TISE
As I stepped out of the classroom, I bumped into someone and heard a crash sound. Looking down to see what made the sound, the person I bumped into bent down to pick up his phone.
"Are you blind?" The guy queried obviously in annoyance as he picked up his phone.
"Sorry," I apologized and he looked up at me.
"Did you realize you've broken my phone?"
It wasn't until then that I looked at his phone. It was a Samsung phone and the scratches were pretty bad.
"Sorry about that, I'll help you fix your phone."
"Don't worry about that."
"But you..."
"Jason," I heard Amara's voice call and turned to the direction of her voice. She was dressed in a flower-patterned mini gown which left me wondering how she entered the school in that kind of cloth but then our school only made the dress code known to us but they didn't enforce it. She smiled upon seeing me and walked up to us.
"How did you guys come in contact?" She questioned immediately she got to us.
"Do you know him?" Jason asked and she nodded.
"Yeah, he's my best friend, Tise, meet my boyfriend," she introduced and I glanced at the guy who was now glaring at me. Even the glare was more than the way he looked at me when I broke his phone, he probably believed we were more than best friends but I just couldn't imagine myself dating Amara.
"It's so unfortunate we met in a bad situation," he gave me a thin smile which I returned readily.
"What do you mean?" Amara looked from me to Jason.
"I bumped into him..."
"And he broke my phone," Jason completed.
"Oh," Amara looked down at his phone, "It's bad oo."
"And he has offered to fix it, right Tise?" he smiled at me. How childish could he be?
"Of course."
"That wouldn't be a problem for him but you can do it yourself too," Amara countered.
"Yeah but ..."
"I'll do it," I concluded and Amara nodded.
"Let's go for lunch, others would be waiting for us, you were heading to the cafeteria right?" She turned to me and I glanced at Jason who was still glaring at me.
"Yeah."
"Let's go."
***********
"I just don't understand Jason, fixing his phone isn't a problem for him at all, the guy is rich," Amara complained as we both entered my car, she'd insisted on coming with me to fix her boyfriend's phone and even offered to pay the bills which I declined.
"There's no way he'll be able to afford our tuition fee if he isn't rich, he just wanted me to fix it," I started the car and she hissed.
Our school was one of the most expensive private universities in the country and only the elites attended unless a scholarship was offered to the person and the sponsor could only be Amara's parents.
"That's so bad of him."
"You've been with this guy for more than a week, aren't you tired of him yet?" I inquired and she shook her head.
"Not yet whereas I haven't found any one more handsome than him."
"Looks like this one really likes you, why can't you just settle with him?"
She wagged her index finger, "It's not possible."
"Why?"
She glanced at me, "No reason."
We stayed in silence for some minutes before she tuned in the radio that was blasting a foreign song, I wasn't a fan of foreign songs so I didn't know their names or the title of their songs. I'm entirely clueless about them.
"I'm dropping at Gbemi's place," she told me when we entered the estate and I nodded. She'd always been close to Gbemi and they were like best of friends even though their behaviours contradicted, I wonder how they coped.
Not like I was any different too, my friends and I were as different as day and night.
Few minutes later, she got down from my car, waved me bye before I drove off to my place.
"This is getting terrible," Tumi complained as she barged into my room when I got out of the shower.
"What's terrible?"
She swung her gaze to me before talking, "Get dressed first, it's not like you have a nice body." Then she sat on my bed.
"You know I do," I countered before heading to my wardrobe. I got back some minutes later in a green shirt and black shorts.
"Can you believe mom has decided to stop being the acting Chairman," she started and I whirled my chair towards her.
"It's high time she did that, it's not like she knows anything about management or brewing."
Tumi pouted, "That isn't even the problem now."
"What is?" I raised my brows.
"The new person to be appointed."
I scrunched my brows," And who is that?"
"Her boyfriend."
"What!" I shouted and that made Tumi startled.
"Why did you naa shout like that? Weren't you expecting it before?"
"Wait, so you mean that man has been appointed as the chairman? What kind of promotion is that? From sales manager to Chairman?"
She erupted into a shriek laughter which made me confused.
"I was only pulling your legs," she said after a minute of laughing like a maniac.
"What do you mean?"
She adjusted her sitting position before replying, "Truth is he hasn't been appointed yet but has been nominated for the position and you know mom will surely find a way to make him the chairman."
"That will never happen, they can't just make a sales manager the chairman, he doesn't even have any shares."
She shook her head, "I think Mom transferred some of her shares to him and he already bought shares before Dad's death gan I overheard them talking about it, even that useless Karen has shares."
"This is ridiculous," I commented. To what extent will mom go? Is that how blind in love she is with that man? How did she not realize he was only using her? How...
The knock from the door disrupted my thoughts and I raised my head to the door while wondering who it could be. Maybe it was K.Y, she might want to ask for what I'll like for dinner.
Tumi answered and the door opened only to reveal someone I hadn't set my eyes on in the past few days yet I didn't notice her absence.
"I didn't know you were here too," mom smiled at Tumi who returned the smile with a plastic one though she still loved our mother unlike me who found it hard to love her, maybe because I knew of all her misdeeds which Tumi was oblivious of.
"What do you want?" I questioned coldly and she smiled at me; one I didn't return. Her smiles always seemed fake to me, under that smile was wickedness.
"I needed to talk to you guys..."
"About what?" I cut her short.
She looked from me to Tumi, "The thing is, I need your help."
"For what?" Tumi questioned in a cursory manner.
She sighed before talking, "It's only your vote I need, your shares is enough to help..."
I cut her short again, "I can't believe you're asking us to help your boyfriend take over our father's company, it's not going to happen."
Surprise appeared in her face and that made me realize she didn't know we were aware of it.
"It's not like he's taking over the company completely, it's just that..."
"This is outrageous, I can't believe it," Tumi cut in and Mom rubbed her palms.
"There's no way we are doing that, it's enough that he stays in our father's house and is bossing everyone as if he owns the house, we are not going to sell our inheritance to a stranger," Tumi said and I gave her a thumbs up.
"He's not a stranger, he's going to become your father soon," she insisted and I scoffed a laugh.
"It's not going to happen, he might become a father to your unborn kids but not to us, so, please mom, don't talk about this issue again."
"But..." She protested.
"Don't make it hard for us, it's enough that we are trying to cope, just go," I told her and she sighed. She glanced at Tumi who gave her an expressionless face.
"I guess you guys are angry over something, I'll come back later," she turned to leave.
"Please don't," I said and that made her glance back at me before walking out of my room. It was funny how she was this heartless, how my mom changed overnight was amazing. We'd always been a happy family until some months back when her camouflage opened and her true color was revealed.
"I can't believe mom thinks she can convince us," Tumi started when our mom closed the door.
"I'm just short of words."
She rose to her feet, "I have assignments to do and I know your brain is empty."
"It's Chemistry right?"
She nodded, "Of course, you think it would be physics or maths and you wouldn't have helped me solved it, I'm not inflating your ego, so, stop feeling yourself," she eyed me while I smiled.
"Go and do your assignment."
"Maybe I'll eventually dub tomorrow because the questions alone is giving me headache."
"Try to solve it."
She widened her eyes at me, "That's why you can't try it, dumbass," she headed towards the door while I laughed.
Chemistry had always been my weakness. How I had a credit in my WAEC was still surprising me but Physics and Maths just seemed like a cup of tea to me.