior WAEC.... Luckily for us the school was locked by government officials due to what we're not sure of yet...some said it was because of negligence to rules and regulations..people with different rumours sha... In short some of us had to find other schools and that was what brought us to this school not knowing that idiot would be here'. She hissed.

'Wow.... Dustin is such an immature, silly pig'. 'Osheyyy....' they both clapped while laughing. These two ehnnn...

We heard the bell and expected the time keeper to shout the usual BREAK IS OVER!.....but guess what....we heard CLOSING TIME...........😳😳

But wait...if Dustin was in SS1 before, and he's still in SS1 now, it only means one thing...