A/N: What do you think should be part of the book but isn't there?
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"What's really going on between you and that boy?" Zeke asked as we settled into two stops in a local icecream shop just down the road from our school. I had asked Zion and Zoe to take the bus home, so it's just Zeke and I still in our pressed school uniforms at barely past four p.m in the evening.
I know Zeke wouldn't mind telling his driver to drop me off.
I looked at him closely through my eyelids. His brows was furrowed and his whole countenance depicted the fact that he was calm and collected.
Well, I would believe that if he wasn't clenching and unclenching his fists as his eyes short lasers at me that I doubt he barely noticed.
I rolled my eyes at him as I placed my hands on the rusted countertop filled with empty cones of icecream and counter dusters.
He looked up at him in impatience and I smirked, leaning my face forward. "What boy?"
He huffed and pressed his thumb against his eyebrow, massaging the spot lightly. "That boy—What's his name again? Michelle?"
I rolled my eyes. I'm sure he knows Micheal's name but he's just trying to pretend not to just to be petty.
"What about him?" I asked, pushing a braid behind my ear.
He spluttered as if surprised as he looked at me, with face full of confusion. "What do you mean 'what about him'? Two days ago, I saw the both of you almost closing to kissing in the hallway and today, you slept on his shoulder. How do you expect me, your boyfriend, to feel about that?"
I rolled my eyes again.
Nawa o, give boys an hint of love and attention like this and they'll go on building mountains with it.
"Shebi I told you he was a friend back in the States where my family used to reside before we came to Nigeria, why do you now sound so jealous?"
He grunted and slapped his palms on his forehead in mock dramatism. "So,now I'm jealous because I chose to look out for my girlfriend? Well, excuse me for doing so because I know that boy— Michelle or whatever his name is— likes you but you're just too blind to see it."
I gasped in horror at his words. Zeke had never spoken to me like that, it's a first. "Did you just call me blind?"
His brown eyes looked at me and he released a deep breath before combing his hands through his hair. "You know what I mean—"
I interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. "No, I don't, care to explain?"
His eyes finally snapped up to mine. "Look, I'm sorry, you know I didn't mean it like that. It's just that—" He sighed and grabbed my hands from across the table. "Friends or not, I know that boy likes you. Trust me, I know because I have eyes and I'm a boy like him too. It also doesn't help that we're a block apart, you know class B and C."
"Shouldn't trust be the most important element in a relationship?" I asked as I gave his hand a squeeze to signify the fact that I was with him.
He gave my hand a squeeze back too. "I know, I trust you, it's him I don't trust."
"You know what, can we just forget about that and enjoy our time together?" He nodded and whistled as he called the attention of the owner of the icecream shop.
She was short, her body adorning a navy green t-shirt over a white three quarter jean. The green wig on her head covered her natural hair and it reminded me of something out of the local masquerade festival or 'rags day'.
Her makeup was an entirely different story.
As she got close to our table, I heard her mumble in quick pidgin. "All this children of nowadays no longer carry any ounce of manners in their body. Is it me this mop head of a human being is calling like an aboki? E fit call him papa like that, dem born am well?"
I rolled my eyes and focused on the 'menu' in my hands. Honestly speaking, it feel more like a few sheets of papers held together with staplers to support it. Aside from that, it felt sticky as if all sort of gummy icecreams had been dumped on it.
"Wetin una wan buy?" Her hospitality skills as a businessewoman—whether local or not— went down the drain as she glared at us, her spit decorating the table that I began to wonder how Zeke found this spot in the first place.
He's always finding the weirdest set of places, I'm holding on to the promise that I'm not stepping my foot in here again.
"I want the vanilla icecream." Zeke mumbled tiredly and pushed the menu towards her before looking over at me.
I looked down at the dirty piece of paper again. "I'll take the chocolate icecream." I murmured. I mean, it's not as if I have a choice, the menu only contains three choices— vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. And I'm not a fan of strawberry ice creams so chocolate it is.
This is seriously the worst icecream palour I have ever seen. No normal tables, no fan, no quality icecream flavours— cookie dough and the rest.
Everything's just dry.
"You—". She pointed her long, lanky fingers at me. "Your mama know say you dey follow boy Waka?" My mouth hung open as I looked at her in disbelief
This is the first real time I'm seeing not only a blunt person, but careless at heart too. I understand that Zeke and I are young, but she wouldn't be saying that when we finish school in the next few weeks and go to higher institutions? Besides, what right does she have to meddle in our business?
Zeke fake coughed to ease the tension. "With all due respect ma, can you just please go snd get our icecreams for us?"
She behaved as if she didn't hear him and instead focused more on me, judgement very visible in her eyes. "Wetin you go tell your mama if you go carry Belle? How old una be sef?" She didn't wait for me to reply as she continued speaking. "Don't worry, I go pour spit inside your icecream."
After the declaring statement, she picked the two menus off the table before walking away, a coy smile on her hideous face.
We didn't need to be told twice.
Zeke and I sprinted out of the icecream palour as if our tails were on fire.
-
"Look, you better talk now or I'm not going to hesitate to report you to mum, and I know you'd not like that so spill." My voice carried no room for agreement as I shot a glare towards Zion who stood cornered between me and Zoe.
"Why do you think anything's wrong with me? Don't I look perfectly okay?" He groaned as he ran his hands across his face, his body leaning on the concrete wall behind him.
I scoffed at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. "Isn't it obvious? You barely eat or talk, and you lock yourself in all day with nothing but music keeping you company." Zoe talked painfully as she held direct eye contact with him.
His gaze softened at her expression.
I sighed, stepping between the two and poking at Zion's chest. "What has come over you? This isn't the real you. Please talk to us, we can help you with whatever it is that's disturbing you."
"So now you think I'm possessed, is that it?" He scoffed naturally, looking at us in disbelief as if we were alien creations who had fallen off of Jupiter and had come to convince people that Earth was an illusion.
I sighed. "That's not what we're saying Zion. As a family, we're supposed to look after each other and tell ourselves things that should remain in our circle-"
His scoff pushed me to the dept of irritation and I felt my hands twitch in anger, so close to slapping him across his face. "Family? You talk about family? Where we you when I was going through emotional heartbreak and I need someone to push through? Where we you- even you Zoe- when I was faced with the worst heartbreak ever and I needed you to tell me it was going to be okay?"
My eyes widened as I tried to understand what he was passing across. "Heartbreak? You got your heart broken- by a girl?"
"Oh, so now you care?" He rolled his eyes.
My anger pushed me to the limit and I snapped in an hot furnace of fury. "We'll always care Zion! Stop acting like that- like an egoistic asshole. How were we supposed to know you were going through heartbreak? You didn't tell us anything!"
"Why didn't you tell me you and Zeke were dating? I had to hear it from the school. Yet here you are, talking about family supporting each other as if you know what family means."
My right hand connected with his left cheek, leaving a resounding noice around the whole house. His head whipped to the side as the imprint of my fingers appeared on his cheek.
"Ruth, calm down." Zoe said softly, pulling me behind her.
"Maybe you would have been the first person to know if you had listened to us when we tried to talk to you, instead of shutting us out like commoners." Tears spilled from my eyes as I spat the words at him.
A calm silence overtook everywhere as he also raised his teary eyes to meet mine. "I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter, does it? After all, I do not know what family means, talk much of bringing love to that same family." I chocked back, wiping my hands with my sleeves.
It's so hard being the eldest of three siblings. People expect so much from you, your parents see you as an example to your younger ones, hence why you have to be perfect to in other to avoid any dereliction of duty.
Hell, the society as a whole expects so much more from you.
"I'm really sorry Ruth."
"I suggest you sit down and think about what you've just done. The world expects so much from me than I can offer, and honestly, I'm done trying."