On a normal sunny day, she sat on the edge of her bed, reading one of those classic thrillers by James Hadley Chase; they were her favourite kind of books, something that left her brain working and her heart racing out of curiosity and excitement.
Just like every other day, she was home alone, everyone else was out and about tending to their own business while she preferred locking herself in her bedroom, reading books, listening to music or just sleeping.
She was so engrossed in the novel that she couldn't hear the loud knocking on the door til she heard a man shouting, outside her bedroom."Is anyone around?!" Feeling too lazy to go outside, she drew the curtains to face him from the window "yes, how may I help?"…."is your brother around?" For a moment, she stared at the man without responding, he was the most beautiful man she had seen in a while, yet, for some unknown reason she felt so much hate towards him, "no" she responded and aggressively drew the curtains in his face. He was probably left wondering what her problem was, but she wasn't bothered and didn't care whether he was still outside or he had left until after a while when she peeped to check and saw no one there. She heaved a sigh of relief, but for some time something kept bothering her, why did she feel so much hate for someone she barely knew?…
Months had gone by, her parents had travelled out of the country leaving her behind with her older brother and cousin. Shortly after, her brother left home and she fell ill, seeing as there was no one to care for her since her cousin was always busy, she left home to go and stay with her struggling aunt. She had fallen so ill that she remained skinny, and no medicine seemed to help til they used traditional herbs.
Her aunt, a divorced struggling mother, was a sweet, outspoken women, she loved her like her own child, receiving her sick had deeply broken her heart and given her multiple sleepless nights fearing the worst could possibly happen. She had exhausted all her savings trying to get her the best treatment possible without stressing her parents, knowing they had travelled out for important work and wouldn't receive the news of their precious daughter being sick, lightly.
One fateful day, feeling better than she had felt in a long time, she sat outside the house chatting with her aunt while sunbathing when Joshua, a guy who had lived with her and family on different occasions but was not related to them, came by with a friend of his whom she found strangely familiar, but she could not recall where she had seen him before. "Baby…" came Joshua's deep voice from behind her "I heard you're sick so we decided to drop by and see how you're holding up." This poor guy had loved her for years but all his advances had fallen on deaf ears, she felt nothing but annoyance each time he professed his love. "I'm doing fine." She plainly responded while staring at the other guy, trying to remember where she might have seen him before, "Kyle…my name is Kyle, one of your brother's friends. We met when I came looking for him last time…he said as if reading her thoughts. Now that rang a bell, it was him…the guy whom she had felt unexplainable hate for, but now she didn't seem to abhor such feelings towards him but curiousity. "We'll drop by another time, we have to meet someone before going back home" came Joshua's voice from the gate as he signalled for Kyle to get up.
"That's him…." Said her aunt, "the guy who almost had your brother arrested. You seem to have taken alot of interest in him, he doesn't seem that bad". "No, it's nothing like that…" she responded, deep in thought "you know…there's something really weird about him, I just can't seem to figure it out". Or was she just overthinking things?…