HER BABY’S SECRET
EPISODE EIGHT
Arike’s POV
“Wait…Arike..” he grabbed my elbow before I reached for the door. I looked down at his hold on me.
“Bamidele..” I placed my hand on his. “You don’t have to open up to me if you don’t want to.” I said but hoping he would just tell me everything.
He shook his head. “I will tell you everything. Please stay with me.” His eyes pleaded with me.
“Okay..okay..let’s seat down.” I said.
He motioned towards the couch to sit down.
Bamidele heaved a sigh as he started off. “My parents died in a plane when I was 12.”
“Oh..I am sorry about that…” I mumbled.
He nodded in acknowledgement. “They were out for a vacation out of the country.”
“You survived the crash?” I asked without thinking. What a silly question!
Of course! Bamidele wouldn’t have survived a plane crash without sustaining a permanent injury.
“No, I wasn’t with them. My dad sent me off to his younger brother’s home at Abuja. No one knew that they would never return home.” He closed his eyes for some seconds.
“We travelled back to Lagos for their burial. And after that my uncle took over my father’s company and decided to raise me too. It was just the two of us, my uncle was so young…and I didn’t know he was g.ay until I turned 15.”
“You never suspected him?” I asked.
He looked at me. “Well..let’s say I noticed some things about him that was strange but it didn’t occur to me that he could be g.ay.”
“Like what?”
“Despite the fact that we had several rooms in our home, my uncle never allowed me sleep alone. I always wake up to him cuddling me. And he always insist on bathing me even at 14.”
My eyes widened a bit. “I became uncomfortable around him when he toyed with my thing while I was taking a shower.”
Bamidele shut his eyes tight again. “And that was how it all started. He made me believe that loving a woman was a waste of time. He said that it was better to be with another man who understands how it feels to be a man.”
My jaw dropped in shock. “What’s sort of theory is that?!”
“That was his own belief. I was so little and naive that I believed everything he said to me even though I knew it wasn’t right to love a man. At the same time I couldn’t fight it. It became so hard for me to know what’s right or wrong.” He rubbed his temples.
Pity stirred within me for him. “He made me do all sort of things with him until I couldn’t control my feelings anymore. I..I…” He paused and sighed. “I fell in love with my uncle.” He said soberly.
“I found it really hard to love a girl, everytime I was drawn to a man. I hated the girls in my school because of the stories my uncle told me about the women who broke his heart.”
“Why didn’t you talk to someone?” I asked.
Bamidele looked at me. “There was no one I could talk to…” He paused.
“Maybe at some point…I didn’t…want to speak up… because I love..my uncle. Basically, I enjoyed being with him.” This time he didn’t even try to meet my gaze.
“So you just let him -”
He interrupted me. “And it continued like that till I gained admission. I already had many g.ay friends,home and abroad. So it wasn’t really hard connecting with the gays at the University.”
“So..the issue with Adedayo -”
“I got attracted to Adedayo the first day I met him. You..know…as the son of the famous Mr Awosika..we all wanted him in our group. He didn’t want to join us or be my… girlfriend. He was so stubborn and it annoyed my boys.” He explained.
“So you sent them after him?”
“No, he threatened to report us to the school authority and even the police. His threats annoyed us and so we decided to teach him a lesson.” He said sincerely.
“What he didn’t know was that I begged my group to not kill him. I didn’t want them to hurt him because of what I felt for him…so they spared him but on the note that they couldn’t kill him because he was the son of a well known business man.”
“You saved his life.” I added.
“Maybe…” He nodded. “I tried to apologize to him but he avoided me and asked me to never come to him again.”
“Do you want to tell why and how you stopped being g.ay?” I asked after a moment of silence.
“It was really hard being that my uncle never wanted me to be with any woman. I wanted to stop because of what Dayo said to me. His words…kept ringing in my ears.”
I can imagine Dayo words to Bamidele. Oh God! That guy knows how to use words on people.
“He said I was worst than the devil. And some day the law I was studying would be used against me and no one would be able to save me.”
“He must have said more terrible things to you.”
“He was right.” He rubbed his palms together. “I thought about his words and realized that as an aspiring lawyer I didn’t want me name in the headline news. And knowing that being g.ay was a crime in this country, I became desperate to quit the act.”
“So I spoke to my Uncle…” He paused.
“So did he agree to you not being gay anymore?”
“No he said I was insane and there was no backing out.”
“So what did you do?”
“I threatened to report him to the police if he doesn’t stop coming to me.”
“He let you be after the threat?”
“Yes..for a while but deep down I needed something permanent.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave my life to Christ and asked God to forgive me for my wrongdoings. I left home so my uncle wouldn’t change my mind. I took the bar exam and passed it…shut my uncle and my gay friends out completely. It wasn’t easy but I broke free from being gay with God’s intervention.” He sighed
That was a long story. I am really out of words. I don’t even know what to say to him. But at least I know the reason why he became a g.ay. And deep down in my heart, I am happy Bamidele wasn’t g.ay anymore.
I met Adedayo waiting in front of my door when I drove into the compound.
“Why haven’t you been picking up my calls?” Dayo asked.
“I was busy.” I replied sharply.
“Arike… Arike…” He followed me into my apartment.
“Dayo..I am really tired and I need to rest.” I pulled off my heels and flopped down on the couch.
“I don’t understand what’s going on between us?” Dayo was in front of me when I reopened my eyes.
“Nothing is wrong.”
“No..no.. everything is wrong. Nothing is okay between us.”
I rubbed my temples. “We are fine.”
Dayo settled down beside me. “Did I do anything wrong? Tell me…and I will apologize to you.”
“Dayo, you’ve done nothing wrong to me.” I responded.
“Then why have you been avoiding me? Why haven’t you been picking up my calls?”
“Don’t make it sound like I have been doing these things since…FOR..EVER.” I stressed the last word.
I turned him down only today. I didn’t pick him calls for just today because I was with Bamidele.
Dayo sat down beside me. “Arike…please -” he held on to my right hand. “Let’s go out tonight.”
“What? No! It’s late.” I jerked free. “I am tired.” I stood up from the couch to stay away from him.
“You’ve changed.” He muttered.
I bit my lower lip. “Look -”
He cuts me off. “Arike…I don’t like this new you. I don’t want to see you like this.”
“You don’t -”
“You’ve never shut me out like this.”
“I am not shutting you out.”
“Oh come on Arike! You and I know how we do things together.”
“Everything is different now!” I snapped at him.
He gave me a shocked expression. He was taken aback by my expression.
“I..I…am..sorry. I..I.. didn’t mean to raise my voice at you.” I apologized to him.
“It’s alright.”
“Look Dayo…we can’t do the things we used to do together as best friends anymore.”
“But why?”
“You’re getting married in few weeks time.”
“That shouldn’t affect us.”
“You should be with your wife to be and not me.”
“I know Shalewa called you. Tell me what she said to you that made you change towards me?”
“I am not sharing it with you.”
“Keeping space between us isn’t right…and you know that!”
“But everything Shalewa said was right. If I were in her shoes I wouldn’t like to see my husband to be stick around his female bestie anymore. Plus I don’t want to be on the headline news as a husband snatcher.”
I sniffed as Dayo walked over to me.
“No one is going to tag you as anything aside the fact that you are my best friend. Most of my other friends and family knows that I am closer to you than anyone else.”
“That’s not enough.” I said.
“You can’t stop being friends with me because I am getting married. I need you more than ever now.”
“I am not ending our friendship.”
“That’s how I see this space you are trying to create leading to.”
“See..don’t get me wrong Dayo. I just don’t want any problem. That’s it.” I managed to speak amidst the lump in my throat.
I also did a great job at hiding the tears that threatened to spill down anytime soon. To be honest, one of the last things I want to do is stay away from Adedayo. I am so used to having him around. Even while he was dating other women, I never cared about them. But Shalewa seems different maybe because she’s getting married to him. She doesn’t want me to be with Dayo. All she wants is for me to end my friendship with Dayo so she could have his undivided attention. And that’s what I am trying to do for her. I don’t really know what I should do! But I just want to put that space between us!
“I am sorry we can’t have dinner together and you can’t sleep over at my place too. Shalewa..needs you more than I do.”
“Okay..okay..I understand.” He whispered. “I should get going.”
I could see the hurt written in his expression.
“Good night.” I said.
He placed a kss on my forehead before walking towards the door.
Trust me he’s never done the kssing on the forehead with me before. I felt like taking back all my words and just let him stay but I can’t forget the promise I made to Shalewa. I fought against the urge to run out and call Dayo back.
A tear slipped down my cheek when I heard the door close gently. I didn’t expect to feel this pain in my heart and it was becoming almost unbearable.
I think I need to make my heart,body and soul understand that Adedayo Awosika belongs to someone else now and forever. He can’t be with us anymore.
“Everything is different now. The sooner we accept the better it is for us.” I said internally.
Slowly, I made my way into my bedroom.
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