Philips' Pov

Flashback

"Nnamdi!" I hear Janet shout my name from her room. I groan, not liking how she called me by my igbo name. I already told her countless times to call me Philips. Now, her friends would know my name is Nnamdi.

I hiss, dropping my phone to go check what she wants. Once I get to her room, I knock and enter when I hear her say, "come in."

A strange smell hits my nose once I get in and I recoil at its thickness. The two girls are laying face up on her bed, holding identical rolls of cigarettes. Janet is in their middle, scrolling through her phone. She has a glass of clear liquid in her other hand. I will say it's water but the bottle of vodka on her side table tells me it's definitely not water.

"Aunty Janet, you called me?" I ask and three heads turn to me upon hearing my voice.

"Yes. When is your daddy coming back?" She asks, her voice sounding slurred.

I shrug, "Ten pm, I guess." That's the time he comes back from work on Saturdays. The time is still past two or something.

"Okay."

"Is that all?" I ask, pointing out my thumb towards the door, wanting to leave this choked up room as soon as possible. How exactly is Aunty Janet comfortable having these girls smoke in her room?

A sly smile forms on her face as she exchanges a look with her friends. "Wait." She says and pushes herself off the mattress. She stumbles a little, something about that making her giggle loudly. I do as told, standing impatiently at the door. I remember that I forgot to turn off my wifi connection and I'm sure my battery's wasting. I grow even more impatient.

"I want you to meet my friends." She says, throwing her hand over my shoulder. Her weight balances on me making me to almost fall. The awful stench of alcohol wafts past my nostrils and I suppress a gag. Her friends sit up with smiles on their faces. I nod at them.

"This your brother pikin fine o." One of them says, looking at me weirdly. I clear my throat, passing a small smile to them before trying to take Aunty Janet's hand from my neck. "Sorry, excuse me."

"Wait nau. Where are you rushing to? Where is he rushing to?" Aunty Janet asks, turning to her friends and they all laugh.

I shake my head sideways with an uncomfortable smile.

"Oya come." Aunty Janet says and leads me to her bed. My battery o. I pray within me that it doesn't die before I return. I let her pull me to sit on her bed. I sit on the extreme edge, thinking of how to leave without appearing rude. 

"What class are you?" One of her friends ask, her voice sounding deep and husky.

"JSS3 ma."

"Ah big boy leleyi o." The second one exclaims suddenly, making me cringe.

"He go don dey get plenty plenty girlfriends by now. Abi I dey lie?" She asks, turning to me. "He go even don dey drink vodka. Shey you know vodka? You dey drink am abi?"

I shake my head sideways, not really understanding the broken English she spoke. I think she asked if I drink vodka.  I've never tasted alcohol in my life. Although, I've always wondered what it tastes like.

"My boy doesn't drink alcohol. He's still a child." Aunty Janet says sounding like she would sleep off at any moment.

"Omo Jss3. Child keh? At all o. Na man be this. In fact, bring that bottle." The girl says again. She pours a huge quantity into a glass cup and hands it to me.

Aunty Janet sits up and watches with a smile on her face. I stare unsure at the cup in my hold. "No, thank you." I reply, making to stand up.

Aunty Janet drags me back with a little too much force, spilling the cup's content a little. "Oya drink small. Only small then you can go." She says, her face too close to mine.

I don't know if it's me wanting to know how alcohol tastes like or me just wanting to leave here quickly but either way I take a gulp. I maybe shouldn't have taken such a huge gulp because immediately, I feel a terrible burn at the back of my throat. I stick out my tongue on impulse, trying to swallow in air.

"Sorry, take another one so it'd stop." Aunty Janet says. I turn to her and the swift movement comes with a light headed feeling. She pours another swing into the cup and lifts it up to my mouth. I shake my head not wanting to feel another burn but the movement only makes me feel even more light headed.

"Drink nau. After this one you'd go." Aunty Janet says. For some reason, I listen to her and take another gulp. I feel the burn again but it's less than before. I start to feel dizzy and groan at the feeling. I see Aunty Janet and the other two girls pour themselves glasses of the vodka. They continue to drink out of it. My phone's battery is dying, I recall. I try to stand from the bed but one of the women pulls me down.

"You said I can go if I drink the glass." I hear myself slur. The three of them chuckle and I smile, finding the way they laughed funny. "My WiFi connection is on. My battery will soon die." I slur out again.

"Let it die." One of the girl says, laughing. She turns to me and plays with my hair. "You're a big boy o." She says and I laugh, nodding.

"How old is he?" The second girl asks Aunty Janet before coming over to me.

Aunty Janet turns from the phone she was holding and looks at us. When she sees the position we're in a smile takes over her face. "Leave him alone o. He's not your mate. He's four... fourteen. Fifteen... sixteen. I don't know jare." She says and chuckles.

My forehead creases as I also try to remember how old I am. I can't even remember how old I am. I laugh at the thought.

"How old are you?" The girl asks, looking at me.

"I don't know." I reply. "I can't remember my age." I say, laughing.

The girls look at each other and laugh. "I know how we'd know your age." One of them says.

"How?" I ask.

"When I see the size of your..." She trails off, nodding towards my crotch area. They look at my aunt and she drinks the rest of her glass before adjusting closer to me. My forehead squeezes and I shake my head, making to stand up. "N-no." I slur.

"Yes Phil. We'd know by that." Aunty Janet, now hovering over me.

"No– no, you won't." I try to excuse myself but as if planned, they all hold me down.

"Let's just see." One of them says reaching for the band of the shorts I have on. I try to recoil but the other two have a stronger hold on my dizzy state.

She reaches for my shorts and tugs at it. I feel her artificial nails on my bare skin as she takes off my shorts with in one pull. Her eyes go to meet mine and I see her bite on her lips before tugging at my boxers. "Stop. Aunty Janet tell her to stop." I mumble. I hear aunty Janet chuckle from beside me. "We just want to see."

I struggle to free myself from their grasp to no avail. "No...no I don't want you to–to see. Stop. Leave me."

The girl lets her fingers trail under my shirt before taking off my boxers, leaving my private part open. I feel a lump form in my throat as I watch them look at me naked.

"Wow, big boy." One of them says looking all over me. She makes to take off my shirt but I'm able to prevent her from doing so. This however doesn't stop her from rubbing her hands all over my tummy.

The holds on my hands reduce, freeing me a little. I take advantage and try to snatch my boxers back up but my dizziness slows my movements.

"Calm down nau. Just chill." Aunty Janet says and I feel my throat constrict. This isn't right.

I continue struggling but no escape is forthcoming. It is after all a fourteen year old against three fully grown women.

Each of the girls continue to touch me. They touch me everywhere. 

I try not to react but I can't help the groans and moans that come out of me at their touch. I can't help it when I feel myself get hard. Even when they take turns in forcing me inside themselves, I can't help the pleasure.

Present...

"Oh my God." Amy says, surprise evident in her tone. "Oh my God." She says again, covering her mother with her hands. "You were...Philips, you were raped. You were raped by your aunty and her friends. Oh my God."

I continue to look at my fingers, shame suddenly taking me over. "Yeah, I was." I muttered. "I was and it was all because i was dumb enough to get drunk."

"No. No. No. You were only fourteen years old. You were cajoled. I don't want to believe you blame yourself for that, Philips." Amy says, looking me directly in the eyes.

"Well, it's hard not to."

"Philips. Nothing that happened was your fault in any way. You were a child. She was your aunt. You were in your own house. You couldn't have expected your father's sister was a rapist and a pedophile. You couldn't have expected she would bring rapists and pedophiles into your house." She says as if begging me to listen to her.

Her words are very familiar. I've heard them so many times... From Nonso, from Steve. I've heard them from Sam. I nod, however, listening to them again.

"I have another question." Amy says.

"Okay."

"Why didn't you report her? She's not in prison and she still lives with you so I'm guessing you didn't report her to the police or to your father. Why?" She asks. I look back at her for a second and notice how this Amaka is totally different from the one I knew–or didn't. She's probably always this way and I'm probably the one who just doesn't know her. We're barely friends anyway. I wonder if I'd be able to call her my friend after this. I mean she's the only person asides my best friends that knows about Janet. That makes her my friend right? Or maybe it just makes her a random person that found out about my darkest secret.

"Why didn't you report her, Philips?" She asks, coming closer to me. The tenderness and concern in her voice make my heart churn. Does she really feel concerned or is it just pity?

"That doesn't matter. It's all in the past." I reply with a shrug.

"What? How can you say that? It's not in the past. The pictures and video she sent you were sent in the present. It happened today so it's definitely not in the past."

"You don't understand." I say and she scoffs.

"I don't understand? Then make me understand."

"I can't report her."

"Why?"

"Because we had sex."

"No, you didn't. She raped you."

"Yes and then we had sex after. There, I said it." I say, stretching my hands out. It's only when the words are out that I realize what I just told her. How did I manage to blurt out what I've always been careful to keep to myself? I groan in annoyance.

"What?" She asks in a quiet voice. Her face returns to how it looked when she saw the pictures on my phone. Of course. Now she's going to return to seeing me as a disgusting idiot. Great.

"I'll just go now. I know what you want to say. How could you sleep with someone that raped you? I'm disgusting and shameless. There's no need to say all that. I'd just leave instead." I say and stand from the bed.

"What? No. Why would I say that? Why would you think I'd say that?" She asks standing up along with me. I turn to her, a little surprised.

"I'm only disgusted by your aunt. She continued to take advantage of you and she's still doing so."

"No, she didn't take advantage of me. I went to her and asked her to sleep with me. She was only doing as I asked."

"How old were you?"

"Fourteen."

"Exactly. You were fourteen. You were a minor. Asides her being your father's sister, she was twenty one. She was the adult. You didn't know anything. You were only acting based on the new things you were feeling. She's the disgusting one. She welcomed you. She shouldn't even have raped you in the first place, my God!" She exclaims throwing her hands up in the air. "Let me tell you something Philips, I might not be a matured adult, I might not give the best advise but I know for a fact that nothing... nothing at all was your fault. You were taken advantage of sexually. Any freaking person that blames you for it is sick and demented. The only wrong thing you did in this whole story is blaming yourself, Philips. You have to report her. She has to go to prison or suffer something worse. She just has to pay for what she did to you and what she's still doing to you."

I stare at Amaka feeling unable to speak. I've never heard these words from anybody and... from the way I feel like a weight has been lifted off me, they're definitely the words I've been wanting to hear for four years. I've always expected that anyone that heard that I'd had sex with my aunt after getting raped by her would see me as a disgusting person but looking at it that Amy doesn't see me that way...it just...makes me feel better.

•••

A/n

Do you agree with what Amy said or do you think Philips is actually bad for sleeping with his aunt after he got raped?

Comment your thoughts on this chapter ❤️