The call

"I'm sorry Val.. Damien and I ...we did not mean to hurt you. It was a mistake. I know that I have wronged you but can you at least let me make up for it?." Rachel apologized again, her eyes welling with tears.

Rachel was the black beauty during their time in campus. With a smooth dark skin, big round eyes and long black hair, and a model's body she was by no doubt a beauty. Now seeing this beauty shedding tears could make anyone want to comfort her. Valarie though wasn't the least bit affected by her tears.

"Shut up!" , Valarie, who was simply called Val by her friends, shouted at the pitiful looking girl in front of her. She felt disgusted by her. Whose pity was she trying to gain by shedding crocodile tears in front of her? Hearing the familiar words come out of her mouth made her feel nauseous. For eight years, she had been very close with the girl in front of her. They always had each other's backs since highschool.They were best friends. Two months ago, they graduated from A University and she could still remember how happy and excited they were to graduate together. They met in high school and had immediately hit off with each other. Their friendship had grown stronger by the day and when they were joining campus, they had decided to apply for the same university.

Back then, almost everyone knew of their unbreakable friendship bond. But now, she hated her. Was friendship between ladies that fickle? She'd thought that her long time friendship with Rachel was going to last their whole lives but she was wrong.

She really didn't know how to describe her feelings. She could almost feel the bitter taste of betrayal from her best friend and boyfriend.

About six weeks ago, they had called her to a coffee shop a street away from her home. At that time, she had thought that they were calling her to hang out as usual. However, they had both faced her with guilty faces, no that came out wrong, Rachel had looked at her with a guilty face while Damien had just sat their with a poker face as if their meeting had nothing to do with him. She was ignorant of the change in their relationship and so she had greeted them excitedly. "Hi babe, hi Rachel," but she didn't get any reply. Damien ignored her and continued scrolling through his phone while Rachel had looked more guilty which was weird.

Then Rachel had stuttered, "Val, I..I am pregnant."

Val felt like she had heard her wrong . What did Rachel mean by she was pregnant? When did she have a boyfriend? And why was Damien just sitting their with a poker face and not  comforting our friend? Why didn't he answer her greetings?

Damien, Rachel and her all went to the same high school and campus. They were all classmates. She and Rachel had been friends from the first day in high school, they were even seatmates. From their first year in high school, she had had a crush on Damien and Rachel knew about it. She was too shy to confess her feelings back then after all a girl confessing her feelings first to a boy was still uncommon. Rachel though always teased her, calling Damien her boyfriend in secret when no one was listening. She remembered that most of the time when he entered class, Rachel would poke her and whisper, "your boyfriend is here Val," and then she would scold Rachel telling her that if someone heard her she would be laughed at.  It wasn't until in their third year  that Damien confessed his feelings to her. That day, she was so excited such that every time she looked at Damien, she'd have a silly smile on her face. Those days, their love was so pure and innocent.

Damien and Val had dated from then until the beginning of their fourth year in campus when he had proposed to her. He had ,like a gentleman, knelt on one knee and asked her to marry her in front of their fellow students. Everyone was so excited for her , especially Rachel or so she thought. They had then planned to get married a year after graduation. They had even planned that Rachel would be her bridesmaid maid and David, Damien's friend would be his best man. At that time, Rachel and David simply refered to as Davy were a bit close and she had even entertained the idea of  matchmaking them.

So when Rachel said she was pregnant, the first person that came to Val's mind as the father of her baby was Davy although Rachel had never told her that she was seeing him or anyone at that. However, the next words that had come out of her mouth had shocked her to the bone.

"Val, it's Damien's," she had revealed.

"What?" It came out more of a question than a surprise.  She thought Rachel was playing a prank on her after all there was no way that was possible, right?

But before she could digest Rachel's words, Damien had said to Rachel, "we should leave now that you've told her." From the beginning to the end he hadn't even taken a glance at her. She had focused all her attention on Rachel and forgot Damien and now listening to him made her realize something. It seemed that her fiance was no longer hers.

"I'm sorry, I've wronged you but Rachel is now pregnant with my child I cannot abandon her, you have to understand." Damien  had said looking at her as though it was her fault that Rachel was pregnant.

But that was all. She had lost a relationship of more than seven years just like that. All she got was an explanation and an apology in just one sentence? He didn't even look sorry. Her anger had immediately flared up. She stood up and hit Damien on the face, the sound of her hand hitting flesh echoing throughout the shop. Turning her hand towards Rachel she tried doing the same but Damien grabbed her hand before it could land on her face.

"Stop it Val, what's done is done, hitting her won't change anything. Besides I have told you that Rachel is pregnant, do you want to hurt the baby? Val, if you want to blame someone then blame me, it was my fault it has nothing to do with Rachel." Damien had coldly scolded her. His words pierced her heart like a sharp knife.This was her fiance, her first love whom she had loved for so long. She could barely recognize him anymore. His actions had left a deep mark in her heart, one that would be hard to erase.

He had then gently guided Rachel out of the coffee shop, leaving her there alone and broken.

Now back to the present, Val looked at the girl in front of her. "You say that you want to make it up to me but what you two have done, can you undo it? Can you erase the fact that you slept with my fiance? You're already expecting his child what can you do to erase that?"

She could no longer find any traces of her best friend. How could someone change so suddenly? She wondered.

"Rachel, if you want Damien then you can have him after all I do not mind giving my used goods to those who admire them. Now please if you still have some dignity left in you then leave my sight."

Rachel seeing that their conversation was going nowhere decided to leave. Perhaps she should try again next time.

Damien was the cutest guy she'd ever met with a boyish look and to top his beauty, he was M City's mayor's son. Anyone who wants to get on the mayor's good books might achieve by going through his only son, Damien. This is to say, Damien held some power in their city and perhaps that was one of the reasons he became almost every girl's target in M City. Maybe that was the reason why Rachel betrayed her but what about Damien? What reason did he have to betray her? Was she not good enough or her background not good enough? Until now, she couldn't understand how she never noticed any red flags in their relationship. She couldn't find anything that could prove that they were betraying her, well except the three months old baby in Rachel's tummy.

Wherever, those people were no longer part of her life and worrying about the past wasn't going to change anything.  Besides, those people were the last of her worries.

Looking around, she said kids happily playing in the park. It was on a Saturday and parents would usually bring their kids out to play here.

She saw a man and child at her left. They were not very close to her so she couldn't hear what they were saying but she could clearly see the boy's pleased expression as he continuously pointed at the dirty sports on his T-shirt. She couldn't help but chuckle, laughing at the man's futile efforts to wipe the boy's T-shirt clean. Looking at their close interaction, she assumed that the man was the kid's father. The boy seemed to be enjoying his father's miserable state as a big cheeky smile was plastered on his face. How unfortunate she couldn't see the man's face...

"Water...water.." a hoarse but childish voice brought her back to her senses.

"You want water? Here drink it." she picked the water bottle beside her and placed it on the outstretched hand in front of her.

"We should probably get going it's getting late..." her voice trailed off as she saw a familiar but horrible sight. Her eyes looked at him from to tore and tore to head.

"Adam, who in the world will wash your clothes!" She exclaimed looking at the previously white T-shirt now turned brown.

"Adam, how many times have I told you to be careful when playing?" She angrily questioned him.

She didn't know how she was going to raise such a mischievous and troublesome brother.

"Sorry sis, but it's not my fault, I didn't notice that it had gotten dirty, I'll wash it," Adam defended himself looking pitifully at his sister. He really did not know how the dirt got on his clothes. All he did was play with Kelly, a boy he had just met.

Hearing his absurd explanation, she rolled her eyes at him.

"I wish you were a girl, at least girls are clean," she inaudibly muttered to herself.

She then took another look at the other boy. He was still making funny faces to his father.

She couldn't help but pity the poor father. The boy obviously didn't appreciate his efforts and yet he still had to deal with his mischief.

"Ha!" A laugh escaped her lips. The boy, covered with dust had decided that he wasn't having enough fun and thus had jumped on his father.

Adam wasn't that bad after all.

Buzz...buzz she felt her phone vibrate in her bag.

Dipping her hand inside her handbag, she took it out but seeing the name displayed on the screen, she froze. She wondered why he was calling her as he had not called her ever since she gave him her contacts. Did he have some bad or good news for her?

"Hello?" She greeted the caller, her fingers tightening around the phone.

She hoped that this caller wasn't bearing any bad news.