Facade (Romola 1)

22: The Confession

Romola hoped her friend would say she was pregnant. She wouldn't even mind if Yetunde told her that she had contracted some sexually transmitted disease from one of her numerous sexual partners. The last thing she wanted to hear was Yetunde's confirmation of drug addiction or use.

"Whatever it is, I promise that I won't judge you. We all make mistakes in life but that is how we grow." Romola searched for words to advice her friend on a problem she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"It wasn't a mistake. I was conscious of what I was doing." Yetunde stated. Rompla kept her mouth busy, feasting on the suya, and hoping that Yetunde would speak without needing a prompt. She swallowed the last piece of Suya and washed it down with a few gulps of the drink. Now, Yetunde couldn't take the bribe away from her.

"Three months from that day, I was going to turn sixteen. I could blame Dami for..." Yetunde's voice trailed as her eyes diverted to the tiled floor. "blame Dami for living his pron CD's carelessly but I... I took it to my room and I... put it on and... and I.. I watched it. If there was one thing I wished I had never done. It was this"

Romola wanted to speak. She wanted to tell Yetunde that watching porn wasn't as bad as she thought. She herself had done much worse but Yetunde moved on without a pause, speaking in a feverish pace.

"I had already had done some things with my boyfriend before that but... I was still a..."

"Still a what?" Romola prompted, edging towards Yetunde.

"I was still a virgin. I was until that night. Nobody was home except the family driver and me. And I did it, Romy. I seduced the driver and lost it to him." Yetunde sniffed.

Romola's eyes widened as she drew back involuntarily. This was far beyond what she was expecting. In her shocked state, she didn't know when a question crossed her lips until it did. "The driver?"

Yetunde's shoulder heaved. "It had felt so right at that time. So convenient. I just had to do it then. You know," Yetunde sat on the floor and folded herself into a ball. Romola wouldn't even touch her. She just watched Yetunde bury her head in her legs and cry as her shoulders shook. "My boyfriend... he wouldn't do it with me. He said I was too young for it... for him. He left me for another girl. An older girl."

The bitterness in Yetunde's voice made her voice crack as she continued. "The school's slut. Older my foot."

"It's okay," Romola began for loss of words. "It happened so many years ago. You were a minor. The driver should have known better. It's all in the past now."

"You don't get it Romola," Yetunde raised her head so fast that Romola didn't have time to blink. "You're getting it wrong. I liked the sex. It was what happened after that I hate."

"What happened after?" A wave of nausea crashed on the shores of Romola's stomach and she was certain that she going to heave. She placed a palm across her stomach to still the brewing storm while her other hand guarded her mouth. It wasn't because Yetunde said she had liked the sex. The uncomfortable feeling was surely something more biological than uneasiness. After all, she had walked in on Yetunde having sex several times. She dropped the hand that covered her lips. "Did you get caught?"

"I wish..." Yetunde giggled in the same bitter somber tone that had reigned in her confession. "Instead, I got Modupe."

"Modupe?" Romola narrowed her brows. " I don't get...your little sister-"

"That's the thing Romola, you can never be too sure that you know someone. Not even yourself. She's not my sister. She's my daughter."

Romola reflected on Yetunde's words. She tore her eyes away from Yetunde piercing gaze. She felt that the sentence was directed towards her as her mind replayed the image of Yetunde waiting for her outside her bathroom toilet. It couldn't be. She refused to believe that that statement was target at her.

A second wave of nausea hit her, stronger than the last. Instead of her to let out the content of her stomach, she let out a giggle. She didn't understand why she suddenly needed to laugh so much. Her jaw loosened. Her laughter heightened and she was rocking back and forth in the throes of laughter. Yetunde sat up, watching her with cautious eyes. The laughter seized as suddenly as it began with another wave of nausea at it's tail.

"Yetunde, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. There's nothing funny about what you said." Romola apologized, wondering why she had felt the irresistible urge to laugh and why she couldn't control her laughter."

"It's okay, Your laughter makes me feel better. Like you understand what I feel." Yetunde's smile was the first to reach her eyes since that morning. "I don't want to keep any secret from you. Modupe is my daughter but I call her my sister. That was my mom's idea. She said it would be a disgrace to my family and it hurts to think about it. My daughter... She will only know me as her sister but I really don't care. I love my daughter. I don't regret getting pregnant with her and she is honestly the best thing that has happened to me."

"Oh." Romola said. For a brief moment, the room seemed to spin out of of focus. She closed her eyes to steady her gaze but she felt the spinning in her head. Closing her eyes initiated a pounding she was well associated with. Headache. She managed to whisper. "What happened to the driver?"

Yetunde stared at her feet, tears streaming done her high cheek bones. "That's what I regret. After my mom found out I was pregnant, she was so furious that she gave me the beating of my life, trying to find out who the father was. The stupid driver had already left the house weeks before this. I think he knew. What I hate is that he didn't get his share of the suffering I got from my mother...the looks... the shame...the insults...the beating. All of that, I had to suffer alone even though I didn't create the baby alone. What I regret is that I implicated him. Even though he hurt me, he didn't deserve the driver's sins."

"What are you saying?" Romola held her head and bent over, sandwiching her lunch between her knees and chest. Her headache was getting worse and a tsunami of nausea raged in her stomach.

"I lied. I told my parents that my boyfriend raped me."

TARI SAYS:

Hey awesome reader,

If you've noticed, I've not posted in a while. Neither have I been posting regularly. I am back in the University and I'm juggling three things (Executives work, School practicals and other things) at the same time. What I am trying to say is that I won't have time to write as much as I used to. So I won't update regularly  but I will try to update every Sunday. No promises.