Sam Lewis 🦋😌
~ five days later...
"That's a tablespoon, I said teasp —"my jaw unhinged when he tilted the contents on the ladle into the saucepan before I could end my sentence.
"I... haven't messed up right?" Jordan glanced back at my face with uncertainty, his eyes widening in alarm at my expression.
"I have."he mumbled.
I shook my head, the urge to facepalm very strong.
"You just added a tablespoon of salt to the custard! Who does that?"
This was gonna be harder than I thought. The boys clearly sucked at cooking and Jordan was no exception. By the gods, I should've just done it by myself!
You see, it was a cool Saturday afternoon and after doing the necessary laundry, my roommates suggested we treated ourselves to some sweet homemade snacks.
Some minutes of bickering here and there and then we finally agreed on sausage roll and custard ice cream.
Yeah, cravings.
Being the "kitchen expert" as Samuel will say, they made me the master chef over here and would follow my instructions of what and what not to do.
I did a little happy dance in my head at that suggestion and then we got to business.
Jordan and Chris sponsored with the buying of ingredients, I made Samuel clean the utensils to be used and me? Let's just say I supervised until Chris and J were back from the supermarket 😌.
I made the rolls as they stood around and admired, and occasionally I'd ask someone to get something out of my reach and the like.
Now let's get back to why I was watching both Jordan and the ladle in his hand with horror.
While I had been preparing the rolls for the oven, he insisted to start with our custard ice cream.
I was like,why not,so I made him mix the powder with water and pour it into a saucepan so we could thicken it over heat.
That's not something complicated right ?
I thought as much.
Five minutes of taking my attention off him to check the baking rolls, Jordan hollered that the mixture had deepened in color and was getting thick. I shot a thumb up and said over my shoulder to add just a lil' salt. Teaspoon precisely.
The next second I turned and guy had spooned a ladle of salt into the fucking custard to be used for ice cream.
"How's the custard going, man,"Samuel came back from the washroom, oblivious to what had just happened,"can I taste already? Hey won't it be actually nice if we added a pint cinnamon powder?—"
"Not you too,"I groaned, not even knowing what could be done to the now salty custard.
"What happened?" Chris said, drying his hand after he returned from dumping the garbage we made.
"He put a fucking tablespoonful of salt into it."I sighed, smacking my forehead.
"Eek." Chris chuckled. "That just reminded me of Mel."
I did a double-take at him.
"She adds tablespoon of salt to ice cream?"I deadpanned.
"Argh, I don't mean that. She's kinda obsessed with soy and adds it to everything she cooks."he smiled evocatively. "She added soy milk to my fried rice one time."
"Pretty nice obsession isn't it."
We chuckled, holding gazes. Chris looked away, shaking his head,"man,Jordy was damn right."
"Sorry?"
"Nevermind, nevermind."he gave me another pearly white smile before I felt Jordan's presence behind us.
"We're still trying to fix snacks over here." Jordan glowered at Chris. "Not making mindless convo."
Chris raised his hands in mocking surrender, grinning knowingly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll pretend I don't smell jealousy."
Jordan secretly shot his middle finger at him before turning to me.
"What about we start all over again,boy?"
Chris snorted, covering it up with a cough to which Jordan ignored.
"Okay."I nodded,"but I'm in charge of it this time round. You do as I say."
"Got it."he bowed, making the after you gesture.
"Okay so can y'all stop pretending I'm not here at all??" Samuel hit the counter with his fist then started wincing.
~~~~~~
"Man, I can't wait to taste."
Chris rubbed his palms together, eyeing the sausage rolls I had set nicely on our small dining table.
"Me neither,"Samuel drooled, patting my back,"your so good at this, Sam. Your woman will be a very lucky one."
She certainly will.
I grinned loosely, turning away from him.
"Jordan? Are the ice creams ready now?"
"Yeah!"he shouted from where he stood beside the freezer, pulling out the cans of frozen yum yum custard ice cream.
My mouth had started watering already with my taste buds tingling.
"Whoops, I came in at the right time."
We all swiveled our heads at the door, another version of Jordan with hazel eyes, grinning from ear to ear at something on our table.
I traced it to our homemade snacks.
"Ugh, did you have to come. Another mouth to feed,"Samuel said exasperatedly.
I smacked his head, throwing him an unappreciative look. "Don't be greedy, there's literally more than enough for everyone."
"Sweet foods like this can never be enough."he whispered back.
"Whatever. Come Jude,we were just about to have snack time."I gesticulated.
We sat around the table, sharing the rolls and the ice cream amongst ourselves.
It warmed my heart to see that they enjoyed it and the compliments just kept on coming.
My head had metaphorically grew twice the size of an inflated balloon from all their gushes.
We chatted heartily, from food to sports, to entertainment and finally, women. Samuel was just telling us about a girl he had met on social media and how their relationship was growing. He was planning on meeting her during vacation.
I hadn't expected the question to be thrown at me soon which made me swallow down at the wrong pipe when they asked me about my relationship status.
"Oh,"I said, recovering from the cough,"I... I am not in a relationship at the moment."
"Why??" Samuel piped. "I bet you got women chasing you with that nice face of yours."
I was growing uncomfortable with the four pairs of probing eyes on me.
"Um... not really. I er... like to be single. It's peaceful."
They seemed to pause in their thoughts, before nodding slowly.
"Couldn't argue with that though,"Jude said.
"I beg to differ,"Chris rolled his eyes,"if you're with the right person, it's fulfilling."
"You're definitely whipped so that's what you'll say." Jude commented slyly.
"Nah,nah,nah bro." Jordan waved a finger at Jude.
"That's not the point. Let's be real, being single is boring as fuck. Stop pretending like you hate relationships,we all know the girl you're head over heels with doesn't like you back and it's paining you."
The guys laughed hilariously and I couldn't bite back my own.
Jude gave a rough shove at Jordan making him fall off the arm of the chair but he was too much into his laughing fit to care.
We talked and tease some more and I was enjoying every single second around them.
Even through the jokes, they managed to press in some one or two advices. When I looked at them, all four, what I saw were genuine friends. It might be weird to feel that people who showed up in your life just recently are like the best people you've ever come across.
But I knew without a doubt that they had become my realest gees.
Like Ivy.
Speaking of, after that near incident with Connor, she called the next day with another number saying she had lost the other one. She was apologizing nonstop though I told her was okay. It made me feel bad enough not to tell her about what almost happened to me and my fate with respect to Connor.
From the way she sounded stressed, I didn't want to be an extra burden, so I postponed telling her.
I'd tell her later when she's less busy with school work. Maybe during vacations ?
"I'll be back guys, the class rep wants to see me." Jordan announced, looking at his screen with furrowed brows. "I don't recognize this number."
"Your class rep?"
He nodded.
"Hasn't he got your number? He could just call you and say whatever, save you the walk." Jude sucked his teeth.
"I don't know, maybe he wants us to meet and talk about our presentation. I'll be back, guys."
"Alright." Chris and Samuel said in unison as Jude shrugged his brows at him.
"Don't be long J."the sincerity in my voice didn't even surprise me.
Jordan paused in his tracks, turning to look at me.
"I won't be."he winked, sending me a happy smile that had my cheeks reddening.
"Am I seeing right or is Sam actually blushing??" Samuel said after Jordan had left.
Jude and Chris turned their gazes at me.
"Awww he's blushingggg."they chorused with teasing smiles.
"I'm not blushing!"I defended miserably. "It's just – my um... my face! It gets warm for no reason!"
"I believe." Jude sobered up, ruffling my hair as he stood up. "Gonna catch forty winks on Jordan's bed."
Sam yawned widely.
"Yeah me too. I'm getting some kind of food coma."
Chris and I rolled our eyes as if we had planned to do so at once.
I decided to go through my notes for a while since I wasn't exactly sleepy and Chris opted to watch a movie on his laptop. Said he wasn't very fond of afternoon naps.
Gradually, the room became a peaceful type of silence as everyone got lost into their worlds.
♠♠
The young evening sky looked beautiful with a tinge of orange and purple, grazing the sky where the sun was setting. It looked surreal.
The flying birds appearing as a sort of flapping v's as they flew in sync, higher and higher.
I wiped the remnants of sleep from my eyes, slouching down the terrace . I had dozed off for the past ten minutes, waking up to find a completely empty room except Samuel who was still not up from his nap. When I stepped out of the room, I noticed our floor was unusually quiet.
It was really queer if you'd ask me.
I took my time at the numerous stairs,vacating the block and stopped, catching my breath.
"Where's everybody?"I mumbled, staring at the empty compound of Gentility House.
I heard ragged breaths behind me, making me turn instinctively.
It was that fat Jamaican guy I met at the washroom some days ago.
"Oh hey."I activated my disguise voice, sending him a small wave.
He tried to calm his heavy panting, waving back shyly.
"Yo."
I stared awkwardly as he tried buttoning the shirt which was way too small for him. He gave up, deciding to leave them open when they didn't cooperate.
Yikes.
The material looked seconds away from tearing apart at the front area.
"So... whatcha doin' over here rynow?"
"I... I... where's everybody gone to? This place looks quite deserted."I tripped over words.
"You've not heard yeah?"
He walked ahead of me, trying to close his buttons again.
"Heard what?"
He kept quiet, muttering some things under his breath as he struggled with his shirt.
I looked down at the oversized jacket I had over my long sleeved shirt.
"Here."I said, shrugging it off for him. "Guess you could manage with this..."
Jamaican guy gave me a look of disbelief.
"Yo offer ya jacket for me? Ya cool with other men wearing ya stuffs?"
"Yeah, yeah."I waved it off. "It's fine."I slipped it around him. "See if it fits."
He looked at me utterly surprised but didn't say anything and went on to try on it.
It was okay,a bit snug but luckily he could zip it up with ease.
"All done."I said, pushing my lips up in a small smile.
He smiled, nodding appreciatively.
"Yah. Thank yo, boy. The name is Greg."
"Cool. I'm Lewis."I said, caught off guard when he grabbed my hand in a handshake. I gave him a firm shake before letting go.
"So you were saying..."
"Aha!"his expression turned worriedly serious. "Some commotion goin' on at the front of them administration block. They say something bad has happened. Ya know that notorious lad in first year right?"
I scrunch my brows before it kicked in slowly.
"Connor ?"
"Yup, that is what he's called. He disappeared from campus since last week and I heard he's back. Unfortunately back with his troubles again. I hear he's stabbed some guy at the the side. It happened just this evening."
I felt myself grow cold,a bad feeling gnawing at my stomach.
"Stabbed?"
"Uh-huh. The guy was found under one of the palm trees on campus, completely unconscious and bleeding profusely. They say someone caught Connor doing the act and went to report to the authorities."
I doubled after him as we rounded the corner to the campus.
That's when I saw the mass of students gathered around a tree, some of the authorities were there and the health personnels were also advancing towards with a stretcher and some other items.
There was a sort of commotion over there.
"They're gonna take the guy to the hospital. Else I'm afraid he won't make it. He be lying here unconscious for hours." Greg said as we got close to the crowd.
"They must have Connor in the police van by now?"I gritted, feeling dizzy with all the dreadful information.
"Ha! That lad very cunning. They can't find him."
I pushed through the crowd,eager to see for myself and when I got to the front, my breath ceased.
Lying half dead with blood painting his side and seeping around him was my own... Jordan Walterz.
________________________
Next update, Tuesday.
~Ford.