𝑨 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆

𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 2

Part Two

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Daphne's POV

It took me thinking throughout last night and talking to Bella for two straight hours on Skype, to finally surmourn the courage to go to Timmi's house. Which was something I haven't done since the day she got pregnant.

Even when I never saw her in school again for NECO examinations, I tried calling but she never received any of my calls. She also never bothered to reply my messages. Despite all that, I never stepped a foot in her house. During our send-forth graduation ceremony, she obviously avoided me and every effort I made to talk to her. That was when I decided to call it quits, I wasn't going to have her treating me like filth when she used to be my very close friend.

The good thing was that Bella took my side. She told me that if your presence doesn't bring people peace, quietly exit yourself from their lives because everybody has a right to live a peaceful life. And having thought about it, I saw sense in what she said and stayed away from bugging Tims life any further. It was until recently when I read an article that featured on adverse effects of depression and today's teens, especially the part that hammered about exhausting yourself until you realize that you've reached your elastic limit, that I decided to give it another trial. At least one more time before I leave for school.

I was to live in one of the lodges located around school so as to meet up in time for my lectures. University of Lagos main campus at Akoka was nowhere close to the locality mom and I lived in. After dealing with transportation to-and-fro for two weeks, missing a lot of morning lectures and eventually coming home very late after lectures, dad decided it was better I stayed closer to school. Mom agreed since it wasn't like she needed me around for anything.

I used to love the idea of staying in a lodge when I was in the secondary school because I thought all my friends were attending the same university but sadly, life has changed for all of us. I hardly kept in touch with them these days, infact, I no longer kept contact with them. It was simply a 'hi and how are you doing?' text message between us once a while. I didn't bother to ask if Jade gained admission or whether Amara had started learning her fashion skills. If they saw it fit to tell then they'd share, if not, I wasn't bothered.

I decided to visit Timmi one more time before I let go. Once I travelled to stay in the lodge, it would be a whole different life for me. Everything has been arranged. Dad, mom and Mr Esan were all in the house, arguing on the best travelling arrangement. Mr Esan wasn't keen on letting me go with my real father because he was afraid that mom would want to come with us thereby leaving him no reason to join along. While dad, on the other hand, didn't want me to go with Mom and Mr Esan because he was afraid that I'd get too attached and find Mr Esan to be a better replacement as a father.

I didn't actually care who we rode with but I didn't also want to make any of both men feel bad. After I announced my decision to ride with my father and insisted mother go with Mr Esan, I felt that settled it a little. So, I told them that I was going to Tim's house to visit. Mom didn't approve of it at first but she hasn't got much to stop me from going anyway. Yes, she knew about what happened with Timmi and she was aware of how that affected me too but she realized it would serve as a good closure for me at least.

After I assessed my outfit and found it good enough, I strapped the small yellow handbag on my right shoulder and left the house for Timmi's house. Trekking to her house from mine was about a minute or even less because both houses were just a stone-throw from one other. Thankfully, it didn't take so much effort convincing Ibrahim to let me in. After I made it past the gate, I headed for the main door of the magnificent building. The house stood in majesty amongst other houses located in the estate even though it was a duplex.