PANTY RAID

77| Disgruntled much?

The next morning, Eniola woke up to the sound of Fareedah's call to prayer alarm. She rolled over to grab her phone off the charger and squinted as she checked what time it was. It was 6:30 am, an hour and a half before her first class, and plenty of time to get ready for the day.

She kicked off the covers and lazily pushed herself out of bed, rubbing the last remnant of sleep from her eyes. As she made her way across the room, taking extra care not to step in front of Fareedah as she observed her morning prayer, she noticed Lara was still asleep, snoring faintly on her pillow. Onome was stretched out on her bed, wrapped snugly in a blanket with only her head peeking out. She didn't return to the hostel until one or two last night and had been pretty wasted, no doubt she was going to wake up with one hell of a hangover.

Eniola wasn't surprised about her recent late-night parties since she'd started rolling with some of the biggest babes on campus. She didn't like her new friends, but she couldn't do anything to stop her from hanging out with them, besides she wanted to refrain from giving her unsolicited advice even if there was no bad blood between them again — at least from her end.

She grabbed her shower bag from her suitcase and made a beeline for the bathroom before it got crowded with early momo risers. Thankful that the bathroom was empty, she jumped into her favorite stall at the far end of the room and pulled the shower curtain.

She hung her towel and made quick work of washing and then conditioning her hair. Closing her eyes, she turned her face upward into the spray, which was miraculously working today, and raked her fingers through her thick hair, relishing the soothing feeling of water trickling down her body.

As she gave her scalp a good scrub, she heard two girls talking about the new food truck and its handsome owner. "Babes, have you seen the new guy?" one of the girls asked.

She heard the sound of someone spitting into the sink. "I only got a glimpse last night," the other one replied, "but I could tell how hot he was from the little I saw. With a jawline like that, I bet he has tons of girls drooling over him."

No shit, she thought and almost said the word out loud.  "He's so damn hot, I swear I won't mind hitting it just once," she said, with a dreamy sigh.

Rolling her eyes at their idle conversation, she quickly scrubbed her body and stood under the spray until the last bit of soap was rinsed from both her hair and body. She grabbed her towel from the hanger and wrapped it around herself, strands of wet hair clinging to her shoulders as she gathered her things. Drawing the shower curtain open, she eyed the girls with something akin to contempt as they went on about how they said and she quote "delicious" he'd look with his clothes off.

Not to lie, he looked more delicious with his clothes off.

Stop it! she reprimanded herself sternly. She shouldn't be thinking of another guy when she already had a boyfriend who, by the way, she was madly in love with. No matter the history, Kam was past tense and must remain that way.

She was just going to act like he wasn't there, right in front of her hostel, just like she'd done last night when she ran off.  She knew she would bump into him now and then, almost every day, but she was going to avoid their inevitable talk for a little while longer.

When she reached the room, Fareedah was done with her prayers and was getting ready to leave for class when it was just a few minutes past seven. Eniola had never been a morning person and hated 8 am classes like the one she was getting ready for.

"Good morning, Eni. How was your night?" Fareedah said, forcing a smile. Eniola couldn't help noticing the dark bags under her eyes and how exhausted she looked. A stab of guilt wrenched her in the gut as she watched her move around the room packing her outrageous science textbooks.