𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐖𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

~ FIFTY-ONE~

"One thing I know is that we're in this together. . ."
– Justin Bieber.

Dedicating this chapter to yompous. Thank you for being you, Baby girl. God bless you.❤️ Plus, Lade is a talented writer, fr. I'm not capping. Y'all should check out her books!🔥🔥

•BOLU•

Believe it or not, I found myself in the University of Ibadan after I ran from school that morning. I honestly did not know how it happened. My legs just carried me as far as it could away from River Brook Academy. The memory of me taking a cab was hazy, though. But then, I convinced myself that I did take a cab because the distance from my school to the University was not one I would dream of trekking.

Trudging down the streets, I let myself get lost in the beauty of the place, wondering why, since Kanyin had been in here for the past two years, I’d never taken out time to appreciate the scenery. I was way past the main gate now, and walking towards the halls of residence. The trees that lined the side of the road, tall and green, created a shade from the sun over me. 

I remained lost in the bliss of the environment, ignoring the looks people gave me, probably wondering why a secondary school student would be roaming the university, until I found myself perched on the rooftop of one of the buildings that housed a course’s department or faculty—I wasn’t sure which, because I’d paid the signs in front no mind—my legs drawn to my chest, and my arms wrapped around them. I stared into the distance at nothing. 

Scenes of what happened today came flooding my mind, the voices in my head becoming louder with them.  A liar, a cheat, a bad friend; I was all those things. I was also the stupid girl who’d allowed her stupid seatmate to drag her into this mess. I was the girl who was dumb enough to believe I could be in love with someone who already had a girlfriend. Stupid. Stupid. So stupid.

My phone buzzed with messages probably from WhatsApp and other social media. Tears blurred my vision as I deleted all my social media apps without a second thought, my breaths coming out in heavy gasps. It was better this way. I couldn’t take the hate, and I was pretty sure that it was going to trend for a while. So, there was really no need to keep those apps on my phone. And besides, I did not want to associate with anyone because I was pretty sure no one wanted to associate with me. 

Sinking back to my knees, I let out a muffled scream from the depths of my gut. My shoulders shook and I slowly got drenched in my tears; the voices in my head resumed their banter. I let them do whatever. Because like I’d said, they were right this time.

• • •

For the next couple of days, I lived as though I was sick. And for the first time in my life, I did not care that I was off the grid. Yes, I was practically unreachable. Apart from deleting my social media apps the other day, I put my phone on airplane mode, only turning it off in case I needed to google something.

Normally, it wouldn’t be easy to fool my parents for long, but I was able to pull off being sick because it was the season of business trips and seminars for both of them. My dad was in Abuja for something that had to do with his company; my mom went to the University of Lagos for some Geology seminar that was going to take a week or more. So, it was just my siblings and I at home—and they weren’t mostly at home, so, it was just me.

If I was not sleeping or moping around in my sadness with a hood over my head, I drowned myself in my studies; honestly, I did not know academics could be a means of escape from reality until now. I mean, I studied like I never had before, so much that I was able to solve even physics questions from the JAMB series, getting them right without checking the back for the answers.