The Things We Do

FORTY ONE

A victim to a crime could later turn out to be a criminal in the same crime.

Sometimes, we do to others the same horrible things that've been done to us.

Does it make us bad people?

Does wanting other people to feel the pain you're feeling make you a bad person?

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"What flavor do you think I should get?" Adam asked, looking up the ice cream menu and the different flavors on it.

When he didn't get a response, he turned to see Zehan, distracted.

"What're you looking at?" Adam asked, looking over Zehan's shoulder to the Castron girls he had been looking at. Adam saw the group  together a lot.

Zehan turned back to him. "Nothing, nothing. What were you saying?"

"I was wondering what ice cream to get."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to—"

Adam already knew what Zehan was going to say. It wasn't a good idea to have ice cream before the lawn tennis game and blah blah blah. So he didn't wait for his friend to finish. He got the attention of one of the staff behind the counter and got his ice cream. Chocolate chip.

"Have you seen Kasy?" Adam asked Zehan as they made their way out of the eatery. "I haven't spoken to her since we came here."

Zehan simply shrugged, taking a bite from his meat pie. Adam wished that he would at least pretend to be sympathetic, what that Castron High guy had done to her was unjustifiable.

"That guy is a coward, though. He should have used his own account to leak the nudes, why did he have to create an anonymous one to do it?" Adam rambled as they continued walking to an unknown destination.

"I heard they already took it down," Zehan stated.

"Yeah, but it's not like everyone doesn't already have copies of the pictures on their phone. And you know how insensitive our classmates are—"

"Do you want to practice a little before the game starts?" Zehan interrupted, looking very uninterested in what Adam had been talking about.

Adam didn't need anyone telling him that his friend just didn't care about what had happened. He didn't want to believe Zehan was still holding grudges against Kasy and Dele.

"Yes but I want to call my mum first,"

"Is she feeling better?" Zehan looked more concerned about Adam's mum than he was about someone who used to be his friend.

"I'll find out when I call her," Adam replied, handing Zehan his unfinished ice cream before walking towards the opposite direction in search of privacy.

• • •

Sola had been declining her uncle's calls all day. The more he called, the more she became afraid of what would happen when she got home. But she tried not to think too much of it in the meantime.

Ahmed was trying to get her attention but she kept zoning out on him.

He snapped fingers in her face. "Madam, you hear wetin I dey talk?" He asked before looking at the phone in her hand. "Who dey call you sef?"

"Na MTN dey disturb my life," she lied.

They were standing on the only balcony on the Newland boys' floor. Ahmed had been telling Sola about his plan to sabotage Castron High since it seemed there was no way Newland was going to win fair and square–but neither of them would admit that.