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                             ~SOPHIA~

No matter how hard I tried to get that girl's, I mean the weird junior during the Mental Health Awareness voice out of my head, the more I actually remembered her words, her tone, the calmness and eerie feel to it. That girl scared me with her words and only God knows the kind of thing she'd have gone through to make someone as small and young as her to talk in that way, to carry that much pain within her.

Thinking about her was shattering but I still found myself thinking about her from time to time. Maybe because thinking about her was better than thinking about Stephanie and Kunle. Hers was a foreign pain that I could act immune to because I wasn't walking in her footsteps.

Stephanie was back at home fully. I've heard her talk to our parents and Stephen, convinced them to make her stay at home and she'd only go for her treatments from home. I just planned on ignoring her and just going my own way in the house but living in the same house with and with my sister being the extremely humane human that she was, my defence started wearing down and soon enough, we were talking like we used to and ignoring that one big going on with her.

We were basically back to the old days, two sisters totally in love with each other with the almighty cancer hovering over us.

It was the day after our mental health awareness campaign and I was in my room with the two pests, Alex and Gab. The two of them were coming over every single day that I was starting to believe that they must have been exiled from their own houses.

"Guys, I finally got my glasses. Now, I'm a complete intellect."

Gab said out of nowhere from where she was sitting on floor like someone begging for alms. She brought her so called glasses out, smiled brightly at the gold rimmed glasses before putting it on.

"Guys, how do I look with my glasses?"

"Like a nerd." Alex's reply was instantaneous.

"Like Gauis from Merlin."

"Oh God! Look at the both of you being jealous of me. It's not my fault that I was born with this brain."

She gestured fervently to her head and Alex shook his head while tapping his palatal with his tongue and I could tell that he was feeling incredibly sorry for his best friend.

I was feeling that same way too.

"Sophia, how far? You and Kunle are cool now?"

Alex asked suddenly, out of the blues from where he was leaning against one of the couches, shocking me with the question, causing me to remember things I'd rather not remember and there was a total silence for a minute or two before I finally replied.

"And who told you we ain't cool?"

"It's so obvious, it's practically written on your forehead."

Really? My lips curved in a sardonic smile.

"Really? And what about you? Are you...?"

"Eeh Eeh! Guys, guys, just stop," Gab butted in, putting her two hands out to either of us. "Just stop bickering like grumpy grandparents. This is why you should all try to be like me, zero love story, zero heartbreaks. Physics and Chemistry are definitely not going to break my heart."

Alex and I hissed in unison at the same time his phone vibrated and he brought it out from his pocket, read what I assumed to be a message before he started to walk towards the door.

"I'm leaving, guys."

Gab got up so quickly that she almost triple.

"I'm coming with you."

Okay. Not ready to listen to the argument that I was sure was about to ensue between the two of them, I unlocked my phone, logged in to instagram and started to do what I liked doing best on the app,

Stalk Korean boys.

No matter how hard I tried to block Alex and Gab's argument, I could still hear series of yes and no, and hushed whispers before Gab finally told me they were leaving.

"Coz, see you tomorrow." That sentence made me to look away from my phone.

"Tomorrow is not Monday."

"Yeah, it's Saturday, we're coming over."

Oh God!

"Please, don't come." I started, trying to sound as sad as possible. "Have they chased you guys away from home?"

"Ohh, I know you're going to miss us. Don't worry, we'll come very early."

Then she winked at me before closing the door after her.

God! Those two. Can they even have sense again, in this lifetime? I really really doubt it.

I was still pressing my phone when I heard a knock and before I could even say who's there or come in, I heard a creak, then the door opening and I instantly knew it was Stephanie.

"Hey, you okay?"

She asked once she settled herself on my bed. That made my eyebrow to arch up because I was the one supposed to be asking her that question and not the other way round.

"Of course, I'm okay. Why are you even asking anyway?"

"Because..." She trailed off, repositioned herself on my bed so she was laying face down with a pillow supporting her chest. "... Because you don't look okay and besides, Gab told me everything."

I sat up. "Everything as in?"

"Everything as in as the things going on between you and Kunle and that other girl... Aminah, right? "

I hissed underneath my breath but it was loud enough for Steph to hear because the corners of her lips twitched up and she gave me that typical Really, Sophia's look.

"Why would she even tell you things as mundane as that, as if you don't have bigger things to worry about?"

"Things as mundane as that? So you believe the whole issue is trite and yet, you're going around the house looking dead."

I hissed again. I wasn't ready to have this conversation, at least, not with Stephanie. Knowing her, she was definitely going to find one logical explanation for everything and I did not think I was ready for that.

"I'm not going around the house looking death, I'm just stressed, that's all."

"Yen yen yen, look at yourself in the mirror and see how your face have reduced half  its original size because of something you have no control over."

"Steph! Can we not talk about this please? I'm already as stressed out as fuck and..."

"I've been worried about you," She continued, completely ignoring what I just said. "I've lost track of the number of times you'll just sit down to just stare into space. If it's affecting you that much, why don't you just come clean to Kunle?"

"Hell no." I replied in less than an heartbeat, my brain thinking of a thousand possible outcome if I should tell him. I did not keep it away from him for this long only to give up and tell him when we have less than a year left for Secondary school.

"So why are you being so hard on yourself? If you can't tell him how you feel about him, if you can't tell him everything and allow him to make his decisions, then why won't you just allow him to be with the girl he likes in peace?"

I clenched my right fist till I felt the sharp impact of my fingernails tearing at my skin. I only let go when I saw the faint the red color at the tip.

"You make it sound as if I'm a bad person."

"Of course, you're not a bad person, far from it, you're actually a very good person but you have a knack for making very bad decisions..."

I chuckled. I actually chuckled because I could see no difference in what she just said. A person who makes bad decision and a bad person, zero difference.

"Maa rerin oo."

"Sorry, my bad but you just called me someone who makes bad decision while insisting that I'm not a bad person but I honestly can't see a difference between the two."

She said nothing for a while, she just kept staring at me, at her little sister with a twisted overworking mind.

"Okay, you're making an obviously bad decision with the whole thing going on with Kunle but even with everything going on and how much it's affecting you, you still want the best interest of everyone at heart and that makes you a good person."

Good person, my foot! Even I had no idea what the bitterness wrapping itself around my heart was capable of making me do.

But of course, I did not say that. I only nodded sheepishly at her words, wanting to believe in them, hoping to desperately believe in them and then, willing them to be true.

"And apart from all that, you're too focused on the negativity, on the bad side of things..."

"Steph, can we really not have this conversation?" I interrupted, knowing where she was going with that, it's that same thing she'd always told me and I hated it, not because she kept repeating it but because she was right.

I just wasn't ready to admit it to myself.

"No, I'm going to say it and you can either listen or not."

I swallowed, then focused my entire attention on the tiny cut on my palm, at the little blood that was now caking on it.

"You're too focused on the fact Kunle is not reciprocating your feelings, as if that's the only thing about you when it's obviously not, you're worth more than a one sided crush."

The corners of my lips twitched up. Crush? Really? Crush? She thought it was nothing other than a one sided crush?

"And that can be very very toxic and it can even spiral you down the part of self destruction within a twinkle of an eye."

"There are thousands of other positive things you should be more focused on, your career, your friendship with Adam, Alex and that new girl... What's her name again?"

"Baby Kay." I beamed and my sister scoffed, a sorry and pitiful expression crossing her face.

"Are you sure that girl is not..." She repositioned herself on the bed again so she'd be able to twirl one of her fingers in front of her left ear. "Are you sure she's not making you go crazy because in all your 16 years of your existence, I've never seen you act like this."

I only beamed and shrugged and spread my arms akimbo for her while she shook her head and a more pitiful look crossed her face.

"What exactly happened to you?"

"Baby Kay."

"God!" She burst into laughter, the deep melodious sound vibrating through the entire size of the room. "Oti pari oo. Anyway, if you're that infatuated with your so called Baby Kay, why don't you just focus your energy more on your friendship with her rather than just beating yourself up because someone you like at 16 doesn't reciprocate your feelings. 16 is a very young age, you still have your whole life in front of you..." She trailed off and she exhaled loudly. "Okay... Maybe you don't even have your whole life in front of you but then, that's just the more reason why you should live in the present and let go of all negativity and toxicity and focus on the positivity."

"And that girl, Aminah, why do I even feel like you guys will make really good friends?"

I chuckled, then again and again till I burst into a full blown laughter that made my ribs crack and my stomach to hurt.

"Really, Steph? Not in this lifetime, maybe in another one where Judas did not betray Jesus. She's that one person I can't wait not to see again when we finally graduate high school."

"Ehn ehn, you dislike her that much?" There was a fake astonished tone to her words and I knew she was indirectly mocking me for what I did not even have an idea of.

"On the contrary, I don't dislike her."

"Really? You must hate her then since it's so easily for one to indirectly say that her sight nauseates you."

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did. I only interpreted it for you in different words."

"I did not..."

"You did. You are just too focused on one particular thing about her and you're making that the only her when there are thousand other little things about her. You'll be surprised that when you allow yourself to really get to know her, you'll really like her."

I shook my head, not agreeing with Stephanie's point at all. I've tried, I've really tried to get to like her but each time, I just can't stop seeing her as the cause of my heartache and misery.

I know it's stupid but I actually have no control over my feelings.

"I doubt that."

"You'll see, life works in really mysterious ways. Just like this girl I met when I was in the hospital. Her legacy precedes her so I got to know her even before I actually met her. She was scary, acted like a psycho and acted like she belonged to a mental asylum than to an actual hospital. Her mind works in this twisted way that nobody deserves to happy, so when you're actually happy and full of light, you're automatically on her best side.

Hmm?

I shifted on my bed, unable to believe what I was hearing. Were people really that crazy out there?

"And as if that isn't enough, if she should find out a particular thing making you happy, she won't mind breaking her bones so she'd take that one thing away from you."

The fuck?

I said nothing for a while. I just kept staring at my sister, waiting for her to say she was just joking because it wasn't possible for someone to be that twisted but Steph only stared back with a blank expression and that confirmed it that she definitely wasn't joking.

The actual fuck?

"Wait, Steph? Are you for real right now?" I asked and I sat properly on the bed so I'd be able to see her face clearly. "There's someone like that out there and they are  actually allowing her to mingle with humans. They should feed her to the crocodile or something. God! I hate her already! I just wish I could see her so I'd give her a piece of my mind." I rattled on and on angrily, the intensity of my anger shocking me, paralysing me but really? The fuck? There was someone walking around with that kind of twisted mindset?

"You see, that's it, you heard just one thing about her and you already hated her whole being because of that thing when definitely, that's just one thing about her, there are thousands of other little ones, trivial details that has been overlooked because we all like to focus on just one big picture."

Oh God! How did I end up having this kind of sweet girl as a sister? Steph was always seeing the good things in people even when they're obviously bad, worse even, even when they're monsters in human forms.

"Steph, that kind of analysis cannot work for everybody. Trust me, there are demons and monsters in human bodies. We only need to fish them out and throw them in the dungeons! "

"Sophia, just calm down, see how you're fuming and talking angrily. I'm not saying some people ain't demons, I'm just saying that instead of focusing on the fact that they're demons, we should focus instead on the reason why they're demons."

I shook my head, still not agreeing with her.

"So, that's like the same thing with Aminah, if you ain't so focused on the fact that she's making you miserable because she's with Kunle, you'll actually see her, like the real her."

Mi o ni interest.

"Wo, I've talked too much. I need to catch my breath and to sleep. You turned me to motivational speaker even though I'm pretty sure you're going to ignore everything I just told you."

At least, you know that.

She yawned loudly before she turned to the other side, definitely ready to sleep.

"That girl at the hospital, what's her name? So I'll remember not to name my daughters after her."

"Sophia ehn! Fara bale, it's not that deep na." Her voice was already very drowsy and I could tell that she was going to fall asleep any second from now.

"Dabira... Oluwadabira."

Good! Now, I'll remember not to befriend anyone with that name and definitely not to name my kids that name.

                                 *********
                                ~KUNMI~

I was supposed to be eating but my mind was far away from the food in my front and the chit chats between mom and junior.

Lemme just say that my mind was in disarray.

I couldn't just for the life of me wrap my head around that girl called Bola. What was her aim? Why would she even do something like that? To the point of stealing Adam's number from Aminah's phone even when he was obliviously not interested in her.

But that was before. I had no idea about now.

"Oluwabukunmi."

I jolted out of my reverie at my name to see mom staring at me, her facial expression morphed into a worried one. Calling me by my full name was reserved for extremely rare occasions, like whenever she was incredibly pleased with me, which was close to never and whenever she was incredibly worried about me, which was more usual than the former.

"Why are you not eating your food?" She asked in a really worried tone that not only surprised me, it numbed me too because as far back as I could remember, mom had never asked me a question like that. Infact, she was always asking the opposite, why are you eating that much? Shouldn't you watch what you're eating because of your weight? And even though I was really surprised that she just asked that question, it irked me too.

"I don't have an appetite." I finally managed to croak out while sounding as nonchalant as possible.

"And what do you mean by you don't have an appetite?" She asked again, her tone raising and sounding even more worried.

"I just don't have an appetite."

"That's unusual, do you..."

"Mom!" I interrupted, shocking her and Junior, whose spoon dropped from his hand at the intensity of my voice that sounded nothing like mine. I was shocked at myself too but there was that weight pressing against my chest and I needed to get it off. "What exactly do you want me to do? When I eat, you say I eat way too much and when I don't, you start to say it is unusual. Am I just supposed to just fade away or what?"

What followed my small outburst was a stunned silence and my heaving chest as if I just ran a marathon. Junior looked stunned for a split second before he gave me the thumbs up sign and he went back to eating. Mom on the other hand looked absolutely shocked, bewildered even as if me talking back at her in that manner was something that was absolutely unfathomable. She looked like she was trying to pierce the reasons behind my outburst together and that irked me even more, knowing that she had no idea what her words were making me go through.

"Kun..." She started to say again but I was already out of my chair and on the stairs.

I was only able to release a breath I did not even know I was holding when I got to the safe corners of my room.

                              *********

I was heaving heavily and even though the weather was really chilly, I could feel sweats in my armpits and on my forehead. It was barely dawn and the clearing darkness hardly illuminated the estate. Even though I had my earpiece on, I could still hear barking of dogs from the distance and then, the calls to prayer from mosques. There were also few people on the road, jogging, running, sprinting. My legs were already wobbly and it felt like I was going to fall down and collapse anytime soon but I kept jogging anyway. I was almost in front of our house and I just needed to get home before collapsing.

"Baby Kay!"

Oh my God!

Pummelled by sudden adrenaline, my body picked up pace, surprising even me but I should have known that the girl I was up against wasn't normal and that she definitely wasn't going to give up because she soon caught up with me at the same minute I stopped in front of our house and I collapsed against the fence to support myself from sinking to the floor.

I was that worn out.

"Baby Kay! Oh my God! It's really you." She shrieked excitedly as if she just saw the least celebrity she thought she'd ever see.

I said nothing and I even averted her eyes. The last time I saw her was two days ago when she looked like she was ready to beat Bola to coma. How did she even know about what had been going on between them? Did Adam tell her when he did not even tell me?

"I was watching you as you were jogging and you really have good legs for running."

I have good legs for running? I have good legs for running? Really? Was that an indirect insult or what? She must have sensed my thoughts from my expression because she quick to raise her palm in front of her as if to stop me from moving away.

"Nooo ooo, I don't mean it in that way that you're thinking oo. I'm serious, you have really good legs for running"

Maybe she was right because a long time ago, when I was small, I used to run, not because I particularly liked doing it but because I was told by grown ups that I was good at it. I ended up giving it up and kissing running goodbye when the taunts from my peers got to much.

"You should get back to jogging, it's almost daybreak."

"I'm done. I've been up since 5am." She replied in a nanosecond and I did a double take, taking in her black sport bra, black joggers, her hair that was pulled back and tied into a loose ponytail, the headphone that was laying loosely around her neck and her glowing caramel skin even in the dark. She looked like someone that just stepped out of a fashion magazine and not someone that had been jogging for the past one hour.

"Okay then, bye bye, see you on Monday."

I pushed myself off the wall, opened the gate and was about to enter when I noticed how she was looking at me. She was looking at me as if I just uttered absolute rubbish.

"Are you not going home?"

"I am," She replied before she pushed past me and she entered. "I just need to refill my water bottle."

Oh God! How did I even end up with Sophia?

I followed her and she just led the way as if I was the following her to her house and not vice versa. In the long run, the girl that said she only wanted to refill her water bottle ended up coercing me to show her my room and after going on and on about how beautiful my room was even though it looked extremely ordinary, compared to hers, she entered my bathroom without an invite.

Without any prior warning.

I just stood there in the middle of the room, stupefied because, really? I ended up concluding that she just wanted to pee.

Just when I thought she should be getting ready to come out, I heard the sound of shower running. My mouth dropped open and I really had to use two of my fingers to close my mouth but then, Sophia really entered the house uninvited, coerced me to bring her to my room and now, she was using the shower in my bathroom?

Can this girl...? What exactly...? Oh my God! I face-palmed. I finally became friends with a very crazy human being.

I decided to wait for her till she was done so I'd shower too only to get the shocker of my life when after 20 minutes, Sophia started singing in her extremely bad Sophia's voice.

Oh God!

As if spending eternity in the bathroom wasn't enough, she was singing too. What kind of girl? God! I was really done trying to comprehend Sophia.

When it became obvious that the Queen Weirdo wasn't going to leave the bathroom anytime soon, I finally decided to use the bathroom in Mayowa's room and when I returned, the alejo oran was already in the room, dressed in one of my shirts and laying down on my bed, her body sprawled in a way that she was already occupying almost the whole size of the bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously, moving closer to the bed and holding my towel around my chest as if it'd protect me from the creature on my bed.

"Trying to sleep." She replied immediately and she even turned her face to the other side, sprawling her body even more in the process.

On my own bed. Or was I missing something here?

She remained unmoving on my bed and I kept glancing at her slender frame when an incredible urge to smack her body overcame me.

"If you're thinking of smacking me, just dead that thought, this body is worth millions of dollars."

I dropped my hand that I was already raising.

"And don't forget to wake me up when it's time for breakfast please. Love you."

Brea... Break wetin?

Oluwa oo 😂😂😂💔💔, At least the Sophunmi ship is sailing successfully 💔💔😂😂

Well, do you think it's possible for Aminah and Sophia to be friends and why?

Important Announcement!!!

School has resumed 😭😭😭. I've been looking forward to resumption but now that it's here, I just feel like crying. It's my final semester and coupled with my final year project, I see my wattpad life basically becoming none existent 😭😭😭💔💔💔

But the good news is I'm determined to finish this book very soon, resumption or not because it's already taking too much of my time. I'm supposed to be done writing it by now, we're supposed to be in the world of birds with broken wings by now but then, shit happens. So, I just really hope I'll stay motivated enough to be able to meet my deadline. And a very special shout out to my active readers, the ones who'd never read without voting, the ones who'd never leave a chapter without commenting. Trust me, I know every single one of you and I'm really grateful for you guys. Without you, I don't think I'd have grown this much as a writer on this app ❤️❤️❤️ and the engagements in my last chapter? Epic and mind-blowing 🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️😩😩 and I love you guys so much! Let's keep that energy please.