Chapter 1

                    Tiony's pov

  "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Shinel asks for the third time, making me feel annoyed.

  I groan inwardly, trying hard to mask my expression by persing my lips and shaking my head. "How can you study all the time?" She asks in an accusing manner, flipped her long blonde weave over her left shoulder, and began applying more makeup on her face.

  Steffon sighs loudly, and I turn my gaze on her, taking in the revealing outfit she was dressed in. She looked really hot, I have no doubt she'll be in the spotlight at the dance and she can also dance very well. "If I knew you would be so boring, I wouldn't have taken you with us. Chupsy, you're really a booknerd," Steffon blurted out in a slightly aggressive tone.

"Let's go." Shinel states, and they were out the door in less than five seconds, banging it shut behind them.

  I released a breath, I didn't realize I was holding feeling a bit embarrassed by what they had said. I don't have several men financing me like them, and neither am I interested in any. The two months of hype life my ex had forced me to indulge in a year ago was a farce for public display. Now his new girlfriend is working multiple jobs to keep up the show even though she's attending university. I shook my head and inhaled deeply, then exhaled upon a sigh.

  I had thought I had found a man who is financially stable and willing to help me, but I couldn't have been more wrong. From the moment he started borrowing my money, I had picked up that something was wrong. His excuse of the ATM machine taking his card was like a strike of lightning brightening up my mind on a dark stormy night when I found the card on the floor just after we had a very heated lovemaking session. He had rolled over and was fast asleep within seconds, while I stood looking down at the card, which had fallen from his pants pocket.

  Gary was boasy and had given me the pin number to withdraw money a week after we had taken our relationship to the next level. Feeling betrayed, I searched his pants pocket and found his two other cards, one debit and another savings. While he snores, I had hurriedly taken a shower, got dressed, and driven his car at after two in the morning to the ATM machines. I was surprised that they all used the same pin number after just casually checking them at the various ATMs. In my heart, I was glad I hadn't yielded to his constant force of taking him to my home to meet my parents.

  In a rage of anger, I withdraw the eighty-four grand out of his JN savings account, the thirty grand in his Sagicore savings account, and then went to megamart after three the following evening and used his debit card to purchase fifty-one thousand dollars worth of groceries when he went away to play football. I had taken the groceries and money home, then drove back to his rented one bedroom house and cooked a lavish meal out of all that he had purchased for my weekend stay over.

If I hadn't planned to leave him because of the lie, he had told me, I would definitely do so when I caught him talking to Analisa that night. He still had no idea that I had only pretended to be asleep, then had tiptoed out to the living room where he was speaking charmingly and promising to take her out the next weekend. He was touching me up for sex the next night when I told him that my period had suddenly come, sulking he had turned his back to me on the bed and went to sleep. With tears in my eyes, I took his phone and unlocked it like I had done to clear the ATM messages the day before, and this time, I checked through all his messages on every media platform.

'User.' I had voiced, but he was sleeping deeply and didn't hear me.

Wiping my tears with vengeance in my heart, I blocked my social media platforms from him on his phone, then did so on mine. Then I restored his phone to the factory setting and placed it on the bed beside him, careful in covering my tracks, I made him dropped me off at the hairdresser the following day with the excuse of meeting up with my mom. While I got my hair done, I saw him parked discreetly over on the other side, waiting inside his car. I smiled to myself and exited via the back door when I was done. My hair had merely wanted a touching up, and not even the hairdresser knew me.

The one lie I had felt guilty over telling him turned out to save me, deleting all that I had posted with him and I before changing my name on all my social media platforms was like a cleansing for me. My new beginning was studying harder, focusing solely on my lessons, and working part-time jobs during the school season. Losing the summer job is a great blow, as I won't be able to earn any money to add to what I have saved up for my second year at university. With a sigh, I got to my feet and searched through my bags to see what clothes I had to go out. After all, I did come with my cousins to have a fun summer holiday.

I went to bed late and hissed several times before getting up the next morning. Uncle Earl was walking away to the backyard where the farmlands stretched on more than forty acres. I went to the kitchen as it was my duty this morning to prepare breakfast. "Good morning, Aunty Palsy." I greeted my uncle's wife upon seeing her there.

"Good morning, Chupsy. A wey yah guh look bout fi breakfast?" She greeted me in turn and then asked, scratching her head through her eskewed tye head.

  Dah 'oman yah esi, nuh wonder some family members nuh like har. I say in mind.

"I will look after whatever is available here, Uncle sey food always dey a him yaad." I respond as patiently as I could.

  She opened one of the cupboards and placed a two pound bag of flour and half pound of salt fish on the counter before telling me. "Mek some fry dumpling and cook up saltfish."

"Mmhnn." I say without opening my mouth.

  As soon as she was out of the kitchen, I opened the cupboard and took out a pound of saltfish, another two pounds parcel of flour, and proceeded to make breakfast. I have no doubt that Aunty Palsy must have millions of dollars saved up from Uncle Earl. The woman is so stingy that she barely eats, or maybe it is only when his relatives come to visit. If I cook a small portion of food and it can't share for all of us, then she will place the blame on me that I only prepare a small amount. I made a cup of tea for myself and ate when the food was ready and left the rest covered up.

                     Arly's pov

  Kimeka cut her eyes at Dinah as she walked past the gate and called out to me, I didn't answer her so as not to start an argument with Kimeka. I only brought some groceries for my very active three year old son Arlem, and I'm happy that I got off work early today so I could get some rest to go to my friend Dagger-master's party tonight. Arlem was excited. He loves food and jumps up with glee as I place the things at his mother's room door. Her face was vexed up, and she was scantily dressed in blue jeans, batty rider shorts, a green tube top belly skin blouse, and a green slipper to match.

"Why yuh neva guh work today?" I asked her in my no-nonsense tone of voice.

She shoot up her mouth in a frown and turned her face away, but I already saw the way she did her eyes before turning away and answering. "Mi neva feel good."

"Later, Arly." I told my son.

"Ba-bye, Daddy." He says in a sad voice.

I was through the gate within a few long strides, not wanting Kimeka to ask me for any money. She needed to pull her weight in this relationship and I wasn't joking with her, she goes to work when she feels like it and has been threatened to be fired more than once by the boss, yet she doesn't seem to care. We were still in a relationship, but I just don't feel committed, I try very hard, but I just can't get the urge to ask her to move in with me. Although mom has stuck to her claim that Kimeka had breed for me to try and hold me, I do believe we share deep feelings for each other. If only her behavior was more decent, I think then exhaled loudly as I parked at my gate.

  My younger brother André sat on the back step, chatting with our nephew Jevaughn when I walked across the yard to my house. "Yow!" I hailed them, not pausing in my walk.

"Ahh, bad charge."

"Yea bro," they both answered, then continued with their conversation.

"Di two sista dem nice ino, but a di cousin, yow... Dis mawnin' when mi guh ova deh guh check Mattic, mi couldn't stop stare pon har. She av a bloodclaate piece-a-shape dey! And she nuh brown like di cousin dem inuh, har complexion is a ash brown velvety cool look. Yow, di 'oman tan good."

  Jevaughn states as I stood just inside my living room listening. "A must she Mattic a talk sey nuh guh road, mi si di other two dung a di dance last night, mi nah lie dem gwane wid demselves."

  I hissed and walked to my room whilst shrugging out of my jacket. After undressing, I stepped inside the shower and took a quick wash off. From out of the refrigerator, I took out the pots of food from the night before and put them on the stove to heat up. I locked my front door and went about arranging my clothes for the dance. It was Dagger-master's yearly event, and to miss it is to diss him. Knowing him, even next year, this time, he'll still be cursing me out and accusing me of styling him if I didn't attend.

  I drove my car in the yard and parked it just beyond my house. Hopefully, Kimeka won't come to the dance or march round with Arlem to sleep with me. My phone rang and I saw that it was Dinah, I didn't answer it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to fuck her tonight. She didn't mind screeching out through the back door if Kimeka came over, but she just can't stop running her mouth, and I'm almost out of lies to tell Kimeka.

"If mi feel horny later mi call yuh, tsk." I say and swipe the off button ending the noisy ring tone.

To be continued...