Deborah's POV
Who bears Aholah in this day and age? I was so lost in my thoughts I almost bumped into Nurse Ada who was at the door. She also had come to check on Esther.
"Oh sorry, I'm really sorry."
"How's she?" she asked me.
"Better now. She's even talking now." I gestured to her on the bed, and Esther nodded.
"Okay. Thank you. She left and I followed shutting the door behind us.
"Nurse Ada, please wait." I stopped her. "Do you know any admitted student named Aholah?"
"You mean Wura?" She didn't even wait for a response. "She is leaving now. That's their car already moving out." She pointed to the lot down the corridor.
"Does that mean she has been discharged and is now fine?"
"No o. Pikin wey na me go buy nursing mother pad for am." She said in pidgin (THe girl that I'm the one that bought the nursing mother pad she would be using.) "She no gree well o. Her parents are flying her abroad tomorrow for treatment."
Nursing mother pad? Meaning she is bleeding.
"What kind of sickness would warrant nursing mother pad for a girl her age?"
"She's been bleeding and all the tests we took on her came out negative. The doctor sef was confused."
Wow. God, but you know what this bleeding is. Please heal...
What's her name again?
"You said Wura or Aholah?"
"Na the same person be that. Wo I don dey go."
She left.
I prefer Wura. She's gold, not Aholah.
God, please heal Wura. I'm begging.
***
"Miss Esther, are you okay?" I asked that morning. Esther had been sad since Aholah left. Though I didn't tell her anything, she must have gotten the information from her friends who came to visit. She had another attack overnight which made the doctor extend her stay in the clinic.
"She was my best friend." She said.
"You mean Wura."
"Yes," A tear dropped. "who would have that the change she claimed to have had was only fake? Hypocrite. That is what may end up killing all of us in this school."
It's the way she effortlessly generalized it that baffled me.
"She will be fine very soon. The Chinese doctors will help her..."
"No, I failed her. And I have failed myself. And my family..."
There's more to the burdens this girl carried about her ex-bestie. "No, are you blaming yourself for how your best friend turned out? No, you shouldn't do that. She is an adult and she should make good decisions for herself."
"When am I going back?"
"You are good to go. Let's wait for the clinic bus to arrive."
"Okay, thank you." She said while I left. But that wasn't all. I knew. Something inside of me told me that girl had something beyond asthma and her sick best friend Aholah.
"God help Esther Obi."
Then I remembered. I had led staff devotion that morning and the chaplain asked me to come talk to the students at their morning devotion the next morning. Why me?!
***
Esther POV
"Christy, look at our life. One night I'm suffering an attack, the other I'm being home for more treatment. You too, look at your grade. You have seven carryovers and this is our last semester in this school. I feel like we are in one big crisis and this is just the start." I said to Christine that afternoon in my room. She had canceled all her classes that day to be with me. I was fed up and it was more than obvious to both of us that we were not living a good life.
"Esther I'm just as confused as you are."
"But Adeola graduated well. She was also into girls..." I suggested.
"What are you insinuating Esther?"
"I've been having this feeling lately." I said. "maybe just maybe we are facing the consequences of our actions..."
"Which action? Loving a girl? Exploring my sexuality?"
"And still ministering on God's pulpit..."
"What bad..."
"We both know that the bible is against our love..." She wrapped her naked body around mine. I felt safe again. But no, this is not it. I love to be here but I know it is the wrong place to be.
"Thank God you said love because that is what matters." She brushed a kiss against my lip. "Beside the second greatest commandment is that we love one another and that is what we are doing my dear."
"But we were not always like this. I never had asthma. It just came from nowhere when I started sleeping with girls..."
"Girls?" She shot me an angry look." So you sleep with other girls?"
"What?" I sent mine back." No please tell me you didn't enjoy Adeola before she left or do threesomes with her roommate. Please please please..."
"Well," she bites her lower lip pressing in towards me again. "The thing is we change who is are..."
"The thing is this thing is ruining our life!"
She was quiet.
"Christine, you were never the type to have a C. But since... Look at you, my friend..."
"Can we change this topic please?"
"No..."
"There's something I want us to watch. It has this..."
"We can't continue in this..."
"We can't stop either. Come on Esther, wake up!"