Chapter One

What should I do? Why was I stupid to be controlled by this peer influence? Why indulge myself in alcohol drinking? I had managed to abstain from alcohol for seventeen years but now at seventeen and a half I decided to take a sip, a sip made a glass, a glass made a bottle and I became drunk. This drunkenness is the one that has brought me to this situation. What will I tell the world? Where will I hide my face? Why would I accept peer influence to control me? So, where will I take this thing I am carrying? Lucy asked herself this rhetoric silently. She couldn't believe what had just happened to her.

Lucy swallowed her saliva, shedding tears, and the events that led to her pregnancy floated in her mind.

It was just after she finished her Friday lecture. She went and sat alone at the university seats because she had no one to talk to, and also she'd wanted to relax her tired mind due to long hours of learning. No sooner had she taken her seat than her best friends, Agnes and Samantha, joined her. Agnes was seemingly more jovial.

"Lucy, today we're having a teens party in Ngara area, let me tell you it's usually enjoyable, and you'll be fanatic Lucy," Agnes told Lucy. Lucy seemingly not to be interested, she declined her offer, but Samantha added on. "Lucy, remember Johnny? The handsome guy you've been crushing for, will be there and so many more guys. The party will be thrilling."

Indeed, the name Johnny changed Lucy's attitude. She indeed had a deep crush on him. Seeing the way Johnny smiles tenderly and the way he twirls his lips seductively while talking to her, her stubbornness came to an end. She made up her final decision without even thinking on anything.

In the late evening, Lucy, Agnes and Samantha dressed to kill in a way that could deprive men attention with just a mere glance. Lucy had never joined them but due to her depth of crush on Johnny made her decide on this. Then the girls boarded a bus at University avenue, that dropped them to Ngara.

When they reached Ngara, Agnes called her boyfriend, Gerald, as he was the host of the party. Some moments later, Gerald came in the company of Hillary and Johnny. What a joy! Lucy hugged Johnny with an aim of luring him. She then threw a sexy look at him. Considering the way Lucy behaved, it was clear that she was indeed craving for him.

Gerald took them to the actual place where the party was. It was pomp and lively. Agnes and Samantha were interested in the crates of alcohol, and no sooner they entered the house than they directed their mind on alcohol. Agnes and Samantha became drunk after some few moments, so do everybody in the room except Lucy. They then began playing a certain game, "truth or dare" and the condition needed to play this game was that you were not supposed to be sober minded while playing it. So, Lucy was scrapped off the game.

It was desperate for Lucy to be alone. Since she was lonely, and she wanted to get near Johnny, she decided to take just a sip of alcohol and pretend to everyone that she's drunk. She took the first sip. Second sip. Third sip. The thing was incredibly sweet. So, she took other sips. Sips made glasses. Glasses made bottles. She was extremely drunk.

Lucy was high on alcohol. She felt like the entire world revolved around her. Agnes, Samantha and her danced in the club until late hours, and then they decided to go to their school hostels.

As they were walking through the dark chambers close to their hostels, shouting on top of their voices, some shadowy guys came from the dark, and they caught the girls. Lucy felt a certain hard grip on her breasts, and the man with a putrid like smell from his wide and big lip mouth tried to force her to a kiss. Lucy never knew what was happening as she was heavily drunk. Agnes and Samantha, realised what was happening and tried to help themselves. They managed to escape from these walls, and Lucy remained in the hands of these three vagabonds. Lucy came to learn the reality when she realised that she was down and all the three men had made up their decision to rape her.

Where will I take this, being that I have no idea of his father? Trauma tormented Lucy, and it grew to its fatal stage, to the extent of wanting to abort the creature now that it had made her drop out of school. Her mother, Grace, understood about her daughter and she often encouraged her to maintain the pregnancy until its maturity.

Lucy was worried as she had squirmed her family, she even believed her mother had lost all her trust in hostel

Lucy managed to maintain her pregnancy and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and named her Elsie. Following the trauma she had, Grace found Lucy laying unconscious with young Elsie on the other side wailing pitifully. This incident left Grace shocked, but she had nothing she could do because that was Lucy's fate. Desperation and trauma had led to her immature death.