I stepped into Yinka's room, pulling my braids into a bun. Yinka looked up from his phone and turned his head following my movements as I walked further into the room. The camera and ring light was all set up and ready to be used. He was seated at the side of his bed, the curtains behind his dressing table were pulled back for more light.
"Finally," he said
"What?" I said, tapping my bun to make sure it was well secure. "You know I had to freshen up before coming back. It was not going to take a second" I took off my backpack and placed on the floor by the foot of the bed.
He studied my appearance for a while. "Did you put on makeup?"
"No, just lip gloss. Why?" I said, instinctively touching my face
He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "No reason. Just thought you did."
"I didn't" I said and moved to sit beside him.
"Hmm," he nodded and then leaned forward to turn on the camera.
I glanced at our reflection through the camera and adjusted my grey t-shirt then tugged on the top of my jeans.
"Okay..." he started out but then turned to pick up his ringing phone from beside him.
I was able to catch the Prisca's name on the phone screen as he swiped to accept before bringing it to his ear.
"Hey what's up?" he said
I was about to make out what was been said on the other end, it was all muffled. His eyebrows went from elevated to being creased.
"Wait, that was today?" he said. "Damn... I'm so sorry. I completely forgot" he ran his head over his wavy hair down to his face.
Was he supposed to head out now?
There was another minute of silence as he listened to what was being said on the other end of the phone.
"I'm not going to be able to come. I actually have something planned right now and I don't know when I'll be done" he said and looked at me.
"We can reschedule" I mouthed to him.
He shook his head vigorously and spoke into the phone. "Yeah. Probably some other time. I'll make it up to you guys, I promise"
Another minute of silence.
"Hey, what's up man? Yeah, I'm sorry. It completely skipped my mind, bro" he said
It seems like he had some kind of engagement planned with his friends for today. I didn't want to be the reason he didn't meet up with his friends so I tapped on his hand that rested on the bed and mouthed that he could go. Again, he shook his head at me and continue to speak into the phone.
What he did next took me by surprise. As he spoke, he held my hand and intertwined our fingers. I glanced at our interlocked hands with raised brows and slightly widened eyes. He didn't seem to notice what he had done because threw his head back laughing at whatever was being said to him.
I'm not sure if I was the only one who felt this way but I wasn't comfortable holding people's hands, even my friends. It just always felt way too intimate and weird for me especially if it was the first time occurring with said person. I always avoided handshakes with people because of this feeling. I would rather fist-bump people upon introduction.
Do I pull my hand away? If I pull it away too abruptly then he'd notice and then things could get awkward. Do I just leave them interlocked and wait to see if he'd pull back?
My mind was going into overdrive. Why was I overthinking holding of hands? God, I'm so weird. Just as I was losing my mind, he mindlessly let go of my mind and I released a sigh of relief. My relief although satisfying was short-lived because his hand returned but this time he just mindlessly caressed the back of my palm.
What in God's name is happening here?
He laughed again. "We'll revisit this conversation. I've got to go... Yeah... Of course... yeah, bye." He pulled back his hand then used both hands to hold his phone and then began to tap away on his screen.
Five minutes later, he clicked the screen shut, placed the phone back down and looked to me. "Sorry for that. Let's start"
He really didn't... didn't realize... Okay
"Yeah" I released an awkward chuckle and pulled at the hem of my top.
He gave me wary look. "Okay..." And then turned to the camera. "What's good, guys? Welcome back to our YouTube... I mean, my YouTube channel"
He chuckled. "She's been here like what, two, three times and I'm already calling it our YouTube channel"
Knowing me, I would've made a joke about how it was now our channel and no longer his but I was still coming out of the hand holding daze. I'm weird, I know.
"Anyways guys," he clapped his hands together. "I saw this post on Instagram, talking about 'what gives women the ick'. The list was completely ridiculous, it had a bit of controversy and so I thought, how about I have another female give me her honest response to said list. Let's see if she shares the same view"
"For those of you who might not know, I'm here with—" he gestured to me
"I'm Neye" I did a simple hand wave.
"Okay. Let's begin" he said and picked up his phone. After a few taps and scrolls, he looked back up. "Okay, so the first one on the list is- men"
I chuckled and nodded. "Well... it's not completely a lie sha"
"Wow," he exclaimed, looking at me wide-eyed with a wide smile.
I laughed. "But it's true now"
"You need to explain that one," he said, turning to face the camera
"I don't know, it's self-explanatory. Some men are just plain disgusting and irritating, just their whole aura and vibe... it's... eww" I said and then laughed
He shook his head and chuckled. "Okay... next one is paying for this with vouchers" he read from his phone.
I looked at him. "Vouchers? Do we use that here? I don't think we do... I don't know"
"I have no idea but if we did... Would a man using a voucher to buy something give you the ick?" he said
"Uh... I don't think it would. I mean, I'd use it if we had it here so... Nah, I don't think I'd find that repulsive" I said truthfully
He nodded his head. "Okay... next is men who sit down on the toilet"
"To pee?"
"Nah, probably the other one. You know, a thunderous concert" he said and then wiggled his eyebrows
I threw my head and laughed as he made mention of our inside joke. He joined in on the laughter almost immediately, it was almost like he had planned to say it even before we started recording.
"Stop" I wheezed out
"Come on. Answer" he said, a side smile etching on his lips.
I was finally able to collect myself after a couple of failed attempts to stop laughing, falling on my side unto the bed and unsuccessfully held back snickers.
I cleared my throat. "Uh... are you sure this is a serious list? Cause I don't understand who'd have a problem with that? Wait, is it like a public toilet? If it is then yes, but if it isn't then no. What's next?"
He picked up his phone. "Uh... hold on, this one doesn't apply here. I'll just skip to the next one. So, the next one is short-sleeved shirts. Basically, men who wear short-sleeved shirts"
"Uh... is that really icky..." I burst out into laughter.
"What? Why are you laughing?" he asked with an amused smile.
"I just... pictured it in my head... especially if it's those plaid ones" I said in between laughter. "Ah, no. it's bad"
He chuckled.
"See. Even me myself, I wouldn't want to wear it sef" I said, straightening up. "Do you like them?"
"Nah" he replied
"Why? Is it because they said it's an ick" I teased
He chuckled. "No. I usually don't like them. I don't even own any"
"Naso. Next"
"I'm serious" he defended
"Okay, now. Next one?" I said with a smile
He shook his head at me and read out the next factor on the list. We went on for quite a while before running through the entire list or at least the much we could take.
"So guys, we've come to the end of this video. Don't forget to like, share and drop a comment. Also if you haven't subscribed already, what are you waiting for? Please do that right now and... we out" he got up, walked over to the camera and shut it off.
I exhaled deeply and did an upper body stretch before standing to my feet as well.
"Are you heading home right now?" he asked, turning off the ring light and taking the camera from its stand.
"Yeah, probably," I said, pulling on my jeans
"Kay" he nodded
I glanced at his dresser and I noticed a long old looking hard cover notebook. It had its edges worn out, torn or rolled up but what stood out to me was a photograph sticking out from the corners. I instinctively gravitated towards the book.
I flipped the first page open and it was filled to the last line with notes from a subject I didn't recognize. It was probably a school note. I had to admit he did have a neat and beautiful handwriting.
"Wait, didn't you study in the UK?" I said, not looking up from the book as I flipped through more pages
"Yeah?"
I looked up from the note. "This is definitely not a secondary school book and this doesn't look like a note that was-"
"Oh, I did a year at Unilag before transferring," he said, looking up from his phone
"Oh..." I nodded and resumed, flipping through the pages.
I wasn't really interested in the note, so I skipped the pages to the page before the part where the photograph was stashed in. I was curious to see how Yinka looked, if he had grown or still looked the same. Just as I was about to turn over the last page to the picture, the book slam shut with force, narrowly missing my fingers.
I gasped in surprise and looked up to see Yinka staring down at me. There was no signs of the cool and friendly Yinka instead a scary and menacing one had taken over.
"You said you would be leaving now right?" he said coldly. His hands still firmly pressed down on the shut book.
'You would be living now, right?' but it sounded more, you can leave now. You've overstayed your welcome.
Wait... Wasn't he the same person who was laughing with me a couple of minutes ago?
I opened my mouth to respond but for a second meaningful words failed to come out of my mouth. I cleared my throat and collected myself.
"Yeah... Uhm, I'm leaving now" I said and immediately speed walked over to bag, picked it up and dashed out of the room.
Once I was out of the room, I stopped for a moment and replayed the scene in my head. I cocked my head to the side as I tried to analyze the scene.
Either he really didn't want me seeing that picture or he was bipolar.
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