THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

In less than six hours he had become so damaged that he could never bring himself to love again.
Ayo was just 21 and a third year student in the University. He was an average boy with no real distinction from his peers. He wasn't the best at school or athletics, he had his good and bad behaviours. He was just average.

The only thing that was probably not just normal in his life was his beautiful girlfriend, Rita. Rita was definitely not average. She was tall, slim yet curvy, with legs for days and a very pretty face. Ayo and Rita been friends since secondary school and at some point their relationship became more than just platonic. They had been officially dating almost three years now.

Rewind back to three years ago, when Ayo met Larry (his best friend) during his registration process into the university. Larry was a textbook playboy. He had rich parents, handsome face, sweet tongue. He lived the fast life. Larry was what we would call a non academic student
Ayo and Larry became roommates in their first year in school and had been best of friends until just a few hours ago.

A cool evening, they were just chilling in their apartment. A WhatsApp message entered Larry's phone, which was with Ayo at the time. There was little or no secrets between them (or so Ayo thought), so Ayo unlocked the phone to open the message for him. He opened the message and was utterly dumbfounded.

Larry paused the Play Station 4 game he was playing to see what had surprised Ayo like that. It was the nudes that Rita had sent him (Larry).

Ayo and Rita had never had sex, not just with each other, but with anyone at all (or so Ayo thought). Rita suggested they waited and Ayo concurred, if that would keep his girlfriend. Sure, there was a lot of bedplay and situations were it almost happened out of the heat of the moment, but it never happened.

Ayo stormed out of the house that evening, feeling a lot of things and none of them were good. He slowly strolled along the road with no destination, just aimless thoughts running through his mind.
He walked past and turned back. This was what he needed (or so he thought) as he walked into the brothel.

Ayo had done it (have sex) and still didn't feel any better, he felt worse. In one day he lost his girlfriend, his best friend and any shred of innocence. He was damaged emotionally and angry at Rita, Larry, the world even himself. He just walked slowly along the road, reminiscing about the events of the last six hours. He walked in there (the brothel) angry, sad and heartbroken, he left there no better.

In less than six hours he had become so damaged that he could never bring himself to love again.