"So all this while, he has been in coma, and..." Ejiro paused, stared at my face for a few minutes, then continued. "I really don't know what to say about this, but I guess I always knew he must have had a good reason for ghosting you."

"Yeah," Stella added, closing her laptop. She sat up on the bed and stared at me with her mouth pouted in disapproval. "The only reason I won't be saying anything to you is because you're already drowning in guilt yourself, no need for me to add salt to the wound."

I hugged myself tighter as several thoughts played around in my mind. I've been in this particular position ever since I got back from Ademide's place, I left him the instance he fell asleep and came directly to Stella place, then called Ejiro to join us.

I had finally told them everything about I and Ademide, everything that ever happened between us right from the moment I met him up till now, and for some weird reasons, I kind of felt lighter. Having people to share things with was really an underrated goodness.

   "You guys really have no idea how stupid I feel, like, I just want to slap myself over and over again for not realizing all this while just what an amazing person I have been hurting." I bent my head over my knees. "I really don't deserve him!"

  "Come on, Mary, don't say that." I heard Ejiro say. "We know you haven't really been the best girlfriend there is. At least you have come to realize it now. You just have to work towards being a better version of yourself. That way, you guys wouldn't really have any more issues."

  I raised my head up to look at Ejiro, who was looking at me with skepticism. I could understand what must be going through her mind, I was also scared, I didn't know if I could change, what if I became worse and just kept on hurting him without even realizing it or acknowledging it, I really can't let that happen.

   Stella coughed. "I think it's about time we addressed the fact that you have the biggest trust issues there is, Mary. And with all that has happened between you and Ademide, it's pretty obvious that it's the one thing that's affecting you. The hell, you don't even tell us anything, you don't trust us at all, and we are your closest friends."

  "I know." I bit my lip, guilt filling me up as I realized just how true everything she said was. "I just don't know why I do that most of the time."

  "Okay, I think for all this to actually make sense, we have to figure out where it all stems from," Ejiro said with a look of eureka on her face. "Your trust issues, I mean. There has to be something, a reason, maybe understanding that can help you work through overcoming it."

  I picked up the pillow beside me and hugged it close to me, thinking hard about everything, trying to figure out why I was the way I was. Although I never really thought about it, and the fact that I had trust issues this big didn't really surface as an issue to em until Ademide came into my life, but I knew it all had to come from there.

  "I guess I just always knew that I couldn't trust anyone except myself," I said, breaking the silence. "I pretty much grew up knowing that I couldn't trust anyone to stay with me, I couldn't trust anyone to really take care of me or love me except myself. Not even my own family."

  "And why do you think that is?" Ejiro asked in a gentle voice, her expression softening up.

  I stared at the two girls who were looking at me with round eyes, waiting curiously for me to talk. All this felt kinda new to me, I have never spoken to anyone about this before, not even Ademide, although I'm sure he knows, but I'm about to tell Stella and Ejiro, and I realized that maybe it was something I should have done long ago.

  I took in a deep breath, then started talking. "My dad died while I was still young, and I and my brother didn't have a dad until years later when my mum remarried. We were both still pretty young then and were absolutely elated at the prospect of having a new dad even though we really missed our dad. For months, everything was amazing. We were actually a complete family, my mum was really happy, and so were we."

  "Then I came back home from school one day to find that everything had fallen apart again. I attended a boarding school through my secondary school. It was during one of my Christmas holidays that I found out that the new dad I had had left. We were no longer living in the house we were before. We were now staying in a smaller place, and things seemed to be getting tougher for my mum. My mum didn't tell me anything, it was later I found out that the man had actually been a con artist who happened to dupe us of all our properties and money. I guess from then I always had the feeling that men aren't to be trusted, it's either they leave you after hurting you, or they die."

  I felt a hand on my arm, and I looked down to see Stella's hand, trying to comfort me, but for some reason, I really didn't need the comforting. All these years I stored this things as bitter memories in my head, and most times when I thought about it, it made me cry, I used to believe that talking about it would make me break down in tears, but nothing of the sort was happening. It felt more like I was relieving myself of a heavy burden.

   "It's fine." I smiled at Stella.

  "That man was definitely the devil's spurn," Ejiro muttered, almost bringing me to laughter. "I guess your mum wouldn't want to remarry after that."

  "Actually, it was the opposite." I laughed. Now, this was the part that happened to piss me off the most, the fact that once wasn't enough to set records straight for my mum. "She bounced back on her feet within some years, and then there was a new man. Unfortunately, I wasn't so open to this one. Once bitten, twice shy, they say. But the one who was really affected didn't really feel that way, it was all new possibilities to her, but I always knew this new man was also up to no good and when it did happen I wasn't so much surprised."

  "What did he do?" Stella asked, her tone sounding unsure.

  "Turns out he was married. He had two wives already and wanted to add my mum to the collection with lies." I scoffed. "After finding out that my prediction about him was right, I was pretty sure every other man out there was up to no good. After that, my mum never gave any other man a chance in her life, and she pretty much did everything alone, and kept everything to herself, we were distance as a family, but still close, but we were living fine. I guessed I must have believed that was the only way things could work out for me. Stupid, right?"

  "No, not stupid," Stella said. "Just hurt."

   "Mary, you see those two men who did all those stuff, they are not a prerogative to how every other men in this world are, if it's so, then what would you say about your Dad?" Ejiro asked, staring me square in the face. "Or my dad? Or Stella's dad? What would you say about Ademide?"

  "They say, if you close your eyes for the bad people to pass, you won't know when the good ones will pass you by," Stella added, holding my hands. "And Mary, no one is an island on its own. You believe you can only be fine when you do things yourself because it was that way with your mum, but you're wrong. Believe me, Mary, the only reason your mum was able to do everything she did was because she had you and your brother as support. Although she never tells you any of her problems, she wouldn't want to burden you, no mother would."

  "Right!" Ejiro piped in.

  "Yeah, when a mother and daughter are best of friends, they tend to have the best relationship, and the daughter never goes astray. Do you know why?" She asked, looking at me curiously. I shook my head in answer. She smiled and continued. "Its because they tell each other everything, and the mother always listens as a friend, advise her, and even laugh with her at some point. We are not like that, I'm scared that what you feel for me is fear, not love."
 
  I smiled sadly as everything scrambled around my head, and thoughts of the day I and my mum actually had our first real talk flew to mind. I must be really stupid if all I could learn from a woman like her was how to be on my own and see men as evil. Thinking about it, she never really gave up on men. She just chose to focus on her kids, but I...

  "Have you guys always been this sensible, or did something happen overnight?" I asked my friends before bursting into laughter. "Especially you, Stella. Ejiro's own isn't really a new thing to me."

  They both looked at me like I had some screw missing in my head as I continued laughing before they both shook their head at me.

  "Well, what can we say? For the first time, you're allowing us to be the one to be there for you," Stella said.

  Ejiro nodded. "You have always listened to our rants, always being the one to advise us. You don't know how happy I'm feeling right now. Turns out you're not a superhuman who never gets hurt."

  I laughed. "Right, I'm not a superhuman."

  "We figured that out the very first day we saw you crying because of Ademide, we thought you'd never fall in love. Who would have thought?" Stella said, nearly yelling.

"Right, who would have thought?" I blushed as thoughts of Ademide filled my mind.

  "So gist us," Stella said, her eyes widening up with a certain look that I'm much too familiar with. Although I have seen this look on her face several times, it's the look she has whenever she's expecting any gist about guys, but it was the first time the look would be directed at me.

  "About?" I asked.

  "Everything?" Ejiro said.

  "I thought I told you guys everything there is to know," I said, getting confused before if it finally struck me. I stared at my friends who were shining their teeth at me with a look of bewilderment on my face. "I'm certainly not discussing my sex life with you guys!"

  "Take your mind out of the gutter, chicken," Stella said with sarcasm. "But seriously, that guy is heaven sent. It's like God made him just for you."

  I smiled widely. "I know, right?"

  "You had better start treating him right," Ejiro said, bringing me to remember why I was here in the first place.

  "Do you guys really think I deserve his love?" I asked, the doubt I felt about everything surfacing again.

  "Look at me, Mary," Ejiro demanded, and I turned to look at her. "You deserve his love as much as he deserves yours. Whatever happened between you guys will only strengthen your relationship. You both really love each other. Don't let your insecurities start setting in now when they never really mattered from the beginning."
 
  "Yeah, what she said," Stella added.

  "Thank you, guys. It's really nice to talk to you guys." I hugged them both.

  "Yeah, yeah, we know," they both said before the three of us burst into laughter.

******

  "I'm serious, guys. If you both don't tell me where you're taking me this early Sunday morning, I'm never going out with you both again." I threatened for the umpteenth time that morning as I watched Ejiro drive through some strange roads in Ibadan.

  I really needed to start going out more. It's hard to believe that I have spent almost three years in Ibadan but still don't know anywhere aside from my school and the places surrounding my house.

  "Better calm down if you had been coming out with us naturally, you would know the place," Stella answered me from where she was seated at the back.

  I folded my arms as I squinted my eyes at both Stella and Ejiro, who was still doing a good job of ignoring me. Remind me never to accept their invitation to go out again. For real, though, who in their right mind wakes up in the morning only to start driving to God knows where?

   "This place we are going had better be good. If not, you guys would never hear the end of it," I reassured them in a cool voice.

  "Yen yen yen, whatever," Ejiro blurted out before driving into an estate. "We are almost there, Sha, so calm down."

  I rolled my eyes as though I was no longer interested, but in actuality, my interests peaked higher as I wondered where we were going.

  It didn't take long before my curiosity was abated when Ejiro pulled up in front of a black and gold gate, that stood a little far apart from the rest of the houses in the surroundings, and parked her car right behind a wine Jeep, then turned off her car engine.

  "We are here," Ejiro said, giving me a smile before she pulled the door open.

  I opened the passenger door also and got down, then looked around my surroundings, admiring the place. The place was pretty much like every other estate you'd find, but what made this one different was the fact that the houses weren't uniformed. They were different.

  "So what are we doing here?" I asked, then turned back to look at my friends to find that Stella was still seated in the car, and Ejiro getting back into her car.

  "Sorry, babe. We kind of sold you off," Ejiro said before closing her car door. The next thing I heard was her engine coming to life as she drove away.

  I stood there for the first few seconds, wondering what was up. It was later that it dawned on me that my friends had actually left me behind. Why would they do that?

  My answer wasn't far in coming when I heard the sound of a car door opening behind me. I turned back to notice that it was the wine Jeep that Ejiro had parked her car behind.

  I clutched my cross bag closer as fear settled in the pit of my belly, but that fear soon dissipated into a totally different feeling when I saw who came down from the car.

   "You're finally here, I have been waiting for hours."

Hey, guys.

I love you all who have stayed with me so far, thank you.

MARY ADEN.