GIVE ME A HEART
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CHAPTER 5??
It’s been two weeks since Veronica started schooling with us. Within those two weeks she’d succeeded in getting one friend. Her name was Bisola. Bisola was the class nerd and just like Veronica we treated her like an outsider simply because she always gets the A’s in all subjects. She’d taken a liking to Veronica and within two weeks, they’d become best of friends.
Cain and I still hangs out but not as before. He hardly comes for games anymore and during the weekend when we were supposed to hang out more often, he’d bring up one flimsy excuse or another. Later on, I learnt he spends most of his quality time with Veronica. The boys in the neighborhood rumoured the two of them to be going out.
I couldn’t stand it all anymore. Then I did something terrible. I made the greatest mistakes I’ve ever made in my entire life. A mistake that costs me someone’s life. A mistake that ruined me and my future. A mistake I was never going to make again.
During recess, I walked up to Veronica and offered to help her buy her snacks. She’d stopped bringing cooked food in her lunch box. She now buys moi-moi and soya milk so she could take her medicine. I wasn’t aware she brings medicines to school at that time. And so I bought her lunch for her with my own money and we began walking together.
She was surprised I was talking to her and from her expression I could see she was amazingly happy about it.
” Actually,” I said as we were approaching class. ” There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time now but I can’t say it here in public.”
She looked at me without suspicion and she nodded her head. I led her to an isolated area of the Schools old SS 3 c block. It was recess and not many people passed there all the time. In this old block, each class had a bathroom with a metallic door but the building was in a very bad condition the SS 3 students had to move to the new SS 3 block thereby abandoning the old block for renovations next year.
Veronica sat on a little chair and looked up at me. ” So, what’s it that you want to tell me?”
I stood in the doorway, my hands in my pocket, my eyes growing with hate. ” I want you to hear me out, Veronica. I hate you.”
She stiffened and sat still. I could see her eyes had grown bigger with shock.
” You know, we’re all sick and tired of you. Just who do you think you are? We could all see through your act. You’re trying to get everyone’s sympathy because of your stupid heart disease thing. Well, maybe you might’ve fooled some people with your stupid smile and your stupid calmness about everything but you don’t fool me. For the past two weeks you’ve made my best friend to turn against me. He barely spends time with me anymore. I just can’t believe he’d dare to waste all those prescious time with a girl like you. You’re a nobody. Nobody likes you, not me, not Bisola, not even Cain. If you think they cared about you as they make you feel then you’re mistaking. You have no point in living as far as I’m concerned. You’re nothing but just a wasted, dying piece of junk.”
Veronica’s eyes started welling up with tears. She put her hands together like a ball and squeezed them tight. ” That’s not true.”
” anything from existence you’d be number one. Don’t look Soo sad, I know you hate me as well
What’s not true?” I barked at her. ” Why don’t you just go kill yourself since you’re going to die after all from your so called heart disease? The world would be better off without someone like you. Oh God, I hate you, Veronica. I hate you Soo much if I was to delete anything from existence, you’d be number one. Stop crying those crocodile tears, will you? I know you hate me too so stop pretending to be nice to me.”
Veronica raised her head. Two balls of tears ran down her cheek and dropped to the floor. ” But I don’t hate you, Andrew. I never did. I just….I just wanted us to be friends.”
” Friends?” I became enraged and I ran up to her and slapped her across the cheek. She fell down from the impact of the slap. I grabbed her by the collar and shooked her hard. ” Don’t ever call me your friend. I will never, ever be friends with a sick, dying girl like you.”
” Why are you doing this to me,” she cried. ” I’ve never done anything wrong to you.”
” Oh so you still haven’t figured it out haven’t you?”
” Figure out what?” She asked, her tears wetting my shoes. ” I’m sorry if I’ve ever offended you. Just please….let me go…you’re strangling me.”
And I was. The way I held her collar was making it difficult for her to breathe but I was too heartless to consider that.
” I’m sorry,” she choked, gasping for air. ” I’m sorry.”
I got mad and I threw her in the bathroom and locked the door with a bolt. I gathered other heavy stuffs around and used them to wedge the door so she wouldn’t break out.
Veronica banged at the door from inside the toilet. ” Andrew,” she shouted. ” Let me out. Please let me out. It’s dark in here.”
” Shut up,” I yelled at her. ” Shut the hell up, diseased girl. You’ll stay there until I decide to let you out.”
” Please,” i could hear her muffled tears. ” Please Andrew I’m sorry. Let me out, first I promise I wouldn’t offend you again. The air in here is thinner.”
But I didn’t hear all of that. I was already gone by then. I returned back to class and continued lessons. Everyone got curious about Veronica’s whereabouts especially Cain. He got Soo worried he made me sick. After dismissal, I forgot about Veronica and I went home. I had planned to free her immediately after school but I received an urgent call at home that I couldn’t even wait for Cain.
Then at exactly 9:30pm, just when my family were gathered for dinner at the dinning table, we heard police sirens blasting out our window. Dad went out to answer the doorbell. Things started happening fast. Three police men with guns in their hands barged into the house and grabbed me. Before I knew it, they’d put me on handcuffs and was dragged to the waiting van.
I heard mom shouting at the top of her voice. Dad was talking to the Policemen. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying but I was beginning to get a clue of what was going on. A police officer sat beside me and gave me a heavy knock on the head. ” Stupid boy. You’re in big trouble.”
That’s when everything became clearer. I suddenly remembered Veronica. ” God, no.”
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