Safe

Sixteen

       Nike attended the retirement party with Lola and her boyfriend, despite promising herself she wouldn't give in. After much badgering and being threatened with the terrifying possibility of having her sister permanently camp in her room, she caved and allowed herself to be dragged along.
She was only lucky that the party hadn't turned out boring and she considered it a win since she spent her sister's money on a new dress she'd probably never wear again and gotten a night of great music and exquisite food, something her tired soul desperately needed. Unfortunately, the clock inevitably struck midnight and the magic dissipated.
It was with much regret that she hadn't had more fun at the party that Nike dragged herself into the house after work during the week. Lola was sitting in the kitchen working on her laptop as she trudged by with a sullen greeting and perked up when she saw her sister.
"I mustn't forget! You had something delivered for you." She informed.
"For me? Are you sure? I didn't buy anything." Nike grumbled and leant against the kitchen door.
"I don't know but it has your name on it." Lola shrugged and pointed to a brown package sitting on the kitchen table.
Nike sighed, picked up the box and continued upstairs to her room. Tired and all out of healthy curiosity, she dumped her things on the ground and took a shower from where she fell into bed and didn't wake up until much later when a persistent knocking woke her.
She sat up bleary-eyed, reached for her phone and groaned an answer at the intruder.
"Mummy says you need to come downstairs and eat now!" Lola announced in a voice that was way too loud for a newly awoken person and flounced away from the door. Nike couldn't see her but she knew she'd flounced because her my-sister-is-a-bloody-pest-o meter was going crazy.
After gathering herself, she went downstairs where her mother and sister were waiting patiently for her arrival, their father was away on a work trip and it was just them three in the house.
"Praise God! Can I eat now?" Lola whined as she appeared. Their mother threw her a dirty look and smiled sympathetically at her other daughter.
"You look tired my dear. Did that nap do you any good?" She asked.
"It would have had I been allowed to finish it." Nike grumbled glaring at her sister.
"What? Mummy, you sent me to wake her!"
Josephine shushed her with a glare before giving Nike a pacifying smile and settling her at the table.
"So how did the day go?" She asked both girls and wasn't surprised when Lola launched into a detailed account of her day, going on and on about another litigator who had no regard for her and made obscene jokes when no one was listening and her case load for the present time. Nike thought it was unfortunate that women had to be saddled with inconsiderate and insecure men in the workplace regardless of where they worked. A man was harassing her sister at work and she was getting her fair share of ribbing from the math teachers at the school who all happened to be male.
It didn't escape her that her present predicament was because of a man, or rather a group of men and her ire was kicked up a notch at the thought of how peaceful the world would be without the egoistical entities called men.
After listening to her sister's shy response to their mothers inquiry about Tobi, she decided her earlier train of thought was unfair. There existed, men that made their women and families happy, men who were honest and as trustworthy as anyone could get. Her sister had been lucky enough to find one of such men just as they'd all been lucky to be wife and children to a man like their father.
Nike wondered if one day, she'd find someone comparable to a quarter of the man her father was. It didn't seem like a possibility at the moment, what with her current disdain for the other gender but she knew that time dulled pain and that one day, she might want someone for herself. That day however, hadn't arrived she told herself as she absently answered her mother's questions about her day.
"Did you call Mrs Ijente back?" She heard her mother ask and she sighed before shaking her head.
"Why not? She has been waiting on your call all week."
"Tell her to move on with her life." Nike answered sullenly making her mother huff in anger.
"You don't know if she has something important to discuss with you!"
"We both know what she wants mum and it's none of her business."
Her mother grudgingly murmured an agreement before saying to her daughter, "at least pretend to care and call her back."
"Maybe tomorrow." Nike said, fed up with the conversation.
After dinner, she helped Lola put away the dishes and disappeared upstairs as soon as she could.
She slipped into her PJs, a pair of tiny shorts and a tank top very appropriate for the hot evening and went to open her windows to let fresh air in. On her way back to bed, she stumbled over something in the dark and hissed as she turned on her desk lamp. The offending object turned out to be the package from earlier in the day and curious about it, she carried it to her bed and tore into the brown paper wrapping with a deft hand. Inside was the paper on which delivery details were written, she flung that to the side and fished out a pretty black box with a gold trim.
She wondered what it could be and looked at the paper she'd found to check the sender's name. There was no name which was odd and she laughed to herself at the idea that it could be a secret admirer of some sort. Or it could be one of her friends playing a practical joke on her, although that didn't seem likely since she's only recently started talking to most of them besides it was clear from the box that whatever it was was expensive.
Earnestly, she shook herself out of her thoughts and opened the box, pushing away the soft, gold fabric that shielded it's content. A gasp escaped her at the sight of a pretty pair of sandals sitting patiently in the box, a small card on top of them. They were pretty but it wasn't their beauty that caught her attention. It was that they were simple, white and almost identical to the pair she'd been wearing that horrible day all those months ago.
When the sight in front of her registered, Nike scrambled away from the box, almost knocking it off the bed in her haste. From a safe distance, she peered into the box praying it wouldn't explode or anything like that. When nothing happened a few minutes later, she shakily ventured back to the bed and picked up the card.
Typed neatly onto the card was a short message that was unaddressed but perfectly understood. No address was necessary.
It read, "Couldn't find the exact pair. Please accept this as my thank you."
No address was indeed necessary, she had no doubt who it was from and a ghost of a smile found it's way to her face. She grabbed her phone and went online to check out the brand the shoes were from and almost dropped her phone in surprise.
He had that kind of money? She asked herself then almost immediately chastised herself.
Of course he did, he was a criminal in a particularly successful line of work. Whatever fondness had caused her to smile earlier quickly disappeared as it occurred to her that he knew where she lived and her heart went wild as her imagination led the way.
Suddenly feeling exposed, she slammed the box shut and pushed it under her bed, away from any possible prying eyes.
The night went by with her sitting up in bed, eyes trained on the door and consumed in paranoia. At some point, she'd closed the windows and drawn the curtains despite the muggy heat of the night and had refused to turn on the air conditioner, convincing herself that she needed the quiet to be safe.
Morning came and the first touches of light found her in the plush armchair in a corner of her room, frazzled and ready to drop off. The sound of her phone jolted her out of the shadow of sleep she'd managed to find and she reached out to grab it, eager for silence to reign. She'd meant to ignore it but seeing who it was changed that plan. Sade almost never called her of her own accord, stating her full schedule as reason so such a call was almost novel to Nike.
"Morning sis!" Sade chirped when she answered making Nike groan involuntarily in response to her unnecessary excitement.
"Good morning. Isn't it too early to be calling anyone?" She inquired, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.
"I know." Sade sighed. "I'm busy all through today and I wanted to call you before I forget. You didn't tell me final year gets this crazy." She accused.
"I didn't think I had to. I lost half my weight that year." Nike chuckled.
"Anyway, how are you?"
The conversation lasted a whole ten minutes, a feat for Sade who was as evasive as an eel. After saying goodbye, Nike brushed her teeth and crawled back into bed not feeling up to anything at all. It really didn't help that as the sun gradually came up, the feeling of being watched grew a hundred fold. It was a Friday and she needed to be at work but the thought of stepping out of her room had her stomach turning violently.
She eventually called in to work and told a lie that though she wasn't proud of sufficed as good enough an excuse to stay home.
She listened to the house get loud as her sister went through her morning playlist and her mother got dressed for work and listened to it get quiet again as they both left the house. Soon the quiet soothed her and she fell into a light sleep.
At a little after noon, she stumbled out of her room, freshly showered and in an oversized shirt and pants and left the house. After sitting in front of the TV for almost an hour, she'd gotten bored and couldn't take the silence anymore so she got dressed and headed to Hannah's store where she knew she could hang out with her friend for the day. Of course on the way, she got distracted and arrived at her destination with a half empty cup of frozen yogurt.
Like always, she said hello to the employees and went into the back room that served as Hannah's office. The store itself was a huge one floor building that had the front serving as the boutique and the back housing Hannah's office, the stock room and a break room for the employees.
She knocked lightly on the door and pushed it open when she heard a voice tell her to come in. Inside, Hannah was sitting on the floor across from Hameed who was the last person Nike expected to see there. They'd been having lunch and talking but stopped to see who it was.
"Hey!" Hannah exclaimed when she saw her friend then looked her up and down and frowned.
"Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Stuff happens." Nike said kicking her shoes off and going to high five Hameed who was also smiling at her.
"What were you two doing?"
She asked conversationally.
"Just trying to teach this one the advantages of a small friend group." Hameed said pointing at Hannah with his fork.
Hannah huffed and shook her head at him. "For the last time, having more friends is better. You have a friend for everything!"
"Not in my opinion." Hameed answered. Nike was startled when Hannah turned to her with all the force of a judge looking to the defendant and demanded in a no nonsense tone.
"What do you think?"
"Is that a trick question?" Nike chuckled and Hannah glared at her.
"Come on! I came here to chill not be the judge of you two crazies." She complained.
"Tell me you agree with me or get up and leave!" Hannah said sternly which made Hameed scowl and throw a wad of tissue at her.
"The judge is supposed to be unbiased so you can't threaten her!"
Hannah redirected her glare to her boyfriend and Nike laughed.
"Okay, I think you both have good points. Small friend groups are less stressful and easier to manage and large ones are more fun especially for extroverts like you Hannah."
Hannah considered her answer for a moment then nodded and said like she'd just won the lottery, "you can stay."
Hameed just rolled his eyes and got off the floor taking his hat off Hannah's head in the process. She whined in complaint as he prepared to leave and in an attempt to make him stay, sat on his phone.
"Hannah! Give me my phone. Are you trying to break it?"
"Are you calling me fat!" She gasped in horror and Hameed nodded.
"Yes! Now give me my phone before I carry you off it."
"You wouldn't!" Hannah challenged but found herself screaming when he picked her up, deposited her on the couch and pocketed his phone.
"Have fun Nike." He said with a smile. "Don't let her drive you crazy." Then he was gone.
"I can't believe you just sat there and watched him throw me like a rag doll!"
"You heard the man." Nike answered holding up her yoghurt spoon between them. "Don't nag me."
In response, Hannah grabbed a nearby throw pillow and flung it at her friend who ducked and unintentionally started a pillow fight that had them both collapsing on the floor in a fit of laughter minutes later.
"I'm glad I came." Nike laughed.