Dedicated to WOKO51 ❤️❤️❤️

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*NOT EDITED*

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Just like that, my mood dampened. At the thought of her, my heart became heavy.

❦︎

I knew it.

That prank was a bad idea.

Jason had fished out Chris, and I was freaking out where Charles and I were hiding close to the door. If only I had maintained my stance of not getting involved, I would not have found myself in this dilemma.

“Chris?” I heard Jason ask. I imagined his face, how incredulously he must have been looking at Chris. “What’s this? What are you doing here?”

A little pause and then I heard Chris’ voice. “It was a prank. I didn’t know y'all had history.”

“We don’t have history.” Jason corrected, a slight edge to his voice. “What kind of kind of senseless prank is this? Texting that one with my phone.”

“Chill, man.” I heard Chris say then he chuckled. “I didn’t expect things to turn out like this. We just wanted to have fun.”

“We?... who did you work with, Chris?”

Lord...

My heart rate spiked. Chris was going to spill and I was the least likely to survive from whatever Jason was going to pay us back with. I repulsed the guy, no doubt.

Charles’ eyes widened and he spun on his heel, took off. That boy left me there to suffer Jason's wrath alone.

Traitor!

I followed. I’d be damned if I stood there and waited for Jason to find me there. Hell no.

We kept running. Like a mad person was chasing us, or better still, like mad people ourselves.

Charles slowed down once we got outside the sports arena, bent over and panting with his palms hoisted on his knees. I stopped beside him and sat on the grass. We had just run a distance that we would even be exhausted to walk through. Heck, I even laid down on the grass.

Still panting slightly, I looked at Charles— no, glared at him. “Were you really going to leave me there?”

“Come on,” he sat on the grass too, facing me. “I knew you’d be smart enough to follow me.”

Just then, we heard someone opening the gate of the sports arena. Charles’ gaze was fixed on the gate behind me and my head whipped backwards in alarm.

Had Jason finally caught up with us?

I released my breath, looking back forward again. For a moment, I was about to say my last prayer… okay, maybe I was exaggerating but giving Jason more reasons to want to strangle me was not part of my priorities, I did not need it at all.

Thank goodness it was Jude that had walked through those gates.

“Sugar pie!” Jude shrieked. I turned back to see him with his arms wide open, running towards Charles and I… running towards me. “Oh, I've waited so long to see you, honey bear!”

Who did he just call sugar pie, honey bear? Me? Nah, can't be me.

“What are you even going on about?” Charles’ eyes followed him as he sat with us on the grass.

He crossed his legs, each feet under the opposite knee. He ignored Charles, instead he looked at me and said, “I've missed you, baby.”

What in the hell…

“Who’s your baby?” Charles asked the question on my mind. The baby had to be Charles; I knew it wasn’t me… but he was looking at me.

“My baby knows herself.” He told Charles, not taking his eyes off me.

I scooted backwards; he was beginning to freak me out. “Are you talking to me?”

“You know I am, cupcake.” He winked at me, blew me a kiss.

Oh God, give me strength.

“Since when did we reach that level?” I just had to ask. Maybe there were a few episodes of my life that I missed?

“Come on, babe,” he gave me a ridiculously slow once over. I did not understand what was going on, but was he trying to be sexy? “It’s all over the internet.”

“It’s a rumour.” I deadpanned.

“There’s a piece of truth in every rumour.” He countered, licked his lips.

God, give me strength...

I was lost for words, and so was Charles because he did not say anything either. We exchanged confused glances; he must have even been more confused than I was.

Then suddenly, Jude burst out laughing, slapping his thighs as he wheezed hard.

To say the least, I was scared.

It had happened. Jude had finally ran mad. And I was unfortunate enough to be a witness.

“You should see your faces right now.” he coughed out, pointing a shaky finger at Charles and I. “Priceless.”

“What exactly is wrong with you?” Charles asked, warily eyeing Jude.

“Calm down, I was only kidding.” He raised his hand up in surrender. “I don’t even have the strength for another girlfriend. Probably not cut out for that.”

Yes, he was smiling alright, but there was a wistful tone to his voice. It was probably me overthinking things again.

Charles dragged a hiss, glaring at Jude, although, there was a smile tugging at his lips. “You better not pull this kind of stunt again.” He warned.

Jude huffed, shook his head. “You better expect more of stunts like this.”

And that was how both boys began an argument, a senseless one if I may add. But it was hilarious watching them. Charles getting frustrating, Jude laughing his ass off and me struggling to stifle my own laughter.

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Dad and I ate in silence which was unusual. So, I had to ask,

“Dad, is there something you want to talk about?”

He swallowed his food, slowly looked at me and then he exhaled heavily. There was definitely something on ground.

“Actually… yes, there's something I want to tell you.” He said to me, carefully dropping his cutlery.

“And what may that be?”

He moved his plate aside, clamped his fingers over the table. “Remember the last time you were at the hospital?... when you passed out?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“The doctor…” he trailed off, sighed again. “I don’t know how you’ll take this, Vicky.”

“Just tell me, Dad.” I breathed. “It has to do with my health, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Figures.

A little part of me was scared that Dad would open his mouth and tell me that I had a terminal disease, that I had only a few months to live. But for his sake, I maintained my composure, hid my fear behind a stoic expression.

“The doctor said—” he swallowed and it was getting harder for me to hide that fear. “He recommended therapy.”

Oh, thank goodness. I did not realize that my breathing had paused until I let out a heavy breath.

But therapy?

“Why?” I inquired.

“He said panic attacks are usually caused by past or present traumatic events, they trigger it. And therapy would help you manage it better.” Dad explained. “Look, I'm not going to force you, I'm just informing you. And if you feel insulted by me asking you to go for therapy, I'm sorry. I swear, I don’t see you as a crazy person, I just want the best for you. I want you to get better, that’s why I'm doing this. Please, don’t get mad at me.”

"Dad—"

"If you don't want to go, just say it. I'll never bring the topic up, I promise. Again, I don't think you're crazy, I'm just looking out for y—"

“Dad!” I had to yell to stop him. The man was could really beat Eminem hands down if he wanted. “I understand. Therapy would help me and I don’t mind attending.”

He sat up straight, tilted his head like it would give me a better view of my face. “Are you serious? You're not mad?”

I frowned. “Why should I be?”

“Well, a lot of people see therapy as treatment for mad people, so—”

“You thought I was one of them?” I feigned hurt, shaking my head. “You should know your daughter is smarter than that.”

“Of course, I should have known.” he spanked himself on his head. “What was I thinking?”

I guffawed, finding his gesture amusing. “I'm okay with attending therapy, Dad. Even ‘normal’ people need therapy sometimes.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “I’ll contact the doctor tomorrow then.”

And then it was normal again. Dad and I ate dinner as we usually did, filling in each other on how our days went.

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                            ~[JASON]~

“Mom, please stop!” I was trying so desperately to escape her clutches. That woman had attacked me from nowhere, tickling me for no reason. Now, I was laughing mess rolling in the middle of the living room, begging for mercy.

“Mom, I'm begging, please!” tears were beginning to roll down my temples from how much I was laughing. Which demon had possessed her? “Please!”

The universe must have been in my favour. It did not let her kill me. Maybe I had a purpose after all.

She was laughing at me, mocking me even. “Look at the man of the house panting on the floor because of a little tickle!” she continued to laugh in my face and I unsuccessfully tried to glare at her. Her laughter was too contagious to keep a straight face… just like my sister’s.

Just like that, my mood dampened. At the thought of her, my heart became heavy.

Her laughter ceased abruptly, she must have noticed my shift in mood. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just remembered something.” I tried to smile but my face seemed to have been paralyzed.

“What did you remember that has ruined our beautiful moment?” she raised a brow at me.

I almost scoffed as she described her almost tickling me to death and then laughing in my face as a ‘beautiful moment.’

“It’s nothing important.” I waved my hand dismissively. “And I'm sorry for ruining your beautiful moment.”

“Chibuike, I'm your mother,” she sat on the rug, beside me. “If you don’t talk to me then who would you talk to?”

“I don’t know, maybe a therapist?” I huffed, looking away from her.

“I see what you did there, but I still maintain my stance on that.” She turned my head so that I was looking at her again. “Yes, you can talk to me anytime. But those people have more knowledge than I do when it comes to the psychological aspect of life. They’ll be of great help, Chibuike. Please, try to understand.”

“But I don’t need—”

“Just attend, if you still feel it’s useless after a month then we’ll withdraw.” she proposed. “Deal?”

I looked at her, trying to settle my internal battle. I did not want to attend therapy, I wasn’t crazy, was I? On the other hand, I knew Mom would not shut up about it until I at least accepted her deal.

I was certain that attending therapy would be a very big waste of both my time and whoever the therapist was going to be. But I needed Mom to drop it already with the issue, so I made a decision,

"Deal."

"Great!" She cheered, grinning from ear to ear. "I'll call the hospital first thing in the morning."

"Hmm." I sighed, forcing myself to mirror her smile.

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A/N

An update, as promised 😌.

So these kids would be attending therapy, which is a very big step in my opinion.

Let's just hope our Jason would cooperate with the therapist. 🙂

And ooh! I dropped a little clue about Jude in this chapter. Who noticed?👀

Anyways, I don't know when the next chapter would be published, but it'd definitely be this week sha. It's half done.

So see you in the next chapter,
Love ya!😗❤️