Daily Stories

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word I pushed her back. Not gently. Not politely. I pushed her back and ran to the kitchen sink. I bent over the sink and tried to force the pill out. No way. Sikemi had held me long enough for it to go down. Guilt poured over…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word Two thoughts went through my head at the same time. Drop it and run. Or behave like it was nothing and walk away. My hand was still holding the parcel, but my mind had started running faster than my legs could ever run. What if someone…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word She was not in her bedroom by the time I got there. She was in the living room. And her brother, Martins, was there with her. Sikemi was curled up on the sofa in a way that told me something was wrong. Her knees were drawn…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word I went to Sikemi’s house the next morning. More like, I volunteered. But let me not jump. Let me pick up from where we stopped …. When Sikemi’s message came in about my round neck and my biceps, my mind first ran to places it had…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word MUM’S POV I could tell something was wrong from the moment Matthew returned home. Something was wrong with my son. It was not loud. It was not dramatic. It was not something anybody else would easily notice, but I was his mother. Mothers know when the…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word Rosie could tell something was up with me. I kept drifting in and out of my thoughts during classes. My conversation with Sikemi would not let me go. It was hovering over me like a perfume I did not spray, but somehow, everybody around me could…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word We stepped out of the Alabi house, and the air I breathed in felt like gold. The air in Sikemi’s room had felt like air trapped behind prison walls. Heavy. Dangerous. Suffocating. But outside, I could breathe again. I had not even taken up to ten…

© Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Creative Word “I like you too,” I lied. The words came out after I noticed her whole demeanor had changed. Her shoulders dropped, her eyes dimmed, and disbelief filled her voice. “Oh wow,” she said slowly. “You never liked me. So I have been a fool all along….

©️ Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Light! As always, Sikemi’s room was a mess, but this time around, it was not just underwear. There was alcohol on her dressing table. There were also strange substances I knew I had no business touching. Temptation is real. The drugs said hello to me. It was more…

©️ Opeyemi Akintunde As Inspired by the Light! Uncle Nureni opened the gate with so much excitement you would think we were the ones paying his salary. Uncle Nureni had watched us grow from infancy till date. There was one thing the Alabis had: they kept their circle small. They had retained most of their…