=°=°=°=
"If we don't have each other, we go crazy with loneliness. When we do, we go crazy with togetherness."
- Stephen King.
=°=°=°=
Dedicated to OluwadamiOsakuade Check out her book; Can't Help Falling.😊
¶NINA¶
"So when blood passes the heart just once, it means the organism has a single circulatory system, right Nina?"
I smiled at my phone, replying the message Ayo just sent me.
"Nina Ogbeide!" A voice snapped and a loud bang on the table followed, gaining my attention and causing me to almost drop my phone. When I looked up, I saw Ninu and Bolu glaring at me.
"What na?" I asked, frowning.
"Water and garri!"
"Water closet!"
They snapped at the same time.
It was the Saturday before our first term exams and we agreed to meet at Bolu's house (her parents and siblings happened not to be around this weekend) to do our last revision for Monday's exams which were biology and civics. So far, I guess it was a total success...or not.
Bolu's room had this cool décor, warm and inviting. As boyish as it was, it still had a very girly feel. No, there wasn't pink anywhere at all but once you enter, you could tell it belonged to girl.
The posters of celebrity athletes and positive girls-have-power quotes occupied most parts of the walls. Her room had no TV but she had a laptop placed on a table beside her bed, decorated with lots of stickers. Her wardrobe was at the far end in a corner of the room. A talking drum was hung above it.
Apart from the posters, pictures also decorated the walls which in turn, were painted blue and white. The ceiling wasn't left out as she decorated it with star stickers of different shapes and sizes, making it look like the night sky.
"What's with you and your phone today sef? Are you married to it? Or is one Indian dude from instagram toasting you on whatsapp?" Bolu asked, looking me directly in the eye. "Because you are never this distracted when it comes to biology or any subject at all."
Indian dude?
"Uh..."
"Speak up, madam!" Ninu ordered.
"Uh..."
"An 'uh' is not a sensible word and you are very much known and considered to have sense," Ninu said. Always one to savage without looking back. "Soro soke, darling!"
Flashback to the time I told Bolu the same thing and now it's my turn.
I opened my mouth, not exactly sure of what to say but the words sha came out. "I was just checking on Ayo?"
"Oh, just checking huh and we have been calling your attention and all you do is reply by smiling like a Cheshire cat?" Bolu countered and rolled her eyes. "As per, we get Shana for biology on a platter of gold and she's using us to catch cruise, using us to talk to boy...what insolence!"
I looked from Bolu to Ninu and then back to Bolu, a smile crept to my face and then turned into a blush. It happened by itself. My face loved to betray me, in cases like this.
"Ah, mad oh! Aunty don dey blush," Bolu said.
Memories of what happened between Ayo and I yesterday at the bleachers came rushing, filling me up with pure and absolute euphoria. The almost-kiss. There's this amazing feeling you get when you suspect or figure out that the person you really like might also like you back.
That feeling has kept me on cloud nine since yesterday and I couldn't stop thinking about it-as it is a well-known fact that us girls tend to overthink things-and I also did not stop thinking about the way he was yesterday after talking to Sukky and his geng.
I honestly wondered why and what made him tense up so much. He looked scary as hell and honestly, I never wished to see him that way again. It reminded me too much of someone; someone I'd rather keep hidden and dead forever in my past.
But when I got home yesterday, I hit him up and he told me he was fine. He was even his goofy and vituperative self again. That made me calm down a bit sha.
"Earth to Nina!" Bolu snapped her fingers in my face. "Omo x 100000, they have kuku used boy to carry your sense, Father Lord!"
Ninu stood up from where she sat opposite me, round the four-edged table in Bolu's room, crossed her arms and put her face very close to mine. I swear she was almost wearing my glasses.
"Hmmm..." She brought her fingers to her chin and stood back. I stared back at her with my brows furrowed in utmost confusion. Ninu could be really weird. "Tell me, Nina...did you and Ayo almost kiss?"
Confirmed. Ninuola Adams was a white witch from the west.
I nodded and then shook my head, confusing myself too. "How'd you know that?"
Bolu's eyes legit popped out of their sockets. "What? Really, Nina? I am heartbroken and disappointed! How come you waited this long to tell me?!"
"I um...uh..." Lost for words, I ended up stuttering. "Sorry?"
"Forget about the sorry, just gist me!" She yelled, jumping to the floor in front of me as if chairs existed for nothing.
Sometimes, Bolu's character shocked me; one time, she could be really jumpy and other times, she was just closed off, like Friday when Ore showed up on the field. But in whatever shade she appeared, I loved her like that.
"Yup, gist us! Let's take a break from this boring reading sef," Ninu added and crossed her legs on the chair she sat.
I blushed again and squealed, jumping up and down, releasing the excitement I'd been holding for quite a while now. As in, since yesterday at the bleachers till this very moment.
After my excited outburst, I sat down and poured out the whole story to them, excluding the part where Sukky and his geng came to spoil show and ruin Ayo's mood. I felt that should not be told to anybody...at least, not yet.
That's how they started hyping my 'love story' we weren't even together yet.
Ninu got up and started twerking. Bolu started dancing Poco and cross leg-work to the music playing in her head. I stared in awe at the crazy friends I had and laughed real hard at what they were doing. Mad friends everywhere. But they were real and that's the main thing.
Funny thing was, I actually joined in the madness and started dancing and twerking too. That was how we spent the whole afternoon displaying a whole new level of insanity in Bolu's room instead of us to read for the Biology and Civics we had on Monday.
Serious students indeed!
We bounced our backs on Bolu's bed, giggling like crazy.
"It's official. We ain't normal!" Ninu said.
"Affirmative," Bolu agreed, letting out a snort.
"Totally not normal!" I added and squealed again.
"We should invite Joy-Anne over some time, don't you think? I found out she lives very close to me and__" Bolu started saying but got cut off by Ninu.
"No!" She exclaimed sharply.
"Why?" Bolu and I asked at the same time. I raised both my brows.
"Because...we're supposed to be a triangle, bringing a fourth person would make it a square or rectangle and that'll ruin it!"
I saw Bolu roll her eyes because she was in the middle of Ninu and I. "Look Ninuola, nobody's gonna ruin anything. Stop being so... somehow." I knew Bolu was trying to choose her words correctly before it could escalate to something else.
"So I'm somehow, abi?" I'm some__"
I sat up and cut Ninu off. "Babes please, enough abeg! Osanobua! This should not amount to any form of argument na." I sighed. "Honestly, let's forget about this abeg!" I clapped my hands and smiled but deep in the back of my mind, I wondered what it was that made Ninu kinda uptight around Joy. I mean, basically everyone loved Joy-Anne Folarin. She was a sweet and friendly soul, feisty and sharp. Gorgeous without being prettified. I'd never had a problem with her. Not once.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Ninu sighed.
"Yeah, me too." Bolu sat up.
"So what do we do now?" I asked, gesturing with my hands.
"Food, babe! Food oh! We eat food! Aswear, hunger af want to kill me," Bolu replied and made a face that made Ninu and I burst into laughter.
She just stared at us both, her face contorted into a confused - almost surprised - look and then she rolled her eyes. "I don't understand how my hunger is making you people laugh bayii, Mtcheeww." She hissed and got up from the bed. Sliding her palm slippers to her feet, she said; "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna hit the fridge and then, my mother's cooking pot in the kitchen." She moon-walked out of the room, making us laugh.
"Wait jhor!" Ninu called out.
"Foodie oshi!" I added.
We jumped off the bed and ran after her before she will finish all the food in the house as if she were the only hungry person.
|~ |~ |~ |
It was six in the evening. We'd already eaten and concluded our revision for Biology and Civics on Monday, even touched some parts of History and Ethics for Tuesday's papers. Ninu left a few minutes ago, saying her mum needed her back home for some family stuff.
I could stay as long as I wanted at Bolu's house as it was almost like mine. I'd been here a lot of times. Her parents and siblings knew me well, even called me their daughter. They were really nice people. I made a promise to myself not to ever overstep my boundaries ('cause I still had them no matter what) and not to ever take their kindness towards me for granted.
My Aunt didn't mind how long I stayed either as long as I did what I was meant to do and remained a good girl, which I clearly was. Not bragging though.
"So Bolu..." I started. She turned to look at me, her eyes brightening. I sat, leaning my arm on the sofa's head rest in the sitting room, and faced her with a smile. "Tell me, what's up with you and the head boy?"
Her eyes dimmed. "What's up with us? Nothing na." She shrugged and turned her attention back to the TV.
"Are you sure?"
"Yup." She replied shortly. "Why?"
"Well...I noticed your mood changes anytime he comes around us. Maybe he offended you or something?"
"Oh." She shrugged again. "We're cool, nothing's up."
"Hope so." I definitely wasn't convinced with her reply but I chose not to push further anyway. "Because if he did anything to hurt you..." I added nonetheless.
I might not be able to kick a ball to save my life but I could kick balls to save lives and for my friends, get it?
"Relax mama, I said nothing's up and we're cool, okay?" She chuckled and then rolled her eyes.
I raised my hands. "Okay, okay. I wanna make sure you're okay b! You've been weird lately."
"Weird...is cool." She smirked, crossed her arms and started forming fresh. I laughed.
"Babe, you're a very bad actress."
"Wow, what a compliment!" She stated sarcastically and rolled her eyes, resting her back on the chair.
I laughed again, holding my stomach in the process as she frowned.
There was always something about the way Bolu's face looked when she frowned. Is funny the word to describe it? Not good enough but close enough so yeah, her face looked funny each time she frowned.
"Be laughing at my frown oh, it's not your fault. I will do my own back."
I only laughed harder at her expression.
Simultaneously, our phones dinged and we both looked to see it was a whatsapp message from our set's group chat.
"Med oh, it's a party." I squinted my eyes to see the invite on the group chat. "Ashley's Party."
"Oh, the one that Chidera came to drag Ninu to plan for, abi?"
"Yeah, guess so." I zoomed the picture. "It's on twelfth of December, immediately after our exams."
"And they're inviting the whole of our set? Wawu! Some people sabi spend oh!"
"Abi na. Me, I'm going sha. When last did I attend a party sef?" I said, smiling excitedly at the sound of a party. Who does not love parties?
"Aunty calms oh, let's finish exams first. Then we can talk about it."
"Yeah, yeah. Book first, party later. Blah, blah."
The day grew darker and her family arrived home. It was time for me to go. After I greeted them all, I left. Bolu escorted me to the nearest bus stop from her home and went back.
After boarding a cab and two bikes, I finally got to my area. Not serene and quite different from Bolu's and Nina's in all aspects. I wasn't the richest girl and I did not live in the richest house but I was grateful for what I had. It was better than living in a spick-span, fancy and expensive house with a mentally deranged human, a psychopath.
River Brook Academy was not exactly an Elite school or a school for rich kids. It was an average school that contained mainly people from middle class. But of course, like any other normal school, there were levels of association. As in, different social statuses. There were people at the top of the food chain, like Ore Jumai, Chidera Odikanwa, and the likes. Getting to that position was a real big deal.
Where you lived, how you lived and the kind of place you lived in were just some out of many of the factors that determined your level of association. Safe to say nobody knew where my home was located, not even Bolu. And it's not like I wanted it to be kept from her but I just had to keep it from her and the rest of them at RBA...
As I walked down the lonely road that led to the street my house was located, I had this uneasy feeling...as if I was being followed. I stopped with cautious eyes and looked around. Found no one. Like it always happened in the movies.
A zillion thoughts ran through my mind.
Kidnappers?
Rapists? God forbid!
Ritualists?
Wild beasts?
Wild beasts ko, from which forest?
Nina stop being paranoid. Keep going, no one's following you!
I exhaled and kept walking still with that uneasy feeling. After a few seconds, I got to the entrance of the apartment complex, unlocked the gate and walked in hastily. And it was not until I was in the safe abode of my home with my aunt and little brother, that I felt no paranoia.
Heyyyyy!!!!!!
Hiiiiiiiiii
Yooooo!!!!
How are y'all doing?
I'm Super Sorry for stalling oh 😪 forgive me abeg. I got really busy and honestly, when I actually found time to write, I kinda had writer's block.😩😩
But it's cleared now tho.😊
I got a cold recently and had a stupidly strong urge to delete this book from Wattpad 😂😂😂😂 honestly catarrh can be really frustrating aswr😂😂😂
So...I wanna say a big thank you for the number of reads tho it's not so much but I'm super grateful for the growth 😊😊😊
How's this chapter?
What'd you think about Nina's life?
This chapter was very hard to write and is a filler chapter. It's also very important (you'd get to know why later)
And e be like say party dey ohh!!! Who's ready to party???? I know I am Sha (from the other side of the fourth wall😂😂)
And before I forget, I opened an IG account for my writing and I will be posting aesthetics, covers, quotes, excerpts and maybe teasers/trailers so please follow up @ i.f.e.b_writes on Instagram 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Again, thanks for sticking with me. I love y'all so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Vote, comment and share!
God bless you!
~Ife 😎🤗✌️❤️