Lies From Pretty Lips

BITTER TRUTH

BITTER TRUTH

ARINOLA

I looked at the framed picture in my hand, my breath hitched.

Why does he still have it?

Did he still think about her? No there was no way this was happening.

I took the picture angrily to the sitting room and confronted him.

"Why do you have this and how long have you had it?" I asked him.

He looked up from his laptop and saw the framed picture in my hand.

It was a picture of Okikiola in her jersey, the day Genius Valley Academy football team had played against the Imperial boys' High school and won.

"Why were you going through my things?" he asked upset.

How dare he be upset at me, I should be the upset one. Why the hell did he still have this shit? It wasn't even a group photo, it was a personal photo of her!

"Answer me, Osaze, why do you have this picture?" I asked.

"Drop it. I don't want to talk about that Arinola. It's not your business and you shouldn't have gone through my personal belongings" He said angrily. He got up and walked to the bedroom.

I followed him.

"It's not my business?! you have a freaking picture of my sister and you're calling it your personal belongings?!" I screamed at him.

He simply wiped his face with his palm and remained silent

"Answer me" I raged the more, he'd told me he was over her years back why did he still have.

*********

Lagos

Couple years ago

Genius Valley Academy.

"Arinola" Osaze ran up the stairs and caught up with me just before I entered the Library. He'd never come looking for me before so I knew this had something to do with that girl.

"What?" I asked. I was still angry at him, of all the girls in the school it was the dumb bitch he'd liked and gone after.

"Where is your sister? I haven't seen her in school for a week now. I've looked for her everywhere and I couldn't find her" he looked so concerned.

How had I not noticed that he loved her before? I was such a fool. I felt so disgusted thinking about it, disgusted that he would pick her over me. I thought he had good taste, apparently, I was wrong.
Well, I was all she was gone and I was all he would have now

It was time for me to play the role I'd been practising all weekend.

I broke into tears, he looked confused as I did so and held my hand immediately.

"Arin, what's the matter?" he asked.

"kiki is dead Osaze," I cried. Fake tears, but he didn't know that. How would he anyway?

He looked at me in disbelief.

"No... " the single word held heartbreak and so much pain, it also broke my heart that he cared so much about her.

"She died in a car crash last week. I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you since, I...I've still not gotten over it myself" Then I leaned closer and hugged him.

"What?" he sounded so confused.

"Last week, she went to Abeokuta. She said she had a soccer game there, you know she plays for one of their local teams there. The vehicle she'd boarded crashed on the way there" I said rubbing his back.

He broke into tears and sobbed. I pulled away surprised because I didn't think he could be emotional. It was the first time I saw him cry.

After Okikiola's death, Osaze and I got really close because we grieved together; well he grieved, I comforted him. Three weeks later, he'd stopped grieving and  I wasn't surprised when he proposed a relationship, I'd gotten the obstacle out of the way after all. I asked him if he still liked Okikiola, or he still remembers her fondly; the way a lover would remember a late lover. He said no and we never spoke about her again. We've been together ever since.

**********

Present

"How do you think, I'll ever forget her Arinola?!" he yelled at me.

"You told me that. I asked you then before we began dating and you said you'd forgotten her!" I yelled.

He grabbed my face and turned me to look at the mirror.

"Look at your face, when you're without makeup. That's she there staring at me, how do you think I can forget her when I see you every day, every minute and every damn second? Is there any facial difference between you two, you look like two peas in a fucking pod Arin. You must have been really stupid to believe I'd forgotten her" he yelled.

"I'm not her, damn you," I cursed.

"No! You can never be her, she was so much better than you. Fuck! Arin, I'm only with you because you look like her" He said then he kicked a small stool across the room.

I gasped at the revelation.

"What...What did you just say?" I asked.

"Forget it Arin, drop it already," he said.

"Do you even love me?" I had to ask.
Everything was happening at once and I felt like I was losing my mind.

"Arinola please, enough...." he begged.

"Answer me," I said coldly. I had to know, I needed to know.

"No, it has always been Kiki" he replied.

Was it possible to feel your heart breaking in your chest? "Osaze, you don't mean that. Tell me you love me" I clutched his T-shirt helplessly.

"I...I can't" He said weakly.

"It's me you love not her, it's me you love. Say it's me you love, she's dead Osaze! You couldn't possibly love a dead girl," I begged. I was desperate, had I really discarded a good life for a man who loved my sister and not me?

He shook his head.

"She's not dead to me Arin, she's not dead to me. I see her every day" he said.

"It's me you see, it's me you love. Stop doing this to me, stop saying that. I'm pregnant with your baby, doesn't that matter to you?!" I screamed at him.

"I'm sorry" he pulled away.

"Oh my God! Osaze, how could you?" he'd been deceiving me all these years.

I slapped him, I was so terrified and angry at the same time. I didn't know which emotion overpowered the other, all I knew was I wanted to hurt him the way he was hurting me.

"You're a despicable bastard. I hope you die a very miserable death!" I spat.

"Arinola, please we can work this out" he begged.

"There's nothing to work out, just go. Go away and never come back" I said sitting on the bed.

He knelt beside me.

"I can't leave without her, I can't live without her," he said.

Her, not me.....Not even his baby.

"You won't ever have her Osaze, or me," I said. It wasn't like he wanted me anyway, he only wants her.

But He won't ever have either of us anymore, I'll make sure he lives his miserable life unloved. By God, not even this child will love him.