Serendipity [BoyxBoy]

Chapter Seven

Ehi was four and a half years old. If you asked her how old she was, she could show you with her fingers (although she hadn't quite figured out how to do the half part yet).

She could already spell some really big words and she had learnt to count past fifty. She didn't falter when she read the funnies section of the newspaper, even though they weren't really funny, and, sometimes, she even read the old people news. Egho called her smart and some other word that started with the letter 'P' she couldn't pronounce yet. Porridgey?

Ehi was four and a half and she went to bed after eating dinner and watching Teen Titans Go at exactly seven pm.

She did not know how that night began because she was fast asleep.

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Nosa pressed down his well combed hair as he hummed a bit of the 'There's a Zombie On Your Lawn' song from the original PVZ game and tied the knot of his sweatpants. He took in a deep breaths, trying to get his heart to slow down but it only seemed to speed up.

There was no logical reason for him to be nervous. He was going to Irekan's house and they were going to watch anime and the possibility of him vomiting undigested jollof on Irekan's shoe was little to none. There was no pressure on him to do this. He didn't even have to go. He didn't make any promises and it's not like he and Irekan were friends. Nothing would happen if he stayed in bed all day and did nothing. He wasn't obligated to go spend time with somebody he couldn't even stand.

So why did he wake up at 6am to finish the rest of his chores? Why was he getting all dressed up in his most comfortable T-shirt and favourite shorts? Why were his hands shaking? Why couldn't he quell the anxiety roiling in his stomach?

"I should not be doing this," he said to the mirror. His reflection stared right back at him; the panicky eyed, one strand of hair on his chin and pimpled forehead image of himself reminding him of exactly why going to Irekan's house was a bad idea. "I SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS!"

"OGA, SIR, SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Someone from the next compound shouted.

"I'm sorry," Nosa called out his apology. "No vex!"

"Shut up!"

Nosa picked up his comb and began working it through his coarse hair for what had to be the tenth time this morning. This was a bad idea. He and Irekan were as incompatible as mangoes and groundnuts. Irekan was everything he wasn't; social where Nosa was introverted. Athletic where Nosa loathed sports. Handsome where Nosa was plain. Irekan was the sun stuffed into the body of a teenage boy. Nosa was a lone asteroid floating in the dark, endless vastness of space.

Circle pegs and square holes. Day and night. Bread and water.

They didn't fit.

And Nosa knew that befriending an extrovert was always bad news.

Still, he tugged at the hem of his black T-shirt, retied the drawstrings of his grey shorts and plucked out his sorry excuse of a beard with a wince. His traitorous legs carried him out of his room, his mouth announced "Mummy, I'm going out," and, despite the fact that his brain was screaming at him to turn around, he kept strolling down his street towards the field.

It was almost 8am on a Saturday morning and his street was lively in a way he'd never seen it.

He only ever came outside early in the morning on his way to school and in the afternoon after school when the road was usually occupied by other students. Friday evenings brought him to a quiet street of few people ready to retire for the weekend. Saturday morning outside was a scene he'd never seen before.