LARA.
“Look who we have here, uh. Beth, the betrayer.” I said and chuckled lightly, showing them the screen of my phone.
“About time,” Grace said and scoffed.
“I’m hanging up,” I said and hung up the call.
“Did you just hang up her call?” Grace asked.
“Yeah? Obviously.” I said and shrugged. “Am I not supposed to?”
“No, girl!” Janet exclaimed.
“What are you saying?”
Grace started. “How many times have she called you since she found out that you knew about her and Tony?”
“I don’t know. About fifty times, if not more.” I replied nonchalantly and shrugged.
Beth had been calling me on the phone ever since the afternoon of the day before, but I hadn’t picked her up her call once. Knowing the type of person Beth is, I could tell that she wanted to tell me her side of the story, but I wasn’t ready to listen to it.
“When next she calls, pick up her call and hear whatever she has to say.” Grace said to me.
I scoffed again, not sure if she understood what she was saying. “You’re telling me to pick her call? Don’t you get it? She fucking betrayed me! Girl, I don’t want to hear her voice at all! She has no reason to do that, and she needs no explanation whatsoever!”
“What if she was raped?” Yeesha, who had not said any words for a while now, suddenly blurted out, making all of us to shoot our heads in her direction.
“What did you just say?” Janet asked her.
“What if she was raped?” Yeesha repeated herself.
“She’s not a baby, okay? If something like that happened to her, she would have told us. Beth is not dumb, she’s just daft. That’s it!” I shot back at Yeesha and she retreated to her seat.
Grace was about to speak again, when my phone rang. I checked the screen to see who it was, and it was Beth again. “She’s calling again,” I said to the girls, showing them the screen.
“Place your phone on speaker and record your entire conversation on the call with her.” Janet said sharply.
“Yeah, do exactly what she said.” Grace supported.
“Are you sure I should pick up her call and listen to her?” I asked them again, unsure of whether or not to do what they told me to do or not.
“Go ahead, love. Let’s hear what she has to say.” Grace said and sat back on her seat.
“Fine,” I said and picked up the call before it stopped ringing. “And what do you have to say to me? Why do you keep calling me after stabbing me at the back?! You went ahead to fuck my man, got pregnant for him and you even went as far as telling him that I pinned my pregnancy on him. All because you fell for him and couldn’t have him to yourself? One thing you don’t know, Beth, is that eventually, he’ll leave you too. I know Tony too well, and he never wants to stay with a betrayer. He can never trust you too because of what you’ve done!” I said to her with a stern voice, and Grace gave me a thumbs up, while Janet winked at me, making me smile. That meant that I was doing it well.
“Lara, I need you to listen to me, please.” Beth said from the other side of the phone, her voice as if she had been crying, but I cared less. I immediately clicked on the record button on my phone as she was about to speak. “You misunderstood me, Lara. I never had anything to do with Tony while you two were together. When my boyfriend broke up with me then and I had gone to the club to get drunk, I met Tony and we had a one night stand. After that day, we never met again.”
The girls in the room all gasped as they heard that. I was also surprised to hear that because she had never for once told me about that.
“Okay?” I replied as if I wasn’t interested in what she had to say, whereas I wanted to hear more.
“By the time I met him again, it was when you introduced him to me as your boyfriend. It was hard for me, but I did my best to get over it. I didn’t want any fight or anything that would cause a rift between us, so I told him not to ever mention it to you. However, when you ran away on your wedding day, I met him again sometimes later on a boat cruise. That was the same day I found out that my boyfriend was cheating on me. He helped me and I was able to scold my ex that day. Tony and I got drunk together that evening and we had sex. It was the morning of that day that you suddenly returned after going AWOL for sometime. It was the sex I had with him then that led to the pregnancy. Trust me, Lara, I never had sex with him when you two were dating.” She said and sniffed. “In fact, when I found out about my pregnancy, I told him not to tell you about it to it wouldn’t ruin my relationship with you and yours with him, and-”
“Stop with the pity story, Beth. I know how people like you behave. I know you’d say anything to make me pity you and forgive you, but I am not someone that’s dumb. I’m not that gullible. Tell your lies to someone else.” I said scoffed. “Even if that was true, why then did you tell him that I pinned my pregnancy on him? Wasn’t it because you wanted him to leave me for you?”
“No,” she cut in immediately, defending herself. “No, Lara. I never told him. I swear, he found out on his own. He did a paternity check and he found that the baby wasn’t his. He had come to confront me about it at home when you entered the other day.”
“And met you guys kissing!” I finished the statement for her.
“Lara-”
“Just fucking shut it, Beth! You’re a betrayer, and there’s nothing in this world that you can say that I’d believe you!” I yelled at her on the phone.
“Fine,” she said. “I don’t want you to believe me or take me back as your friend. But I want you to forgive me. Please, Lara.”
I scoffed. “Forgive you? Well, I can. But that’s on one condition.”
“Uhm, what?”
“I don’t want you to have any relationship whatsoever with Tony. Tony is mine alone, and if I can’t have him, nobody else can. You know the rules, Beth. I don’t share my men.”
“That’s it, Lara. That’s the thing about you. You’re so self centred and you don’t think of anyone else except yourself. You’re selfish in so many ways, even when it includes yourself. You only care about what you can get from someone, and not what you can do for them. You played Tony and led him on, despite cheating on him with other men. You are always lucky with men and love, yet, you play them anyhow. It’s really bad of you, Lara and you need to change. I’m sorry, but you don’t deserve Tony.”
“What?” I asked her, unsure of what I had just heard her say to me. That was the first time Beth would talk to me in such manner, and for some reason, it stung a lot. “What did you just say?” I asked again, while the other girls in the room gasped. They were also surprised to hear what Beth said to me.