Yaa Dufie really took her time to answer the call. She first went to the kitchen and threw the polythene in the bin. Then she filled a glass with water from the kitchen tap and took her precious time drinking it. The vibration stopped, and started again after a few seconds. She carefully washed the glass and put it back in its cabinet, then walked outside and leaned on the wall, the partition between the kitchen and their living space. The vibration stopped again, and rang one more time before she answered it.
Olivia sat on the mat for a while, weighing her options: getting back into bed and continuing with her moping or finding something better to do with her life, specifically getting back to her books so she could keep her grades up and pacify her father.
Moping seemed very tempting but so was the approval of her father. Gathering energy, she picked herself up, and after that the drinks and the mat. She put the mat at its rightful place behind Steph's locker and the drinks in the fridge. Then she went to her locker, took out her toiletries and entered the bathroom.
She tried the tap in the cubicle and flinched when the water touched her skin. "Too cold." She yelped and closed it quickly. She was just going to have to boil some water to bath.
After taking a huge saucepan from a drawer in her locker and the matchbox that they all used, from the top of the fridge, she opened the door and walked out.
"I know you had to be there for your son's birthday but you should have thought of that before making plans to go to the soiree with me; I had to go with my roommate ... Yes, I had fun but the fact is that you and I were supposed to go together ... You would have to make it up to me ... just make sure that, that day doesn't turn out to be your wife's birthday or something of the sort, else I will never forgive you ... I'll tell you I love you when you make it up to me, big time. Bye." Yaa Dufie hanged up and turned off her screen. She sighed, turning to go back into the room when she came face-to-face with Olivia.
The two merely stared at each other, both off their facial expressions neutral, hiding their true emotions and what they were thinking.
Her relationships were not public knowledge; most of her people and friends didn't know. The type of men she dated wasn't something she ever bragged about but she also never hid or felt bad about it either. It wasn't a bother to her if her roommates or friends found out about her escapades, their opinions on the issue did not really matter to her.
But standing in the presence of Olivia, she felt strange. It felt a bit like remorse, like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar; it was akin to guilt. She knew that Olivia had heard enough to draw a conclusion but for some odd reason - that she did not know, she wanted to give an explanation, a reason for what she did, so Olivia wouldn't hate her.
Yaa Dufie opened her mouth to speak but Olivia beat her to it. "I've cleared the floor and put the drinks in the fridge, just in case you still want yours. The water in the bathroom is a bit cold and since I didn't bring my heater, I'll be using this saucepan to boil some water. If the temperature is okay for you, you can go take your bath right now; I'll be in the kitchen waiting for mine to boil." Then she gave a perfunctory smile and left for the kitchen.
Yaa Dufie stood still, confused for a second. Had she heard or not? She glanced at the entrance of the kitchen. She must've heard; the way she hurriedly spoke and then fled, was a bit unexpected. She was probably thinking of her as an unsympathetic husband thief at the moment, or worse pitying her.
Yaa Dufie bit her lower lip and then exhaled some air to relax. Even if she was a husband thief, at least she had some sympathy - she wasn't completely against her beau spending time with his son on his birthday, she just wished he had informed her before time so they could have rescheduled or something; he had an obligation to her as well.
She pushed Olivia's possible accusation out of her thoughts and went back into the room, heading for the bathroom. She might as well take her bath and look fresh.
An hour of awkward silence later, both of them having showered and dressed, Olivia sat at the desk by her bed, learning, while Yaa Dufie strapped on her black suede flat lace-up sandals, getting ready to go out. Done, she stood up and picked up her 'un voyage' transparent jelly bag.
"I'm leaving, I'll be back later this evening, probably around 9." Olivia nodded, without so much as a glance in her direction. Yaa Dufie accepted her fate and departed.
Less than 15 minutes later, the door opened and an exhausted Steph bustled inside.
"Welcome back." Olivia greeted getting up from her seat and walking to the fridge for a bottle of chilled water.
Steph gave her a surprised look and dumped her purse on her bed. "You must be in a good mood."
Olivia denied her theory. "I'm not. Don't get ahead of yourself."
Steph shrugged, wriggling out of her dress and into a white T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Then she took out two pegs from her peg basket which was on top of her locker and went out to hang her church dress on the drying lines, in the hot sun.
Back inside, Steph took out three packets of indomie - the onion chicken flavour, some utensils, a napkin and the matchbox on the fridge. Before leaving for the kitchen, she asked Olivia, "Would you like to eat indomie? I'm making some."
"Nah." She definitely wasn't up for Steph's plainly cooked indomie, which had a high possibility of being bloated and too soft, even for babies to chew. "I'm good."
"Okay." Steph nodded and went to prepare the only food she knew exactly how to cook.
A few hours later, after Steph was done eating her food which thankfully, was edible enough and Olivia was still sitting at her desk learning, Jackie strode into the room and headed straight for her bed, throwing herself onto it and kicking off her shoes.
"You look tired." Steph observed, rotating on her bed to face Jackie.
"I am."
"I thought you were out with your friends."
"I was." Jackie breathed.
"And you're this tired? Why, what kind of games were you guys playing?"
Jackie glanced sideways at Steph, one of her eyebrows raised in scepticism. "And why all these questions? I wasn't aware that my exploits were of much interest to you."
"I was only asking, that's all."
"Then I think you should stop asking." Jackie rolled her eyes and closed them, her breathing slowing down, till she dozed off. Steph finally shut her mouth and followed suit, shutting her eyes too, while Olivia munched away on some Hup Seng Cream Crackers and continued to bury her head in her books.
Once the pile of biscuits wrappers on her desk had grown significantly, and she was also tired of looking at images of the heart, bony structures and tissues of the chest cavity in her textbooks, she gathered all the wrappers into a large ball and headed to the kitchen.
Outside, she heard a voice from the kitchen and entered to find Yaa Dufie hunched over the kitchen counter, deep in a conversation over her phone, her back to Olivia. "You're going to have to do more than that if you want make it up me. A few designer bags and shoes just won't cut it..." Olivia, in spite of herself, stretched her head a bit to spy Yaa Dufie toying with a couple of shopping bags in front of her on the counter. "I'll think about it ... Don't pressure me, I'll call you when I want to. Bye."
Olivia took it as her cue and went in, dropping the wrappers in the bin and making a quick U-turn to their room.
"Olivia," Yaa Dufie called out to her as she reached the door, her voice gentle. "did you hear anything?"
Olivia stopped at the door. "No."
"You're sure about that?"
"No." Olivia said, contradicting herself.
Yaa Dufie, without any warning, went into a full blown explanation. "Look, about what you heard earlier during the day, and then now, I -"
"You don't have to explain anything to me, Yaa Dufie." Olivia turned around to face her, straight-faced. "I'm not judging you, it's not in my place to. Whatever choices you make, it's your life and I have no right to judge you by those. Like you said earlier today, we all have our issues, and we all have our ways of dealing with them."
"So you're not mad?"
"Of course not. Why should I be? It's not like you're dating my father." She gave a small smile, surprisingly, which disappeared immediately. "You're not dating my father, are you?"
"No way!" Yaa Dufie quickly answered, wagging her index finger to enunciate her words.
"Then, okay. We're good."
"So if I understand you correctly, you're not against me dating dating any man I want, as long it's not your father?" Yaa Dufie said, eyeing her sceptically.
"Exactly."
"Understood." Yaa Dufie agreed playfully, giving her the OK gesture - her thumb and index finger in a circle, the other fingers straight. And they chuckled at each other. "Thank you, for understanding." Yaa Dufie whispered before Olivia gave a nod and went back to their room, Yaa Dufie going in after her with her bags.
Olivia sat cross-legged on her bed and watched as Steph and Jackie gushed over the few designer bags and shoes Yaa Dufie had brought in. She thought about Yaa Dufie going out with a married man who had a son and maybe even more kids, then thought about Yaa Dufie who was actually very caring and thoughtful and she just couldn't imagine that they were the same person. Plus she really wanted to dislike her, however she found herself understanding her roommate more and more.
It had only been a few days, hours even, but then she felt comfortable around her and was even considering her a friend. "Friend," Olivia pronounced, allowing the word to roll off her tongue. She actually liked the sound of it. And her father was going to flip if he found out. She smiled at the thought, if he found out. He was too busy to care about how she lived anyway, as long as she gave him the grades he needed.
She didn't want to end up like her father, lonely, even though he was married. She needed people in her life who actually cared about her, apart from her mother. Maybe she had found the very first person, who knows?
"Why are you smiling like you've got some great news?" Yaa Dufie said, bringing Olivia out of her reverie.
"It's nothing," she answered, "something just popped into my head, that's all."
"Care to share?" Steph inquired, her inquisitiveness so evident.
"Actually," Olivia began, her face thoughtful as she was bending forward, Steph also doing the same. "no." she finally said, blankly.
"Really, was that necessary?" Steph declared, mildly offended that she had been misled.
Jackie and Yaa Dufie just laughed at her, and Olivia joined in. And after a little tickling by Yaa Dufie, Steph began to laugh too. They stopped for a second and stared at one another, then they burst into another bout of laughter. It wasn't just about Steph anymore, they all were simply happy. And Olivia could sense it, that for first time in a long while, she was truly happy.
A/N: ROOMMATES are the best, don't you think? Comment a ❤️ if you love your roommates ... See you soon. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐