THREE

She woke up with a throbbing headache. She had too much to drink the night before. Gabriel had convinced her to go the party after all. She had a lot of fun, this fun meant lots of alcohol, weed and sex. Her hand weakly searched the bed for her phone. The time was 10:00 am.

"Finally you're awake" Gabriel walked into the room wearing just a pair of black sweatpants and the tattoos on his chest.

"Hi" She yawned.

"You look dead" he teased and she raised her middle finger at him.

"I ordered breakfast, it's sitting in the microwave, let's go"

No matter how much he drank as long as he slept and woke up, Gabriel would be fine.

He tossed her one of his shirt and they both left the room. Breakfast was a simple meal of fried plantains and egg, her favorite. They ate in silence, mostly because of her headache. After breakfast, Gabriel offered to do the dishes and she didn't object.

By early afternoon, her headache was gone and she felt better. They sat down to watch a movie when a call from mom came. She felt her heart racing and she took a deep breath before picking up the call.

"Good afternoon, mom" her voice shook, a little.

"Yes, how are you?"

"I'm fine"

"Remember Mary's wedding is this weekend, when will you come home?"

"On Thursday, Thursday evening"

"Ok, no problem. Bye-bye"

"Bye"

"What did she want?" Gabriel asked with a slight frown. He wasn't particularly a fan of Miss. Daniels.

"Mary's wedding" she offered.

He nodded and that was the end of that conversation.

Her phone rang, taking her attention from the movie.

"Guy pick that shit" Gabriel sounded annoyed. She rolled her eyes at him.

She picked up the call and placed it on louder speaker just to annoy him.

"Hello?" came the voice from the other side. Gabriel shot her a look and she brushed it off.

"Good afternoon" she replied.

"I have a package for you"

"Okay. I'm home, you can come. When you get to the gate just call me." She said to the dispatch rider. She loved to shop online, whenever she placed an order she would put Gabriel's address. She didn't dare put her house address for the fear that her mother would search her things, plus there was no one at home to receive them. She didn't like the domestic staff touching her things.

"Okay ma"

"You dey fuck up oh" Gabriel said to her and she stuck out her tongue.

"And that's why you love me so much" she said playfully.

"What did you buy?"

"Just a few clothes and shoes. I even need to buy wig. There's this fine wig I saw online sef" she rambled, playing with her nails. Her nails were fixed. She had on a brown marble design, acrylic of course.

"How much is the wig?" he asked.

"Two hundred and something"

"I feel like I should buy it for you" he said playfully and she beamed.

"Yes please, my love!" she chuckled, moving closer to him

"Go away! I'm not going to buy anything for you, you're annoying"

"You go buy am, no worry" she said. Her phone rang and she knew it was the delivery guy.

She made Gabriel go out to get the items, much to his dismay. When he returned she was holding a bottle of water in her hand.

"Ah, I love the smell of new clothes"

The clothes were spread across the floor. She had bought three dresses, a pair of graphic jeans, four crop tops, a skirt and a pair of black boots and two bags, a simple shoulder bag and a cross body bag

"You have money oh, how much did you spend on these things?" Gabriel said. He picked up one of the dresses. It was a white solid cut out ruched body con dress.

"I don't know, something around seventy to eighty-five"

"Hmm cheap" he said, dropping the dress and picked up a black wrap round crop top.

"They were on sales, I was so excited when I saw it." She explained.

Yes, her mother was rich, earning in six figures. Her monthly allowance was a person's life savings but she never walked away from a sales, never.

They put away her new clothes away and returned to the movie. Gabriel fell asleep before the movie could come to an end.

Gabriel's phone rang and she absentmindedly picked it up. The caller id read Sandra.

One of his hoes she thought.

"Hello?" she said to Sandra.

"Gabriel?" Sandra called, her voice shook.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Guy, I'm pregnant oh" Sandra said.

"Let me call you back" she ended the call and moved to wake the father to be.

"Daddy, wake up" she said, chuckling.

Gabriel opened his eyes, closed them again. "Rest, abeg. You don't get tired?"

She opened her mouth to defend herself but ended up laughing.

"Sandra called and she's with child, for you" She explained

Gabriel opened his eyes fully and let out a small yawn.

"The fuck she's calling for?" he asked and she shrugged.

"I'll send her money to abort, no one should stress me abeg" he hissed.

She shook her head at him and moved to the bed.

"When did you guys have sex?" She asked, not that she cared she just wanted to be safe. They became sex partners on the night of her nineteenth birthday, it had been a year since then. She was tired of being a virgin, she said. Gabriel offered to help. She agreed because it was Gabriel, her best friend. He made her feel safe and so she had no worries. They were both allowed to have sex with only one person outside each other for safety reasons of course. She had never been with another person, she was scared to do that. Her insecurities, courtesy of her mother's abusive words built a cage around her, she wasn't able to break through. She feared that anyone who saw her body would be repulsed by it. Truth be told, she was immensely beautiful. The Lord had blessed her with chocolate skin and thick black eyes. She was petite as some would call it. Her breasts were perky and just the right size. Her bum had the right curve, it wasn't big but it was as soft as the clouds, that she took pride in. However, she never really felt beautiful, not for one day. She had tried to fight these insecurities but they had a strong hold on her. They were suffocating her but she didn't have the strength to fight anymore. She settled and made peace with the fact that she would never be enough, at least that's what her mother made her think.

"Omo, I don't know" another yawn escaped his lips.

"We have a test next week Friday, so I'll come on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for us to study" , she pulled out her phone to set a reminder.

"Oya, come and be going, I'm going to play football"

"I'll go with you, wait"

"To do what?" Gabriel asked and she shrugged. "I'm going to be bored, I'll just sit and watch you guys play. Get a drink or something" she said.

"Your things are still where they used to be, I forgot to move them. So you go and bath first"

"Okay!"

"If anyone hits on you, just ignore them" Gabriel warns her as she's walking away to go get ready.

"Yes, daddy!" she rolls her yes at him