The closing bell for the day had just gone on and just like the other students in their classroom, Vincent and Rachael were preparing to leave for home. Vincent was patiently waiting for Rachael who was still putting some of her books into her schoolbag.

He looked closely at her and noticed that she looked way happier and relaxed than any other day after she had broken down at the cafeteria.

"Why do I feel like there is something that is making you extra happy today," he said to her.

Rachael smiled at his observation before replying. "You see, that's what I so much love about you. You just always know how I'm feeling at every point in time, even without me telling you."

"I'm just the best boyfriend out there. Am I not?" Vincent said and Rachael laughed heartily.

"So tell me. What's up because I definitely know something good had happened to you," Vincent added.

"My mum apologized to me," Rachael spilt.

"What!" came Rita's voice from their back and it startled them both.

"My God! You scared me. Why did you shout like that?" Rachael said to her.

"Yes. Why did you shout like that?" Vincent added, just to pull Rita's leg.

"Are you serious? Did she call you or what?" Rita asked on, ignoring what Rachael and Vincent just said. The three were now leaving the classroom together and walking towards the school's car park.

"Actually she came back home yesterday. At first I was reluctant to even give her a listening ear, but then, dad cajoled me to hear her out so I did. We've sought out our differences and I think I've never really understood her that much like I do right now," Rachael narrated.

"I told you dear. It was just a misunderstanding all this while. I'm really happy that the both of you have sorted it out," Vincent said to Rachael with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm so happy too," she replied.

"I'm happy that you are happy, and please don't ever try to shut any of us out again, or I'm definitely going to spank you if you ever try that again," Rita added.

Rachael laughed before saying, "My God. What was I even thinking ignoring my friends like that? I'm really sorry that I behaved like a bitch."

"It's all okay now. I'm sure you've learnt your lesson," Rita said with a pat on Rachael's shoulder.

"Hey Rita. I think your driver is here," Vincent said, looking at a white jeep that had just parked a small distance away.

"Oh yeah. That should be him. Bye guys. I would see you both tomorrow," Rita said before going to briefly hug Rachael and Vincent, and leaving them afterwards.

"We should go and sit under the shade," Vincent suggested to Rachael.

"Okay," she said and they both walked over to sit on the shade, where just a few other students were seated.

"How is Daniel and your parents doing?" Rachael asked Vincent when they sat down.

"They are all fine. Daniel has been asking of you," Vincent replied.

"Awn, my baby boy. He is such a darling," Rachael cooed.

"Yeah, I know right. Just like me," Vincent said and winked, earning him a blush from Rachael.

"God that smile, it's just so pretty," he went ahead to compliment her.

"My God. I'm a blushing mess. It's okay with the sweet words," Rachael said.

"Sadly I'm just starting, so be sure to expect more," Vincent said and winked again, showing off his perfect dimples.

"I'm not surprised you are saying that," Rachael said before picking up her phone that was now ringing.

"It's my driver. He must be already waiting for me to go and meet him at his usual parking spot," Rachael said as she looked at the caller ID.

"Alright then. Let me walk you off before going home too," Vincent said, already standing up.
He flung his arm over Rachael's shoulder as they both started walking closer to the spot where her driver normally parked.

"Thanks for walking me. Bye," Rachael said and hugged Vincent when they got really close to where her driver had parked the car.

"I would see you tomorrow," she said as she broke their hug.

"I think you're forgetting something," Vincent said to her, just as she was about walking away.

"What's that?" Rachael curiously asked.

"Come closer," Vincent said and she walked closer to meet him.

"This," he said and gave her a peck on her cheek.

"Seriously?" Rachael spoke, lightly tapping Vincent's shoulder after the peck, and trying to hide her blush.

"Yeah seriously. You forgot the goodbye peck," Vincent said.

"You're impossible, bye Vince," Rachael said shyly with a short laugh before walking away.

"So the both of you are like a couple now right?" Diane's voice came from Vincent's back, immediately after Rachael had left.

"Mind your business Diane. The fact that you even have the guts to talk to me after what you did to Rachael is just horrible. Besides, where are your minions or wait, I'm guessing they finally found out that you are a bad influence," Vincent replied immediately he turned her back to meet her.

"Watch your mouth okay!" Diane raised her voice at him.

"And watch the way you treat others too. You know what? I really don't have time for this. I have other important issues to attend to, so bye," Vincent said and walked out of Diane.

                             ~•~

On his way home, Vincent decided to stop by at his mother's shop, just as he normally does, but to his greatest surprise, the shop was locked, making him to wonder what must have happened, since it was unusual for his mum's shop to be locked at that time of the day.

He quickly rushed home to see if his mum was at home. As he opened the door to their house, he met his mum discussing with his dad in the living room.

"Mum, dad. Good afternoon," he greeted his parents, earning him a "welcome back" reply from the both of them.

"Mum, what is wrong? The shop was not opened when I passed by it."

"My dear. I had to leave the shop to go and visit Amaka and her family," his mum replied.

"What happened to them?" Vincent asked, knowing that something serious must have happened for his mum to leave her business unattended to.

"Actually it's about Amaka. She was missing for about two days and they just found her yesterday evening. According to her mother, she is lucky enough to even be alive because she was badly attacked," his mum stopped.

"Sounds like something really serious. I need to go and see her now," Vincent said with concern.

"You can go dear. As for me, I'm going back to the shop," his mum added and left with her husband to their room.

Vincent quickly got into his room where he met Daniel sleeping peacefully on his bed. He smiled shortly at how innocent he looked in his sleep, before he went ahead to change into his jean trousers and white polo top, and with that, he left the house.

It took Vincent about six minutes before he got to Amaka's place, which was just at the next street. He gently knocked at the door before him and it was opened by Amaka's mother.

Her mouth was open in surprise at seeing Vincent. "Vincent! It's been a long time. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine ma'am. Good day ma'am," Vincent replied and greeted.

"Good day my dear. Please come inside," she replied and Vincent immediately followed her into the house.

"I'm here to see Amaka," Vincent said to her after he was offered a seat.

"Amaka is in her room. Let me go and tell her that you are here," she said and left.

After about a minute, Amaka's mum came back to ask Vincent to go into her daughter's room, where she later left the both of them to talk.

The first thing Vincent noticed when he got into the room was how weak and pale Amaka who was lying down on her bed looked. He looked closer into her face and discovered that she had a few bruises; most of which were already cleaned and dressed.

"If you are here to give me advice on how I should change my lifestyle and all that, I just wanted to let you know that I've heard enough of that already," Amaka spoke immediately she saw Vincent walk into her room.

Vincent let out a short chuckle before speaking. "I'm not here for that. I just wanted to know how you are feeling because I care," he said.

"I'm feeling better," Amaka said and turned her face to the wall, away from Vincent's gaze.

"My mum told me you were missing for some days. What really happened?" Vincent asked but he was replied with silence from Amaka.

He sighed internally in frustration at her refusal to open up. "Alright, let's talk about something else. How is your friend, Abigail?"

"I don't want to hear her name. She is the reason while all this happened in the first place," Amaka coldly replied, now facing Vincent.

"Why so? I thought the two of you are like best friends," Vincent said.

"I can't call her my friend anymore," Amaka said and went silent.

"I really don't know what happened to you and her when you got missing, but I'm promising you that you can talk to me, just like old times you know. Like back then in primary school, we use to tell each other almost everything," Vincent said.

"Until you went to the rich kids school and forgot about me," Amaka sadly said.

"I never forgot about you. It's just that you started acting in a really different way, and going to places that even your parents didn't approve of. You didn't even listen to me when I tried to make you see that you were going the wrong way."

Once again, Amaka was silent after Vincent finished speaking.

"You're right. I've been making a lot of bad decisions lately and I can say that's why I got into this trouble right now. I even treated you and your friend wrongly the other day at the cinema. Why are you even here? You should be angry with me," she finally spoke.

"You know, recently I've learnt that we are all prone to make mistakes, but then again it is what we do after realizing our mistakes that actually defines us. To tell you the truth, I really got angry when you tried to make Rachael slip and fall at the cinema the other day, but then I can't stay angry at you forever. When mum told me that something bad had happened to you, I was really scared for you. It's okay if you don't want to talk about what happened. What matters the most is that you are okay now." Vincent paused to catch his breath.

"It's okay. I want to talk about it, and please I'm sorry about what I did to your girlfriend at the cinema. I just got jealous," Amaka confessed.

"Rachael was just my friend then," Vincent said.

"Then? Is she something more now?" Amaka asked.

"Yeah, but let's not talk about that now," Vincent said, scratching his head a little. He didn't want to talk about his relationship with Rachael to Amaka, especially after she had just confessed that she was jealous of Rachael.

"It's okay," Amaka said and went silent once again.

She took in a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak again.

"Abigail had invited me to this party at her friend's house. At first I was reluctant to go because I wasn't really comfortable with going to a house party, since a lot of bad things can actually happen and of course, no one would even care or know if they happened, but she was so persistent so I gave in. When we arrived at the party, she left me with a guy to talk with another guy whom I guessed was the owner of the house. Abigail later called me to meet her in a room upstairs, along with the guy I was talking to. When I got there with the guy, the four of us were in the room, just drinking and dancing. After a while, Abigail left with the guy she was with to another room. The next thing that happened was that the guy they had left me with started making advances at me. He wanted to have sex with  me but I refused and told him that I didn't come for that, and that I just came with Abigail to have fun, but then he told me something that surprised me."

"What was that?" Vincent asked.

"He told me that he didn't understand why I was refusing him. That him and his friend had made a deal with Abigail that they would have sex with us when we arrived. I got surprised because Abigail never mentioned anything like that to me. It turned out that she had sold me out for money, because the guy later locked me up in the room for two nights before he released me," Amaka narrated.

"And did he try to force you into having sex with him?" Vincent asked, already fuming with anger.

"No he didn't, but he did hit me the first night," Amaka replied.

"What happened with Abigail?"

"She was with the other guy, until the day they let the two of us go. When we finally left the house, I confronted her about what the guy told me but she denied and said that she didn't sell me out, so we got into a fight. That is how I got a majority of the bruises on my body," Amaka stopped as a drop of tear fell from her eyes.

"Hey, don't cry," Vincent said and wiped the tear off her face.

"I'm not going to cry anymore. I've learnt my lesson," Amaka said with a sniffle.

"You need to report this to the police," Vincent said.

Amaka sadly laughed before saying, "Who would believe me? I don't even know their full names, besides I went there with my two legs. I am just grateful to God that I didn't get raped. And again I don't even have any evidence against them. I'm just going to leave things the way they are."

"I'm really sorry that things had to go this way for you. You don't deserve this. No girl deserves it," Vincent said with pity.

"Yeah," Amaka said before Vincent's phone vibrated.

"It's my mum. I need to be at home now," Vincent said after looking at the content of the message his mum had sent him.

"It's alright. Thank you for coming. It was really kind and thoughtful of you to do that," Amaka said.

"Don't mention. What are friends for?" Vincent said with a wink and Amaka smiled genuinely for the first time in two days.

"Bye," she said to Vincent who was already at the door.

"Bye, and take good care of yourself," Vincent said before leaving.

                              ~•~