Rats, Roses And Paper Bones

chapter 14: lost kitten

"Doyin." A voice called.
I looked up from my reverie to see a very tall woman towering over me, with four other people around her.

I was bent over on the floor, my clothes soaked with sweat from severe beating.
"Doyin, for the last time, do you know the repercussion of what you've done?". The woman asked for the umpteenth time.

I groaned in reply.
"I didn't do it," I said, with the last of my tears.
"You still don't want to say the truth, right?". She said.
"I'm saying the truth," I replied.
The woman just stared at me blankly and didn't reply.

"Your parents are here." She said, finally.
I stood up from where I was and tried to gain balance but failed. I kept falling over and over again. It was as though there was a force coming from the earth surface that was pulling me down.
I looked down and saw hands, yes! Real hands! Growing from the ground. And suddenly, they grabbed my feet, pulling me into the ground little by little .

"No! No! What's happening?! Let me go!" I screamed in terror, but nobody could hear me. Instead, they all left.
"Help me! Help me!" I kept screaming and screaming till I heard a calm, gentle voice calling my name.
"Doyin."
"Help me!" I screamed the more.
The voice began to sound more demanding.
"Doyin, are you awake?".

I finally opened my eyes and realised it was all a dream. But not completely.

I looked around and saw two beds laid with blue bed sheets beside mine. The place reeked of antiseptics and soap. Why was I at the school clinic?

"What are you doing here?"I half yelled when I saw Michael sitting at the side of my bed, I guess It was his voice I heard.
"Ummmm, you're welcome?" He said, amused.
I hissed as I felt a sharp pain in my head.
"What happened? How long have I been here?" I asked, trying to make meaning of the blurry memory I had of a few hours ago.

"Well,what can I say? You bumped your head into a pole while you were trying to run away from me." He said.
Oh yeah, that's what happened. I recalled.
"Well, i wasn't running away from you, I was just trying to tell you that I didn't need your help." I replied.
Either way, he was the reason I was here.

"Well, I actually ended up taking the papers to Mrs Phillips office by myself after you passed out, so I still helped you at last," he smirked.
"Rubbish," I hissed.

"Why were you behaving that way, though?" He asked.
Right, this was the best time to ask him what had been bothering me.
"Im supposed to be asking you that." I said to him.
"What? Why am I so cool?". He asked, smiling.
"No, why you always want to help me, I've always been meaning to ask, can you tell me why?" I asked him, looking intensely into his eyes.

His smile dropped for a second, and then came up again.
"Well, you literally passed out right in front of me. What did you expect me to do ma'am?" He said, being defensive.
"And before then, the things you were carrying were looking quite heavy, so I decided to help," He continued.

"No, that's not what I mean. What of other times before that when you always want to help me? from protecting me from moyo to giving me a seat space to giving me tissues when I'm crying. What's up with that?". I shot at him. Gave it to him plain as day.

With those words, he laughed so hard that I started screaming inside.
What was so funny?
When he had laughed to his heart content, he finally spoke.
"Doyin," he said, patting my head.
"Anyone who knows you would want to help you everytime because you always look like a lost kitten and it's my duty to help all lost kittens" he said and placed his right hand on his chest like he was reciting the national pledge.

"What do you mean?".

"I mean, you're always looking confused anytime I see you. It's just like the first day of school, when I first saw you. You were looking so out of it. I just had to walk up to you and ask if you needed any help. "