Chapter 34: Chapter 34

: game night

→Narrator: Asa

I was coming down the stairs with lola that evening when I heard the noise.

"Yes! I win, for the thirteenth time! Take that, motherfuckers!!" Kosi screamed at the top of her voice, whipping the cushion on the ground like she just scored a touchdown and doing a little victory dance, sticking out her tongue at Jordan and Dave, who she had been playing 'Mario Kart' with.

"This game is stupid anyway." Dave grumbled, getting up from his spot on the floor and stretching his legs.

"So, as I was saying, Liya, I prefer the dusky gold to the sunset yellow. It brings out the colour of your skin." Lola was talking to Haliya on the phone.

It still surprised me how freely they talked to that wicked witch. One time, I had walked in on Jordan and Dave in the middle of a video call with Haliya and Zain. And Lola talks with Haliya on a daily, so it didn't even come as a surprise to me anymore when I saw them talking on the phone.

And Kam... Yes, my insecurity had actually gotten the best out of me and I checked out Kam's dms with Haliya. It had all been very platonic but it was the fact that they kept in touch that troubled me...

They were... Friends.

My friends were friends with my enemy.

And they were all good people...

How do they hang out with that... Vile creature? How can they stand her?

"Yo, is Devon still coming?" Dave's voice pierced through my thoughts, asking Osahon who was coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of Pepsi.

"Yeah. Should be coming any minute."

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Kosi announced, skipping over to the door.

Devon stepped in with Sahar, holding up a bunch of bags and a board game. "We brought snacks!" He informed us, holding up the paper bags for everyone to see.

"Really, dude? KFC?" Jordan moaned. "You're my new best friend."

"I thought it was Kam?" I asked him.

He laughed. "Kam, who?"

"I heard that!" Kam lobbied a cushion at him that he dodged, laughing.

"Hey, Asa." Sahar greeted me. I noticed her glancing over at Jemi who was retreating into the gameroom with the other guys. "Sorry for tagging along. I don't know if that's okay with the rest of you."

"Why wouldn't it? You're welcome here, Sahar. Especially after you helped me out that night with the whole Teriq situation.

She paled, hiding her face. "Geez, I'm so ashamed of him right now. Thank God he's on his way to Spain at the moment."

I gave her a puzzled look and she seemed to read the question on my face. "Devon told his dad what happened. Popsi got mad and booked him a flight to Spain in case you decided to blow the whistle on 'im."

I bit my lip, pondering. I never even considered reporting what happened.

I wasn't even sure if he had committed a crime. I mean... It's not like he did anything so extreme. Thanks to Sahar and Amir and Kam, he didn't go all the way. There was no point reporting, especially when I was the one to be blamed for wearing that kind of dress, knowing I attract a lot of bad luck to myself.

A hand slipped around my waist, squeezing affectionately and I smiled up at Kam, losing my train of thought.

He kissed me softly, before flashing a grin at Sahar. "Hey, Sahar!"

She giggled. "Hi, Kam. How's it going?"

"Good. Good."

"Amander says hi, too. She should be arriving in a sec."

Kam paled. "Fuck, no!"

Sahar held a serious look for a moment and then doubled over, giggling. "Kidding. Kidding."

Kam relaxed. "Good." He pressed a kiss to my forehead before he walked away, retreating into the game room, where the others were headed.

"Sis, your boyfriend is goals! Damn!" Sahar told me excitedly when he was gone.

I only smiled shyly at her as we started walking together.

Just then, Amir sauntered down the stairs, hands shoved into the pockets of his sweatpants, a bored expression on his face.

He has been really scarce, lately and it had been over a week since we last spoke, mainly because Kam was deadset on keeping me all to himself.

Since the last time I spoke to him when we were alone in the kitchen, he had gotten more respectful, closed off. His previous proposition from that night at the party, long forgotten. I'd still catch him staring at me sometimes, in that calm, intense way that he had perfected. And when I caught him, he wouldn't look away, his gaze, remaining as if he was deep in thoughts. I thought nothing about it, recalling the fact that this was a normal thing for him.

He was moving on, though, testing the waters with some of the locals here. Over the past days, he had brought different girls home and they'd stay in his room for hours, doing what I don't know. Sometimes, sleeping over till the next morning. He was hurt... But at least, he was moving on.

I couldn't give him what he wanted.

He nodded a greeting at Sahar, who nodded back, walking into the kitchen and coming back out with a bottle of water.

"Where's everyone?" He asked uncorking the water bottle and drinking some.

"In the gameroom, we're about to play a game. You wanna play?" She asked, in her usual animated tone.

He shrugged, tossing her a quick smile. "Sure. Let's play."

We all walked into the game-room settling into cushions on the floor around the extra large boardgame spread in the middle.

Kosi was cuddling up to Devon and it was becoming hard for Jemi to keep a impassive face. Sahar strategically decided to sit beside Jemi, coincidentally directly facing me.

I sidled up to Kam, who put his hands around my waist, pulling me closer to him and kissing the top of my head.

Sahar, who sat, facing me on the other side, grinned at me, giving me two thumbs up sign and I rolled my eyes at her, fighting back the smile on my lips.

Dave cleared his throat. "So, the rules of the game are simple. I-" he placed a dignified hand on his chest, a smug smile on his lips, "- will be your humble gamemaster. I call-"

"Shouldn't it be Devon?" Lola interrupted, giggling from where she was sitting, practically in Osahon's laps. "I mean, he brought the game and the snacks."

"Nah. It's good!" Devon said, distractedly gazing at Kosi.

"Good!" Dave smiled, satisfied, sticking his tongue out at Lola, who did the same, more vehemently.

Humour them. They're kids.

"I call the shots here and it's going to be like snakes and ladders-"

"Boringgg!" Jordan yawned.

"Let me finish." Dave growled, shooting him a glare.

Jordan pantomimed zipping his lips and Dave huffed in satisfaction, pushing up his glasses.

He continued. "First person to get to the end after ten rounds is excused from Kitchen duty for a week. And if Devon or Sahar get to the end first, they'll be walking away with 5k from each of us."

Everyone hooted at this part.

"Gotta make sure they don't win." He added and everyone laughed in agreement.

"Anyone that ends in the snake pit, has to pick from the devil's cup-" he shook the red solo cup in his hands meaningfully, "-In the devil's cup, you might be asked to reveal an embarrassing truth about yourself, or do some stupid shit you'd probably regret for the rest of your life. Anyone that refuses to do a dare or tell the truth will have to eat an entire bulb of onion."

Everyone laughed.

"You gotta live with 'em bad breath for the night."

There was a murmur of excitement around the group.

"If you land a ladder, you're excused from having to use the devil's cup on your next snakebite. So? Are we game?"

We all echoed our agreement.

"Alright! Let's play!"

Fifty minutes, several bottles of Hennessey and two buckets of fried chicken later, Jordan had twerked for us, Dave, capturing the whole thing, live on IG. Lola had taken off Osahon's shirt with only her teeth. Jordan had gotten payback, videoing Dave, doing a chicken dance in his favourite boxers and Kam had been forced to chew raw onions for refusing to show the gang our chat history.

It's not like we sext or anything... We don't even text anymore 'cause we've been together since the vacation started. It's just that my life was very private and confidential and he respected that enough to not reveal our privacy in a petty game.

But I'm still not kissing him tonight, though.

Amir was asked to wire ten thousand naira to the last person he had spoken to on his contact list, who had turned out to Haliya. I had had to do a Lasisi impression, much to my dismay. Everyone had cracked up at my epic fail. Osahon had to hit up his ex and tell her he still loved her.

"Do that and forget about getting this ass tonight." Lola threatened him with abstinence.

Yeah, he deaded that idea and was forced to eat raw onions as punishment, too.

Lola also refused to kiss him for the rest of the night, so I guess he still won't be getting that ass, tonight.

Sahar was so good, she always landed ladders. Devon landed a snakebite and picked a blue Truth card.

"Tell me, Devon," Jordan said, taking the Truth card from him and bunching up his sleeves, so his gigantic muscles was clearly on display. For the first time since I've known him, there was seriousness in those usually playful brown eyes of his.

"Uh... What?" Devon asked, looking up from cuddling Kosi.

"Are you playing my homie?" He asked, a clear warning in his voice that this wasn't just a game to him. "You're not playing Kosi, are you?" Flexed his muscles meaningfully.

"Uh.. i.."

"Answer the question!" Dave snapped, leaning towards him, threatening.

"Guys!" Kosi protested.

"Shh, be quiet, sweetie. This is for your own good." Dave shushed her.

I facepalmed myself.

This guys, God!

"Never." He said truthfully. "I'd never do that."

"Hmm... We can't be so sure. We need a lie detector."

And Lola had downloaded a lie detector on her phone to bust him but found out he wasn't lying.

"Good for you, man!" Jordan's smile came back up again, thumping Devon on the back and we all laughed awkward and embarrassed of our friends.

We were all having a great time...

Until Kosi landed on a snake pit.

Dave grinned, shoving the Devil's cup in her face, already wasted from too many shots of Hennessey.

In fact, most of the gang was pretty much plastered except Devon, who had to drive Sahar home and Amir and I, who didn't take alcohol.

Kosi giggled, picking up a red dare card.

Everyone hooted and hollered. There were more dare cards than truth cards.

"What does it say?" Lola squealed, bouncing excitedly.

Kosi read the dare card, grinning to herself. "Reenact a performance of your favourite music idol."

Rihanna was Kosi's favourite music idol. She adored that woman, fanning her even more when she turned fashion designer. Kosi looked up to her for inspiration, her clothing lines, getting even wilder and more creative each fashion season.

"So, what's it going to be, Queen?"

Kosi thought for a while, tapping her chin. And then, her face brightened, a crafty smile on her face as she stood up from Devon's lap and went to a corner of the room, tapping on her phone and connecting it to the bluetooth speaker.

Work by Rihanna and Drake started crooning from the speaker.

"Aye!" Lola whistled, clapping and standing up. "Mad o!"

Kosi turned off the lights and turned on the red, purple and blue disco lights, to create a club effect and we watched as she grabbed a chair from the corner of the room.

Everyone stared at her, puzzled, until she straddled the chair easily and started grinding so sensually on it... Like, sex comes to mind.

Lola clapped and cheered and all of us started hooting and hailing as she performed a Rihanna-worthy performance. Jemi and Devon looked like they were about to pass out.

Lola pulled Osahon up with her, as they started moving together, rocking against each other to the beat of the sensual song and soon, everyone joined them until we were having a fun, weird, drunken night party.

Suddenly...

Kosi slid out of the chair and walked to where Devon was, pulling him up to dance with her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck rocking her hips and grinding boldly against him.

Devon was obviously thrilled by this, his hand gripping her hips and matching her pace, with everyone, hooting and cheering at them... Until...

Everything happened in slow mo.

Devon grabbed Kosi's hips, effectively halting her erotic dancing against him.

Everyone stopped and stared, watching them stare at each other for a moment.

And then he grabbed her chin, leaned down and kissed her. A soft, sweet, gentle kiss on her lips.

There was a moment of extreme silence besides the sound of Work crooning softly in the background.

Jemi snapped.

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