CONFLICTED

Chapter 44| Slytherin

Chapter 44: Slytherin

Tracy

It was nightfall and I was on a video call with Chioma in my room after washing almost all the peanut paste from my locs. I use almost because every once a while, I caught a small lump of oily butter lurking somewhere in the tangled forest attached to my head.

Chioma cackled again at what I told her until she started coughing.

"What's so funny about what I just said that you have to laugh so hard?"

"What's not funny, Tee? How long has this been going on that I had to be the last to know?"

I rolled my eyes at her on my face time as she tried taking off her makeup with a baby wipe before bed.

"You're the first, don't worry."

"Wow. You mean to tell me you both pulled these outrageous pranks on each other the first two days of this almighty tutorial?" she puckered her lips in a pout. "I'm missing out."

"Again, this is not a laughing matter. Can we just talk about something else? How was your day?"

"It's just like every other day, honey." she sighed it out, "I don't even want to think about it. Although, I've given my new old life a thought and I think I'm going to have a change of career choice."

My heart sank to my stomach. "Is that what you really want?"

"Girl, when life throws me lemons, I don't have a choice but to make lemonade. There's no way I can solely sponsor myself to study law. Rethinking my choice is the only way out for me."

"So... What have you decided?"

"Theatre art."

"You want to go into acting?"

"Ugh. That look on your face is not helping matters, Tee." she said and I shook my head as if to shake away any discouraging look I had on.

"Don't mind me. I just want to be sure you really want to go down on that path."

"Yeah." she responded without hesitation, "You know my kind of person. Everyone knows I'm this talkative, fun, lively, persuasive girl which is the reason I figured Law was for me. It's pretty obvious my plan B will be acting. I was not in the drama club back in school for nothing. I'm sure I'll make it in the industry. And oh, meeting cute guys on set is going to be a plus."

*cough* Flirt!

"Seems we're both diving into the entertainment industry." I remarked and she nodded with a sad smile.

"Yeah."

Our silence was filled with uncertainty, hope and fear for both our future. In a way, Christopher was right. We were indeed gambling with our future on this one. White collar jobs were the guarantee to a stable income but we've chosen to pursue the pure crafts of art that required connection at the least, to get to the top.

Teen age was gruesome. Choosing a safe path over passion or uncertain desires over life long unhappiness... The options were too weighty for our weeny age and little experience.

"What are you going to do tomorrow?" Chioma spoke again, pulling me out of my reverie.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah, y'know. The whole getting back at Christopher thing."

I rolled my eyes at the mention of the little devil and replied, "You'll get the update, don't worry."

"Oh my God," Chioma laughed, "your life is becoming much more interesting than mine and that's saying something. Anyway, remember to always keep me posted, okay?"