Chasing Greatness :A Journey Of Hope

chapter 21: miracle

After the beating my mom gave me, I became so calm. I stayed indoors most of the time, reflecting on my actions. My three-month holiday was almost over, and I was preparing to enter senior class. The thought of starting this new phase of my life made me happy—there would be no distractions. Femi had stopped coming to our place, and I was relieved. I heard he had traveled, but I didn’t care. That chapter of my life was closed, or so I thought.

One day, while sitting at my mom’s store, a sleek car drove up and stopped right in front. I looked up, curious, as some boys stepped out. The owner of the car was a young man named Raymond. I knew him vaguely; his father was the commissioner of police, and the car was obviously his father’s. Raymond was tall, dark, and impeccably dressed in a clean white polo and jeans. His presence was striking, but I had also seen him hanging out with known cult boys in the area.

This was the first time he had come to our store, and I wondered why. He walked straight up to me, smiling confidently.

“Hi,” he said, leaning casually against the counter. “Can I have your number?”

I laughed. Another satanic distraction, I thought to myself. “If you’re not here to buy something, you should leave,” I said bluntly.

He didn’t seem fazed. He smiled and left without another word.

The next day, Raymond came back alone and actually bought something. Then he returned the day after that, and the next, until his visits became a routine. I decided to give him a chance—not as a romantic interest, but as a friend.

“Why are you always with those boys?” I asked him one day.

Raymond hesitated but eventually opened up. “They’re forcing me to join their gang,” he said. “They bully me and pressure me to smoke with them.”

“Why don’t you tell your father? He’s a policeman, right?” I asked.

“I don’t want to disappoint him,” Raymond said. “He already has so much on his plate. I’ll handle it myself. I just give them money to keep them off my back.”

I looked at him skeptically. Giving them money? This rich brat thinks he can buy his way out of everything, I thought to myself. Still, I told him, “You should stop following them before they lead you astray.”

He nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it under control.”

Three days later, I was running an errand for my mom when I saw Raymond hanging out with the same boys he claimed were bullying him. This time, he wasn’t just with them—he was smoking. My heart sank. He didn’t look forced; he looked like one of them.

The next day, when he came to the store, I confronted him. “I saw you with those boys. You were smoking.”

Raymond laughed nervously. “You must have been mistaken. That wasn’t me.”

I stared at him, disappointed. “I saw you, Raymond. And I can’t be friends with someone who lies to my face.”

He tried to protest, but I cut him off. “We’re done. Don’t come here again.”

Raymond’s expression changed. “I didn’t want to be your friend anyway,” he said bitterly. “I wanted to be your boyfriend.”

I laughed, more out of disbelief than amusement. “That’s never going to happen.”

He left, and that was the last time I saw him—until months later, when I came home from school and heard the news. Raymond had stolen his father’s gun and gone on a robbery spree with those boys. They were caught, and Raymond’s father was demoted because of the scandal.

I felt a wave of sadness and anger. A bright, promising boy brought down by bad friends. Is this how my life would have been if I had stayed with Femi? The thought of repeating my mother’s mistakes, of ending up pregnant or worse, made me shudder.

“God forbid,” I whispered to myself.

I pushed the thought away and went inside, grateful for the path I had chosen and determined to keep walking it.