HEAR ME TOO!

PART SEVEN

Later that evening, Ben decided to go for a walk on the beach but before he left the house, he called his friend. The phone rang severally before Uche picked up.
"What?!" Came his curt reply and Ben decided to weigh his next words carefully.
"Uche, I can explain. It's been a rough couple of days."
"So rough that you couldn't return any of my calls or at least text? Dude! I was so worried that I had to call your mum to ask if you were okay. She said you were and that you would call soon," Uche ranted and then paused to take a breath.
Ben seized the opportunity and launched into the story of what had transpired between he and Tina. Uche waited for him to finish and then said more calmly,
"Damn! I didn't know all that because your mum didn't give any details. Still, you should have called me. You don't have to go through everything alone."
"I know and I'm sorry I didn't reach out to you. I just needed to be alone for a while."
"Okay. Apology temporarily accepted. I just got back to Abuja. Where are you? Let's go somewhere and you can tell me everything,"
"Umm-"
"What? Dude you gotta get out of the house to heal! Let me just throw on a shirt and find my car keys," Uche said and started moving around to pick up his things.
"I'm in Malibu. Mum felt it would be best if I got some fresh air here," Ben said and waited for the other shoe to drop. Uche paused for a few minutes and then shouted "You are cancelled!!!"
Before Ben could say anything more, the line went dead. Yep, he thought, It would take more than an apology to get out of this one.
******
The night breeze was cool and refreshing. The waves crashed against each other as if trying to say something to the humans passing by. Ben removed his slippers and walked barefoot on the sand. There was just something soothing about feet connecting with sand. He smiled as he remembered his childhood.How he would come to the beach with his parents and then cry about wanting a sibling whenever he saw other kids playing with their own siblings. Picking a spot close to the water, he sat down and let his mind wander. He didn't know how long he sat there but he wanted to be there all night. All of a sudden, someone shouted, "Men will embarrass you!"
He turned in the direction of the voice and saw a girl sitting a few steps away from him. She held what looked like a bottle of wine in one hand and as the moonlight illuminated her face, he saw she had been crying.
"Sorry?" He asked her, quite perplexed as to what her outburst had meant and what he had to do with it.
"Men will embarrass you." She repeated and took a drink from the wine bottle.
"Umm, okay." Ben replied, not knowing what else to answer and then looked back at the water.
"You know, I can't figure out what your gender wants. We do everything to make you guys happy and all for what? To be tossed aside the minute you find someone prettier?" She asked, staring at him as if demanding for an answer.
Ben thought about whether he should answer or not and then picked the former.
"It's us men who can't understand your gender. You say you love us one minute and the next minute, you've left us for someone else. And what's worse, you people never seem have a valid explanation," Ben said with more force than he intended. For a moment, she froze before she said in a small voice,
"That's not true."
"Well it's the way I see it." Ben said and returned to staring at the water. The girl kept quiet for a few minutes and then asked, "want some wine?"
"No thanks," Ben replied and wished she'd just stop talking to him and let him go back to thinking. Undeterred by his somewhat cold attitude, she took another swig of wine and then said,
"I was with him for four years. I did everything in my power to make him happy, but he still hurt me so badly. Now I don't know how I'm supposed to move on and what the hell I'm going to do now."
Ben looked at her for a few seconds and said nothing.
"Well, what's your story?" She asked with a smile that appeared forced. After an inner struggle, Ben decided to oblige her with an answer. She clearly needed someone to talk to and he was unfortunate enough to be sitting beside her.
"Who said I had a story?" He retorted.
"Well, you sounded quite angry when you were talking about women. That means you have a story. Come on, you can open up. We will probably never meet again and  I'll definitely forget this encounter after tonight since I'm drunk. So humor me."
"Well, if you must know, I dated her for three years and she just broke up with me without a reason. She also has another man,"Ben said.
"Ughhh! Such a bitch!" She exclaimed indignantly and then asked "Did you at least pull her hair or something?"
"What? No!"
"Ahhh, that's a shame. You should have pulled her hair, or at least busted her car windows. That's what I did."
"You thrashed your ex's car?"Ben asked, looking at her in bewilderment.
"Yes. And he knows he deserves it so he won't call the cops. I bought the car anyway."
Ben stared at her for a few more seconds and started laughing without meaning to. The picture of her breaking car windows was hilarious for some reason.
"See? You're laughing. That's way better than the over serious face you had on earlier,"She said with a smile, more genuine this time.
Ben returned the smile and reached his hand out for the bottle of wine. She gave it to him and he kept it aside.
"I think you've had enough to drink. You'll wake up with a terrible headache tomorrow,"Ben said gently.
"I need to drink to forget everything. Give the bottle back to me!"
"You can't forget the pain with alcohol. When you wake up tomorrow, reality will come crashing down and the pain becomes ten times worse. So just try to get by even with the pain."
She seemed to think about what he said for a while and then nodded.
"I guess you're right....." she said with a sigh. She kept quiet for a few minutes and then suddenly asked "You know what we should do?"
"No, what?" Ben said, bemused.
"We should hold a fake funeral for our exes. You know, as a way of saying they're dead to us. When we're done, we won't look back at the past anymore and then we could stop wallowing in misery."
Ben laughed and stopped when he noticed she wasn't laughing.
"Oh," he said,"you're serious."
"Yes I am. Come on."
She knelt down and started piling sand into a small mountain. Wanting to humor her, Ben did the same thing. When they were done, she smiled at him and said "Say what you want to say to your ex. You can scream if you like."
"Umm-" Ben hesitated, unsure of how to begin.
"Alright, I'll go first, and then you can take pointers," she said.
"Jonathan!!!!! You two faced bastard! I hope you feel the same pain you've put me through, and I hope you choke on your next meal and end up in hell!" She screamed and asked him for the wine bottle. After getting reassurance that she wasn't going to drink it, Ben passed it to her and she poured it on the makeshift grave.
"Good riddance, you nasty piece of shit!!" She shouted and then looked at Ben, a smirk evident on her face.
"It's your turn."
Ben stood for a few minutes and then, to his own surprise, he screamed.
"Tinaaaaaa!! What did I ever do wrong to deserve this kind of treatment?!! I did everything to make you happy! Why didn't you tell me if I was doing something wrong so I could do better?!! I hate you so much even though a part of me will always love you! Goodbye Tina!!" He finished and she handed him the bottle. He poured it on the grave and then they both burst into laughter.
"Bruh, that was more subtle than I expected but I guess it will do," she said between bouts of laughter.
The laughter continued for a while and when they finally stopped, he asked, "What's your name?"
"Isabel," she replied, "What's yours?"
"Benjamin."
They both turned to continue watching the waves, while the moon shone brightly and the owls hooted in the distance.

A/N
Abuja: The capital city of Nigeria.