TEENAGE TRAUMA

Chapter 16-Fear

I walked into my mum's room and sat down by the side of her bed.
     "Start talking". My mum began with a soft voice. She didn't even look at me. "Your counsellor called and I want to believe she had no idea what she was talking about", she continued.
          "I only went in solidarity with Tricia, the girl who used to live with Aunty. I promise nobody saw us. I'm sorry ma" I explained.
       "And where exactly did you go?" My mum asked. This made me think to myself, didn't Miss Ope tell her where we went to? But either way, I was going to tell her the truth because the whole thing felt too heavy to hide at that point. "We went to Aunty's house to search for anything we could use to put her behind bars permanently". I answered truthfully. "Jesus! Deborah! What were you doing there? What is your business with a person like that, ehn? The fact that it concerns one girl in your class does not mean it has anything to do with you! I would not even say too much, just know you'll never be leaving this house until you're old enough to go without my consent. Me, I know and God also knows, I have done my best to raise you with common sense! And your father would definitely not be happy with you either. Going up and down with small children, what kind of stupid friends are you keeping anyway, ehn? I'm telling you, they are bad company. I'm just happy you're not..you know, missing or something. I don't know what exactly you saw but I'm not interested in knowing, leave the case alone and mind your business. Just give me that phone and go and kneel down in that corner with your hands up because I don't know what to do with you anymore". My mum scolded, snatching my phone from my hand and pointing to a corner in her room.
       I compliantly obeyed, I went to the corner, went on my knees and put my hands in the air, as little drops of tears crept out of my eyes. I was dejected, not because of my punishment or because of regret, but at the mention of my dad. The thought of him alone never failed to depress me.
      Eventually, my mum slept off, taking her nap as usual and I remained there, on my knees, for a few hours, taking breaks of course.
 
Anyway, my mum woke up a few hours later and dismissed me. I went out to Chloe's place to cheer myself up as my mum had confiscated my phone anyways. "Be honest, do you think what I did was wrong?" I asked Chloe. "What do you mean". She asked in reply, putting down her packet of biscuits. "C'mon now. Seriously, cause I'm beginning to reconsider even getting any more involved in this whole Aunty issue". I answered her.
"I mean..if you had asked me, I'd tell you not to do anything that dangerous. But you've done what you've done. You could keep showing interest in the case and all that because obviously, Tricia really cares about it but just don't go anywhere you shouldn't go or do anything you shouldn't do. Your choice". Chloe said.
"But how do YOU feel about the whole thing, including the fact that we literally saw Aunty in her house after the school claimed she was behind bars" I asked her.
Chloe heaved a deep sigh and answered with clear worry in her voice, "You're brave, but I'm scared as f*ck. Obviously there's more to this than just a woman getting arrested and I don't want to be too involved in this. If you saw a room full of weapons and all that and Aunty saw you there, she definitely wouldn't let you be. Are you not scared she'd come after you or something? I'd like to not even think about myself having anything to do with it, and I really think neither should you". She answered.

Chloe saying this made me feel so bad. It felt like I hadn't been considerate and because of me, she had to live with the constant fear that someone is after her life. But also, it wasn't that deep, was it?
"I see you're friends with Amber and her friends.." I asked, trying to change the topic.
"Oh yeah, if that's the same Amber girl you always told me about then I'll be quite shocked. The girl seems alright". "I guess she just doesn't like me then". I added.

The  next day in school, I hoped Kevin and Tricia wouldn't have thought of any ideas that had anything to do with Aunty. But unfortunately, they had 🤦🏽‍♀️. I didn't want to just say I did want to have anything to do with it anymore, I felt like from their perspective, they weren't asking for much and I'd be quite a bad person, acting like I didn't care. I had just gotten to school and as soon as I took my seat, they both came to me and Kevin started, "Hey! Was your phone switched off the whole day yesterday or something?"
"Yeah, why?" I asked.
"I called and texted you but no reply. Was it confiscated or something? He answered.
        "You guessed right. Can you believe Miss Ope actually called my mum and told her about what we discussed with her yesterday? She wasn't bluffing". I ranted. "Wait, she actually told your mum? She just called Kevin's dad and told him to speak to us. She didn't say what happened at all. Unlucky you" Tricia said, laughing teasingly at me. "Really? Either that or my mum just tricked me into thinking she already knew". I added.

   "Anyway, Tricia and I were thinking and decided we really need to speak to the owner of this school or something" Kevin informed me. "Really? Why not the police, it's about a criminal anyway" I objected. "Well after Miss Ope told us to stay out of it, even after she knew Aunty was set free, it's very obvious the school is trying to make the matter die down as soon as possible. Because the whole thing happened here and no one is answering my questions". Tricia explained. I believed what they wanted to do was completely unnecessary, probably because I was scared, so I knew I had to convince them not to go ahead with it. "But don't u guys think it's better we leave it for the school? They said it's been taken care of and we have nothing to worry about" I asked. "They probably want everyone to think everything is okay because of their reputation on the media. We all know how bad it'll be if it gets to the press that the school didn't handle the situation well enough. The school basically wreaks of incompetence. If we should stay out of it, it'll be putting Tricia's life in danger and possibly ours as well. Because Aunty wouldn't just let this go, we can all agree on that" Kevin answered me. "But we can't be sure we can make so much of a difference. We're just four teenagers and I'm sure we aren't the first to try to go against Aunty. Let's just leave it, hopefully she'll just forget it. If she notices we're trying to attack her anymore than we already have, she'll definitely come for us.

Kevin shot a sudden suspicious glance at me and pulled me out of the conversation. "Excuse us for a second", he said to Tricia, taking me to to the back of the classroom.
"What are you trying to imply here, Debbie?", he asked me. I could tell he was upset about what I had said and I hoped he understood my point of view. "What do you mean? I'm just trying to explain that doing anything that might make Aunty actually come for us and see us as an enemy and we don't stand a chance against her, especially after knowing that both the school and the police system aren't taking necessary actions against her". I argued.
"So you want us to sit back and do nothing?"
"It'll avoid unnecessary trouble for us"
"And Tricia?"
"Kevin you and I both know that no matter what we decide to do, Aunty would not forget about Tricia, our options here are either to be in trouble with her or not"
"And you choose to abandon her" Kevin concluded and said in a soft voice. Looking me in the eye, disappointed.
"I don't know where you get your kind of courage from but I'm not like you, I'm not able to risk my life and family's safety for someone I've barely known for three months. It's unfair for you to say I choose to abandon her because I don't. I wish there was something better we could do but we don't
have a choice here. I'm scared!" I explained sorrowfully.