Akushika sniffed as she looked out the window, wiping her eyes.

She shook her head as she stewed upon the decision she had just made.

Did it make sense? Not in the slightest. There was not a soul she knew in Kumasi. Even in Accra, she could barely tell her left from her right. How much more an entirely different city she had never visited in her life?

But did she care? Nope. Not in the slightest. Her life as it stood made no sense, so why not? It felt like everyone in Accra had abandoned her, anyways. So why not?

As the bus began to move out of the yard, she tried to process her thoughts and emotions; they were an absolute mess.

They were many, but the uppermost emotion she could easily identify in there…

… was anger.

She was angry with herself for letting down her dignity and giving permission to a scumbag stranger to have his way with her. She was angry with the scumbag stranger for working his way into her pants, just to treat her like vermin afterward. She was angry with her parents for giving up on her so easily and just cutting her off. She was angry with Celina and all her friends for abandoning her and not standing by her side. She was just angry.

Angry at the world.

But, she was also sad. And heartbroken. And confused.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It just wasn’t.

It was supposed to be just one night of breaking free from the shackles of her parents and going back to quietly being the obedient little girl they expected her to be. Just a night of fun with her friends from the private university, looking super spicy and enjoying some laughs and drinks. That was it.

It shouldn’t have ended up like this.

And what hurt the most? She was the only one losing out in all this. Drill was probably enjoying himself in his house, totally unbothered about her. Mr. and Mrs. Acolatse… maybe they were hurt over her actions, but they certainly couldn’t be worse off than her at that moment.

“God, forgive me, I’ve been such a fool,” she whispered to herself, wiping a tear before doing her best to compose herself to prevent the man sitting next to her from asking questions.

***

About two hours had passed, and the bus had just left Linda Dor. Akushika had remained in her seat during the period the other travellers stepped out to visit the washroom and get something to eat. She was in no mood to get out of the bus; she was too engrossed in her many soliloquies to attend to the gaping hole in her belly. From sorrowfully questioning her parents why they chose to interpret her question as an unpardonable offence, to lambasting herself for not asking Drill to take his hands off her legs, now she was cursing the boy for smartly getting into her head.

“Well, that’s the last time I ever trust any guy who compliments me or even moves to me,” she muttered to herself. “Never again. Never, ever again. I’m never trusting any guy who says anything nice about me-“

The vibration of her phone interrupted her speech. She looked down and saw the caller ID.

It was Celina.

She shook her head. What did she want? Hadn’t she made it clear she couldn’t help her out?

“I dunno what she wants, but no thanks. I’m not available,” she murmured to herself as let the phone continue to vibrate. She wasn’t in any mood to answer that call.

The phone vibrated again. And the call from Celina ended. And it vibrated again, and ended.

Akushika shook her head as another call came through. She pressed the reject button.

Whatever the reason for calling, she didn’t want to hear it. Celina had already subtly made her stance clear when she needed her: there was no space for her. And the icy tone in her voice made no effort to hide her blatant disgust at Akushika, which stung even more.

Her conscience and the actions of her parents were enough torment on her mind as it were. Further shows of contempt from those she needed support from would only worsen her state of mind.  

“Let me check out if there’s any guest house I can find on Google Maps,” she continued, picking up the phone a few minutes later.

***

“Tech Junction!”

“Bus stop oo, driver!”

A couple more hours had passed. Akushika had dozed off at a point, and woken up about forty minutes later. It was now evening, about 8:30 pm, and per her checks on Google Maps, they were now in the Ashanti region.

Her attention was on one guest house she had managed to find when the driver called out for those ready to alight at the said junction. She had no idea what junction it was, anyways, and her guess was that it didn’t concern her.

Once the bus arrived at the Tech Junction, though, her ears picked up the sound of many people rising from their seats to exit. Looking around and seeing almost everyone getting down immediately had her sit up.

Wait, is this the last stop or something? Should I get down here?

It didn’t take long to answer herself in the affirmative as she rose to her feet. The bus was virtually emptying up, and she was not ready to remain in her seat. Especially not at that time of the night.

She stepped out of the bus, quickly got her suitcase and walked a few steps before getting approached by a couple of taxi drivers. All of them assuming she was a student of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

“My dear, which side of campus are you going to?”

“Ayeduase car is here oo!”

Not as overwhelmed as when she was leaving Accra, but still a little put off by the rather aggressive and pushy approach, she shook her head vigorously. “Umm, I’m going to this guest house… Live Star Guest House,” she stuttered.

“Ahhh, LiveStar, LiveStar!” one of the taxi drivers responded. “Yeah, yeah, I can take you there.”

***

Half an hour later, and Akushika found herself in a simple but spacious room in the Live Star Guest Hotel. It turned out following the crowd in was a wise decision; the guest house was about fifteen minutes away. Staying on the bus till its final stop would have unnecessarily prolonged the journey. She was pretty sure the driver had taken advantage of her naivete and weak command of Twi, and had overcharged her. But getting charged an extra 20 cedis was honestly a tiny matter compared to her present situation.

She threw herself onto the bed and sighed.

What a day it had been!

If you had told Akushika 24 hours earlier that she’d be sleeping in another room in another building in another city, she would never have believed you. Granted, she had been at the wrong end of the most brutal of rollicking from her parents 24 hours earlier. But to get disowned that very morning, get kicked out of the house and suddenly leave Accra? She never would have imagined such an insane turn of events.

But, here she was. Lying in a room of a guest house, with a foetus in her womb, a father who wanted nothing to do with it or her, and parents who had verbally cut off all ties with her.

As her mind dwelled on these facts, her eyes welled up with tears.

This is the worst day of my life.

Suddenly, all the pain of the day’s events struck her with a blinding vengeance. The walls she had forced up to prevent the world from seeing her pain crumbled down as reality well and truly dawned on her at that moment.

In a matter of 24 hours, she was all alone. Abandoned. Left to her own fate.

She grabbed the nearest pillow and buried her face in it.

And cried bitterly.

Hmmm, Miss Acolatse is in an awful place right now. But let’s see how this introductory season ends…