The mishap

~ The mishap ~  

   Tried so hard to catch some sleep but the early morning sun kept cutting it short with its rays piercing through the window. 

   I tried to stretch out of the bed and drag my sleepy self to the window but I’m pulled back with a bash at the bunk above me. 

  “My bed doesn’t have a bunk”, I said confusingly, not knowing whether to rub the sleep off my eyes or my head which was hurting from the collision with the bed. 

  “Finally, she’s up”, Nancy smiled mischievously as she tugged at her curtains once more so that the piercing sun rays alerts me that it’s daybreak.

   “How did I wind up here?”, trying to figure out why I’m nowhere close to my hostel.

   Nancy laughs out louder and exclaims when she finally realized that I was having a hangover .

   “You were spewing a lot of gibberish last night about that party at East end. You even arrived here with no shoes on, banging at my door as if someone was chasing after you, turns out you were drunk after all “.

  She gave me that look of disappointment like she always did in the time past. She never supported my friendship with Stacey and especially Mercy, she always told me they were too wild for me. 

   I didn’t have any better explanation for what transpired as I could barely remember if I made it to the party.

  “Wash up, let’s grab some groceries down the street”, she tried to sound nonjudgmental as she grabbed  her wallet and some extra change.

  We walked down the street while I tried to avoid any conversations with my cousin. She’s actually my go to any time I experience some difficulties but I avoided her most of the time because of her nagging traits. 

   Nancy never socializes and she’s been trying to get me to live like her, like having no time for fun and surrounding myself with books all day. 

   I stood outside the grocery to avoid further interrogations from her and the next image I saw smiling back at me, down the streets, stopped me in my tracks.

  It was Steve, in the flesh, looking hail and hearty with no evidence of the struggle we had the previous night.

  “Finally “, I almost screamed out loud but stopped myself so as to recollect what could have transpired the previous night.

  All I could gather from my clouded memory was a messy pool of blood, with me sitting on top of Steve while stabbing him with a little pen on his neck. 

 I gasp while I tried to confirm if he was the same person I was looking at from across the street. He gave me that suspicious wink, crossed his fingers and points towards me.

  I didn’t need anyone to let me know that he was unto me and the way he cut an eye at me depicts that he knows what I did to him last night. 

   “He can’t be alive”, I murmured to myself as I ran back into the grocery store to find my cousin. I must have seen a ghost. 

   “What’s wrong?”, Nancy asks while grabbing my shoulders as I collided with my back turned towards her.

   “I...l...Steve.....can’t be alive..”, I stuttered still  trying to recollect why I only have a memory of me stabbing him with a pen. 

   I couldn’t have been more scared or frightened especially as I was sure of one thing the previous night, I had taken a couple of stabs at that pervert and can’t figure out why he was still roaming the streets alive.  

   Nancy dragged me inside and beckoned on the clerk who’s also her friend that she needs some alone time in the changing room. He didn’t waste anytime in allowing us move past the register. 

   She tried to calm me down by hugging and calling out my name, but everything seemed so blurry and I couldn’t help but succumb to anxiety.

   With a louder call of my name, I came through, she must have been trying to bring me back to consciousness for almost 5 minutes. 

   “Lisa, please tell me why happened, you sound like you’ve seen a ghost. All I’ve been hearing from you isn’t clear. Who is Steve and why do you keep pointing out there?”.

   I can finally hear her from all that noise and loud beeps coming from the counter. I thought my eardrums would explode because I kept hearing laughter and loud noise all around me, I didn’t know what was going on some minutes ago. 

   Nancy grabbed a bottle of water from a locker, sprinkled some on me and gave me to drink. I couldn’t gobble enough down before the hangover kicked in again, I threw up on the floor and finally I could feel some relief down the pit of my stomach. 

   “Should we go home or you would like to share what’s going on?”, she asked but I guess my reaction gave her a clue that I didn’t want to be outside or anywhere near what I just witnessed. 

   “I was blank this morning, but I think I can recall what happened last night. Nancy I may have killed someone and his ghost is taunting me this morning”, i cling to her hoping my puppy eyes would wipe off those times she always gave me that “I told you so” look. 

   “Calm down and tell me what happened”, she  said more nicely as she pulled me up and laid me on a little seat in the entrance to the changing room. 

   I remembered Mercy trying to dress me up at about 5pm yesterday. And I recall not wanting to be a part of the party, but how she made me succumb I still don’t understand. 

   **************************

  “Lisa try this on now”, Mercy threw a short dress at me. 

  “This?... too skimpy”, I said revoltingly.

 “What about this one?”, she stretched the yellow dress in her hands to show how much they could expand and emphasized on it’s fitting. 

 “You keep forgetting we’re not the same size dear, it’s even more skimpier than the other three dresses you’ve shown me the past 5 minutes”, I barely stole a glance at the dress because I didn’t want Mercy mounting more pressure on what I should wear.

   Mercy is one of the most fashionable second year students in my department. We are course-mates, close buddies by accident and I’m 2 years younger than her  .

   Despite, her slender and petite figure, she still gets the men crawling after her. She’s dark in complexion and has all her bodily features in the right proportions except for one place.

  And that’s what attracts the opposite sex towards her, her enormous boobs which were more than average for a girl her size. 

   Unlike her, I’m a foot and 6 inches taller, with an ebony complexion and a tomboyish figure. 

   Getting any young guy to look my way was always a difficult task which Mercy had taken up as a duty. 

  My clothes are mostly shirts, tons of Jean trousers and a sneaker that fits. I don’t care about my makeup, changing my hairdo or wearing a dress, they’re naturally uncomfortable on me.

  The final year students of the Social science department were throwing an all elites party with the most richest students in attendance.

  Mercy, Stacey and I were given invites to this party  which most students in their second year  were never opportune to have.  

   I could have easily passed the night in our room sleeping all by myself and snoring farther into dreamland but our hostel was mixed with both sexes and I’ve been sexually harassed by Steve, the hall’s bully who has been looking for an opportunity to get me laid. 

   He had a strong belief that I was gay and had promised to prove to everyone this assertion. He always wore a smirk so I can’t tell if he’s cute or girls actually frolicked around him on purpose.  

  How preparations were made for that night, I just didn’t know, but I can recall hopping into a car with my friends after finally squeezing myself into a shiny green gown.

   It was a 10 minutes drive and everywhere was bubbling and loud as supposed.

   I’m used to clinging unto Stacey but her boyfriend actually brought us to the party so she didn’t waste anytime in ditching me.

   I have low tolerance for alcohol and I can remember telling Mercy I wasn’t up for any drink but she kept teasing and sweet talking me until I gave in.

   Some few minutes after I took a cup of that drink, all I could see were couples making out with my friends nowhere in sight. 

   A new feeling had taken over me, I felt like I needed some sex and I didn’t mind if it was with anyone around.

   I got pushed aside by some couples until I landed into someone’s arms. 

   “Finally, someone to loose my innocence to”, I thought happily but the smile didn’t last more than 5 seconds before I realized I was in Steve’s arms.

   “Anyone but Steve “, I cried. 

   “Mercy, Stacey, anyone please help and save me from this monster”, I lamented. 

   I didn’t have enough resistance because my body was doing all the things my mind didn’t want. 

   It was giving me up to Steve. How he knew I was easily turned on by the slightest touch on my neck, I still can’t figure out. 

   The next place I found myself was in a car with Steve trying so hard to hump on me. 

   “We must have teleported there”, I can’t remember how I walked by myself. I was too heavy to be carried too because of weight.

   I tried to get a hold of just anything so that he won’t see me as too cheap and easy. I wanted to put up a fight and a pen was all I could get a grip on in that stinky car.

   How he knew I was planning a blow is also a shock. He ran out of the car while I chased him down to the grass loitered with couples making out. 

   ************************

   “I took a jab at his neck a couple of times while blood spewed out of his neck. I didn’t show him any mercy”, breaking down in tears as Nancy tried to console me.

   Her phone beeped and  I noticed her attention was no longer on my story but on a video. But I wasn’t concerned with whatever she was watching, I wanted her to reason with me first before judging. 

   “I guess, I hitched a ride to your place since I couldn’t find my friends after all that jabbing at that pervert’s ne......”, Nancy’s look made me cut my story there.

   “What happened?”, I asked naively.

  “You didn’t kill anyone sis, your friends all tricked you into coming to that party and now they’re circulating a meme of you stabbing the grass while they poured red wine all over you”.

  And now the disappointment came in. She gave me the look I was anticipating for, that “I told you so” look.

  A glimpse of the video and I couldn’t stomach my discontent with their  ugly sense of humor.

   They made fun of me, they all did. Mercy was pouring the wine all over me as I stabbed the grass continually while Stacey and her boyfriend were gasping in awe and screaming “don’t kill him” at each stab, amidst laughter. 

   I didn’t only take an alcoholic drink but they laced it with ecstasy. How disappointed I was when I realized that I never killed anyone. It was all written on the video’s caption; “Never let a newbie have a sip on your drink #ecstasy”.  

   Maybe if Steve had been hit by that pen in his neck, he wouldn’t have had the guts to make a mockery of my plight this morning.

   Nancy picked me up and took me out of the grocery shop. That’s when I realized that Steve was out with some of his friends, watching the video and making fun of me. They were bent on the lawn,making  stab movements with their arms while jeering and laughing at me.

   The shame and humiliation was much and I didn’t bother to get any explanation from my friends either . 

   May have been a prank to them but it was also a breech on my privacy. It caused me to spend the rest of my days in school hiding away from crowded places, I was scared of being bullied again. It was a little mishap in time and I learnt to flow better with my kinds.