Jolayemi

Chapter 41: The Lobby Fight

I got up before the whistle blew, and I sighed. I couldn't sleep all through the night, the guilt ate at me. Jer's face haunted me, and I hated the fact that I was gonna break his heart. I pulled my hair, and yelled. I loved Jeremy, that much couldn't be denied. But I was not in love with him, no, I was in love with another guy. I was in love with Gabriel, I tried so so hard to ignore it, to push it away, to deny it, but I just couldn't keep lying to myself, more so to Jer. He deserved to know the truth no matter how painful it was gonna be.

I reached for my phone, and as I stared at his name, I couldn't bring myself to dial his number. I had no right to. I feared even facing him, he was gonna hate me. I frowned when I realized the whistle still hadn't blown, and I wondered if the girls were successful in their mission. I grabbed my stuff, and got out of the room. Students were up and about, grabbing their heads in pain, hungover. Shouldn't I be doing that too, I mean I did get slightly drunk, and though my head hurt, it wasn't from a hungover. "Jola", a voice called, and I looked up.

I turned away immediately, and walked fast towards the door. Who was I kidding? Gabriel caught up to me in three strides and held my arms to stop me. "Can we talk, please?", he pleaded. I avoided his stare and looked at my feet. "There's nothing to talk about", I said. "Well, I have loads of things I wanna say", he said, and I held up a hand to stop him. "Gabriel please. I can't do this right now, okay?", I stared over his shoulder. "Besides, your girlfriend is waiting for you, so go attend to her and leave me alone, please", I said, and opened the door. I took the stairs down to my room, and with each step I took, my heart thundered in my chest.

I feared I was gonna lose him, I feared I was gonna lose my best friend. I opened my door, and stared in surprise when I saw Jer hovering over my bag. I looked at Starr who shrugged at me. "Hey", I said. He didn't reply, and continued hovering. I frowned as I stared at him. "What are you doing here?", I asked. He turned, holding something in his hand, and I gasped. "Why do you have this with you?", he asked. I smiled awkwardly. "Jer", I called. "Why do you have Gabriel's sweatshirt with you?", he asked. "Nothing, he just gave it to me", I said. "Why? Why would you accept this?", he asked.

"Jer, its not-, its not what you think", I said. He folded his arms and stared at me. "So, help me think, cause I sure as hell don't know what to think. Why do you have your ex's cloth?", he asked. "Gabriel's not my ex", I said. "When I didn't see your call or text this morning, I got a little worried. But then I realized you stayed at the Winner's Crib yesterday, right?", he turned to Starr, who just plain stared at us. "So I thought to myself, 'huh, she must have been drunk, and partied hard last night. Let me go wait for her in her room, and bring some Advil for her cause I know she'll be hungover', right?", he paused and smiled.

"So, there I was chatting with Starr, when something caught my attention. I mean, you must have been in a hurry or something cause your clothes were all over the floor. I smiled, and said let me help you put it back where it belonged when I saw this", he brought the cloth up. "I thought to myself ' huh, this sweatshirt looks so familiar, where might I have seen it?', then it clicked. It's Gabriel's. Hence, the question, Jolayemi. Why do you have Gabriel's sweatshirt?", he asked. "He gave it to me before we came here, and asked me to keep it", I said softly. Jer smiled. "I get that, you've said it before. The question you still haven't answered is, why did you keep it?", he asked, and I avoided his gaze.

Jer threw the cloth on the bed, and sighed. "Do you love him?", he asked. "Of course I love him, he's my friend", I said, as I stared at him. "Are you in love with him?", he asked, and I looked away. He took a step closer to me. "Are you in love with Gabriel, Jola?", he asked. "Cause I get that you love him, and I'm all for you being friends", he stepped closer to me. "Are you in love with him?", he asked softly, I refused to look at him as I continued staring at my shoes. "Are you in love with him, Jolayemi?!", he yelled, and I jumped.