Brown Skinned Bet

Chapter XLV

•Kainene•

           In the long run,it became a habit. Taking hold of my phone and praying deep down that I would see Jade active online again. Since the day of her seizure, she'd barely been able to get out of her hospital bed. The few times we'd been allowed to visit her, she looked paler each time much more than the last.

           My heart swole with empathy each time I held her hands which shook with tremors or felt the temperature of her fever. Her lips paled,whitened and cracked. Her hair kept growing extremely light and leaving locks over her pillow each time she stirred. Her entire body had begun to thin,so much that I could see her bones through the oversized hospital wear she'd been made to dress in. It was a terrifying sight.

          Although she tried to hold out,to smile each time we visited,I could understand her pain. How she squirmed under the concern of Yomi's gaze,how forced her smile was at Daryl and Temi's constant gifts,how her shoulders would slump each time she noticed her three girlfriends looking over her like they wished to be in her place. She appreciated our visits for a fact,but she'd begun to feel like a burden.

          Perhaps that was why she did what she did. It hadn't been made official but my girlfriends and I were gathering up on the fact that Jade might have requested for a break up. It had happened on our last visit. As usual,Yomi always got there before the rest of us.

         Onome and I had just been about to turn the door knob when we heard Yomi's voice resonate through the door.

         "Why? If you can give me a good reason why we should do it Jade,then I'll agree" Was the last thing we'd caught just before Onome hastily turned the door knob to bring the conversation to a close. Yomi seemed to have convinced her otherwise because they seemed to be okay in the later hours and days. But I knew Jade and the issue was something she had started solidifying her mind over. If not now,it would be later.

          The weeks passed by rather hastily and before we knew what was happening,our WAEC break was coming to an end and we were back in school for our last and final exams,NECO (Nigerian Examination Certificate Organisation) exams.

         Just a step into school and it was clear that my classmates had come ready to rebel. The zebrawear of some girls had been trimmed so lowly that I wondered if was the same length with their underwear.

         Almost more than half of the girls had their hair braided with novel colours of artificial hair extensions,others who hadn't done this had fixed the extensions directly to their cornrows. Here I was,thinking that my aurburn artificial braids which were merely bum-length was too much.

          For the boys,they'd seemed to have forgotten their zebra dress shirts someplace as they were all clad in different colours of both plain and designed dress shirts which were very far from any of our school uniform. Most had been short-sleeved,I guessed they'd grown sick of the long sleeves they'd anticipated wearing all through junior school and three years of senior school was all it took.

          Even if she had resumed a few days later,on the day we were to take our first paper of the exams,we'd been more than thrilled to spot Jade walking through the door of our class.

         Onome,Oghale and I had squealed like crazy,our hands coming over our lips and earning a chuckle from her. Yomi had been swifter,rushing to take her into his arms in a bear hug. "Dang it" He'd whispered. It had the whole class swarming with awwns and uuhs. He'd hugged her so tightly that even I could see that the girl had become oxygen deprived,despite running her own hands over his back to soothe him.