Short Story: Broken – Episode 1

Not good enough!’ you’re such a useless child…a waste of space! Nitwit!” Mr Ade howlered. As usual, he’s woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Perhaps, he wakes on the wrong side of the bed every single time and won’t hesitate to remind his daughter…his only child and surviving immediate relative how repulsive she was to him.

Shola or rather ‘Sholly’ as her friends call her, wasn’t in any way moved by his words. She had a very rough night and had woken up rather late for school. It had rained heavily the night before and no thanks to the annoying sound of the the roofing sheets she’s told her dad to fix severaly; she woke up late.

Glancing at her wristwatch; she realised the time was 7:50am and immediately decided that breakfast was one luxury she couldn’t afford now even though her stomach protested unwillingly.She hurried out of the o

house half-running and praying that she doesn’t miss the first period.

Arriving school, she was glad the maths teacher who was supposed to take the first period was absent that day. Awash with relief, she slumped into her chair lazily.

Live wasn’t always this hard if only her dad would stop gambling. She remembered the previous years with nostalgia. Her parents used to be happy and wealthy few years back but her father had gambled everything away.

‘there are risks in business’ ‘gone are the days when people sweat so hard for money’ ‘stop being so pessimistic’ he’d always say whenever mom tried to talk him out of his gambling. She’d died a careless death and sometimes I was mad at her for not leaving dad who was presently rolling in debts thanks to his frivoulous lifestyle. Good thing mom opened a trust fund for me before her death otherwise, I would’ve been a drop out.

‘Hi Sholly!’ Ameke hollered

‘Sholly babe! I’m glad to see you. I was beggining to worry about you…why did you arrive late?’ Aida talked excitedly.

‘Sholly! there’s a play going on , come cast for the ‘sexy secretary’! another classmate called out. grrrr

Soon enough, the class was filled with happy chatter. Perhaps, all the love in the world didn’t die with mom, there was some here too. Sholly thought as she joined in the chatter.

.

To be continued