Nigerian Girl

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Special rooms

On Friday, I was in school earlier than usual, Kolade hadn't even come at all. It had been raining all night and this morning too.

I was currently seated on the bottom of the staircase close to my class staring out at the empty hallway in front of me.

I had my biology book on my lap but I couldn't concentrate. Last night I had not been able to get any sleep, why?

My parents had a big fight.

It was horrible, even though they were in their bedroom, CJ, Nenye and I could hear their voices from upstairs. When the fight first started I went to Nenye's room to see if she was asleep, she wasn't and CJ wasn't too because he was also in her room.

We were quiet for a while just listening to them argue until CJ walked out and went to his room, banging his door shut. Nenye quietly closed hers and looked at me. I was sitting on the carpet so she joined me to sit down and put my head on her shoulder.

We didn't say a word, we just stayed like that until the fight ended and I went back to my room.

Thinking about it now, brought tears to my eyes, were all my fears coming into actualization? Were my parents going to get a divorce? I didn't notice when someone joined me on the staircase. I looked to see Chidindu's worried eyes staring back at me and tried to hide my tears.

He didn't say anything for some time but when he eventually spoke I stopped him.

"Don't...if you're going to you ask why I'm crying then don't."

"I understand if you are angry at me for my current behaviour but you can't expect me to see you crying and just act like you aren't."

I gave him a sharp look and said, "There's nothing you can do for me even if you tried," after saying that, I realized that I may have been too harsh on him. He was only trying to help.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly

He shook his head, "I deserved it for lashing out at you before, but Zaram I want you to know that just because I'm not willing to tell you my problems does not mean that I'm not open to hearing yours, after all, aren't we friends?"

I sniffed, he did have a point, but I was not sure if I wanted to talk about it. That was probably how he had felt that day when I tried to get him to talk.

I smiled and said, "We are friends, but I don't feel like talking about it yet, let's put a rain check on it?"

He nodded and stood up, offering me his hand.

"Let's get you out of here, staying alone is only going to make you feel worse trust me," he said sincerely. And I realized that he must have been speaking from experience.

I took his hand and he pulled me up and smiled reassuringly, "I'm sure that whatever It is, it's going to be alright."

When I didn't say anything, he scanned my face for a second until something clicked. He looked like he had just thought of something.

"I want to show you something," he said excitedly. I eyed him warily, "What?"

Without a word he offered me his hand again, his eyes pleading with me to take it. I reluctantly accepted it and he interlocked his fingers with mine and started walking quickly.

"Slow down, you're going too fast," I said struggling to keep up.

"We need to get there before classes begin."

We went to the top floor that was reserved for the school teachers, students avoided going up here because the offices of the school's executive director, the principal, and the vice-principal were all located here.
He led us to a hallway and we walked straight to a normal looking brown door. He reached for the handle and I stopped him.