Facade (Romola 1)

70: A friend in Need

Romola's eyes surveyed everywhere in the small living room but Bukky's face. She hissed as the cotton wool, dipped in alcohol, touched her sore leg. Everything about her ached and she wished for nothing but a dreamless sleep.

"You sef, stay one place. I am only trying to help you." Bukola, a fair skinned thin girl with small clear eyes pressed a white piece of cloth inside a bowl of warm water and placed it on the cut on Romola's tight.

"I'm trying." The tears in Romola's eye stung more than the tear on her thigh.

"But tell me. How in the world did you get this cut?"

Romola's eyes glazed over as she stared at Bukky's furniture. The brown sofa testified of its age. A small picture of Bukky's room mate hung above the sofa "Talk na." Bukky pressed the cloth deeper into Romola's wound.

Romola jerked but Buky hissed as she tossed the bloody cloth to the black carpet.

"Please, can I answer you tomorrow?"

She found her head falling towards the sofa and she didn't fight it. She had fled from her father's house without looking back. Not even when she had boarded a bike. She didn't stop running until she arrivd at Bukky's and she had nearly collapsed at the door but her friend's face gave her strength.

"This your wound ehn. You need to take it to the hospital or something? But how you get this kind of cut."

"I fell down." Romola picked the bloody cloth and tied it around her tigh as she turned towards the chair to rest her back.

"You fell down?" Bukky sneered as she stared at the purple bruise around the deep cut on Romola's leg. "From where? Heaven?"

"From a bike."

Bukky snorted, grabbing her first aid box and walked towards the arch in the doorway that led to her room. She stopped under the arch.

"You didn't show up for practice last week and Nkechi is angry at you. I'd advise you to call her ."

"I will." Romola's voice faded as she drifted into a fitful sleep.

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She jerked awake and flew off the sofa. Her hands crossed across her face to stop her father from striking her with the matchet. The crippling pain in her shoulders and legs told her it was a dream but it failed to relieve her. The lights came on and she blinked as a petite woman in a pink silky night dress and a black hair net rushed to her side.

"Romola, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just had a nightmare." Romola blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light.

She'd been expecting a different room and instead of Bukky, she had been expecting Olumide to come to her side. She dropped her hands and fell back to the chair, under Bukky's prying eyes. "I had a nightmare."

"Ehn, you said that already." Bukky sang in her tiny voice. "What was the nightmare about?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Romola buried her head in her arms as flashes of the previous days racked her mind.

"Okay oh," Bukky rolled her eyes and returned to the arch that separated the bedroom from the living room. "Should I leave the lights on?"

"Yes please," Romola whispered.

Romola linked her fingers, placed her palm on the couch and her head on her palm but shut her eyes as the sound of Bukky's small feet give way to silence. Left alone with her thoughts, she allowed the first tear to fall. A storm of others followed in its wake but they were the silent indicates of the lives she'd lost; one with the mother she loved and another with the friend who had exposed her.

The tears fell faster and faster as the depth of her ruin dawned on her but she swallowed her sobs to avoid drawing Bukky's attention. The only person she wanted to face one-on-one was Yetunde.

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After she left Bukky's house on Sunday morning, she had the cut in her leg dressed in a pharmacy. Half of the money her sister rescued was spent on treating her injuries and transporting herself to school. She spent a day waiting in front of her apartment waiting for Yetunde to return.

She sat in front of the door, stretching her aching legs in front of her. She hoped Yetunde would be outside the house but then she remembered that Yetunde could be inside the house listening to music at an unearthly volume.

She stared at her injury again. Thoughts of how to fix her life began plagued her. Where would she begin? Seeing Yetunde was the first step but now, with Yetunde absent, what would she do next? One thing was sure. She would never return to her mother's house.

She remained there for two hours with no idea of when Yetunde would return.