Sham

8 :) Aminah

We've been driving for about 3 hours, which means we were about  an hour away when I developed cold feet. "Are you ok? You look pale?" Alex said, glancing at me for a second.

"Yeah, just nervous, that's all." I cracked my knuckles, a habit I do when I'm nervous.

"Don't overthink it." he glanced at me briefly, taking his eyes off the road for a mini second. "Should we talk about something else, maybe that would calm your nerves?" he asked and I agreed taking the lead.

"What happened the other day you came to my place?" I know I should have probably asked for something else, something not so private and personal, but we've talked about all the easy going topics in our itinerary.

He sucked in a breath, and clenched his knuckles so tight around the steering before answering. "I got in a fight with someone." It's obvious he didn't want to talk about it, but he kept on going. Even though I know I should have told him to stop, the selfish part of me didn't. "We had a match few days before then, and the fucker was still hung up for losing to me. He cornered me that day, probably to get back at me but I left before anything happened."

"Is that acceptable though, him wanting to get back to you for a match won fair and square." I said furrowing my brows and he chuckled at me. "Yeah, shit happens every time."

"What about the time you drenched me, were you also coming back from a match?" He cracked up at that.

"You're never letting me off with that, are you?" He said, using his other hand to return his disheveled hair in its place with the other still on the wheel.

"You can't blame me." I shrugged my shoulders. I don't think I can ever forget that. It's forever engraved in my mind, especially at times when rain falls.

"Yeah, I can't. It was my dad's anniversary, I was coming back from visiting him." I stayed silent after that, I definitely wasn't expecting that. In all the times I've loathed him, never for once, did I think of that.

"I'm sorry about him," I said quietly.

"Yeah."

We continued our journey and somehow, I stopped overthinking. We got there few minutes past 9pm because I insisted I wasn't going to miss today's lectures which made us leave later than planned. Coupled with our stop at the refilling station and the cafeteria; to eat and pee, we took extra time off the clock for that. I stayed put while he brought out our bags from the back seat since we both traveled light.

This place was a mansion, the whole place screamed wealth. A few flowerpots were placed around the entrance, accenting the four stairs leading inside.

"Come on, let's go in." Alex placed a hand on the low of the back, ushering me in, and just like before, I grew nervous, the mansion I was admiring became long forgotten. "It's fine, I'm sure you'd do great, come on." he said with a reassuring smile and I nod at him, praying for everything not to go South and down the drain.

"Mom, we are here!" he shouted as we went it, dropping the bags at the doorstep.

"In the kitchen!!" She yelled back and I followed Alex as he took my hands in his, intertwining them. "Welcome honey." she said as she turned around and gave him a hug "I thought you weren't going to make it again when I checked the time." she said, staring at him with a huge smile. I'm sure the woman would have been heartbroken if he had bailed on her judging by how happy she seems.

"That's my fault. I had some classes I couldn't skip." I piped in, and she finally spared me a glance. She had been so engrossed with her son's presence that she didn't notice my presence, not that I have anything with that. "Good evening ma'am." I greeted.