I love you..i think

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

I woke up to the sound of a machine beeping next to me. The room was white and the lights were extremely bright.

"Damilola?" I heard someone call.

"O ti ji!" (Meaning: She's awake)

This time I knew it was mom who had spoken.

I tried to turn myself towards the voices but I could barely move. My parents darted out of their seats and tried to stop me from moving.

"You need to rest dear." My dad said.

I eventually gave up on trying to move. When I looked at my parents, they held expressions of sadness.

"Mommy, daddy," I asked looking from one to the other. "What's wrong?"

They looked at each other and then back at me, both still had looks of sadness on their faces. I frowned.

At that moment, the events of the past evening came rushing back to my mind. Birthday. Dancing. Ekene. It all started coming back to me. My expression went blank as I turned back to my parents.

"Bolaji." I spat out. "He was on the floor..and there was blood...and" I continued to ramble. "And Ekene was driving..and..and" my words had started to come out as a whisper at that point. "And he hit him."

I couldn't sit still at that point. "He hit him..and I saw blood..and -"  My mom hugged me tightly, and at that point I could muster no more words.

My mom rested her chin on my head and tried to soothe me.

"Shh its okay honey, Bolaji is okay."

Hearing that calmed me down a bit, and if nothing else the sleeping medicine started to kick in again and before I knew it I was knocked out again.

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The next time I woke up, I saw Ekene sitting in the chair next to me. He looked miserable.

I gave him a hardened look.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

He look at me with immense sadness in his eyes. "Listen I know you probably hate me right now and you have every right to. But please allow me explain." He looked at me expecting me to cut him off but I said nothing.

He continued. "I know that no explanation I give right now can justify what happened. I know that. But I wasn't myself last night, I was just dealing with so much and I guess I reached my breaking point yesterday. I thought I was doing a good job at keeping myself in check but I guess not." He rubbed his temples in distress.

"I'm just sorry Dami. I really am. I don't expect you to forgive me right now...but maybe someday?" He looked at me hopefully. "I guess I should leave now." He got up and headed for the door. As he stepped out he turned around and said. "I honestly never meant to hurt you Dami. I'm sorry."

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Ekene's P.O.V

As I drove home I kept asking myself, how could things have gone so wrong? I just wanted her to have a good birthday but instead I made her special day a nightmare. Typical me.

I knew taking those drugs weren't the best idea, but after seeing Khadijat that morning I just couldn't deal with anything anymore. I needed an escape and the drugs were there. I had been doing so well without them for so long, and now all my effort had just gone down the drain.