Rats, Roses And Paper Bones

chapter 23: Troublesome you

"What is going on here?".
Out of the one thousand and one words I had in my very proficient vocabulary, those were the words I could say.
I walked into my sister's hostel after classes, into her room, with people staring weirdly at me for some reason.

I just wanted to give her pocket money for the week. She kept it with me, and I gave her little out of it every week.

I met my sister beside her bed, head hung low, and one of my classmates stood in front of her, holding a metal cloth hanger. Few other people were standing beside her, all of them in their underwear. It was both a funny and disturbing sight.

"Oh good, your sister is here." The girl holding the hanger said.

I sighed. She must have gotten into trouble again, and they must have been staring at me weirdly because of that. They were probably thinking  'oh, her sister is here to save her again'.

I wouldn't blame them because this was the umpteenth time I was standing as a solicitor for my her. Seriously, I could count like five times that she would have ended up in band aids and crutches if I had just shown up a minute later.

Guaranteed, the first encounter, which was with moyo, was totally moyo's fault. But after that experience, it was either she said something disrespectful or did something disrespectful, without even realising it. She was unfiltered and unhinged. The result? Near death experiences.

I gave a wide, fake smile, pushing in my next line of action to save my sisters butt, as usual.
"Guys...". I said, collecting the hanger from the girls hands gently.
"We can resolve this much more peacefully, let me talk to my sister." I said and dragged Dara to a corner.

"What did you do this time?"

"Nothing." She said, folding her arms and looking away.

I bit down on my lips and sighed.
"Look at me." I said, pulling her face forward to face me.
"When last did I come to your hostel?" I asked her.

"The day before yesterday." She replied nonchalantly and looked away.

"What did I come here to do?". I asked her.

"To visit me." She said, still looking away.

"And what did I end up doing?". I asked her, looking her straight in the eye this time.

"Well -" She began to say, guilt beginning to show on her face, you could tell that she felt bad.

The day before, I came to check up on her as usual, and I ended up saving her butt, as usual aslo. What did she do? She told a girl that she looked poor and ragged. And guess what? The girl was TWO classes above her. Imagine how badly that went.

Many things may be pushed aside, but one thing that is taken very seriously in any boarding house is RESPECT and RESTRAINT. My sister definitely had NONE of that.

Another time, she told a girl that the church she attended was trash. The girl was Catholic. We attended a pentecostal church back home, and anything different from that was probably registered in Dara's mind as trash.

Thankfully, the girl was her classmate. But unfortunately, she had an elder sister who was in my class. I don't even need to explain how terrible that went.

"Okay, okay, I know I've been really rude, and I know I've been a burden to you." She said.

"Hm... you don't say." I said, folding my arms.

"Im sorry about that, I really am, but this time, I'm actually being accused wrongly." She said.

"Dara, you say that every single time!".