Too Perfect To Change A Thing.

Part 4- "I get why he's mad now."

Chapter Four

  " You're useless. If I hadn't given birth to you, I'd be leaving like a queen. You don't add any value here. You're just here spending money. I don't even see your use in this house. You don't respect. If I don't give you money one day, you'll be a nobody. You act all big but when I don't give you money, you're equal to nothing. Those stupid people called your father's family, have they ever given you anything ? Foolish girl!  Those were the words I woke up to everyday. Every single day.

    My dad died when I was in primary five. I didn't really care much because he was never there. He and my mom had a very toxic relationship. Without trust and extremely abusive: Physically. I remember them fighting all the time. And there were times when he'd even throw my mom and I out of the house. We left him after several failed attempts to save the relationship. I remember some time ago, he followed me and my mom to the village. They had a big fight and the slap that was meant for her ended on my cheek. I didn't really care much about my dad because I had my mom. Who was very loving.

   

    They were never married so  I was obviously born out of wedlock.  I guess that is why I never felt loved. Everything was okay until we moved to a small area somewhere in Accra. Poverty had struck us like hell. My mom was selling but they weren't buying. She later found someone who worked as a security guard at the airport. Things got better again. He gave me all the fatherly love that my dad never showered on me. Until we got really poor again. The man lost his job. I don't know what happened but he and my mom were no longer together. Things got so bad that we had nothing to eat. We had to borrow to cook and when we could no longer borrow, I drank a raw brown milo to sleep..

   Things got out of hand when we were evicted from where we were staying. With no money and no where to go, we had to crash at one of my mom's customers rented house.

     That was where all the love I had for my mom disappeared. She stopped caring, she stopped loving. All that was left were screaming and insults for every little thing I did. At that time, we were living with a cousin of mine. Nothing really bothered her because she is a fun and bubbly type while I was the shy, timid, and socially awkward child. More often than not I felt no one ever loved me.

   My mom would leave me all alone and go out with her friends. I felt so scared. The place was without electricity and was surrounded by bushes with just about three house around us. I cried myself to sleep every night while my cousin spent the night at our former house with some of our friends. She would go out and come home the next morning. Not caring whether I've eaten or not. That was when I lost all respect for her. They mostly talk about men in the nastiest way possible. Men with big cars would drop them off. I would stare through the window with disgust. I lost all respect for her.

      To cut the long story short we left that place but not without me having a fair share of poverty and mosquito bites. I had decided to go sleep at where my cousin sleeps. I couldn't stand the loneliness and staying with them. That was how I drifted away from her. The place was a kiosk. We stayed there with my friend's father and her elder brother. There was no bathroom so we had to wake up very early and bath outside. You can't even think of sleeping till your body tells you it's tired because the big mosquitoes won't let you.

   There's nothing much for me to do after I close from work. It's either I'm watching horror movies on Netflix that sends no shiver down my spine or I'm just stuffing my face with home made pastries and French fries from KFC. I check the clock on at the far end of the war and I'm surprised to see how fast time has travelled. It's almost five-thirty in the evening..

    " Hi! Sophie" I greet when I get to the club. As usual she's there before I get there. She smiles widely at me and throw me a napkin. She's wiping the glass clean and the pressure she's putting on them signals me that something's up with her. I take a seat on a stool at the counter facing her.

   " What's up? The poor glass wants to scream from misery" She gives me a small smile.

   " Me and Alex broke up" I nearly jump up in shock. The only people who have me believing in love, finally woke up one day and decided that watching Sex Life alone on Netflix is far better than snuggling in bed all day. How amazing is that?

   " Well! Not broken up exactly" I squint fishing out information from her look.

   " He found out about my job here" I raise my eyebrows at her. Now I'm totally confuse. What does she mean by that.

   " Isn't it obvious? She brilliantly decided to keep her job a secret because she's ashamed of what she does" Christine says from behind. I didn't  see her enter. But I'm not surprised either, she always comes to work late. We kind of have the same work timeline.

   " Not that I'm ashamed of what I do" She begins in a defeated voice. Her eyes are bloodshot, like she's trying  so hard to get her emotions together which we all know she's terrible at. Acting all tough is something for me and Christine.

   " I..I.. I just.." Her voice breaks. I sigh and pat her    gently on her shoulder. Christine reaches out to her hand and caresses it gently.

   " I just didn't want to lose him. I was scared he'd judge me for what I do." She says. We both understand how she feels. We wake up everyday with stares from people who have no idea what goes on in Black Alley. People just think we prostitute ourselves here in order to get money from men.

  " So.. Did he break up with you because of this?" I ask choosing carefully my words. She shakes her head. I turn to look at Christine and she returns it.

   " Like I said.. We didn't really break up. He just got mad because I didn't tell him. We were suppose to be honest with each other and I lied about what I do. So he left my house angry. He's not even answering any of my calls or even replying my messages"  She stands wiping the counter clean of invisible dust.

    " I guess he needs time to process things. He'll be fine. I mean you guys will be fine an....."

    " So what was it you told him you do for a living?" Christine's voice cuts me off my sense of reasoning. Sophie drops the napkin and stare right at us with a pursed lip.

   "Well.... I told him I fry chicken at J&J's" At this point, I'm trying so hard not to laugh in on her. She's a mess right now and as a good friend I have to be supportive and even stuff my face with junk foods with her but... Sophie just makes it so hard to be serious for even a second.. I let out a loud laugh before Christine could beat me to it. I'm laughing so hard that tears are almost coming out of my eyes. We are both laughing because we know there's no restaurant named J&J and only a dumbass like Alex wouldn't know that.

   J&J used to be a restaurant but it closed down two years ago for reasons that are best known to them. Alex doesn't live anywhere around East Legon  so it kind of feels normal that he would not know all about J&J shutting down. He lives in DC which is quite far from EL. And J&J wasn't a very famous restaurant.

   " I get why he's mad now" I nod with my left hand clutching my chest. It's obvious I'm still laughing.

  " anyone would get mad. You lied to him and worse, you made him look like an idiot" Christine says wiping a tear from her left eye.

   " That's not the worst part. He wanted to surprise me at work so he went to look for me there. That's when he found out".. The look on her face when she says this is priceless. I wish we can sit here all day and laugh at how silly she is but we can't spend all night laughing .. We drag our laughing bodies out of the counter and get ready for the night shift. None of us tried consoling her for the rest of the night. She actually deserves it.