I took a deep breath before proceeding to call Stephanie. She seemed very worried by my sudden need to come home and didn't stop asking me questions.
Once I ended the call and shoved a few things into my school bag ready to leave, someone was sent to check on me.
"What took you so long?" Mrs. Ejimbe questioned when I came out.
"It's nothing ma. I was just feeling a little dizzy and decided to lie down for a while."
She nodded without saying a word and handed me her phone. I took it and called Stephanie again.
"Are you still coming?" I asked while glancing at Mrs. Ejimbe who seemed to be busy on her laptop but was certainly listening to what I was saying.
I had earlier lied to her that my mother would pick me from school to take me to the hospital and she wasn't aware that I had called Stephanie earlier.
"Yeah, I am almost there."
"Okay." I ended the call and handed Mrs. Ejimbe back her phone. I stood there waiting for a while before I finally saw Stephanie.
"Would you finally tell me why I had to drive all the way here just to pick you?" She asked once we got into the car.
She took the driver's seat while I stayed in the passenger seat. I buckled my seat belt as I thought about whether it was necessary to tell her or not.
"I passed out and I am not feeling very fine," I said.
"Oh, so sorry. I hope it's nothing serious. Should I take you to the doctor?"
"No, it's not a problem. Actually..." I trailed off.
"Yeah?" She prompted.
"I'll tell you later," I said with a small smile.
"Hmm... I hope it isn't boy problems because I will just turn this car around and drop you back at school."
"It isn't," I said not amused at all.
"Are you sure you are okay? You don't sound like yourself," she questioned sounding worried.
"Obviously I am not okay. I wouldn't ask you to pick me from school if I was," I said harshly.
After my sudden outburst, we drove in silence until we got home. I got down from the car and headed straight for my room locking my door before finally collapsing on my bed.
I wasn't given the luxury of wallowing in my own pity before I heard a knock on the door.
"Go away!" I said and the knock continued, this time much louder. I ignored it as I searched around my drawers for my pills.
I found the long forgotten pack of sleeping pills I had been addicted to when I struggled with insomnia. It felt like a very long time ago when it hadn't been more than a couple of months.
Checking to see if it was still consumable, I shoved a few tablets into my mouth before drowning them with water. The knocking sound became muffled and soon darkness took over.
When I woke up, everywhere was dark. I tried to sit up when my lights suddenly flashed on. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the brightness and for me to notice Stephanie standing by the light switch.
I stared at her confused for a moment. 'She was in my room? Had she been standing in the dark waiting for me to wake up? Hold on, didn't I lock the door before I fell asleep?' I thought all at once.
"How are you feeling now?" she asked the last thing I expected to hear from her. I nodded in reply not in the mood for words and still feeling a bit drowsy.
She walked to my bed and sat next to where I was.
"You're taking sleeping pills again?" She asked and I kept quiet, my eyes darting to the direction of my drawer to find that the pills I had kept there were no longer in sight.
"You know how hard it was for me to deal with your parasomnia. And now that everything is back to normal, why do you want to ruin it?" She asked. I was quiet surprised that she wasn't yelling at me for having sleeping pills in my custody again and still taking them despite strict warnings I had received.
"You know it isn't fair that you are not giving me an answer now because I think I deserve one. You don't know how much I panicked when I kept knocking on your door and received no answer. I left thinking that maybe you needed some alone time but then I was really worried when I returned again and still you didn't give me any answer. Do you know how much that would have scared me?"
I kept quiet as I maintained a sullen look while listening to her and feeling slightly sorry.
"I know breaking into your room wasn't exactly the best decision but you didn't exactly leave me any choice. You really need to stop locking your door. What if you die in here? How would any ever find out? What if you are having some kind of breathing problem or anything at all could happen!"
"I'm sorry..."
"I know you are sorry but you really have to take better care of yourself."
I nodded managing to come up with a small smile.
"Now please tell me what the problem is. Why did you want me to pick you from school so urgently?"
I kept mute as I stared at the walls noticing only then that my Jarad Higgins portrait was missing.
"Where's the portrait?" I asked suddenly and Stephanie looked at me as if I had lost my mental health.
"There was a portrait of a guy here... Where's the portrait?" I asked again. She stared at me in confusion first and then the wall.
"I don't know darling. Your mother had a couple of things she found unnecessary moved out. Maybe she got it moved by mistake?"
My eyes widened as I stared at her. 'Unnecessary' I repeated mentally. Was this some sick payback for me taking down her pictures?
"Where did she move it to and what else did she move?"
"You are deviating from the main topic here. You haven't told me what was bothering you yet and I feel you are deliberately trying to change the topic."
"No I am not deviating from any topic. I just want my portrait back."
"Your portrait? Really? Just forget about the portrait for now and tell me why you came back home or else I will drive you back to school right now," she threatened raising her voice slightly.
"Don't shout at me!" I said feeling frustrated. Why did she have to be such a pest?
"Okay. Get ready, I am taking you back to school," she said standing up and I scoffed. Was she planning to carry me on her head to school because I wasn't going to stand up from this bed.
"I mean it. If you don't tell me why you made me drive miles just to pick you, the same way you woke up and saw me in your room is the same way you'll wake up and see yourself in school."
I sighed. I knew she was bluffing but I decided to just tell her what had happened.
"Okay, I'll tell you." I took a deep breath. "Someone sent my nude pictures to my class' group chat." I looked up to see her returning to my bed.
"WHAT?!" she yelled practically seething.
"Exactly what I said before."
"Who did that and what reason would they have to do that?"
"I don't know who did it but it has to be my roommates since no one else could possibly get pictures of me bathing. I told you they didn't like me but you didn't believe me. I told you they were bad news but you thought I was lying," I said tears welling in my eyes.
"I... I didn't know. I thought it was you just being...you. I didn't know that your roommates could go that far. I... I am so sorry," she said near tears.
I rolled my eyes as I tried blinking away my tears which didn't work.
"Did you report them?"
I shook my head to indicate 'no'.
"Why?"
I shrugged. "I was still shocked and I still can't comprehend the whole thing till now. Besides the school wouldn't exactly believe me since the phone number the message was sent from was an unknown number..."
I paused thinking about my statement. The number appeared as unknown in Alesscia's phone probably because she didn't save the number of the person who sent the message.
If it were either Chiamaka, Kaira or Isa's number, then it would be possible that Alesscia didn't have the number originally saved on her phone because she wasn't friends with any of them.
In fact, she didn't even have my own number to begin with. So there was a huge possibility that she didn't have any of my roommates' numbers either.
But would they have used their actual numbers to send it? There was only one way to find out. I searched around for my phone ignoring Stephanie who was asking me what the problem was.
I finally found it in my wardrobe. Disregarding the weirdness of the position I had found my phone in, I immediately texted Alesscia:
'Hi. It's Alya. Could you please send me the phone number from which my pictures were forwarded to the class' group chat. Thanks in advance.'
I waited for about a minute before it dawned on me that she might be asleep. I was about to drop my phone when she replied.
She sent the number together with a message asking if I was alright. Ignoring the message, I tapped on the number expecting it to be either one of my roommates' numbers but I was disappointed to find out it wasn't.
Quickly sending her a 'thanks' and an assurance that I was doing fine, I wished her a goodnight sleep. When I was about to drop the phone, it occurred to me that the number she sent was oddly familiar.
I turned on my phone and went back to the message she sent. I stared at the number.
+2349074530575
And then it dawned on me. That was.... my number!