Chapter 3 None Of Your F'business

• Eric regarded me with a crazy gaze. His breath pattern came out hard, easily noticed. He must have thought that I was crazy. Or maybe that I was worse. But I had him on the joint. I left him with no choice and if he had one, I didn’t think he was in his right state of mind to remember anything. In other words, I would say I had trapped him.
• “I don’t see how my matter with this bitch here is of concern to you. Don’t get yourself involved in this business.” Eric glared at me.
• “Nah. Whatever thing she had with you, she has settled the bills already.”
• “How so?”
• “Remember you agreed that I should take the punishment for her.”
• “Huh? He snorted. “Yes, but you didn’t keep to the end of the bargain. You did not suc. . .” He abruptly stopped.
• “I did not do what?” I asked him. His cheek shone red. He was embarrassed. Since he couldn't say the word, I decided to continue. “Like I said Eric, she’s going with me. I have done what you wanted her to do anyway therefore, she has paid her debt in full.”
• “You mannerless slug.” Eric cursed, the voice came out slow but terrifying.
• I giggled and tightened my grip on the phone. I was being careful. I didn’t want him to take the phone away from me by surprise.
• “Words, believe me, won’t help you mister Eric. Do you know what would?” Like I knew, he wouldn’t respond, I continued. “Shutting up would.” I ignored the growls I heard from him.
• This guy must be hot-tempered, stupid. Thoughtless actions speak more for him than words. I brought out my hand and grabbed the nameless girl's hand.
• Now I realized that the person I was helping hadn’t even told me her name. Foolish me! I walked with the girl, slowly passing through the door. I was skeptical and wary as hell.
• My instinct told me that the cocky guy might do something funny. As I went past the door, I smiled horribly at him. I remembered he had called me a manner-less slug. So I wanted to retaliate. “Yes, just like that. Be a good dog.”
• He bared all his white teeth, it sparkled clean but seemed sharp and dangerous. I feared. I thought he was going to bite me. “Nah Nah. Don’t think about it, Eric.” He paused, wide eyes on me.
• “Fuck away while I am still being nice and cool.” His eyes were on my phone but I guess he knew I had already calculated everything.
• He didn’t move, neither did his friend.
• I strutted away with the girl trailing behind me. I didn’t care to look back nor did I care to look at my wristwatch. But one thing was believable, 10mins had already passed or maybe more.
• It came to my realization that I had missed a big chunk of the lesson: my first lesson. Had I also missed the first lesson on my first day in school? That would be insanely unbelievable in my father’s ears. But that would be on the grounds if he hears it ever happened. Isn’t it?
• I wanted to go to the school canteen with the girl but I changed my mind. That would be too open a place to discuss with her.
• We went to where I had packed my car and we both zoomed off. I drove the speed beast to the nearest bar I knew of in town. We went inside the big hall bungalow and settled on an armchair, with a round glass table in the middle. I waved at the waitress, a long-haired young Asian girl. Not too tall, not too short. She smiled and came forth.
• “What are your orders, ma’am?” She asked.
• “Do I look that old?” I teased and smiled. “Provide me with a blueberry yoghurt.” I looked at the girl beside me. “What would you take?”
• “Blueberries are fine.” She smiled cheekily.
• The waitress left. I looked at the girl again, dark eyes glittering. Her glossy skin glowed smoothly. I envied her dark skin, it was without blemishes. “What do you have with that Eric guy?” I asked.
• “Huh?” It looked like my question had startled her. “It's. . . it’s a long story.”
• I settled back on the chair. “I got the whole day.” I breathed. “Let us start with your name. But I will go first. My name is Thelma. What’s yours?”
• “My name is Stephanie.”
• “Good. You look beautiful Steph and you got a nice name. Calling you Steph? Is that fine? I find that more convenient.”
• “Some of my friends call me that. Yeah, it’s fine.” She smiled. I think that was the second time she was smiling since I set my eyes on her. But I wasn’t sure if it had come from her heart or if she had forced it.
• “Alright. So Uhm, why did you get entangled with this dutche?”
• The waitress came with a tray, unknowingly interrupting. She dropped the chilled berries. “Thank you.” I smiled at her.
• “You’re welcome.” She smiled and left.
• I looked back at the girl, Stephanie. “Continue please.”
• “Eric, he ah. He had something against me that I didn’t want him to go public with.”
• “And what’s that?” I ripped open the cap of the bottled drink.
• “I. . . I can’t say.”
• Anger surged in like an adrenaline rush into my head. I jabbed my hand hard on the table.
• “Look, Stephanie. I did something today that I would never have even done for my best friend. I barely know who you are but I sucked an unknown dick in your place and here you are saying rubbish instead of answering my question.” I breathed.
• I tried to reduce my voice. I could see the waitress staring from behind the counter. Maybe my anger level had flared beyond normal.
• “At least, if you had some empathy, Stephanie, you would have at least honoured me with a sincere reply,” I spoke with a soft voice this time.
• The girl looked at me like an alien. I could sense fear still in her eyes and body. I think I might have overreacted because I never had it in mind to get her frightened.
• “I am sorry,” she apologized. “Eric caught me in the act doing something stupid. Earlier this year, Eric had approached me and asked me to be his girlfriend and I refused. He was pissed and he didn’t take it lightly. He told me that one day, I would be at his mercy. I thought he was joking.”
• I frowned. “So you ended up being at his mercy?”
• “Yes.”
• “How so?” I asked. Stephanie looked at me as though she didn’t want to answer, as though I had asked her to solve a Quantum mechanics equation.
• “You see, when I was new, I had no male friend. I kind of wanted to be alone and face my study wholly. I wanted to stay focused and dedicated to getting good grades. But Eric and his friends didn’t like it. They thought me to be a. . . a virgin, and someone who would never do anything silly. At first, I thought I could handle it but Eric set me up with one of his friends.”
• “He what?” I asked. I almost snapped out. “And you agreed?”
• “No. Not like that. He set up a guy to meet me and beg me for friendship. I had refused initially but he kept pestering me and begging and begging. I didn’t know he was a friend to Eric. I didn’t know they both knew each other. When I thought he was real and that I was being unfair, I then choose to give him a chance.” She paused and opened her bottle and almost finished the yoghurt in one gulp. Her breathing became heavy. I gave her a little time to take some breath.
• “What happened?”
• She sighed. “When we became friends, a lot started going on. I started growing fond of him. I liked him. Honestly, I did but I was fooled. He invited me over to his house one day and I went. He kind of seduced me to his bed and we had sex. That was my first but that was my worst too. I didn’t know that Eric was videoing us having sex. He made sure that he got a video of when—” she paused.
• “Of when what!?”
• She glared at me for a moment. “I had never sucked a dick in my life. I had never even dreamt of doing so. But Eric took a video of me doing it. He had threatened to use it against me. He said he would give it to my father and he would make the video go viral.”
• “Oh!” left my lip. Eric had something against the angelic Stephanie. Bravo. Maybe she might have comported herself in a way that made everyone think that she was no sinner.
• Well, I wouldn’t blame her. Everyone to their tent. But just like Eric had something on her, I had something on him too. I had something that he wouldn’t want me to go public with. And since she had explained what happened and how it had happened, I reckoned that it wasn’t a good plan to delete the video I had of him on my phone.
• “I want to ask you something.”
• “What is it?” I asked.
• “What would you do with the video on your phone?” Stephanie asked, her voice soft as the wind.
• “I am going to keep it. If he threatens you again, I will make it go public.”
• She gasped.
• “What?” I asked.
• “But, y-you are on the video. What are you going to tell your parents if they see such a thing?”
• “Oh!” I waved my hand. “That could be contained. I will have my way.”
• “How so?”
• I smiled. I was no angelic bitch and my father already had an idea. Nothing I would do would ever surprise him. But I didn’t want to tell Stephanie that, family matters eh?
• “You don’t need to worry.”
• “I am concerned, Thelma,” Steph commented with a very sincere voice. “You took a bullet for me today. The last thing I would ever want is for the bullet wound to come hunting you. I want to know how you would get off the thread.”
• “Sweet,” I said. I took another sip of the yoghurt. It was getting hot already. “Do not worry. Besides, in most of the video, my face didn’t show up but Eric's face did. I could filter some parts out. The part that would go online might be the part he was begging me to let him loose. After that, I take my chances.”
• I caught Stephanie trying to hide her face; she was chittering smugly. “What?” I asked her.
• She busted out into loud but controlled laughter. I offered her the chance to laugh as she would.
• “You are brave Thelma. I have never met someone as brave as you. Thank you for being my guardian angel. Thank you so much for standing up to a bully for me.”
• “Oh!” I waved a hand again. “That’s eh— m, that’s okay.”
• “That was beyond okay. I want to make a request too.”
• “What sort of request?”
• “I want us to—” she paused and drew her head closer, “to be friends.”
• Ah! Friends? A female friend? I didn’t think I’d had one before. And I didn’t think I had any need for one. I wanted to reject the offer but there was something about Stephanie I liked. She just had some qualities of a nice person.
• “That is a good idea, I assume.”
• “What do you say?” she drummed on the table.
• Let me think about it. No that was foolish. “What choice do I have? I am new in St Louis High and having new friends is not close to being a bad idea. I accept your offer.” I flashed her a bright smile. She returned it with a cheerful one.
• I called the waitress and settled the bills. I drove Stephanie to her house. I watched her go in inside the black gate before I cruised myself back home. What a day! It was time I faced my family. Grhh! I hate home.