ROLAKE (DISCONTINUED)

•19: Facades•

[Edited]

Adekunle Orenuga

I was back to it. The closer it came, the deeper I drown. The past three days have been the worst for me.

You see, my sister's death anniversary was coming up and the closer it was, the more I'm reminded how empty I feel. Every year, it was like a healing wound being ripped open again in my heart. Most people would have thought that since it was years ago, I would have gotten over it. The truth is that I would never get over it. No matter how much I tried to ignore the pain or even erase that day from my mind, it would always come back hunting me.

At school, I've been trying my best to act like nothing is wrong with me and I'm definitely nailing it because no one had a clue of how torn and broken I was. Not Timileyin, not even Star. At first they thought I was having mood swings and I had to partially lie that it was just lack of sleep. Partially, because I was actually lacking sleep. I started having insomnia just a day after Star and I had gone out. The nightmares started coming back.

Losing a twin was and is devastating. I had started losing focus in class, memories of us lingering in my mind. Thanks to my lie though, my friends had given me time to wallow in my misery.

A few times, Star had found me in the library and instead of bombarding me with questions like most people would, she just sat with me without questions and honestly I really appreciated how she stayed with me and still didn't pry.

Most times, when she was with me, my mind would go back to the day I cried in her arms and how she promised me that we were going to stay happy. If I'm being honest, that memory was probably the only reason why I hadn't broken down crying yet. That, and also because I didn't want to be an attention seeker and maybe damage my hard guy reputation.

Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Star looking at me with a quizzical expression. Paintbrush in one hand and palette in the other. She raised a brow at me.

"You spaced out...again" she pointed out to me.

"And your paper is still blank" she jotted her paintbrush hand towards my untouched work of art.

I looked at the paper and dragged out a long sigh. How did I even get here?

I turned towards Star with my infamous smirk plastered on my face.

"I was only looking for inspiration, and I think i just found one" I said cockily while typical Star, rolled her eyes so hard, I was actually scared it would get stuck there. Not gonna lie, it was hard brooding around her.

"Your cockiness will take you nowhere mister" she chuckled, facing her painting.

Just then, Mr Mike came in from his office holding what I perceived to be a portrait, wrapped in brown paper. He walked towards us and I couldn't help but notice the way he was looking at Star. To tell the truth, this guy gave off creepy vibes and I did not like it at all.

"Oh Adekunle, welcome back to reality" he said as he stood in front of us, still holding the portrait.

Huh?

"You were spaced out since you came in here" he clarified.

Ohhhhh.

"My bad" i said because what else could I have said?

"Anyways, here's my piece offering" he said to Star, handing her the portrait. My curiosity peeked.

Star dropped her art supplies and gingerly started removing the brown paper. I watched and waited to see what his 'peace offering' was. Peace offering for what exactly?