Penfield's Greatest Swimmer

🌊~41

As the early hours of midnight crawled in, the concert came to an end.

Still buzzing with energy, Shola and I managed to get ourselves some last-minute ice cream before piling into her car and covering the journey back to campus with friendly chatter. I was so engrossed in it that I didn't even notice we'd arrived at my hall of residence until Shola stopped the car in front of the building.

"It seems the car wash party is over too," she said, gesturing at the thread of people coming from the party's direction.

"Yeah, I guess so." I grabbed my bag. "Thanks for letting me come with you, Shola. I had fun."

"Me too," she grinned. "A lot more fun than I actually thought I would. Maybe catching you skinny dipping wasn't a bad thing after all."

"Oh God, don't remind me," I groaned and she laughed.

"But I'm glad you came along. Hopefully we can...you know, go out like this, another time."

At first, I thought she was joking, but the sincere look in her eyes, highlighted by the blue light from the car's console told me that she wasn't. She really meant it and the fact that she did, brought a warm smile to my face.

"I'd like that."

"Great." she beamed. "So I'll... see you around, tomorrow."

"Yeah, definitely." Still smiling, my hand latched onto the door handle and pulled it open. Cold, crispy air was the first to greet me, along with the babble of conversations from the party goers.

"Yo, have you seen Princess' twerking video? Half a million views already!" One guy chortled out to his friends. "That girl is literally an ass queen, no wonder Ethan fucks her all the time."

I had only put one foot out when the comment made me freeze. Though I wasn't involved, it reminded me that I hadn't cleared out the whole Princess issue with Shola. Of course, I had tried my best to avoid it in the beginning of our trip. But now, I suddenly felt a strong need to clear this up with her, especially when she had expressed interest in hanging out another time. The last thing I wanted was to let issues about Princess ruin my relationship with Shola.

"Akwasi?"

On cue, Shola called out in a voice laced with worry and when I didn't reply, she set a warm hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you ok?"

"I... I  need to talk to you about something." Pulling my leg back inside, I shut the door, giving us the privacy we needed.

"Ok? What is it?"

"It's about Princess."

And just like that, Shola's hand left my shoulder. "Oh... her," she said in a tone void of any emotion, indicating the sudden change in her demeanor.

My mind wasn't entirely prepared for this, but the sooner I took care of it, the better. "Look, I know you think I slept with Princess the night before the fair, but I swear on my life, nothing like that happened. We only kissed a couple of times and that was because I was drunk and she kept forcing herself on me. I swear, Shola, I didn't know what I was doing. If I was in my right mind that night, none of it would've happened."

I hoped to get a reaction or a response, but all she gave me was a blank slate with her arms crossed, staring absentmindedly at the street before us.

"Shola, please-"

"You don't owe me an explanation, Akwasi," she finally spoke up. "I mean...it's not like there's something going on between us. Princess is your friend and your teammate, you don't need to explain to me the kind of relationship you have with her. So go ahead and live your life, I'm cool with everything."