Scars (Romola 2)

10: Sunbo in the room

Romola pushed the door open, ready to fall on one of the mattresses, hers specifically, when she saw her sister laying on it. "Oh no. What did you do now, Sunbo?"

"Must I do something?"

Romola pried the wig off her head and dumped it in a corner before kicking off her heels. What a wasted day. If she had spent the day at any of Iya Tobi's stores, she would know that she was making a progress.

Why hadn't she researched who the COO of the company was. Even worse, how would she tell Mr. Joseph that she didn't complete the interview. Even if she had, they wouldn't give her the job. Not while he was there and even if he had left after she returned from the toilet, her nerves had been shaken up enough.

She bent towards the small fridge in the corner, close to the end of Lydia's bed and the door, for her pure water sachet. The fridge was empty. "What happened to my water?"

"Oh. That was yours?" Sunbo smiled. "I drank it."

"What if it wasn't mine? I've told you to stop picking people's things. How did you even get in?"

"Ifeoma let me in. She told me you went for an interview. Thank God you finally have the sense to get a better job. How much will they pay you?

Romola turned away from her sister and shut the door so that direct sunlight was cut out of the room. "I didn't get the job."

"But you will."

"I won't. I didn't stay for the interview?"

"How —"

It was better to answer Sunbo's questions quickly and cut off any further interaction. "I told them I wanted to use the toilet and I left."

Sunbo picked her Iphone and swipped the screen. "That's a lie. You just don't want to tell me how much you will be paid so that I won't ask you for money."

"Why are you here?" Sunbo should have the good sense to remove her legs so she could sit.

"You won't believe all the crazy things that are happening at home."

Romola pushed Sunbo's legs away. She raised her face to the ceiling and shut her eyes as her body embraced the warmth and softness of her bed. "It can't be crazier than what I've been through."

"No, oh, you don't understand." Sunbo tapped her arm. "I must leave that house before I catch madness."

"What's crazy about home?"

The small curtain on the wall behind the mattress danced.

"Just come home please. Come and return sense."

"You know I can't."

"Then don't expect me to stay there. Maami is already telling Lolade to hawk. Like? What? Because she says she isn't making enough money. And that's not true. She will give daddy all her money and he will end up drinking it away with Jide."

Romola's eyes narrowed. "That's no excuse to leave the house."

"It's better I leave so that I can do my actress work without somebody asking me for money or telling me when I can go out and come back."

"You should stay at home. Maami needs you."

"She doesn't need me." Sunbo slammed her phone on the mattress. "I want to get out of this s*ithole."

Shock pierced through Romola's head but not deep enough to elicit a reaction larger than a small twitch of her nose. When did Sunbo start to curse? "And where will you stay if you leave home?"

"Here, with you."

Romola laughed.

"So, you will sleep on the roof? Because there is no space in this room."

"No. That's what I told Maami but I won't stay with you. I will find someone else to stay with."

"No" Romola sat up. "It's not safe."

"It's better than staying in that stupid house." Sunbo stretched her arm towards Romola. A red welt marred her fair skin. "This is what Daddy did to me yesterday. Why? Because I forgot to serve him water with his food. They don't rate me in that house."

"It's better to stay in your own house."

"No." Sunbo shook her head.

Romola placed her palm on her head. Thirst connived with hunger and fatigue to weigh her down. "Who would you stay with? Who do you know?"

"My DJ friend introduced me to one —"

"No."

"Why can you live on your own and I can't?"

"My case is different."

"How is it different?" Sunbo picked her mini silver-studded leather backpack and slung it across her shoulder.

"You barely know these people. Anything can happen to you."

Sunbo glared at her. "Can you stop acting like Maami?"

"I am your elder sister and if you have any respect for me, you will listen to me instead of being a spoilt brat."

"Me? Spoilt? At least I don't act like expired ogi."

Romola's face squeezed in an ugly look. "Expired ogi?"

"Just because you are unfortunate in this life does not mean that I am." Sunbo reached for her heeled sneakers. "Afterall, I did not ask you to choose a bad friend or lie about who you are. I'm 100 percent real."

Romola reached for Sunbo's wrist but Sunbo flung it away.

She didn't hold back this time. "If you want to waste your life, very well but don't come and be doing bambiallah for me when you get broke again. Rubbish."

Sunbo let out a prolonged hiss.

"Abeg abeg, don't be talking to me anyhow. Just because I borrowed small chicken change from you now and then. Take your own advice, Ashewo."

Romola's jaw unhinged. She didn't move as Sunbo marched out of the room. One minute she was counselling her sister and the next, insults were slung in her face.

Romola moved towards the door. She stopped, falling on the brown sofa at Ifeoma's corner of the room. Her legs stretched across the blue flower patterned carpet.

It wasn't wrong for Sunbo to want to leave the house. She had expressed that desire at a much younger age than Sunbo but that was in the past. Before she knew Yeunde's true colours.

She fixated on the large flower pattern in the middle of the carpet.

Maybe she shouldn't have resisted Sunbo that much but it didn't sit well with her- that Sunbo would go to live with a stranger but was Sunbo right? Was she wasting away like expired ogi because she was doing the bare minimum to survive?

She bit her lips. There was no way Sunbo would listen to her now. Maybe she should go home and tell her mother about this.

Maami could still speak sense to Sunbo.