Yemi was returning to Abuja later in the afternoon so I had to return the room to its previous state before he came. I was also helping him pack up stuff he was taking along with him. Mrs. Coker had so many things she wanted him to give to his parents and other relations, living there. He was losing his mind on how to go about the packing, so I took over.
At the moment, he stepped out to get to grab a couple of things from the mall closest to us and I took the liberty to quickly clear up the room and take out the laundry. I hiked up the laundry bag containing the bedsheets and rounded up the corner, about to go down the stairs.
I looked down to watch my steps for a millisecond and when I looked back up. I found Yinka's friends approaching the stairs. Jamil at the forefront had on a sky blue dress shirt and navy blue striped suit pants with a matching jacket draped, across his arm. Mide and Prisca were dressed casually. Mide had his hands stuffed in his pockets and Prisca had a white nylon bag in one hand and a fancy grey purse in the other.
I gave them an awkward head nod as a form of greeting. For some reason, no matter how frequently I saw them, their presence was always unnerving for me.
"Neye, hi. Yinka's in, right?" Jamil pointed in Yinka's room direction as he made his way up the stairs.
I nodded. "Yes"
"Kay, thanks"
I stepped off to the side to make room for them to pass. All but Prisca passed by me. Mide turned around almost immediately once he noticed Prisca not falling in line behind him.
"Can you take this up for me? I'll be there in a second" she lifted up the white nylon bag with a sugary smile.
Mide eyed her cautiously, then spared me a quick glance before hesitantly taking the nylon bag from her.
"Thanks" she gave him a wide, tight-lipped smile till he disappeared from our vantage point.
As soon as he was no longer in sight, the smile disintegrated and she turned to me with a disapproving scowl on her face. She ran her eyes up and down my frame before settling on my face and tsk-ed. I shifted from one foot to the other, moving the laundry bag from my side to my front. I was clearly uncomfortable with the silent scrutiny.
"You must be very pleased with yourself" she finally said
Pleased? About what?
"You should be happy now that you've gotten what you want. I presume that you're filled with elation" she continued
I looked at her with furrowed brows. I was completely lost. Aunty all this English you're blowing is not going anywhere cause I don't get you.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said
She watched me for a second before scoffing in disbelief. "He didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?" I muttered, still lost
"So Yinka didn't tell you about the huge ruckus he caused because of you," she said, more like asking herself
Can she just stop beating about the bush and go straight to the point?
"What are you talking about?"
"Because of you—" she dragged the 'you' whilst sending me a condescending look. "Yinka had a huge physical fight with Ezer, in a public place for that matter"
"A fight?" I muttered underneath my breath.
That explains the bandaged hand. Wait, but he said he injured himself while working out in the gym and nothing about a fight. And not to talk of it, being my faul--.
"Do you not see what you're doing?" Prisca asked with her arms crossed in front her chest, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Do you not see that you're ruining his close friendships?"
How am I ruining his friendships?
As if she heard my thoughts, she continued. "First of all, you stop him from meeting up with his friends, keeping him all to yourself. And now, you're driving a wedge between friends who have been close for years"
"Okay, I'm not stopping Yinka from doing anything. He's an adult, not a child" I started out
"And he's also a man and they don't always think with their heads, especially when you're satisfying their needs" she spat out
Wait, what?
"Hold on. Are you trying to say that I'm sleeping with Yinka?" I asked with furrowed brows
She shrugged her shoulders. "You tell me, are you?"
"No!" I retorted. "Look, I don't know what's going on but please keep me out of it"
"How can I when you're the foundation of the whole thing?" she lifted her hands in the air and rested them on her waist. "My advice for you, even though you don't deserve it... Stay away from Yinka. I'm saying this for your own good. There's so much you don't know so, just keep away"
And with that she strutted up the stairs, leaving me standing drenched in my thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yinka's POV
My door was pushed open and I looked up from my laptop. Jamil walked in first and Mide followed shortly after. Jamil walked around my bed, over to my dressing table and neatly placed his jacket on the back of my chair. He pulled the chair out and took his place on it. Mide settled down at the foot of my bed.
"What's up?" Jamil started out, slapping his hands against his thighs
I shrugged my shoulders and returned to my laptop. I wasn't staring at the screen but wasn't really watching the movie playing.
"That from the fight?" Jamil pointed at my bandaged hand.
I lifted it up like I was seeing it for the first time. "Yeah"
He nodded and returned to silence, leaning back into the chair.
The silence didn't last long before he broke it. "Are you really not going to talk to Ezer?" he asked, leaning forward in the chair.
I looked between the two. "I hope you guys are not here with the hopes of making amends, cause that bridge has already been burnt"
"C'mon man. For real? Look, I know Ezer can be a real piece of work and most of the time, he has no control of what he says but you can't really be serious" he said
"I'm dead serious," I said, placing my laptop beside me. "There are somethings that after being said, can't be taken back and what he said the other day falls under that category"
"He didn't mean what he said," Jamil said
"You know, he did" I stated firmly.
Prisca walked in and shot me a wide grin. "Hey baby"
I cocked my eyebrows at her. "You're finally talking to me? Nice" I said sarcastically.
"Don't be like that" she said as she planted herself beside me.
She looked down and gasped at my bandaged hand then quickly picked it up. "Oh my God"
I pulled it back. "It's not as bad it looks"
She tilted her head and pouted as I retracted my hand like I'd hurt her.
Mide cleared his throat. "We were able to convince the café manager not to fine you for disrupting her place of business"
"Yeah, you owe me for that" Jamil piped in
"Thanks, man" I said
"We also made sure there was no video evidence of what went down there. It wouldn't be a good look on either of you" Mide added
I nodded. "Thanks, guys"
"Sure... and if it's any consolation I apologize on Ezer's behalf, what he said was completely out of line," Mide said
"It's not but thanks," I said
"C'mon. Are you really going to hold a grudge against him?" Prisca said, leaning her head against my shoulder. "Don't let her come between your friendships"
I pulled away and turned to her. "She's not coming between anything. Look, if you guys came here for some kind of intervention, you might as well leave now. It's not going to happen, not now. Not ever. I mean it"
She lifted her hands in mock surrender. "Fine. We won't push it. I just feel like you guys can move past this" she quickly added in a low tone.
"Well, we can't" I retorted
"We didn't come here to have an argument. We're here to hang out. If Mohammed can't go to the mountain, the mountain will go to Mohammed" Jamil said
I shot him a look.
"Too soon?" He smirked
I chuckled and shook my head. "Basterd"
We all laughed. Prisca crawled towards Mide's direction, stretched forward towards the ground and picked up a white bag.
"We brought snacks this time around" she lifted the bag and wiggled it in the air.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back to Neye's POV
I waited a few minutes after Yinka's friends left before making my way to his room. The sun had gone down about an hour ago and I was supposed to be at home by now but I just couldn't leave. At least, not without getting the full context of what Prisca was going on about.
I knew for sure that I wouldn't be able to think about anything else if I didn't get the full picture.
I would very much hate to be caught up in the middle of any drama. I just felt uneasy sweeping it under the rug like it was nothing. The fact that he had a physical fight with his friend because of me, just shows that it wasn't a matter to wave off like nothing.
I placed two light knocks on his door before slightly pushing it open. I popped my head in first before fully walking in. Yinka emerged from the bathroom, running a towel through his hair just as I closed the door behind me. He had on a white tank top and a pair of black, silky pyjama trousers.
"Hey," I said softly
"You're still around. Thought you would've left, like hours ago" he pointed out
"Yeah, I'm still around" I nervously chuckled and walked further into the room.
He brought the towel down and studied me for a couple of seconds then finally spoke up. "You have something you want to talk about?" he resumed the wiping his hair with the towel.
"Uhm, yeah" I walked over to the foot of his bed and settled down on it. "Prisca told me about the fight. You want to tell me what that was about?"
He sighed heavily and flung his towel, further down his bed. "It was nothing. She shouldn't have said anything to you"
"It was clearly not nothing. Look at your hand" I gestured to the bandaged hand. "You told me, you injured yourself while working out"
He looked up at the ceiling and groaned out before coming to take a seat next to me. "You want the whole truth, right?"
"I do" I whispered with a firm nod.
"Okay," he exhaled deeply. "Ezer said somethings about you that I didn't appreciate, I'm not going to say what it was. I got angry because he kept pushing my buttons and we broke into a fight. And my hand isn't as bad as it looks. I just wrapped it because I didn't want to strain it by overusing it, that's all"
I looked at him for a couple of minutes. I really didn't know how to feel about the whole thing. I ran a finger over the bandage on his hand and rested it on the bed, a couple of inches away from his. He probably bruised it.
"I don't want you fighting your friends because of me" I sighed weakly and looked down at my hands on the bed. "I don't want to be the reason for you losing friendships"
He placed a hand on my cheek and gently lifted my face so that I could look at him. "You're not"
"I just... I don't—"
"Trust me. He had it coming a long time ago. You just happened to be the breaking point. It's not your fault, okay?"
Prisca's warning flashed into my head and I wanted to speak on it but decided against it. "Okay" I nodded firmly.
"Good" he stated, mirroring my nod
I glanced down into my lap and plastered a tight-lipped smile on my face. He still has his palm on my cheek and slowly began to caress my face with his thumb. I glanced at his hand for a split second and back at him but his eyes remained transfixed on mine. Once I locked eyes with him, I couldn't exactly pull away.
What is happening right now?
We stayed just looking at each other as if bound by some kind of spell and then I watched his eyes flicker to my lips and then back to my face. He slowly leaned in, his eyes fell back to my lips and his palm gently but slowly moved down my cheek and onto my neck. He cupped the palm at the base of my neck and gently pulled me closer, all the while gauging my reaction.
He licked his lips and leaned further in again, his eyes switching between my face and my lips. It was just until he was a couple of inches away from my face that I turned to the side and pulled away.
NOPE.
I shot up from the bed and cleared my throat. "Uhm, I'm just going to... head out now. It's late" I said, gesturing at the door
He rubbed behind his neck, recovering quite quickly. "Yeah. Sure"
I speed-walked out of the room, throwing a 'bye' over my shoulder as I dashed out. I didn't stop until I was out of the main house and then I took in a deep breath.
Did we just almost... Wait, no. Was he going to...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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