Perfectly Imperfect

~29~

                                 ~Adam~

There's always something about Kunle's house.

Or home.

The laughter.

The laughter always seems to echo through the whole house, bouncing off the four corners of the whole house.

The loud chatters that never cease.

The home this house embodies.

I made a last-minute decision to follow him home instead of going home. It was going to be too toxic for me to return to that house anyway.

Kunle wasn't his usual chatty self on the drive home. He figured out something was wrong with me when I missed all the classes and he knew better than to probe, him and Sophia. It went down the drain once and it wasn't a memorable time.

It was the first time I understood the extent of the impact of Sophia's anger and I'd never want to see her that angry again.

We started hearing the noises, a loud shout of excitement immediately the driver drove in and I could actually see his two younger brothers playing and flying over the sitting room sofa, throwing pillows on the floor, tables almost turned upside down.

It was chaotic but a beautiful kind of chaos.

And it always made my stomach twitch into knots, the suppressed longing taking over.

The longing for a sibling, either younger or older.

Once upon a time, I was going to have a sibling. Mom did not tell me anything but I could sense it, the new roundness to her stomach, the baby things I saw in their room and she even repainted the room that used to be my nursery.

I used to wonder why she did not tell me when it was so obvious. I'd know it was probably not to get my hopes up because I returned one evening from playing basketball with Kunle to meet an eerily quiet house. Mom returned two days after and the roundness of her stomach started flattening. I needed no soothsayer to tell me what must have happened but I did not mention it, mom did not mention it either but the baby's things were soon gone from their own, and some nights after that time, I'd hear her open the door of the room that used to be my nursery and one night, I came out of my room and I peeped in because the door hadn't closed properly, mom was sitting on the floor, her back to the wall, her knee drawn to her chest and she was holding something that looked so much like a baby's socks or shoe in her hand. She had a vacant look in her eyes and I was sure that a tsunami would happen right beside her and she wouldn't know.

I was nine.

His two brothers, half brothers paused in their action film when they saw us, one was right under the table, his head sticking out of it and the other had his head hanging down from the back of the sofa, hands flaring in the air. They grinned and got into standing positions when they saw us.

"Welcome brothers."

Was their chorus accompanied by a mock bow and they went back to shooting their action film.

"These two are going to kill me someday. I can just exchange them for a date with Genevieve."

I burst into laughter without meaning to, ribs cracking that I had to put a hand on my stomach. Exchange them for a date with Genevieve ke?

That was a lie. He loved his brothers so much and he'd probably give up the whole for them.

"Guys, where is mom?"

"She went out."

Came to their chorused reply again and they ain't even twins oo, just boys of ages 9 and 6.