Somebody Else (Christian Romance)

TWENTY-SIX

One week had passed since Stephanie and Chinasa were at the nightclub in Lagos. Now they were back in school, in Chinasa's hostel.

Idle as always with no meaningful thing to do, both girls lay on Chinasa's bed, whiling away time, glossing through their phones while they waited for evening to come so they could go to the next night club.

"The girl isn't even so pretty." Chinasa hissed. "It's just because she has a wealthy father and she's a graduate." She showed Stephanie a photo of one of the girls who had been competing with her for Steamy kid's attention last week. For the past two hours, Chinasa ha bn going through the Instagram pages of different girls who she thought posed a threat to her in terms of beauty, criticizing and hurling insults at them.

"Yeah," Stephanie nodded not paying so much attention to the photo Chinasa was showing her. Her focus was rather on Charles' message which she'd been reading. She couldn't count the number of times she'd read this message in the past hour. She was unable to stop herself from blushing as she read his words.

It was amazing how in just one week, things had drastically changed between her and Charles. Charles had started sending her sweet text messages every morning. He'd also begun calling her a lot more often, and just two days ago, he'd sent her fifty thousand naira. Although that was a small amount compared to the money she'd received from other men, the gesture warmed Stephanie's heart because it made her feel cherished. And each time she remembered how he'd picked a fight with Edward because of her, it made her feel quite cherished. No guy had ever done that for her before.

She read his text again for the umpteenth time.

You're becoming my oxygen. You live rent free in my mind. I can't stay a second without thinking of you. You give meaning to my life. I'm super glad you're mine. I love you, Stephanie.

Stephanie's cheeks were getting fatigued from her blushing. Did he really think of her this much?

A message notification came in causing Stephanie to leave Charles' chat to check the new message.

"That's from me." Chinasa said. "I sent you a link to this guy's Instagram page. He sells awesome designer bags."

"Okay." Stephanie was about to open Chinasa's chat when she saw the unusual number of messages from her class's group chat. About two thousand messages as opposed to the usual few hundreds.

"Why so many messages" She whispered to herself as she opened the group chat. She didn't have to scroll for too long before she saw her course rep, Tosin's message.

The results of our first CA have been pasted on the notice bord. Majority of us did very well. Come to class and check yours.

Stephanie's heart skipped a beat. She could feel her heart beating faster as she checked the time he'd sent the message. Thirty minutes ago. She scrolled through the remaining messages, not paying them any attention as she recalled how she'd been blank in the exam hall when she'd written most of those tests.

"Chinnie." She tried to calm her breathing as she spoke.

"Hmm?"

"Our first CA results are out."

"Oh, cool." Chinasa's eyes were still glued to her phone.

"Did you hear me?" Stephanie sat up.

"Yup." Chinasa nodded. How could she be so nonchalant about this.

"Don't you care to know your grades?"

"I hate school." Chinasa gave a negative nod. "I wish I could just go on a vacation to Dubai an spend the rest of my life there." She smiled.