I spat out the tooth cream and washed the taste off my tongue before I went ahead to comb my hair straight.
"Honey, you seem to be taking more time than usual."
The nervous voice of Annie made me hit my scalp with my comb.
"It's my birthday Mum!!, come on allow me to get pretty!!."
I listened to her laughter but none came. I reached out for the doorknob and twisted the door open. I placed one foot outside the bathroom alongside my head.
"Em!, look about what you saw yesterday. I am very sorry." I shoved off her words and went in for a hug.
"You are bisexual?." I asked her.
"Pan actually." She smiled nervously.
Her eyes scanned my facial expression and my body language. "Pan?... Pansexual?."
I wasn't new to all this, and I didn't want her to assume I was queer I am but I am not ready to come out of the closet, I wasn't Pan or bisexual or even heterosexual
.
"Take a seat." I offered her.
I pushed her lightly towards my bed. "Come on!!, sit!!."
I took a deep breath and then stood in front of her as though I had written a speech about our entire conversation and I was about to present it.
"Look I am not gonna tell Dad but are you and Trevor's mum a thing?." "Your dad and I are Poly."
My lips fell apart, I made a long sound of gasping in shock, I felt my knees weak and my eyes watery, was this the reason my mum left which led to her death? Maybe she couldn't control the pain of watching her husband wanting to be with another.
"And my mother?." I asked.
"Girls come on down!!!, the guests are here !." Rachael sang in a melodious tone in an attempt to call us out.
I walked towards the door and turned around to eat.
"How is my hair?." I asked her with a smile.
She paused for a while and stared at me with fear that I had never seen before.
"Look here!!, I love girls too and how sexy they can be and still love how easy some can pull off being a stud so easily, I love ass and boobs and I would stare at a curvy girl just like a lust man would!!. And must especially!, you're my best friend and if there is something I know very well is that best friends do not snitch on themselves."
I opened the door and walked out of my room. I lashed a few inches away from my room when I felt a set of fingers wrapped around my elbow, I turned my neck with my body frozen.
"What's wrong?." I asked with my eyes scanning her face.
I couldn't miss her eyes that were clouded with tears and her shivering limbs.
"I promised your dad I would never fall in love with any of my mistresses." My heart skipped a beat when I heard her words.
Fall in love? Could she be in love with Rachael? Or some other woman? "Your mother..." she gasped while trying so hard to breathe.
I looked back towards the stairs where I could hear footsteps ascending, my body moved at the speed of light back into my room.
Annie tossed me onto the bed and immediately locked the bedroom door.
"How is my mum involved in all this?." I asked without thinking twice.
"She..."
"Let me guess! She was also Polygamous!!?." I was beginning to tear up.
"She's alive." I looked up at her with my vision blurry and my lips that had fallen apart in shock.
My body danced on my bed, dragging the duvet alongside with it as I moved quickly towards the opposite edge of the bed.
"No!!, no no! she can't be." The memories of my father flinging the front door open, drenched in rainwater with his eyes red flashed in my mind.
The feeling of him crumbling down to his knees and whipping endlessly, to the memory of me rushing to his side in confusion waiting for my mother to walk in but she never did.
"She's dead!!." I yelled at Annie for the first time in my life. "Come on!!, Annie, it's been fourteen years since she died!!."
Annie approached me with outstretched arms.
"Your mother found out she didn't love your dad enough to marry him."
"No!!, that's not possible." I cried.
"Look at me!!." She grabbed on my shoulders and shook me while I sobbed bitterly.
My arms wrapped around my stomach while the tears ran down my cheeks like a waterfall.
The air from her nostrils brushed on my neck as she hugged me tight in her arms. "Your mother made sure I married your father so she knows you will always be safe and in good hands."
I pushed Annie out of my arms in anger. "She lied!?, she left me all alone!!, why would she even do that?." I asked her.
"Mavis!!, your mother had to !, she had to protect you and keep you safe, I was the only choice ." She tried to convince me.
I sighed, giving up on the goal of arguing with her. "What made her leave me in your care?." I asked her.
She tried to draw me closer to her despite the look on my face, after her failed attempt, Annie went ahead to explain.
"The world needed your mother or at least her company did, but your father was hell bent on having her as a housewife to the point he would lock her in doors all alone until the point you were born." She paused and then looked at my expressionless face. "You were her only reason to stay indoors all day like your father wanted until one day she broke free, she lost her temper."
"And she killed herself!." I mumbled my words in confusion.
Annie shook her head in disagreement. "She faked her death and I helped her, she never wanted to leave you but she knew if she stayed he would kill her."