Too Good to Be Real

chapter 33

Nathi woke up with a boiling headache. Her whole body ached but it concentrated somewhere- her groin. She blinked twice and grimaced when she didn't recognize her surrounding. The room was large and white and - there was someone else in the bed.
She shuddered. Oh, not this again.
She looked down at herself and heaved a sigh of relief. She was wearing a shirt, but...there was nothing underneath.
She'd just had one drink. Just one!
This couldn't be possible.

She couldn't remember anything that'd happened the night before, couldn't remember meeting anyone or letting them convince her to go home with them. Even when she was drop dead drunk, she always knew who she was going home with. And now she'd had just one drink!

She jumped off the bed and tried to get dressed and leave as soon as possible, hopefully without waking whoever it was beside her. This could ruin everything. She couldn't let it get out. She didn't go to bed with just anyone.

She didn't want to look cheap, she wasn't cheap. Yes, she was free, independent, slept with whoever she wanted, just like her mum, but that still didn't make cheap, did it? She didn't date, she enjoyed the thrill it gave her that everyone wanted her but couldn't get her - at least not the way they wanted. But now she was beginning to rethink things, she liked someone, she wanted to be serious... She couldn't let this ruin that.
She'd planned to leave stealthily without knowing whom it was she'd slept with so she could sweep it down the carpet and pretend like it never happened, but besides her better judgement, she looked at the person she'd woken up with.
That man served her drinks everyday at the bar, sometimes for free. He was in the group of people she never slept with. There was no way in hell she could have agreed to go home with him unless she'd been bound and drugged.

***

Oma woke up very early and convinced Asher to drive her to her hostel. She had to speak with Asa. Something about her being depressed and alone didn't sit well with Oma.
He grudgingly and sleepily agreed, but she had to promise to see him at the end of the day.

At the hostel, she found Asa asleep, with no one else there. She decided to read before the day broke. Along the line she realised she hadn't read her Bible in weeks and decided to do just that. Just then, she heard a knock at her door. She opened it believing it was Femi, but met Nathi instead.

"Hey." Oma greeted. "I can't remember the last time you came here." She said smiling.

"Yeah." Nathi replied offhandedly and walked to her bed. Something was obviously wrong.

"What is it?" Oma asked, hoping Nathi wouldn't answer. She wasn't ready to act like a therapist.

"Nothing. My roommate left with our key so I have to wait for her to get back." She replied. Thank God.

"Oh ok. I'll read my Bible then. You can join me."

Nathi snorted.

"What?" Oma asked. "Do you have anything against the Bible?"

"I'm not religious. Sorry for snorting." She replied and rolled her eyes. "Just let me sleep. I didn't have enough sleep last night."

"You're not religious?" Oma asked.

"Please just drop it. I just want to..."

"Is Asher religious?"
It couldn't be a family thing, right?
Coming to think of it she and Asher had never discussed religion.

"You don't know?" Nathi asked surprised.

Before Oma could say anything Asa called out her name when she woke up.

"Are you okay? You weren't picking my calls last night so I got scared."

"Sorry. I put my phone on silent."