I Never Left You

38. Lost in Venegence

"Someone doesn't look too excited to see me!" I say to Ray on coming back home in the morning from Leah's. When I get back,Ray always abandons what ever his always doing and rushes to welcome me but that's not the case today.
"That's because my girl ditched me for her friend last night. I couldn't even sleep well" He pouts throwing a pillow down to express his discomfort. "Am so sorry I ditched you, but Leah wasn't in a better situation so it was best am always there for her" I say joining him on the couch. "Oooooh that was necessary then. I thought you guys had a girls night out while I was here hugging a pillow to sleep." he says.
"Hahahaha that really sounds funny, but if it will make you feel better, Leah sent you cupcakes to compensate you." I say handing him the paper bag he hadn't realized I came with.
"Woww!! She's such a sweethea..... I mean that was so thoughtful of her." Ray immediately corrects his statement on realizing he's about to call Leah a sweetheart. Am glad he did correct himself early. I don't want my man praising another XX species when am present. Call me over protective but that's me.
"Uummmm,am not sure how your day is standing but I need to go and start on the planting if am going to be prepared for papers on Sunday. I failed to come up with a viable reason so I concluded that the planted didn't get enough water so they wilted out of stress. So this time am going to apply drip irrigation from plastic bottles on them so they have enough water. I already asked the colleges some from campus."  I finish explaining my plan to my favorite guy who this whole time keeps smiling at me and shaking his head. He must be really proud of me.
"Ur so naive Ra" he says, shocking me. I thought he was proud of me. I pout inside but give him a questioning look. "How"
"Your vegetables were doing fine, in fact you gave them the perfect soil layer, moisture, shade. The perfect seed varieties, everything. It's just that your project was back stabbed" he pauses.
"What!!! ,who could be so cruel and heartless.That garden was made by people with good hearts to save those beautiful kids" I almost cry on hearing that.
"Not all of them had good hearts"
"Did Jenna do it?" I ask already ruling out the black sheep cause most of the people that had come were close friends of my friends and she was the only one we didn't know. Ray only nods his head to confirm my suspicions.
"But why have such a dark heart?" I ask basically to myself
"We're running out of time, why don't I tell you along the way" Ray says getting up and grabbing his car keys. "Hey", I hold his hand "were not taking two cars and since the seedlings and gumboots are already in my trunk mine is going" I say making him put back his keys.
"Am just not yet used to you having a car" he intentionally says that with a huge grin.
"How am I supposed to keep reminding your small brain" I say and run to the elevator.
"Come back here Madam Azra Falls" He comes running after me and I immediately close the door intentionally. Let him take the long route of the stairs. He finds me leaning on the car door waiting for him. "You so mean Ra" he pants. "Netwon's third law of motion." I smile and hand him the car keys.
It turns out that Jenna has been secretly watering the plants with a nitrous acid since she couldn't get anything bad to use against me. It then also occurred to me that that's what Clara wanted to tell me that day she came feeling sad. Maybe she saw her mix the solution. How was I supposed to figure out that Jenna had been the bad barbie. When we get to the garden, Kevin is giving instructions to Jenna on how to plant the Spinach. Ray hi fives Kevin and thanks him for the good work done. I want to go and help her, Iam furious and mad at her but clearly her cute hands and manicured nails are not used to the soil let alone the digging. Ray grabs my hand stopping. "Let it be babe, Reactions and actions are equal and opposite, so let her face the consequences" I agree and we go play with the kids.
It's almost 2pm by the time Jenna is done with the planting. She finds me playing with Clara and she's all covered in mud, her pink top is almost brown, her hair covered in dirt and her body stinking . "Do u have a second Azra?" she nervously asks me. "Sure, Clara why don't you go and be playing with Mellisa" I send her away and gesture Jenna to join me on the grass.
"Am sorry for being a dick, Azra please hear me out" she starts. "But you have been threatening me since we met. At least you could have gotten to me but now the children may not even get what to eat." I was really disappointed when I found out she was the mole behind this. Where had her sense of humanity disappeared to.
"I was being stupid Azra. I had even planned on pouring acid on you or even run over you, but now I regret plotting all such. And please thank Kevin and Ray for always protecting you" I look at her and fail to understand the physco seated next to me. That was one scary confession.
"All in the name of what?" I finally mange to ask her.
"Trevis and Clara" she saying bowing her head down. "Trevis and I had started to date and he was my first loving boyfriend. He even bought me my camera and we were still in the honeymoon of our relationship when he disappeared" she pulls out her hankie and blows her nose. "And when I asked around, all fingers pointed at you. So I thought you had stolen him away until I saw how madly your in love with Ray"
"Sorry about that" I say, touched abit, remembering how I felt when Ray disappeared. "And then Clara?"
"Clara was both my supporting friend, she helped me recover from addiction, I had relapsed and taken alcohol again then she gave me this pill that made me never tolerate even the smell of ethanol. My sense of fashion even changed after meeting her. She was my hero you see" she blows her nose again.
"Look I know you don't know much about me but Trevis was my good friend, at least that's why I thought he was until he kidnapped me and sold me off to some guys. Luckily those two saved me and on coming back I found when he had left me an email. Here" I hand her my phone to see the email. "And for a fact his real name was Sivert, that's Trevis spelled backwards"
"This is unbelievable, I can't believe I was about to throw my life away for a guy I didn't even know" she says shocked.
"Hey babe is everything alright" Ray asks from behind. "yeah babe" I say to him and he comes and kisses my forehead and goes back to playing football. "hit me up when your ready to go" he waves at me.
"Am so sorry Azra, I didn't know that he was capable of that" she hands me back the phone. "It was all a misunderstanding don't worry and as for Clara, I remember giving her away to the police in high school for selling drugs but that was it."I tell her half the story keeping the details to myself. "I don't know what Trevis's intentions towards you were but to me he's a memory I wish to forget. Continue with your life, okay. One day someone will love you dearly"
"You have a good heart Azra" she says to me and am another touched. "Thanks", I reply back." I hope I can get on your good side now" she looks at me nervously.
"As long as you don't always stalk me everywhere I go" I give her a smile.
"I promise, and to make up for the damage am going to ask my dad to make a yearly donations to the orphanage. He manufactures parachutes so it won't be a bother to him." she finishes releases a sigh of relief.
We made amends with Jenna though her relationship with Kevin sank. On reaching  home, we revised earth's physical environment ,made love later and woke up to a snowing morning the next day.