I was singing heartily in the kitchen while I did the dishes, when I felt someone's arm around my waist. I jolted in shock.

"Shhh." Uncle Henry hushed me as he pressed his body against my back and kissed my neck.

"Uncle, what are you doing? Aunty is around o." I warned, trying to wiggle myself from his hold, but he apparently wasn't going to let loose. To say I was disgusted by his kiss and our tight body contact was saying the least. This would be the first time he was making sexual advances on me since I returned to the city. I actually thought me staying away from this house for a while would make him stop, but he clearly had not.

Uncle Henry kept kissing my neck and my back like he was hungry for sex. I could feel his hard budge pressing against my butt.

"Sir, please stop this. What if your children walks inside now?" I whimpered.

"Daniella, I can't get over you." He moaned, still kissing me. "I love you."

I finally succeeded in pulling myself off from him. "Stop this! This is not love! It's lust."

"Whatever it is, I need you badly." He moved towards me slowly.

I was so angry with what he said that I didn't know when I called him a paedophile.

He slapped me hard across my face and I fell to the ground.

"I'm so sorry baby." He crouched down to console me. The instant he was about to touch me, I swatted his hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

"Honey!" Ain't Caro called from outside. I could hear her footsteps approaching towards the kitchen.

Uncle Henry quickly got up and scrabbled around agitatedly. I stood up and faced the sink to pretend like I was washing, whereas I was in tears. Aunt Caro walked in soon after and uncle Henry pretended like he was about leaving the kitchen.

"Yes sweetheart." He wrapped his hands around aunt Caro's waist as they got to each other.

"I've been looking all over for you. Let's go upstairs." Aunt Caro said sultrily and they both kissed each other's lips, making one very horrible sound. I didn't look their way but I could see them from the corner of my eyes. They were irritating the daylight out of me.

Soon afterwards, they left laughing and smooching each other. Uncle Henry was such a pretender in every sense of the word. If only aunt Caro's eyes could open to see what a cheat he was, it would have been better. And I just couldn't tell her about it because I was right in between. I was the one uncle Henry was cheating on her with, even though I wasn't letting him, so telling aunt Caro wasn't so much of a good idea. In fact, it was out of it. But still, I wanted her to know somehow that her husband wasn't as faithful as she believed.

As soon as I was done in the kitchen, I started off to my room feeling completely downcast and fagged out. All I needed was my own solitude. When I got to my room, I saw that the door was left ajar. The door that I always closed whenever I wasn't inside. This could only mean one thing.

Someone was in my room!

I quickly pushed the door open and walked in. Standing in front of me was Annabelle.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" I asked with venom lacing in my voice.

"Was looking for this." She answered, raising up my phone.

I gasped a little, seeing my phone with her. How did she know about the phone?

Annabelle smirked. "Not so feisty now? Oh so you think no one would find out about your little secret?"

"Please Annabelle, I know you hate me, but please give me back the phone and don't tell your mum or dad about it." I begged.

She laughed. "You need to see your face right now. Please give me back the phone and don't tell your mum and dad about it." She mimicked me mockingly, wearing a silly face. "That's the way you look. Well as for the phone, don't even dream of seeing it again 'cause sorry to burst your bubble, my parents are going to know about it."

"Ah please!" I cried. "That's the only thing that keeps me out of boredom in this house.

"Uh, that's why you wouldn't be seeing it again. You're not meant to have fun. You were born to suffer." She spat out maliciously.

That got to me. How did she always have her way of grating me? I nodded my head in disagreement. "No, no one was born to suffer. Some people are just there to make others suffer."

She snorted. "You really know how to run your mouth Daniella. I like that. You're even provoking me the more to tell my parents about the phone."

"And how would that make you feel?"

"Happy!"

"Since that would make you happy, then go ahead. No matter how much I beg, I know you wouldn't listen so what's the point? Just go ahead and report, what's the worse that could happen?"

***

The worse that happened was that I was presently in the living room kneeling down, after I had been whipped with belt by uncle Henry. One minute, that man acted like he was in love with me. The next minute, he acted like a wild animal towards me. When I say he was a pretender, I mean he was a blatant pretender.

Uncle Henry and aunt Caro questioned who gave me the phone and I lied to them that it was given to me by a female friend. They didn't believe me. To aunt Caro, I stole the phone. While to uncle Henry, my boyfriend gave it to me. He assumed right, but I wasn't going to admit that.

"You still have not told us who gave you this phone." Uncle Henry said. The whole family was present in the living room.

"Or where you stole it from." Aunt Caro added.

"I'm saying the truth. A female friend gave it to me." I said, tears trickling down my eyes. In case you're wondering, it wasn't crocodile tears. My tears were as a result of the cane I had received earlier on. It was still hurting.

"Stop lying!" Aunt Caro hit me with her hand. "I feel like killing this girl." She gritted her teeth as she strangled my neck.

"Calm down honey." Uncle Henry said and aunt Caro released me immediately. "To prove that it's really your female friend that gave you the phone, bring her to this house on Monday. I want to see her. I must see her unless you'd have me to contend with." He said menacingly.

Look, forget that I'm still alive to tell this story, I literally died at that moment.

Monday came quickly and since I got to school, Gbemi hadn't spoken to either Adam or me. She hadn't even spared us a glance. It got me wondering if I did anything wrong to her. For all I know, it was Adam who called her les. So if there was anybody at all she should be angry with, then it should be Adam and not both of us. Adam, for one, had been annoyingly moody throughout today. I could count the number of times he had spoken to me and even when I did speak to him, he replied me with monosyllables, like he paid for every single word that proceeded out of his mouth. Worse thing was that he had his head buried to a stupid novel.

I snatched the novel off his hands. "Can you stop using me to read a novel! It's break time."

"So?" Adam shrugged.

"Gbemi, you and I are supposed to go out for break."

"You can go out with Gbemi, I'm not interested." He gestured dismissively.

"For the first time in a long time that you're not interested in going out for break. If it's what happened between you and Gbemi last week that is making you both act this way today, then I think you both should resolve your issues 'cause it's already beginning to annoy me."

"Daniella she called me a pussyboy. Do you know what that means? It's a grossly insulting word and if she could have called me that when she got angry, then it means she had been thinking of me that way." Adam said. For the first time today, he said more than five words.

"But you called her les first. It means you have also been thinking of her—"

"No no I haven't." He cut me off. "That was just an harmless statement and I didn't know it was going to offend her."

"But it did. So drop your pride and apologise. That's just the best thing to do now."

"You're just all about me apologising to Gbemi like she didn't offend me too. Why don't you tell her to apologise to me too?"

"Because you were the one that provoked her to offend you. Anyways, I'd go and talk to her since your pride is as large as Mount Everest."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Now can you hand back my novel to me." He extended his hand.

I looked at his hand and said, "No!"

After which I walked to Gbemi's seat and used my butt to push her to the other side of the seat while I had a seat on hers.

Gbemi took her eyes from the note she was copying and looked at me murderously.

"So do you want to kill me with your eyes, eh?" I asked, poking my face to hers.

She rolled her eyes at me and returned to what she was doing. Here I was trying to settle the issue between my two best friends and they were both giving me the cold treatment like I had a part in it.

"Madam stop acting grumpy and let's go for break." I said to Gbemi and she blatantly ignored me again.

Angrily, I snatched the pen from her hand. "Don't use me to write!"

She took a sharp breath. "What is it Daniella?"

"You and Adam should settle your beef."

"I can't talk to Adam unless he apologises to me."

"You seem to have forgotten what Mrs Christian taught us last week. You don't have to wait for Adam to apologise before you forgive him. What if he never does? Why should your happiness depend on him doing what is right?"

"I'm happy Daniella."

"You clearly aren't. In fact, both of you are not happy that you aren't talking to each other."

"Okay okay. I've forgiven him, if that's what you want." She said reluctantly. "But I'm not talking to him sha."

I chuckled. "You're proud."

"Yeah, whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you tell him the same thing you're telling me?"

"I've told him already. He said the same thing you're saying."

"So you see, he's proud too." She shrugged her shoulder.

"That's by the way for now. Can you do me a favour?"

"What's that?" Gbemi asked.

***

When it was closing time, Gbemi followed me to my house to pretend like she was the one who gave me the phone. Uncle Henry wasn't in the house, but aunt Caro and her wicked daughters were. Aunt Caro interrogated Gbemi on how she got the phone and why she gave it to me.

"My mum bought the phone for me and I had used it for so long. I was actually tired of the phone, that's why I gave it to Daniella since she had none." Gbemi answered.

Wasn't that convincing enough? To aunt Caro, it wasn't. She still thought we were playing games with her. She kept pelting Gbemi with barrages of questions, to probably get if we were indeed saying the absolute truth, but Gbemi answered all the questions carefully and smartly. She definitely deserved some accolades for her courage.

"You've gotten away with this one, but like they say, everyday for the thief, one day for the owner." Aunt Caro said in a sinister tone when Gbemi had left the house. "And don't even think I'd give you back the phone." That said, she walked away.

Amanda stuck her tongue out at me as she trailed behind her mum, leaving only Annabelle and I in the living room.

"To think you were actually a very good and honest girl." Annabelle said, shaking her head. "I can't believe you used Gbemi to lie. Witch!"

I didn't have the time and energy to trade words with her so I turned around and walked off, leaving her to herself.

The next day, I followed Peter to his house to spend some time with him. It had been so long since I visited his house, and besides that, I didn't feel like going back to that house where all that awaited me was sadness and a chunk of chores. I haven't come to this world to suffer abeg. I needed some time with Peter to clear my head off the sadness and sorrow a bit.

As Peter and I walked together to his house, I told him about all that I had gone through in the last four days. I told him about the phone and how I took Gbemi to my house to act like she was the one who gave it to me. While I was narrating the experience, he laughed occasionally and whenever he did, I punched his arm playfully.

"So do you think they're gonna give you back the phone?" Peter asked me.

"No, I don't think so."

"You're living with the worse people ever."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Don't worry, I'd get you another one. But not now sha. You have to be a little bit patient with me."

"Anytime, I'd wait. Thank you so much Peter."

"It's what I promised to do—to always be there for you. So don't thank me."

I smiled with what Peter just said. Afterwards, we both didn't say any other thing to each other. We just walked silently. I don't know about Peter, but to me, the silence was a bit awkward. I had to wrack my brain to break the silence.

"And those two are now making things more difficult for me." I said.

"Huh?" Peter asked, confusedly.

"Adam and Gbemi got into a little fight recently and ever since, they have not been talking to each other. What they both don't realise is that I'm at the receiving end 'cause I feel guilty spending time with Adam alone or when I'm spending time with Gbemi alone. I have to make out time for them both now and then."

Peter snorted in a chuckle. "That's pretty funny. Have you tried to help them reconcile with each other?"

"Yes I have. But they're both puffed up with pride."

"Two wrongs never make a right. One has to be the bigger person to speak to the other before they can both get back on talking terms."

"I know, right! Didn't know you have sense." I teased.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" He asked, wearing a wry smirk.

"That you're usually dumb." I shrugged, with a duh tone.

He spanked my butt and to be honest, I liked it. In fact, I loved it but I had to act like what he did was grossly disrespectful.

"Hey how dare you hit my butt!" I scolded him.

"Do you want me to do it again?" He sounded so flirtatious.

"You must be drunk."

"What? I'm your boyfriend, so I can spank your ass whenever I feel like."

"I'm your girlfriend and not your doll, okay?"

"Got it." He smirked, rolling his eyes.

We finally got to his house and I sat down on one of the couches in the living room as Peter went to his room to change into his house wear. Before he went to his room, I told him to get me water to drink but he told me to find my way to the kitchen to get it myself. What arrant nonsense! I didn't go to the kitchen to get the water anyway. I waited for him do it for me.

It took a while for Peter to come out of his room and when he eventually did, he was looking hot in his white round neck, long sleeve shirt and army short. The shirt was so tight that it literally showed off his muscles and his six pack abs. I was drooling.

"Please can you put on the AC 'cause your hotness is affecting me." I said sarcastically. The AC was actually freezing cold.

"But the AC is—wait," He stopped, perhaps realising the sarcasm. "Was that you being sarcastic?"

"Uh-huh. But really, you look hot. Did you deliberately dress like this because of me."

"Not really." He said, making his way towards me. He sat down on the couch beside me and put his arm around my neck. My sensual organ came alive and I felt the urge to do the nasty with Peter.

"You've not still offered me water. I'm thirsty." I said that to distract myself from the nasty thought creeping in my head.

"So you didn't get water by yourself in the kitchen?" He looked amused.

"No I didn't. Was waiting for you my hubby to do it for me."

"You will wait taya today." He folded his arm around his chest.

I pulled his arm. "Okay please boo." I said in a babyish voice.

He had a stoic expression on his face, seeming like he wasn't going to budge.

"Look at this boy o." I ran my hand over his face. "Smile joor!" We both burst out in a peal of laughter. "Oya please na." I begged again.

Peter finally stood up and made his way to the kitchen.

"And bring something eatable too." I hollered after him.

"Big mouth." He hollered back, to which I laughed.

Peter returned with a tray containing a bowl of popcorn and two glasses of orange juice.

"Why popcorn?" I wasn't really in the mood to eat popcorn. I wanted to eat food, not snacks. "Can't you cook confirm food for me? Why snacks?"

"We're about to see a movie now, that's why I brought the popcorn."

"Oh what movie?" I was excited.

"Have you seen Aquaman?" He asked, having his seat on the couch.

"No, but I've heard of it before."

"You're about to watch the movie now, you'd love it." He said reassuringly.

He moved towards the TV compartment and played the movie for me, after which he moved back to have his seat beside me and grabbed the bowl of popcorn. I watched him as he dug his hand in the popcorn and scooped some into his mouth, with his eyes fixed on the TV. One of my hobbies was watching Peter. He was so adorable.

I was still staring at Peter when he turned to look at me. We stared at each other's eyes intently for long. The living room was dark, so the light from the TV made Peter's eyes glisten.

Peter looked down at my lips and slowly and slowly, he angled his head and leaned over till our lips touched. And there, we had our second kiss.