It's been six months since my life took a painful downward spiral. I was so happy with my life at first. I had all I could ask for. The best friend, the most loving and best parents in the world, the most supportive uncle, all in all, my life was perfect when compared to the one I live now.

In my freshman year as a university undergraduate, just some months after resumption, my life took a turn for the worst. My best friend, Ayokanmi stopped talking to me, family troubles arose and I also faced problems on my own and I'd do anything, virtually anything to have the smallest grasp of the life I once lived.

Here's how it all began;

Four days after Valentine, my Dad lost his job as the Permanent Secretary, in the Oyo state ministry of education. He was a senior officer, a level seventeen officer for that matter. He stole a big sum of money meant for project monitoring from the state government and luckily, he wasn't arrested. He was only fired.

All our properties were seized, the cars, the houses and our private schools. We ended up being broke. My life had suddenly turned around from rich to poor, from grace to grass and I had to shamefully move out of my self contained apartment to a one room apartment at Oke Odo to save money for my upkeep. My dad on the other hand made life unbearable for my mom and my siblings. My siblings couldn't resume school but I had to, because I didn't want to risk another academic year staying at home.

My once peaceful home was now a shadow of its former self because we had to change location from Oluyole Estate, an estate reserved mostly for rich people in Ibadan to Oluyole Extension. A small undeveloped area which was an extension of Oluyole Estate. In the early weeks of the third month, my Dad left us. We woke up one day and found his wardrobe empty. He'd left when the shame was becoming so unbearable for him to bare.

I resumed back to school again. My mom promised that nothing will stop my education.

When I got back to school, I noticed that Ayokanmi's attitude had changed towards me. She now behaves really weird and differently from the Ayokanmi i used to know. Each time I call her number, she doesn't pick up nor does she return the missed calls and whenever she does, it was always Mary yelling at me on the phone. I doubled up and went to her hostel several times, she doesn't invite me in. Mary is the one always attending to me most times and she'd tell me Ayokanmi isn't around. This continued for about two weeks until I decided to visit her again one rainy evening. It had just finished raining and it was still drizzling when I got to Ayokanmi's hostel. I decided not to knock on the door after about four minutes outside in a bid to observe the situation of things. I could hear the three of them gisting and laughing then I got the courage to knock on the slightly opened door and immediately, there was silence. It was so silent that one could hear a pin drop. I knocked again, silently this time and Mary came out.

"What?" She said stone faced like someone who had just fired a bazooka.

"I'd like to have a word with Ayokanmi." I said shivering. Mary looked at me from head to toe and saw that I had been beaten by the rain.

"Ayokanmi is not around nah!? What's your problem seff?" Mary yelled at me. "Timmy look at me very well," she said pointing at her half closed eyes" just in case you're too blind to read an eye signal and you're too dumb to read a body language... Let me make it clear to you that you are not welcome here anymore."  Mary finalized her statement and pushed me off the first floor of their hostel where their room was situated. I came crushing on the hard concrete floor really quick. I hit my head against the concrete pillar supporting a pole and blood started gushing out of my forehead. I sustained few injuries on my leg and a broken arm. The gateman who was an eye witness thought I was dead and came rushing towards me.

"Allah! Allah!! Allah!!!" He kept screaming as he knelt down beside me.

"Urghh," I groaned in pains as I gently opened my eyes.

"Alhamdulillah! har yanzu yana da rai" the gateman said in Hausa language. "Abdullahi, Don Allah, ba ni ruwa da zane." He called out, and a young boy of about eight years came running with a bowl of water and a white towel strapped on his shoulder. He used the towel to clean up my forehead where I was bleeding and sprinkled water on me so I can regain my consciousness.

When I was fully sure I have regained consciousness, I thanked the gateman and the kid Abdullahi for saving me and then left the hostel. While on the road again, I met Plato and Premier and almost instantly, Plato noticed the bruises on my face and my broken arm.

"Oh boy! What's wrong with you?" Plato asked searching for clues in my eyes. He knew something was not right.

"It's nothing, It's nothing really. Just had a misunderstanding with a friend and uhm, I fell off while climbing the stairs." I lied with a shaky voice.

"You fell off or you were beaten up by those girls?" Premier added sarcastically and then laughed out loud.

"Lol, no oh. I wasn't beaten up" I replied "it's something personal actually."

"Timmy? Na girl do you like this?" Plato quizzed and laughed uncontrollably too. When he was done laughing, he sat me down on the pavement of Peace Hostel and dished out series of advises.
"See ehn, you are just in 100L Timmy and you need to be very careful especially with the girls you relate with and focus more on your education, that's your primary assignment here in University of ilorin. Anything asides that is just side attractions and they are meant to distract you huh." He paused and then continued "Most girls in your level are young and immature and they don't have a true knowledge of what a relationship is and I'm very sure getting played is the least thing on your mind right?"

"I think he should focus more on the books he writes too." Premier cuts in "I mean, I read his stories on Wattpad last night and this boy is quite good. He only needs to get certain things right" He said facing Plato.

"He needs to work more on his English and use of words and then he's good to go." Plato added and patted me on the shoulder.

"Thank you very much Premier, thank you Plato, I appreciate." I said looking downward" and that reminds me, I'd love if you can help me proofread my book." I winked.

"You're not serious boy! Are you supposed to be telling me now? Anyways, bring it to A-plus. I'll be there teaching the A-level students tomorrow." He said

"Okay thanks," I said and we both parted ways.

Did you enjoy reading this chapter? Kindly drop your comments and reviews. And Don't Forget To Vote 🌟