Rugged To The Core

Chapter 87

"Children whose parents have been unfaithful are often pressured to become the caretaker of the betrayed parent, thus adding to the son’s or daughter’s emotional stress."

~ Ana Nogales, Parents Who Cheat: How Children and Adults Are Affected When Their Parents Are Unfaithful

Lucky

     We had only taken ten steps from the doors before I turned and ran back inside the building. Best was quick to follow me. Inside the halls, I stopped and looked from left to right, my braids following my movement. Abel and Mr Dickson were nowhere to be found but the crowd was yet to disperse. I walked up to a boy in the crowd and tapped him impatiently. He turned to eye me quizzically.

"Sorry but what happened to the fight?"

"Oh Madam Ejiofor happened to be leaving when she walked in on the fight. Her son and her employee." The boy recounted. "She left with both of them. But before all that, Dickson said something disturbing."

"What's that?" I asked, feeling Best stopping behind me.

"During the whole beatdown, Mr Dickson kept talking about a woman who was beautiful and how he simply feels obligated to help her. It wasn't loud, I'm sure only people at the front heard and I did too. It was almost as though, he wanted Ejiofor to keep hitting him. But the last thing he said was: don't worry, I'll have her when she's drunk enough to condescend to my level.

After that, Abel actually put his hands around his neck and attempted to strangle him, that's how angry he was..."

I gasped, feeling my stomach drop.

"Before Madam Ejiofor intervened, which was mere minutes after the teachers. The teachers who were already in the midst breaking the fight kept trying to convince Dickson to sue or at least make an arrest."

I exhaled into my hands that had flown up to cover my mouth. My breathing became ragged as my chest heaved.

The boy who had explained to me had already turned around to resume discussing with his clique.

"Lucky...? Lucky?" I heard Best's voice echo as I felt his hands on my shoulders. For some reason, I couldn't make out the proportions of his face or my surrounding. It was like I was trying to catch my breath.

"Come on." He protectively wrapped an arm around my shoulders and began steering me away.

He led me to a vacant classroom and instantly shut the door behind us. He'd let me go in the process so I had wandered to a desk, gripping the edges of the table as I hung my head low.

"He doesn't care... He doesn't care..." I found myself saying. "He doesn't care about anything at all. All he's ever sought was trouble and violence. And he does so with very little regard for everyone who holds him dear."

"Lucky," Best turned me to face him and cupped my face in his hands. "Hey, hey, hey... Want to know how I see it?"

I didn't answer but he told me anyways. "He's not a trouble maker but his pride doesn't let him run from trouble. And if he gets really violent, it's precisely because he cares about what he's fighting for. I'll never forget the day he brought hell to Bola and his friends the day he'd groped you in the cafeteria. That kid just now said he was fighting because of a woman. I guess it's the only way he knows how to protect the people he cares about. He's not a coward. Deep down, I've always wanted that trait. To not be a coward." With shame flashing in his eyes, he added. "You're not the only thing I envy about him."

"If that's protection, I don't want it." I held onto his biceps and peered into his blue orbs. "If he cares so much, why did he have to go and cheat with Bisola!? Why!?"