Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Melody's stomach growls loudly as we walk towards the cafeteria and she grips it with a pout.

"Gee, food will come soon, tummy," I laugh, bending a little to look at her tummy and Alice laughs.

"Listen to her, tum," Melody whispers down to it. ‘Okay, we're talking to lifeless objects now…how absurd is that?’ We continue to crack small jokes as we continue our walk.

"Are we going straight to Lima's house after school?" Alice asks as we settle down round a table in the large cafeteria. We don't have to join the queue to get food because we usually bring our lunch from home.

"Well, I forgot to pack some clothes," Melody announces, earning herself blank stares from us. She shrugs and bites into her sandwich. "Hmm, Jason makes the best sandwiches ever!" she moans, closing her eyes.

I roll my eyes. ‘Such a drama.’ Since the first time she tasted Jason's sandwiches, she insists on getting hers whenever he makes them. At that time, we were on Skype with Alex. Yeah, we’re always eating delicious sandwiches in front of Alex.

So, Alex threatened to frame Jason up if he doesn't do as Melody says but I'm sure Jason only agreed to do so because he likes the job. He seems to have found a new hobby in cooking. He even tried a new recipe he saw on the internet. It was a disaster when we tasted it but he got the attractive looks right.

"Girl, are we going to your house before leaving for Lima's or what?" Alice questions when she sees that Melody might not get a hold of herself anytime soon.

"Yup," she replies, popping the p. "And Bee will finally get to know my house!" she squeals in excitement, looking at me.

"I can't believe you've practically been a pest in my house and I don't even know where you live," I lament and she shrugs.

"I hope we meet Lima at home," Alice says and we nod in agreement. Halima called in sick today so we are planning to visit her after school.

"Hmm, the slut is not here today," a disembodied voice comes from behind me, making me turn around.

‘None other than Diana.’

Alice releases an annoyed sigh. I take a close look at each of them and stop when I see an unfamiliar face among them. ‘Oh great, one more minion to the lot.’ She has this sick makeup on her face that makes her look like a stupid clown. ‘No offence, new girl.’

I hear Melody choke behind me and I face her in concern. She has a shocked expression on her face as she stares at the same girl I was just staring at.

‘Yeah Mel, that makeup is shocking!’ As she speaks, her countenance gradually morphs into one of mirth.

"Oh my gosh…Chinny?" Before she can complete the statement properly, she keels over in laughter. Alice's face brightens in shock and in no time, she is hee-hawing. I don't get what they are laughing at but because of how funny their laughter is, I join them.

‘Wait, what am I laughing at?’ I stop.

"Girls, what's going on?" I ask still smiling.

"Look at you. Can you do any better? Sluts," Diana insults and I cringe.

"What have we done to deserve that?" Alice asks still laughing. Yup, no one has the strength to get angry when something so hilarious―one I don't know―is going on.

"Girls, I'm still―wait…" I pause, thinking about Melody's first remarks. I look closely at the new girl and it clicks.

"Chinny?" Laughter floods out of my mouth even though I don't want to laugh.

"I'm sorry, I don't laugh at people," I say still giggling a little but I mean it. I don't like to laugh at people unless they also find the situation funny. In this case, I know that Chinny wants to vanish into thin air but due to the fact that Diana is too proud and idiotic to walk away, she also stands her ground.

"What heartless devil did that to you?" Alice asks, causing a fresh round of boffolas to erupt. I look away, covering my mouth in a bid to hold back the laughter welling up inside. I see some people within earshot laughing secretly. The boys though, don’t care so they laugh visibly.

Diana and her minions are uttering nonsense but I can't hear them as I fixate on the person who has made it a point of duty to scan me with his eyes from time to time ever since resumption last week. Someone needs to tell him how vulnerable that makes me feel.

We have managed to gain ourselves the attentions of most students in the cafeteria but he is staring smack-dab at me without faltering. While we hold our staring contest, Melody's voice manages to cut through as she says something that sends me chocking.

"You look like the aftermath of a cataclysmic disaster!" ‘Oh my God, my friends are mean…’ I quietly excuse myself but not without throwing one last glance at Jasper.

‘Is it just me, or does Jasper look troubled? Maybe it's because he's staring too closely at me.’

Looking at Diana, I wonder why she and her group insist on being stupid by standing here and letting my mean friends suck the dignity out of them. ‘I mean, isn't it obvious they are your perfect―if not better―match Diana?’

Walking out of the cafeteria, I remember that I haven’t even eaten. I sigh. On making a turn, I collide with someone.

‘Good grief Bee, stop hitting people or else you might end up losing your first kiss to some random guy…or girl!’ I giggle inaudibly at the stupid thought in my head before muttering sorry to the person.

Looking up, I am met with a pair russet coloured orbs. I chuckle and step back a little. He smirks.

"I never believed when you said you can be clumsy. This is prove," he jokes and I casually slap his arm.

"What a great way to sorry Miss, was my fault," I say and he laughs.

"Well, I'm glad you understood the statement deeply." I shrug.

"I’m smart that way." The pride is evident in my voice. Ousman simply rolls his eyes.

"Are you done eating? And where are your friends?" he asks, looking around. I scoff and he looks at me.

"They're at the cafeteria. If I remain there, I'll be committing a crime," I explain. I know he doesn't get me especially from the way he knits his brows so I go further.

"They're laughing their heads off at Chinny's hideous makeup," I bluntly state, cracking up a little at the memory of her face. ‘Poor girl.’

"Chinny made up?" he asks in a slight frown and I nod.

"You don't want to see her." I shake my head and he laughs. "Where are you off to?" I ask.

"The library. I need to find a book," he answers, making me arch a brow.

"Hm, nerdy much?" The question makes him grin widely. ‘How do people not see this side of him?’

"Want to tag along? I could help smuggle your meal in there, you know?"

"Ah, from nerdy to bad," I tease as we begin our walk towards the library and he shrugs, dipping both hands into his pant pockets.

***

The cab comes to a screeching halt, almost climbing the curb beside a short fence. We angrily step out of it and Alice almost throws the money at the driver.

We spent the entire fifteen minutes of the journey down here quarrelling with the cab driver over his reckless driving. We nearly got run over by a speeding truck!

I almost vomited my heart, Melody almost strangled him and Alice screamed her throat out. The mad driver actually got angry, saying that we were behaving like girls from Ajegunle. I remember someone saying that the place is a ghetto. That driver was super annoying.

He went to the extent of cussing in Yoruba but thank God we had a Yoruba girl with us who only had to make one sentence to shut him up. Alice. Melody and I whispered to her to tell us what she told him but she only shrugged.

I look up at the house when we step into the large compound. It's a simple but beautiful one-storey house painted white. Melody claps her hands dramatically. "Right, welcome to my humble abode," she says, spreading her hands wide before opening the door.

We are embraced by the warmth of the house when we step inside from the chilly and cloudy weather outside. Melody leads us through the sitting room to the staircase. The walls are painted a cool beige with midnight blue sofas. The walls are dotted sparsely with fancy lamp holders, giving the room a dimmer appearance.

Unlike at Alice's house where vanilla scented all through, Melody's house smells so much like her with a slight hint of strawberry home perfume. On the landing, we see a small hallway leading straight ahead with probably three rooms in it but we turn right and walk through the passage from which you can look down at the sitting room.

The passage opens into a small sitting room with a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the tops of the neighbours bungalows. There are two peacock blue winged chairs peppered with sky blue flowers, a beanbag of the same colour and a large sky-blue fluffy rug with a small glass table in the middle.

"Stole all these ideas from Alice's house," Melody whispers loud enough for us to hear and we laugh. "With her permission of course," she adds.

"It's beautiful, Mel. I told you that lady would do a good job," Alice says and Melody shrugs.

"Okay, there are snacks and drinks in there, make yourselves comfortable while I go change," she announces before running off through a door at one edge of the left-over space. I look to my right and realise she was talking about the small fridge squatted almost out of view beside one of the winged chairs. I open it and grab two cans of soft drinks alongside a large bag of chips. Alice pulls the beanbag close to my chair and we dig in.

"I love this house," I say, making small talk. Alice chuckles.

"She couldn't live in the family house alone so her dad gave her this one. She insisted that they furnish this place like mine," she finishes the last part laughing and I laugh too.

"See, amongst us, you're the only one with parents who pay full attention to their kids. Our parents are practically swimming in money and so they think money does the job. If I make a simple request of restocking the kitchen, both parents bung my account with money as though I said I wanted to buy a ranch…" I laugh a little at this just to lighten the mood and she does the same before continuing. "But that's not what we need. We need attention, love, care. Loads of them. You're really lucky, you know? Your parents give you all the monetary support you need and enough attention. Ours are rarely around to know what we are up to." As she says this, my heart swells with love for my parents and sympathy for what them.

"And so you found family with Simon," I point out and she completes it.

"And Melody found family with yours."

"And Lima?"

Alice laughs. "Compared to our families, Lima has brothers at home and you know her, she's always out with someone so…no much loneliness for her." I nod in understanding and then a question comes to mind.

"But about Simon, does his family know you?" I voice it out.

She sighs and looks away and I begin to feel like I touched a sore spot. But when I am about to assure her that it's okay if she doesn't tell me, she speaks. "His parents are dead." I gasp inaudibly and immediately feel sorry for him.

"Plane crash, two years ago. He stays with his father's best friend and co-founder of the O.A empire. The man is reserving Simon's spot for him and also coaching him on how to run the empire. His family resides abroad so he travels frequently to see them. So, Simon and I are the same; in a way." She looks at me with a bright smile which drops immediately. ‘What?’ She squints at me.

"Are you crying?" My eyes widen on hearing this and I find myself blinking back tears. ‘Am I crying?’ I touch my face but luckily, the tears never escaped. We hold gazes for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. The door opens and Melody steps out in a casual outfit.

"Whatever's making you two laugh, I'm in." She starts laughing dramatically, earning weird looks from me and Alice. She shrugs nonchalantly and comes over to grab some chips and my drink before making her way towards the staircase.

"If we meet the kind of driver we met earlier today, I swear I'll bite off his ear," Melody says, striking up a banter session that literally lasts all through our journey to Lima's place.

***

"Wait," I start, looking around the street. "I know this place. My house is just four streets away," I observe as Alice knocks on the large barred gate.

"Yeah, Lima told you the other day," Melody states and I frown.

"Really, when?"

"Of course you wouldn't know; you were too busy paying attention to that weird movie trailer. I really don't get what the aim of that movie is." Melody shakes her head in dismay at the memory of the movie trailer that prevented me from hearing Lima talk about the proximity of our houses. She's right though, the trailer made no sense whatsoever.

We greet the gatekeeper as we enter the compound in a somewhat straight line. Just like Alice's house, this one is extravagant. At the door, Alice still does the knocking. After the second knock, the door is opened by a boy that looks around twenty. A mischievous grin spreads over his face the moment he sees us.

"Alice! You look hot," he greets. ‘Oh wow.’ She gives him a fake smile and he smirks. His face brightens even more when he sees Melody. "And my girlfriend!"

Melody groans, rolling her eyes at him and he turns to me.

"Ooh, can you girls get any hotter?" he mutters in a smoky voice.

"Ibrahim." A groan comes from inside the house and he winks at me before giving way for us to enter.

"Go get married dude, there are lots of fifteen year old girls ripe for marriage in Kano," Melody teases as we go to meet Lima. We all laugh at him as we exchange hugs while he tries to make a face but ends up laughing too.

"Hey, how many times do I need to tell you to stop matchmaking me with those Kano girls? It's not like I'm from Kano. A proud Edo boy you're looking at. Plus those chicks have no single experience. If I as much as date one of them, she'll surely not survive it because she won't be able to handle me," he shrugs in pride.

‘Wow, the craziness must run in the family.’

"Good thing you know they're too nice and caring to tolerate your arrogant personality," Alice jives.

"Now, I take that personal," he says, feigning seriousness. Lima decides to step in before the impending argument breaks out.

"Personal or public, Ibby meet Bella. Bella, my brother, Ibrahim," she introduces and we exchange pleasantries.

"And," he starts. "It's Ibrahim, not Ibby," he points out and I nod. Lima hisses before leading us up the grand stair case. It is then I notice how weak she looks. We climb two storeys, passing a large sitting room and a study on the first floor, before getting to her room.

‘Seriously, what are they doing with two storeys?’

Inside, the walls are painted rose pink. Two white round back couches are seated facing each other and siding a large window with a pink rug and a glass table between them. At the edge of a wall close to the chairs is a closed white door. To the right, the room elongates, leaving space between her mini sitting area and a staircase of three steps leading to her bed. Beyond the large pink and black bed is a set of glass double doors leading to a balcony. One word; lovely. Everything is so girly, although I only see a study desk and chair and nothing else.

‘Where's her makeup and closet?’

"That door is called the ‘beauty door’," Melody tells me, making me realise I said that aloud. "In there is the bathroom, the toilet, the closet and everything else," she chips in and I nod. Lima ushers us to sit on her bed while she makes her way to the fridge.

"Really Lima? You're going to serve us?" Alice pulls her back gently and gestures for her to go and sit. She sighs and walks with us to the bed.

"How are you?" I ask when Alice places a tray containing a bottle of wine and four glasses on the bed.

"I feel better now," she shrugs. "I think it was a fever."

"Don't you think you should see a doctor?" Alice suggests, pouring the clear blue liquid into my glass. Melody bobs her head in support.

"Nope, I'm fine now. Once I threw up for the third time, I felt better," she explains in a bid to make us see that she doesn't need a hospital.

‘Somebody tell her it's not working.’

"Lima, you can't throw up three times and claim to be okay," Melody couches delicately and Lima rolls her eyes.

"She's right," I pipe in.

"But I took pills! Okay can we stop talking about me and move on to what happened at school today? What'd I miss?" She shuffles on the spot with a curious expression on her face. Gossip mode activated.

Thirty minutes of gossip later…

"I can't believe that happened after I left," I mumble while the girls laugh.

"Gosh, why did I miss school? Today of all days," Lima whines, throwing her hands in the air dramatically.

"Bee, you should've been there. But where did you end up at?" It's Alice asking.

With a shrug, I reply, "Ousman helped me sneak my food into the library and we both ate there." I laugh a little at the memory but the looks on my friends' faces makes me stop. "What?"

"You went on a date in school. In the library," Melody stresses as if she just said the most obvious thing on earth. ‘Say what now?’

"What, no! He had his own food there already and he was actually readin―"

"Aaah. Blah blah blah," Lima cuts me off. "Tell us what happened."

"Uh…I…" I clear my throat. "Well, he kind of asked me out." I almost fall off the bed when Alice and Melody start squealing like pregnant birds.

‘I don't even know what pregnant birds sound like. How do you even know they're pregnant? Ugh…back to the matter.’

"And what did you say?" Lima asks. She doesn't look as excited as the others and I wish they're not that excited either because the expectant looks on their faces tell me I'm doomed.

Playing with my fingers, I clear my throat. "I told him I wasn't sure?" It comes out as a question. Everyone's face drops.

"Really babe? You're not sure?" Alice asks, scrunching her nose in disappointment.

"That's babyish." My face drops at Lima's words.

"What did you say?" I ask for clarity.

"I said that's babyish," she stresses. "I mean who does that? You manage to get his attention and then he asks you out only for you to say no?" She shakes her head in… ‘is that disgust I sense?’ Now I feel hurt and dared. She sounds so much like Jasper. ‘Ugh, that boy.’

"What are you insinuating? That I don't have the guts to say yes to him?" I ask, my eyes narrowing. Melody has been clearing her throat noisily but it's not working.

"Well, obviously." That's it!

"Look here, Lim―"

"Hey!" Alice shouts, finally forcing us to break eye contact. "Stop it, both of you. Now can we discuss something else?"

Looking back at me with a taunting look in her eyes, Lima replies, "why not?"

In a few minutes, they've struck up a new conversation but I'm not really involved. Rather, I bury my head in my phone, chatting on WhatsApp. I just cannot hide the fact that I'm pissed. A message pops in.

Ousman:

Hey, library eater.

There's a smiling emoji beside the message which makes me smile too. Looking up at my friends, I make up my mind.

Me:

Hey, library rules violator. Uh… about what you asked me in the library…

Within a few seconds, his reply comes in.

Ousman:

Yeah? Had a change of mind about it?

Me:

I think so…

I smirk.