Straight After Her

Chapter 1: Glitches in the System - PRESENTPOV: Susan

The hallway in Pat’s hostel smelled like burnt noodles, cheap perfume, and something wet that hadn’t dried in days. The flickering light above me buzzed like it had given up on itself, casting this sickly yellow glow that made everything look worse. Somewhere downstairs, loud music thumped through the walls, tangled with students shouting over each other in slang and random bursts of laughter.

I kept my head down and moved through it, my boots thudding deliberately against the cracked tiles. A group of girls in tank tops and bonnets brushed past me, one of them eyeing me from my cap to my oversized shirt and down to my boots. She scoffed loud enough for it to sting. I heard the word "dyke" slip through her giggle.

I didn’t flinch or give her the satisfaction. I was used to this. Bullies in different attire.

I didn’t tell Pat I was coming. Hadn’t planned to. But she’d been ignoring my messages all day and something in my chest wouldn’t sit still. It was one of those impulses that builds in your ribs, the kind you act on without thinking because the silence is louder than anything else.

I reached her door just as someone opened it from the inside. A guy stepped out, he was very familiar with his loose white T-shirt, cocky walk, and confidence dripping like sweat. I knew him instantly. He was the one who leaned too close at the fruit stand, the same one Pat had laughed with like they were more than friends.

His chain caught the light as he adjusted it, then he tossed a careless "Later, babe," over his shoulder.

His eyes landed on mine. Recognition flickered across his face, followed by amusement. He almost laughed. "...Uh. Hey," he mumbled, voice stripped of the charm he’d just used with her.

I stared at him. Babe?

He nodded quickly, like he was trying to escape the awkward. And then he walked past me, fast.

From down the hallway, the same group of girls burst into a fresh round of giggles.

I stood there, feet heavy. The light buzzed overhead like it was mocking me, my heart thudded too loud.

I was so embarrassed I couldn't stand the shame. What was I doing there uninvited?

Just as I turned to leave, the door creaked open again.

Pat peeked out, guilt already stamped across her face. Her hair was a mess, very messy like someone who just got her hair pulled while having sex. she wore the oversized shirt inside out. her lip gloss smudged like she’d been kissed with reckless abandon.

"Hey... I didn’t know you were coming." she said softly, looking at me and trying to read my expression

"I didn’t know you had a visitor."

She blinked, that statement must have caught her off guard. "Oh. That was my cousin. He just came by to drop something."

I looked at her shirt, at the hem flipped out wrong. Then back at her.

"Mm."

I didn’t ask why her cousin called her babe, or why she smelled like his cologne and sweat and sex. Or why she hadn’t replied to my texts. I just smiled.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as though she couldn't wait to have me leave.

"I’ve been trying to reach you. Are you good?"

She bit her lip. Her eyes flicked to the phone in her hand, like it had just now appeared out of thin air.

"Oh, I’m sorry. I just got my phone back. I gave it to my cousin to fix... the screen went bad."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

She nodded too fast. Like she wanted to end the conversation quickly.

The silence between us stretched, sticky and humid. Behind me, someone walked by and laughed. Like they knew. Like I was the last one to get the joke.

"I’ll... see you later," I said, already turning.

"Yeah. Call me?"

I didn’t answer her but inside, I was screaming.

The street outside was busy, but I didn’t hear it. I walked like my brain had detached from my body. The sun was setting, shadows stretching long across the pavement.

It has to be true, Pat wouldn't cheat on me, would she? Not after everything we have done together. I sacrifice a lot just to ensure she is sexually satisfied even if it means going late to my mom's fruit stand. She isn't that heartless, right?

Maybe it was really her cousin, and he may be a very loving cousin that calls every woman babe or so. He didn't have any romantic relationship with Pat. Pat is kind and she loves me, we planned to have babies together and get married.

What about the unanswered messages.

Shut up!

She had a bad phone, that's why her cousin came, to deliver her the phone. No big deal, right?

My throat burned. How much had I ignored just to feel wanted?

Home didn’t feel any better.

My mother was outside, hunched over a basin of washed pumpkin leaves, half-yelling at the neighbor’s daughter and half-singing some gospel song off-key. The smell of palm oil and pepper soup drifted from the kitchen, but it didn’t feel warm.

As soon as she saw me, she dropped the towel in her hand.

"Where are you coming from dressed like a boy again?"

I peeled off my cap and tossed it on the table. My throat felt too tight.

"I was out."

"Out," she echoed. "Out where? To go and learn more ways to disgrace me? Look at you, wearing trousers like a bricklayer. You’re almost twenty-five! Your mates are getting married. Some are having their second child. But you, you’re walking around town like a boy in that shirt!"

I clenched my jaw.

"I wasn’t aware being single was a terminal disease."

"What did you say?"

I looked her straight in the eye. "I said people should be allowed to live without being guilted into marriage like it’s a punishment."

She blinked. Laughed quietly.

"Ah. So you’ve grown wings."

"Yes, I have."

She stared. Her jaw locked, I am sure she must have wondered what had bewitched me to talk back at her in that manner.

Then she scoffed, picked up her towel again. "I forgive you because I’m in a good mood. And because I’ve just finished fasting. But don’t let the devil use you to say what I think you want to say."

I didn’t reply. Just turned and walked up the stairs.

My legs felt heavy. Like they didn’t want to carry me anymore.

When I reached my room, I shut the door quietly

Then I slid down with my back to it, folding into myself. My knees to my chest. My forehead pressed there.

The tears soaked into my sleeves. I didn’t even try to stop them.

Her words circled my head.

"You're a woman, stop acting like a man. I don't know what must have bewitched you but I must not hear that those rumours are true oh! If i find out that you are a lesbian, god forbid, i would kill you and kill myself because i have committed a crime by giving birth to an abomination."

I am a lesbian. so what does that make me? A glitch? A sin?

My phone rang.

It was my best friend, Jonathan.

I picked it up, the screen blurry with tears.

"Hey, Susan. How are you?"

I broke.

The sob burst out before I could stop it. That thick lump in my throat cracked wide and I cried. Into the phone. Into the silence. Into the one person who’d never made me feel ashamed of being soft.

Jonathan didn’t interrupt. He just listened and I needed that more than anything else.

Chapter 2 – Morning RushThree Days Before Pat’s Mysterious Cousin — FLASHBACK

Some days ago, I was having the best kind of morning. The kind that made everything else feel far away—my mother’s voice, the oranges, the market noise, the weight of pretending.

Pat’s fingers laced with mine as she tugged me gently back onto the bed. “I want to do this for the rest of my life,” she whispered, brushing a curl away from my forehead.

I swallowed, my chest thick with something I didn’t have the words for. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, baby. We’ll have two kids. Girls. Live happily ever after.”

We both laughed. This was the kind that sits at the edge of reality, the kind that knows full well the world doesn’t hand over happy endings without a fight.

Pat leaned in and kissed me. Soft at first. Her lips moved like she’d memorized the shape of my mouth. My breath hitched, the kind of hitch that always came when