Adenike Ekon ✔

05. Meeting Rokibat

Have you ever felt that everything in your life was a lie? That all the struggles you did were for nothing.

And if you did, was it at 3:00 am?

Adenike was pretty sure that when it came to such things as life in general, she wouldn't be included. It was enough pain watching her mom physically present but emotionally distant.

And it was another distress to realize she had no close relationship with her twin brothers—she wasn't the fun sister.

Her dad may not care, but Ade occasionally felt as if she had wronged him in so many ways. What ways?

Perhaps it was the short neutral answers she gave when he asked questions. Or spending too much time in her room. Adenike knew it was more than that, her father not expending time in the house was an even greater problem.

Confessions often occurred at midnight, she was a victim of such. If she thought science facts were useless, and ineffective before, Adenike begged to differ. Science was what she was experiencing.

Something was bothering her.

She had stayed up all night thinking about the Anonymous fan. Who could it be? She asked herself yet not one of her classmates she could suspect.

She had never told anyone about her writing except for Precious, her dad, and aunty Bisi. If she mentioned it to her mom before, she wouldn't pay attention enough to know what she was talking about. The twins couldn't understand what writing was.

There was something about the comments that made no sense. It was clear the user was interested in her writings, but why did she feel as if they were someone she knew. Someone close to her.

However, her suspicion wasn't reasonable. Wattpad was a worldwide community of writers and readers. Maybe someone stumbled across her book by mistake and they thought it was cool. Or they decided it would be better to play mind games with her.

She decided to check the demographics.

There was a possibility that they were somewhere in the vast world. It wouldn't be a big deal if she hadn't checked the demographics. And it showed that her reader was in Nigeria.

It was heartbreaking to know that she had been excited about nothing. Those flowers, maybe they were taken off the internet. The profile photo was just too cute.

Adenike wasn't sure yet, but whoever was behind it, she must find out.

The first step she would take was to talk to the user herself.

~Messaging with @Semaj2030~

3:20 am: Hi! How are you?

She adjusted the pillow and lay facing the door. She cuddled the huge duvet close to her, seeking comfort.

Almost immediately, a reply came through.

@Semaj2030

3:22 am: Hello. I'm fine.

3:23 am: What about you?

She gazed at the screen of her device puzzled. How am I? She asked herself. She wasn't fine, that's for sure. She wasn't good either. But people do that all the time, faking their answers.

3:25 am: I'm good.

A long silence fell upon her. Sitting on her bed while the light was off at 3:00 am, and texting with a random user, was Adenike. The shadows didn't bother her, and neither was the sound of TV—their neighbors had bad timing when it got to watching television.