FINESSE

√ TWO √

Ike scrolled through her phone as she laid on the bed. One of Davido's recent songs, Jowo rang loudly in her ears but the calm look on Ike's face betrayed the intensity of the music.

Her hands delved underneath her pillow as she brought out a biscuit and tore it open. She took one and started munching on it slowly and dropped her phone beside her.

She continued eating the biscuit as she stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow, tomorrow, she was going to know what life had decided to give her on a sliver plate.

Ike knew she didn't have time but she didn't know her long or rather how short the time she had left was. She folded the nylon of the biscuit and placed it on the drawer beside her and turned on her side while adjusting her cover cloth. Just a few hours and she would know how long she had left.

Even when Ike knew she was going to know how much she had left to live; there was zero panic or anxiousness on her face. For someone who had realized since when she could understand things that she could die anytime, death definitely didn't scare her.

She closed her eyes slowly as she fell into a deep slumber.

Ike woke up as soon as the alarm went off. She climbed out of bed and turned out the ringing alarm as she walked towards the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She could hear her parents praying downstairs. Ike didn't remember when last she prayed. She had stopped praying a long time ago. She didn't see the need to pray.

Pray for what? Long life? Good grades? Prosperity? What exactly? Long life was so out of the list, good grades? Neither she or her parents cared about her grades, she was going to die before she was able to use them anyways.

To thank God she woke up in the morning? For keeping her alive? She knew she could die anytime so living one extra day didn't mean she wouldn't still die.

Not that she didn't believe in God. She believed in him, she knew he existed but she lost her trust in him a long time ago.

The walls of the bathroom were covered in blue and white tiles intertwined together and Ike quickly pulled off her night wear, grabbed her towel and took her bath.

Ike remembered hating the smell of the hospitals when she was little. The mixture of the disinfectants always seem to poke at her intestines and she always had the urge to vomit or rather she always vomitted.

Ten, fifteen years later she walked through the passageway of the hospital without vomiting. The years of coming to the same place over and over again had made her adjust to the crank smell.

She turned on her headset and placed it over her head to block out the cries of the children as they walked past the children section. Hand Of God by Jon Bellion flowed into her ears and Ike chuckled.

Was her life really in the hands of God?

Ike dropped her bag with her mom as she walked towards the room she used to take her tests. The nurse inside the room offered her a small smile that Ike quickly returned.

"Doctor Makinde said you were coming. How are you feeling?" She asked as Ike shrugged as she sat lied down.

"Normal" Ike replied as she watched the nurse take her blood and run an xray. She stood up immediately the nurse was done.

"Doctor Makinde will tell you the results" She said and Ike nodded and walked out of the room pressing her finger on the spot where her blood was taken.

She grabbed her bag and started walking towards an office with her parents behind her. DOCTOR MAKINDE was written just outside the office and Ike knocked twice before stepping in.

A middle aged man was seated on the chair behind the table and he turned the moment Ike pushed the door open.

"Ikeoluwa, how are you?" He asked as Ike sat down in front of him with a small smile.

"Doing fine. Normal actually" Ike replied as Mr and Mrs Adeniyi exchanged pleasantries with him.

"Let me ask them to send your results" Doctor Makinde said as he turned to his computer while Mr and Mrs Adeniyi sat on the couch in the office.

Ikeoluwa tapped her feet soundlessly on the tiled floor. The head phones on her head blasted music crazily into her ears and even the people close to her could hear tiny little bits.

She pulled it off head and placed it on her neck as soon as the doctor turned to her. Flashing him a smile, she asked.

"How long do I have left Doctor Makinde?" Ike asked as Doctor Makinde glanced at her parents who were seated at the couch in the spacious office. He sighed seeing the anxiousness on their faces.

"Two months" he said after a while.

"I still have that long?" Ike asked with a bewildered expression.

"Just two months?" Mrs Adeniyi asked with an edge in her voice.

"Mrs Adeniyi...... " Doctor Makinde started but Ike cut him off by standing up.

"I'm going to Doctor's John office, he'll bring me home" Ike said as she stepped out the office and released a sigh she didn't even realize she was holding.

She climbed up the staircase as she arrived at a door and pushed it open without knocking. A good looking young man was seated on the chair as he browser through the files on the table.

"Ikeoluwa, you came in without knocking again" the man said before he dropped the files he was holding and turned to face Ike who had dropped her bag and walked towards the fridge in the office and opened it.

She brought out a box of ice cream and grabbed a spoon as she sat down cross legged on the couch.

"You said you didn't mind" Ike said as she scooped one spoon of ice cream into her mouth.

IT'S THE FIRST UPDATE OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE, MAY THE GRACE OF GOD CONTINUE TO COVER US THIS NEW YEAR.

AND THE TETs HAVE STARTED!!!!!!!!!!