*A Week Later*
"Oh my goodness!" her mother yelled at the top of her voice. She kept her lips pressed together and closed her eyes tightly. "I told you to be careful!"
"I'm sorry mummy" . She hurriedly ran out of the room to get some paper towels. "Give it here!" her mother grabbed the paper towels aggressively.
It was a bright Saturday morning, she had come home for the weekend. The first news which she got was that mother needed to see her. Worry clouded her mind.
Did I do anything wrong?
She thought.
She wore her pink furry slippers and left her room. She stood in front of her mother's door stalling before she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
"Good morning mum" she greeted with a small smile. Her mother nodded.
"Yes, make me some tea"
She walked over to the little table that held a box of assorted coffee and teas. Beside this box sat an electric kettle and a set of teacup and saucer. She knew her mother liked the ginger and lemon tea. She poured a bottle of water into the kettle and let it boil.
"I got a few complains about you from the wedding" her mother said.
"Your aunty Ebere said you were not happy to see her"
Her mother's words confused her. "I was happy to see her" she said.
"So she's lying?" her mother asked. She remained mute. "She told me that you didn't smile when you saw her and you didn't greet her properly"
She wanted to defend herself but it was no use. It was obvious her mother had made up her mind about the situation.
And aunty Ebere!
What did she mean by what she said to her mother? What did she expect? That she'd run into her arms and begin to chat like they were best friends? She offered the woman a simple greeting with a small smile and hug. What more did she want?
She really didn't like old people, they were so stressful.
"I have said it before that you have a problem. There has to be something wrong with you. Because I don't understand how you could be so disrespectful. Always acting so foolish, disgracing me every single time." Her mother began.
"I'm sorry mummy." She apologized.
"Shut up!" her mother snapped.
The water had come to a boil at this point, so she quickly made the tea and carried it towards her mother. She felt nervous, her hands were shaky so was the cup in her hands. She bent down slightly to place the cup as carefully as her shaky hands would let her. She prayed silently that the tea wouldn't spill. Her prayer didn't make it to heaven on time.
The tea spilled, soiling the bed and her mother's night wear. Her mother raised hell of course.
"I'm sorry mum" she said after handing her mother the paper towels.
"Get out! Evil child!" She scurried out of the room.
She took a deep breath after leaving the room, one she had been holding since she entered.
Determined to not be too upset because she did mess up, she went to get ready for the day. She had a photoshoot with a small scale clothing brand in town. She loved modeling, it was the one thing that made her appreciate her body and herself as a person. She also loved being in front of the camera because it meant she was the center of attention. She made a mental note to avoid her mother for the rest of the day.After getting ready, she left the house.
When she returned from her photoshoot, her mother had already left for work, as expected. Her exams were a week away, she decided to study. She really liked school and getting good grades but a chunk of her will to be in school and pass was her trying to impress her mother and prove she wasn't a total disappointment. Even though she did feel like a disappointment almost every time. She understood what her mother wanted from her. Her mother was a perfectionist and it showed in the things that she did and said. She did try to be perfect just to please her mother and hopefully get some love but after trying so hard, she began to give up. This didn't mean that she didn't go out to her way to try to make her mother happy but she didn't do it as much anymore. She was beginning to grow and understand that her mother was just a hard person to please and be around. Maybe that's why her father left, he should've taken her with him. She sometimes wondered if her mother knew that the things she said had caused so much damage. But knowing her mother, she wouldn't care. She'd say "I'm only trying to make you strong. How else do you plan to survive the harsh realities of the world if you remain so weak!"
What a flawed way of thinking. Those words did everything but make her strong. She wouldn't call herself damaged because she didn't think that she was. She was however, broken. There's a difference. When damage, it becomes completely useless but broken, could still work , sometimes.
Before mother returned, she had gone out again. She had an appointment with Gabriel.
Ruby, a friend of hers and Gabriel, mostly Gabriel's. She had invited them and a few other people to her house for games and drinks. She paired a white solid crop tank top with a green flap pocket cargo pants and a pair of white sneakers. While dressing up, she could already see Gabriel asking why she was so extra. Yes, loved clothes and dressing up.
"What are you wearing?!" her mother asked. She shut down.
"Where are you coming from?" her mother asked again.
"I went to a friend's house" she whispered to her mother.
"Why won't you open your mouth?!"
"I SAID I WENT TO A FRIEND'S HOUSE?" she spoke louder.
"Dressed like that?" She didn't replied.
"So that's what you do now?" her mother asked rhetorically. "You left my house looking like a harlot?"
"Mummy-" She opened her mouth to speak but the look she got from her mother shut her up.
"Just see the way you look. Like a slut! What nonsense?!"
"GET OUT! Look at her prostitute!" her mother hissed as she left the room
The next morning, before leaving for work mother told her to wash her toilet and then after that she'd have to kneel down and raise her hands up while carrying a bucket of water. A tear fell from her eyes when the punishment was pronounced. Her mother was still very much angry. She didn't bother taking a bath, it'd a waste of time. She got to work an hour after her mother left. She kept telling herself that she didn't have the right to be angry. She put herself in that position, she should have been more careful with the tea because everything she had faced since then was because of the tea. She finished the toilet in an hour and took a break of thirty minutes before beginning the actual punishment.
She couldn't cheat her way out of this. She tried it before but what she didn't know was that her mother had installed a camera where she'd watched the clip after work to know if she really knelt down for the designated amount of time she was given.
On that day, she was to kneel for two hours and thirty minutes. This was a part of her life she never told anyone, not even Gabriel. It was highly embarrassing that she still knelt down like a child in JSS1. After thirty minutes into the punishment her arms were shaking beyond control. The bucket kept threatening to fall and she had even spilled a little water. She felt immense pain in her waist and her knees became numb. She was sweating profusely even with the air conditioner turned on. Her body was giving up on her and she too was giving up on her body. No matter how many times she did this, she could never get used to it. She didn't even bother crying, her tears were useless. She did her time and when it was up, her mother called one of the staff to tell her to stand up.
After being released, she took her bath and went back to bed for the rest of the day.