The Bridge|| Completed✓

7|•

Early update, yes. Hope you enjoy reading. _Modupeolu_ this is for you. You might not comment much but I want you to know that I see your votes and appreciate them. Thank you b!

Unedited chap, btw but go read anyways↓
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"When he was in primary 4 and I, JSS2; the school decided to promote him, since it was glaringly obvious that he was way above his mates. It was a waste of time and potential for the clearly extraordinary boy, they said, and my parents wholeheartedly agreed.

"They also thought that it would be a good idea to transfer my brother to my school. That was another point where stuff hit the fan.

"I told you already that I was popular and well-liked at school. So imagine how I felt when my brother, who is three years younger than me by the way, was promoted to my class.

"It was like, I could never really escape from it all. Everyone at school: all my friends, all my school mates, all my teachers; started looking at me with new eyes; judging and criticising, as soon as Mayokun came into my space and started to show me up.

"It was bad enough that he took my parents from me, but no, he wasn't satisfied with that. He had to come in and steal my thunder at school too." He clenched his fist as he remembered how those events impacted him majorly. And no, it was not for the better.

"I hate him, if you couldn't already tell. I hated him when he was born, hated him as he grew older and I still loathe him now. That much hasn't changed," He admitted, feeling no remorse or shame for feeling that way about his blood relation. Why should he anyways?

"Well, I'm sorry you had to endure that," she said, her voice overly soft and gentle.

"That's not even the half of it, madam. I'm just getting started," he admitted, smiling. He was feeling a little manic, but it was to be expected. He didn't even care about sounding petty. Who that one epp?

"My friends became his friends and gradually I faded to background too. Nobody minded his age, since he was intellectually at par with us. He's more handsome than I am, I admit that; since he inherited most of his features from my mother's side of the family. So girls used to run after him too. But that one was of minor consequence to me.

"I tried to explain to them, my parents; that I didn't want him to come to my school; that it was embarrassing. But they wouldn't listen. They thought it was a great opportunity for the both of us to get closer instead," He spat out the words, unexpressed anger still evident in his tone.

"It all became very suffocating, so I started to breed demons in my headspace. Not by choice, of course. I had gotten to JSS3 when all these things started reflecting on my mental health.

"The fleeting sadness and hopelessness stopped being so fleeting. They became permanent residents up here," he told her, tapping his temple twice.

"At first, I was confused about it. Why did my heart feel so heavy everytime? Why did I no longer enjoy the things I usually did? Not that I enjoyed a lot of things in the first place, but still. This prompted me to make research and the only diagnosis that I was able to get was depression.

"I didn't want to believe it but I couldn't help reevaluating myself. I went to meet the school counsellor because I wanted to get more clarity. I told him that I thought I was depressed and you know what he did?" he asked her, the anger still evident as he recollected the memory.

She slowly shook her head in a tentative gesture. He laughed in response, widening his uncanny, really light brown eyes at her.

"He shunned me. He freakin' shunned me. The guy just dismissed my concerns and told me that I was too small to be depressed, too small to even know the meaning of depression. It's not like there were all these awareness campaigns about depression back then. I didn't know what to do so I kept quiet.