"My mum?" I asked even if I heard him quite clearly. I didn't like to talk about her, but I guess he didn't like to talk about his mum also but we just talked about her.
"Yeah."
I chuckled nervously, "Well, the kinda from the other apartments back home thinks she's cool but she's really not..."I muttered and looked to see if he was feeling sleepy, maybe I could stop talking, but his eyes were still wide open without a sign of sleepiness.
"I mean, she's somewhere in between. She wants me home on time and all, but that's just because she needs help with her delivery job. But after I help her, I get to choose what we have for dinner...but now I think of it, that's probably because she never ears with me."
"While I eat in my room, she gets high as fuck, that's usually her dinner. I didn't mind it in my early years of growing up 'cause that's all I ever saw her do when she wasn't working or taking care of me; she would get high at the slightest free time she had."
"It was like that till I became sensible enough to take care of myself. I began to develop a fear of her dying because if she died I wouldn't have anyone else take care of me, except my grandparents...and they didn't like me very much...they still don't 'cause for some reason they think I'm gonna become my mum...or my dad, I don't know...I hear them talk about it sometimes, and..." I stopped and wiped the tears in my eyes with the back of my palm.
"Let's talk about something else," Uche sat up, probably not liking that I was crying.
"It's fine, I wanna talk about it," I assured him because even though I didn't want to, I needed to. I never could tell anyone else what I was telling him, not even my aunt, or Nick.
"You sure?"
"Yeah," I chuckled a bit so he saw that I was alright. I inhaled deeply before continuing."I don't know who my dad is, I don't really wanna know. My parents call him a monster so I'm guessing he's a horrible person, I don't know, but guess the funny part?"
"What?"
I laughed at what I was about to tell him because I knew he wouldn't believe me, "I look like him."
"Huh?"
"I look like my dad," I laughed; it was really funny whenever I thought of it."Never even realized it till I was playing hide and seek with Nick this one time at our grandparent's house and I hid in their room, and I heard them say it. My grandma went 'Poor girl, she even looks like that monster'," I laughed again and noticed Uche was giving me a that's not funny look, but at least he wasn't saying it.
"He must be very handsome then if you look like him." Uche's pity look turned into one of adoration and I just bit my lips aimlessly."You ever ask your mum about him?"
"No." I shrugged."I don't know wanna know about him, or why he's not with mum." I answered and we stared at each other for some seconds before I continued."One time when I was like twelve, my mum OD'd," I chuckled as I remembered that day.
"So it was a casual Saturday morning and I didn't have to go to school that day so I spent all morning sleeping in till I got hungry and went to my mum's room and she wasn't there, and so I thought she'd be in the kitchen. On my way to the kitchen, I meet my mum, looking dead and blue as fuck, foam coming out of her mouth, her eyes red, and guess what I did."
"You called 911?"
"Yeah right, mum never taught me to call 911, she never wanted to be police anywhere near her house. I just sat there next to her, staring at her, wondering what my life would be like living with my grandparents...and then, I realized she was still breathing so I went and got a neighbour, the one who always preaches to her to stop her drugs. She was the only one I knew."
" She rushed in with me, shouted Jesus like a hundred times," I laughed, "Then she went to our kitchen and asked where the bowls were when she could find one. I told her we didn't have bowls, we only had pots and paper plates. But the pots were dirty so she ran back to her apartment, filled a bowl with water, returned with it and splashed it on my mum."
"My mum sat up with tears in her eyes, and then she hugged me and promised me it'd never happen again." I licked my lips and snorted a laugh after, "She fucking drugged herself that night again." I sighed."I knew I should tell somebody, maybe my aunt, or my grandparents, but I'd seen them judge her whenever we were together, and I didn't want them judging her again, so I sat back and watched my mum get worse as I got older, and here I am, in my aunt's custody because she's in rehab."
"I'll be right back, let me get something to drink," I told him and left my phone on the bed before heading downstairs. I was startled when I met my aunt talking on her laptop.
"Yes, Mr McBride, we're working on it, my team and I will be able to brief you about the project at our next meeting, I promise." She noticed me and pinned her index finger to her lips, asking me to be quiet.
I nodded and went and took the jug of water in the middle of the dining table, took a glass with me and headed back upstairs.
When I picked up my phone, Uche's was showing only his lips and slightly bearded chin. Was he asleep? I wanted to call him but what if he was actually asleep?
I decided to end the call, if he was awake, he'd call back. I sat and waited for ten minutes and he didn't call so I plugged my phone into its charger and turned off the table lamp.