Jeremiah

Barely two days into detention and I was getting really tired of cleaning all that dried pee and dirt in the men's room. The really awful smell didn't stop, no matter how hard I tried to cover up my nose and stop myself from breathing. Cleaning definitely wasn't my thing at all. I had barely picked up a scrubbing brush all my life since I moved into the mansion, and now, bending in front of one of the urinals and trying to get used to scrubbing off all the dried pee stains on it was something I was definitely never going to get used to, coupled with the fact that the school's general male bathroom was the worst place I ever wanted to play maid in.

Screw it. I was done playing maid. I threw my scrubbing brush on the ground as hard as I could, and it made everyone else turn to me. Jesus Christ, I wasn't doing this anymore. I struggled to pull off my apron too.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I took off my apron, pretending like I didn't hear Charles the first time.

"What does it look like?" I asked him as I threw the apron to the ground. "I'm done cleaning this mess."
I took off my gloves one after the other, and threw them on the ground. He scoffed and then threw his scrubbing brush on the ground too.

"Meaning what?" He asked me. "Were we given the punishment alone? Who said you could leave when you want?"

I slowly raised my eyes to his.

"Why should I have to clean your bathroom for you?" I asked him. "Do I look like young money to you?"

He scoffed.

"Get rid of the dirt, that's your job." I looked into his eyes. "Cause it seems like that's all you're full of. Dirt."

Charles took a quick step towards me, to fight me, and I did the same, Kingsley grabbed me immediately, while his friends grabbed him right back. I wished they didn't. Hearing him and his mum say those things to Kora and her mum hours ago still made me so mad, and I just wanted to punch him till I was tired of it. At that point, I was ready to take any opportunity that came my way.

"He's just trying to get you to fight him again." One of his friends told him. "Don't give him what he wants."

A tiny smirk appeared on Charles' face.

"He's just mad because I got to hit his little bitch first." He said, chuckling beneath his gritted teeth. I squinted my eyes, hoping I didn't hear what I had just heard.

"What?"

"Yes I fucked your little whore." He continued, pulling his trousers a bit above his hips. "And my oh my, I'd be glad to give you spoilers." He paused and then took a deep breath. "I had never seen anything like it before. It was the best I had ever had in my entire life. It was too good that I didn't want my friends to have a taste of it. I wanted it all to myself."

"You're so sick." Kingsley said from behind me. Me, I just stood there glaring at him. My heart was racing. I was getting so mad already, and my palms had rolled into tight fists. He chuckled. I heard Luke drop his brush from behind me and take a step like he wanted to throw a punch at him, but I had to beat him to it. I took a step closer to Charles.

"What?" He asked me. "Don't tell me you're jealous?" He asked me, just as he and his friends exchanged loud laughs.

"Don't pay him any attention Jer," Kingsley pulled my arm. "He's trying to pull you into a situation you won't be able to ignore. Just ignore him."

I wished I could. I couldn't. Not when he was standing there like that, making fun of Kora. Of what he did to Kora. God, it made me so mad.

"What are you going to do about it?" He asked me. "Are you going to hit me again?" He took a step closer to me, he turned to his side, now he was daring me. "Go on, hit me." He told me. "I'd just love to see how your family is going to get away with this in court, because we aren't going to let it go. Give my mum one more reason to want to destroy you. Go on, defend her again, hit me."

He was testing me, he really was.

"Just ignore him." Kingsley's voice were turning to tiny echoes in my ears. I was barely listening to him. Static. Everyone's voice were in echoes. I was hungry. Hungry for more violence. I could feel my anger crawling up my veins.

"What?" He asked me. "Don't tell me you're scared to hit me now that you know I'm pressing charges-"

I threw a quick punch at him and watched him fall to the ground again. I took a deep breath, rubbing my hurting wrist. God, I wanted more. I had barely even appeased my anger. I wanted to hurt him so much more.

"Stand up." I signaled for him to stand. I was done talking and tolerating his loud mouth. It was time I put him in his place. He was bleeding now from his mouth. His friends bent over to see if he was okay, but I didn't care at all. I walked to him and then grabbed him by his shirt. I pulled him up.

"What did you say?" I asked him, even though I knew he was bleeding so much from his mouth to even answer. He could barely speak.

"Jerry, stop." Kingsley yelled from behind me, but I could care less what Kingsley thought. I threw another punch at him again. Charles fell to the ground, this time, breaking one of the urinals on his way down.

"Get up." I signaled him again. I wasn't tired, and I hoped he wasn't either.

"What is wrong with you?!" One of his friends yelled at me. "Are you trying to kill him?"

"Get up you sad bitch!" I yelled as loud as I could, and then moved to pick him up again. He was barely even managing to keep his eyes on me now. He had blood all over his mouth to his jaw, and then his uniform. He spat some out. I pulled him up, preparing to punch him again, and this time, I wanted it to hurt as hell.

"Say it again!" I yelled at him. He looked so weak, so weak to even speak. "What?" I asked him "You can't talk anymore? Who's the scared bitch now, punk?!"

"Jerry," Kingsley grabbed my arm.

"That's enough Jer." Luke grabbed my shoulder. They were stopping me. Why were they trying to stop me? Didn't they hear all the things that punk had said?

"He's not worth all the trouble." Luke said. "If there's anyone that's supposed to get into trouble for anything, it's him."

Goodness,

I was starting to hesitate. I just wanted to hurt him. I wanted to make him feel just like Kora felt, but Luke's words made a lot of sense. He wasn't just worth it, plus with the current look on his face, I was sure I had done a pretty good job. It was more than enough. I pushed him away from me, throwing him right back on the floor, so his friends could help resuscitate him. I was done with it. I was done with all of it. I placed my hands on my hips, taking a deep breath and trying to avoid facial contact with him. He looked a mess.

"He should get treated." I told his friends. "Take him to see the nurse, we'll round things up here."

I was slowly getting calm now. Really calm.

I waved my hands sideways in front of them, not trying to hide my disgust at all.

"Please take him out already."

"Let me help." Kingsley volunteered, but one of them slapped his hand away.

"You're just as weird as he is. All three of you."

Kingsley scoffed.

"Mad oh, Carry him on your own then."

I turned around, so I could at least breathe without reminding myself why I couldn't in the first place. I couldn't see it, but I could hear them moan as they managed to lift Charles up from the floor. They had better carried him out.

And that was how I was about to bag an extra "God knew how long" in detention.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I inhaled sharply the moment I raised my shirt in front of the large mirror in old money's restroom, after making sure no one was watching me just to take a look at my stab wound. It didn't look so good. I could see how pale my skin around the area looked, and how it was bleeding again, this time with a little bit of pus. It had to be infected. I took a deep breath. I definitely had to let Obianuju look at it again after school. I turned to the mirror. I could see how pale my face was, and how dull my eyes were. Sometimes, it was hard to keep them open, and sometimes keeping them open came with this really annoying headache.

I pulled my shirt down, the moment I heard the door open, and then I turned the tap on too, pretending to wash my hands. The last thing I needed was anyone noticing my stab wound and making a big deal out of it, but this person wasn't anyone though. I could see her from the mirror the moment I looked up. She stood in front of the door for a long second, and then began to sashay towards me the moment she caught me looking at her. I exhaled. Exactly the person I tried to avoid all afternoon.

Oma.

I remained still, watching her from the mirror as she walked to the tap too, the one right beside mine, and then turned it on, pretending to ignore me. I turned back to my tap, and then hesitated for a second. Maybe it was better this way . Maybe we didn't really have to talk to each other all the time, because if we did, I knew exactly what she was going to tell me. I turned off the tap, pulled out a hand towel and then turned to leave, cleaning my hands with it.

"Getting to see you is a lot of hard work nowadays."
I paused. "If anyone saw how you've been trying to avoid me, they'd doubt we are engaged to each other."

Exactly. There was no way she was going to let me just walk away like that. I waited. I waited till I stopped hearing the dripping sound of water. Her footsteps were next. She was walking towards me now. I watched her get in front of me.

"How is your hand?" She asked me. "Mother said you broke it during the fight."

"It's alright."

"Can I see?" She pushed herself closer to me, and then tried to reach for my hands, but I slowly pulled it behind me on reflex. Now I had made it so obvious how uncomfortable I was around her. She stared at the empty space where my hand was for a while, I knew she was really surprised by it, and then she scoffed.

"I can't believe it." She whispered to herself, faking a smile. "It's been nine years and you still won't let me hold your hand." She raised her eyes to mine. "Do you say no to her too?"

Her?

"I heard you pulled her away from the cafeteria."

Was she referring to Kora?

"You know, I really don't mind that you have feelings for her, but can you at least try to make it less obvious when people are watching? This my life too, my reputation is at stake. I'm your fiancée, and people watching you act like this rubs off wrongly on me. You even fought someone because of her. What are you going to do next? Kill someone? How far are you willing to go with all of these?"

I looked into her eyes. She had tears in them. She looked like she was trying so hard not to cry.

"Don't you pity me at all?" She asked me. "Don't you care how what you're doing is affecting me? Are you trying to kill me too? Is it a crime? Is it a crime to actually like you?" She hit me on my chest.

I was numb all over. I wished I had words. I wished I had some sort of explanation but I had told her everything already. She of all people knew how I felt about all of this. How I felt about her and our engagement.

"Do you think you can get rid of me that easily?" She asked me. "I dedicated my life to you for nine years, I've waited for you for so long. Do you think I can't wait for another nine years? Do you think I'm ever going to give up on you? Push me away as hard as you can, and I'm just going to keep coming back, because I can never let you be with anyone else. It doesn't matter what you do or say to me, you're mine. You can only belong to me and no one else. Even if I'd have to kill everyone and burn this whole country to the ground, I'd die first before I see you with another woman, talk less of that phony want to be replacement of me, I'd rather die, do you understand? Just keep doing it. Keep pushing me away, keep testing me and see how far I'm willing to go with this. I'd do everything to destroy her, and if you try to stop me, I'd destroy you too. I'm never going to let you or that filthy rat make a fool out of me ever again. Never!" She yelled.

I exhaled.

I waited till she was done. I had all the time. I wasn't going to stop her, or tell her not to get upset. I was just going to listen, because I knew I deserved to hear all of it. All those words she said. She was breathing fast now, still glaring at me.

"Have you had lunch yet?" I asked her.

She scoffed, letting out a tiny angry laugh too.

"Are you hungry?" I continued.

"Jeremiah-"

"We should have lunch together. I've not had anything to eat yet."

I was obviously trying to change the subject. I kind of hated to see Oma upset, even though I couldn't help it. Even though it didn't look like it, I honestly cared about her, and hated to see her upset.

"Come on."

I walked away, hoping she walked right after me. It took a while, but she did.