Him

#14 - Him And The Trekking Crew

You know how in movies, there's always two guys chasing after the lead girl. And how almost every single time, she picks the lead guy and the second lead syndrome absolutely kills us.

Yeah, well, let's focus on the part where the two leads totally hate each other and shoot glares like hockey pucks.

In my situation, Daniel could care less. He didn't spare Joseph a glance for the whole one hour of Mr Siyanbola's class. Joseph, on the other hand, would roll his eyes and glare and at one point, he bumped into his chair.

Had Joseph always been this childish? Had he always been this openly jealous?

When the lesson ended, Mercy locked arms with me as we headed out of the school. "Omo, I didn't know chemistry could be understandable." She gushed.

I giggled lightly and tightened our locked arms. "That's why I attend Mr Siyanbola's lessons. He just knows how to teach."

I really did like Mr Siyanbola, he was nice and fun and his classes were worth the one hour and sometimes added 16 minutes. He was the real reason my chemistry scores had begun to rise.

"Kolupo!"

When I whirled around this time, I was happy to see Joseph. He had on a soft smile, his black bag dangling from one shoulder, his opposite hand sunk into his trouser pockets. All this perfection was mine.

"Hey." Was all I could mutter, my eyes glued to my sock and sandals clad feet. "I have something to ask you." Then he beamed down at me with the most gorgeous smile ever. I'd be lying if I said I was whipped.

Before I could respond, Mercy cut into my sweet moment. "What do you want to ask her?" Rather than in her usual rude and bold tone, she just sounded plain curious.

"It's kind of personal sha. Do you mind letting me borrow her?" I gave Mercy a little 'leave-already' look and with a small chuckle, she let go of my arm and hurried off to meet up with Emeka and Ebuka who were far in front of us.

I kept my eyes on her, until she shoved them sideways, placing herself in the centre and linking arms with them. Beside me, Joseph began to walk and so I hurried to walk beside him.

"Will you be my Val?"

Dead.

For that split second after, my heart stopped working and I could be registered as dead.

But this was Ushie Joseph, my crush since I was capable of having a crush. Even though we were dating and all, it still sent butterflies whenever he did some certain surreal things and this was one of those moments.

"Okay." I tried my best to sound as nonchalant as possible. Cool guys like Joseph didn't like weird replies. I was dating a cool guy, the coolest guy, I needed to shed off the 'nerdy Kolupo' skin and become 'Cool'.

Joseph slung his hang over my shoulder and pulled me into his side as we walked out of the school gate.

I made sure to avoid making eye contact with any of my old friends, Maureen especially, while searching the vicinity for Mercy. We now went home together since I stopped following the bus.

When we arrived at the bus stop, Joseph's attention was caught by his friends or minions whichever one you wanted to refer to them as, and I was left in the dust.

Doing her part just right, Mercy swept in to save me. When she arrived at my side, I noticed something. She seemed to be lost in thought. Mercy fumbled with a loose thread on her school bag, absentmindedly munching on her lower lip.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me nau."