My own side of the story

CHAPTER 1

" Duxie " . . . . I miss those days when my name rang like a bell throughout the neighborhood . I didn't have everything I wanted but I had a life I was more than content with. My life in that small town before the incident is a life I want back.

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I could only watch James from my Bedroom window . His smile was always genuine, I had the biggest crush on him but for some reason , we always had an argument everytime we crossed path . I tried my best to be nice to him but no matter how had I tried, we always parted ways with an argument and a revenge to plan.

" Duxie " Angel called out to me while cycling towards me

" Hey " I smiled warmly at her and she returned the energy

God knew how much we hated each other but no one was willing to look like the bad guy , just yet

" Yeah, My Dad asked me to give this to your mum " she gave me a pouch , it smelled like the famous rodenticide in town. Everyone in Nightwatch were recovering from the previous rodent and pest infestation, it was such a tough time but I'm glad it has passed.

" He said your mum has been complaining about rodents destroying her crops again " she said

Odd, mum never mentioned any of that to me.

" You could just drop it at home " I said since I wasn't going home anytime soon and she seemed to be heading towards the direction of my house .

" No , Just take it with you . Who knows ? , You might just need it " she cycled off

Why the hell would I need a Local Rodenticide? , asides the fact that it smelled nicer than regular rodenticide, there's no way I'll be needing one . I don't even own a farm, the farm belongs to my mother and I never want to be an active part of it.

I just had to take it home . Didn't want to go to the hilltop with Rodenticide

"Duxie come over please" Mrs Smith called out to me before I could get into the house

I was skeptical about going over since I didn't want to run into James , cause I hadn't prepared the perfect comeback, You know just in case we find ourselves in a verbal combat , but I could not walk away so I gave into the request

" Good Afternoon Aunt "

She seemed worried " Yeah , Duxie , Did my Husband stop by your mum's farm today ? "

" I don't know , I've been to everywhere except the farm today " I said

" Okay , I made some cookies today . You can go in and have some, I'll go look for him myself" she said before leaving

My eyes lit up immediately, Aunty's Cookies were the best . They tasted just heavenly plus she was the best baker in the town. She owned the bakery downtown and all her pastries get sold out even before I get out of bed in the morning. I could kill to have her cookies everyday.

I made my way to the house and into the kitchen ,

welcomed by the fragrance of freshly baked cookies , I searched frantically till I spotted them on the kitchen's Counter . After helping myself to half the cookies on the plate I went to secretly admire James' room for the 10,000th time , I was literally obsessed with anything that concerned him but his silly ass was too caught up in arguments to even notice I'd either painted my nails red (his favorite colour) or curled my hair just the way he like it. I heard him talking to his friends once about how he preferred curly hair to straight hair and I've never straightened my hair since then but he never seemed to notice.

Good timing , Angel

I was too busy admiring and daydreaming about the love of my life that I didn't even notice her presence.

There she was sitting comfortably on the bed , going through James' rock collection . It made sense that they were so close since they had a lot in common and she was prettier but at least I wasn't allergic to his favorite fruits , Pineapple . " Jokes on you Angel , jokes on you " a smile crept on my face

" Hey . . . When did you get in ? " I asked

Still focused , she replied " when Daddy's girl was stuffing her mouth with cookies like a fat cow"

Daddy's girl? , My blood boiled , my whole body engolfed in flames , I could feel her smirk .

She was clearly mocking me , everyone knew I didn't have a Father. Well maybe I did, but I didn't know who he was

" Yeah " I said walking out of the room into the kitchen

I stared at the Rodent Poison on the counter and it stared back out me , at this point we knew we were made for each other . My demon part had the loudest victory laugh earth has ever recorded . Just a tiny drop won't kill her , it'll just make her really sick . two or three weeks in bed , long enough for me to replace her in James' life and teach her a big lesson. She liked to run her mouth, yeah?

I hurriedly put a tiny dust of it in a Glass while she looked through the fridge for something before filling the cup with milk

" Here , I got you a Glass of milk " I said giving her the glass , " You're starting to have eye bags, not resting enough?"

" I've been working Duxie, working. I doubt you're familiar with that concept since all you do is lazy around and argue. Some of us are responsible enough to help our parents out with their work"

" well, you for your concern and the glass of milk " she smiled

Without another word, I left to my house. Oh Angel, you'll be so sorry you crossed me.

Sweet home Alabamar , lol

" I've been waiting for you Duxie " Mum said immediately I walked in

I said nothing and ran up to my room , shutting the door , I was feeling tired now. I always feel tired whenever I do something wrong . I laid on my bed and slowly, I drifted to sleep.

I must've slept for a very long time , it was already night time when I opened my eyes . I must've slept so deep because my room was in order when I woke up and I've never taken out time to keep my room in order , it's always mummy doing it . There was an incent in the room , no wonder it smelled like apple in here .

" Mum " I called out while walking downstairs

I walked towards the whispers and sobs coming from the kitchen .

There were Strangers with Mum, James and Philip

James looked like he had been crying the whole time and Mum seemed so sad

" What's going on Mum " I asked confused

"Philip take your sister to her room " Mum whispered to Philip then turned to me , " I'll be with you in a bit Duxie "

" Let's go " Philip gestured that we leave

But I just stood there staring at James. He had his head down , tears endlessly running down his cheeks . I've never seen a boy cry that way

"Duxie , go to your room". Mum yelled.

"Duxie let's go" Philip held my hand and walked me to my room

I was scared, I know I did not do anything to hurt him to that extent, all we ever had were verbal fights . I was so confused that I did not hear brother Philip talking until he shook me hard.

"Duxie I was saying something" He said letting go of my shoulders.

"Philip right now, I'm confused. Did I do anything wrong? "

" Did you ? " He asked

Was it about Angel ?

Maybe she was really sick

No way !

There's no way she drank that milk , it just dawned on me that she's Lactose intolerant so she most definitely didn't drink it or she knew I did something to the milk and drank it anyway just to put me in trouble.

Even if she did, I couldn't tell anyone I was responsible cause no one saw me anyways.

" No "

"Duxie, James' mother passed away from food poisoning "

"What?" I gasped

" Yeah "

I stood there with my hands clapsed over my mouth to stop screams from escaping

" Don't worry , the Culprit has been punished already " He said

" You should wait here for mum " with that he left the room

I couldn't believe Aunt Kathy Smith was dead . I couldn't control the tears that made its way out of my eyes . Apart from having the best pastries in town , she watched me grow and was one of the best mother figures in my life aside my mum. She was really kind to everyone and always had a smile plastered on her face.

If I felt this way , I could only imagine how James felt . I sat in bed staring out my window waiting to see James' bedroom light go off but my mind went out before it did. I must've gotten tired from all the thinking and crying that I dozed off without even realising.

I don't know for how long I must've slept but the Clock said 3pm when I opened my eyes . I looked out the window and there was a large crowd outside Mr Smith's house

I got out of bed , running to the house .

" What's going on ? " I asked the first person I came across

" James is leaving " He shrugged

" Poor boy , His Dad Poisoned his mum cause she was cheating " He said in whispers before leaving

" James " I pushed through the crowd

James was Infront of His Parent's Wedding Picture framed on the wall

Even when he was backing me , I could tell he was crying and it broke my heart

I reached out to him but before my hand could touch his shoulder, I felt someone pull me outside and into the backyard

Angel , again

"Let go of me , I want to see James right now" I said glaring at her

She smirked " why ? "

" You poisoned his mum " she yelled letting go of my arm

" Rubbish " I slapped her hard across the face

Surprisingly, she was not angry , she laughed so loud like a Psychopath

" You're speaking rubbish and you're going too far right now Angel " I screamed at her

With a smirk on her face she said ,

" I have a video of you Poisoning the milk "

I'd totally forgotten about that .

" What do you mean " I said rather calm

" I mean , Disappear from James life or I'll make sure everyone finds out you're responsible for Mrs Smith's Death "

" Liar , you're lying " I shook my head in denial

" You're lying , the Culprit has been arrested already "

" You're lucky to have someone who can clear your messes for you . Someone who'll take out every trash just to keep your life clean "

That's my Mum , only Mummy does that for me

She chuckled lightly " whether I'm lying or not , you know it best "

" Angel stop this bullshit , you bitch "

" Don't ever show your face in front of James ever again because he knows what you did to his mum and maybe he might just snap and kill you if you do"

And with that , she left

I felt guilt swell up inside of me , I felt a knob in my tummy, I felt like throwing up. Did I really do that? , No it's not possible

Angel must've done it and is now framing me up for it but I was the one that put the rodenticide in the milk.

No, the quantity I used is not enough to kill a person or maybe it was

I felt the world closing in on me

It felt like I had walked a long way , I was so tired at that moment. Infact I could not feel my legs but it was a miracle, I got to my room after stumbling a hundred and one times.

Staring outside my window again , the world around me faded and Infront of me was Duxie . She was putting little dusts of rodenticides in a milk . . . .

" Duxie " A gentle voice brought the world back

"Mum" I said with a sigh of relief .

" yesterday was your sixteenth birthday but we couldn't celebrate . . . "

I didn't even remember that

" It's okay Mum " I cut into her words smiling

She knew how much hurt was underneath that smile , she was my mother

" Do you want to talk about it ? "

All the self control I had in me snapped and I found myself breaking down in tears

" Shhhh shhhh " she kept patting my head lovingly

" Do you want to go away from here ?"

" I don't know mummy " I said between sobs

Maybe if I went away, the guilt will go away too , just maybe

She wiped my tears , " you can think about it , any decision you make , I'll support you "

I just nodded

" I put all your gifts in the wardrobe , check them when you feel better " she said before leaving

I wasn't in the mood for anything at all , I just wanted to wake up from this bad dream .

" You didn't kill anyone . Little dusts of rodenticide can't kill a person" I assured myself repeatedly

Two weeks went by and the court came to a conclusion of keeping Mr Smith in a Mental Asylum . There were traces of hard drugs , multiple shots of Amphetamine and ecstasy pills in his printing hub and his home office.

That's all I needed to decide that I had to get away from this town, I had to go to a place where no one knew me and start afresh. I couldn't tell for sure how many people knew I had offered Angel a poisoned milk that day so everytime I went out, I felt everyone was secretly judging me

I began to pack all my things, I arranged every thing and was ready to sleep when my tired eyeballs hit the white box brother Philip held earlier.

I picked up the box and found a letter attached to it. I kept the letter aside first and opened the box. It had a pretty oversized shinny short red dress and a pair of shoes with matching jewelries.

I quickly went back to the notes and it reads "I bet it's gonna look cute on you.

when you turn sixteen or maybe seventeen even eighteen or nineteen at that time I'll have the courage to ask you out and tell you how I feel, maybe by then we would've stopped fighting. I really hope you like it. Oh I'm shy, I love you Duxie" Happy Birthday , don't come looking for me"

From James

xoxoxoxo

Seeing this I felt so weak. I felt like crying out loud. But I managed to silently pass the night with tears and pains.

In the morning, my eyes were swollen. I freshened up and went down for breakfast.

"Duxie you're late for breakfast" mum said as she saw me coming down the stairs.

" I don't want us to miss the train , we can grab a snack on our way "

I wondered what my life would've been without my mum . She was the best person in my life and I couldn't have asked for a better Parent . I do wish I had a Father sometimes but other times I was content with my mum.