Too Good to Be Real

Chapter 43

"I didn't buy them, Femi did."

"When did both of you make up?"

"Unlike you, I don't lie to myself. I knew the real reason I was angry with her is because of what my stupid dad did to my mum. I told her that and she apologized for what she said. And what did I get in return? She went shopping for me and promised to follow me to see my mum tomorrow."

"How long was I out?" Oma muttered and chuckled, earning a knowing look from Asa.

"Don't try to change the subject, Oma. Tell me the real reason you're so angry."

"Can you just stop?"

"Are they dating? Is that what's grinding your gears? You can tell me. You know you can tell me anything."

Oma felt the walls getting smaller.
"I said stop. They're dating but that's none of my business. I'm actually happy he's not bugging me anymore."

"So you don't have any feelings for him at all?" Asa asked.

"None." She cocked her head to one side. "I only have feelings for one person. And he's unfortunately related to Nathi."

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" Asa said. She removed all the sauce in the meat pie she was holding and right before Oma's very eyes, began to scoop it with some cake.

"Because all the nonsense you've been eating has gotten into your brain and clouded it. Goodnight." She said and completely covered herself with her very thick blanket. She removed it a few seconds later when she felt like she was suffocating. The weather was too hot for a blanket.

She closed her eyes for a while begging sleep to come and when it didn't, she picked up her phone and began to scroll, absentmindedly hoping for Asher to call. Or even for Obi to call and say something. This was quite unlike him.

She scrolled through her and Asher's texts together, hoping a new message would pop up. No such luck. Did he want her to text first?
Giving up, she dropped her phone and went back to forcing sleep to come. Asa's chewing was irritating her. She didn't even want to know what it was she'd mixed this time.

"Oma."

"Yes?"

She belched.

"You can lie to every other person but you can't lie to yourself."

"For the last time, I don't like him! Maybe you're even the one who's jealous since you seem to like him so much."

"Delay is not denial but denial is delay." She hummed and chewed more junk.

Oma turned to her. "How does that even connect with what you're talking about?"

"Denial. Denial. Denial..." Asa kept repeating until Oma felt like throwing something on her head.

She didn't know how she was ever going to sleep with her annoying voice, constant loud chewing and belching, but somehow she did.

The next day was a lonely Saturday, Asa and Femi had gone to see her mum at the hospital. The quietness was much welcomed by Oma. After yelling 'denial' all night, Oma wasn't ready for whatever Asa had in stock for the day.

She texted her mother, read a little and cooked something which unfortunately burnt but was still tasteless, so she bought something to eat.

She'd never cooked for Asher before, she realised. In fact, the only time she'd seen him eat was whenever they went out to a restaurant on a date. There was a gas cooker in his room which he refilled from time to time but whenever she was there, it was never used.

She didn't know much about him but not knowing how he ate was too far. How had she ever skipped that? She'd been over countless times and he'd never asked her to cook.
She laughed at herself. She should be thankful he never did before she disgraced herself.

Tired of reading her school books, she began to watch makeup tutorials online. Soon she was falling asleep. Not only were they boring, the only people with dark skin like hers all had terrible make up. No one ever complained about her face so she could manage.

A beep roused her back to consciousness. It was text from Obi.
She rolled her eyes. She wanted his text yesterday, she was over them.

"Hey." It read.

She glared at it.

"How are you doing?"
She rolled her eyes again.

"Are you there?" He texted again when she didn't answer.

"Yes, Obi I'm doing great."

"We need to talk."

"We're talking right now."

"You know what I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"Face to face. You stormed out yesterday and I really felt bad."

"Why didn't you call me back?"
Now she sounded so dramatic.

"I didn't think you wanted me to call you back. You were really furious. How was I supposed to know what you were thinking?"

She was still texting a new message when her phone started ringing.

It was Asher.

"Hello...?" Obi texted again when she didn't reply.

She stared at the his caller ID on her phone, different thoughts going through her head. Suddenly, she realized she wasn't as excited to receive his call as she thought she would be.

An idea got in.

Imagine not picking his call so he'd feel worse and keep calling until she answered.

The caller ID went off and after minutes of him not calling back, she regretted her decision. What was wrong with her!

She crossed her legs over each other as she pondered on what to do. It wasn't that serious, she told her herself.

She sucked in a deep breath and texted him. She bit her fingernails as she waited, the only noise in the room came from the ticking of the wall clock which told her just exactly how much time he was taking to respond. Many minutes later, she dropped her phone angrily when she realised he wasn't going to text her back. Maybe he'd even called her by mistake. She felt worse than she'd have felt if he hadn't called at all.

She lay down on her bed and thought about everything. This wasn't what a relationship should be like, she told herself. She was going to call him.
Her finger was just about to tap the call button when Obi's own call came. She immediately ignored it.

About to call Asher again, she heard a knock on the door. That was strange. Asa had said they were going to spend a very long time with her mother, so who could that be.

"Oma." The familiar voice behind the door called. "Why didn't you pick my call?"

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I know this had nothing to do with the chapter but I just had to ask.
Have you ever lost someone close to you and started seeing them everywhere? That is, people that look like them. Or am I just plain crazy?

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