The Waiting Game

chapter thirteen

It hadn’t been more than a few days since Amina last saw Iremidayo Lawal but it was enough time that she’d nearly forgotten about the boy’s existence altogether. She found it strange to think that she’d once thought of him as a problem, now she had plenty of those that he’d slid off her list of priorities. But here he was, not quite an unpleasant sight like Amina would like to pretend, in fact, he looked as good as usually did, dressed in a short sleeved shirt and jeans. Amina frowned as her eyes swept his form, no fake designer this time it seemed – her eyes fixed on his sneakers, at first she thought it was Nike but she spotted the Adidas logo nestled below the label bearing the name.

Ah, there it was. Amina was taken aback when her lips stretched into a wide grin. Ire looked equally surprised by her smile but he returned it, a slow, shy, closed lipped smile.

“What’s the joke?” He asked when Amina managed to school her expression into her usual indifference.

She shook her head. “Nothing, you look nice.” She said, it wasn’t a lie but she didn’t want to tell him that she’d been keeping track of what he wore.

“Thank you,” He said simply. When he lingered in front of the desk, Amina paused, looking up from her textbook. She’d noticed him when he entered the classroom but he’d come in with a friend and she thought he was there to read. The Faculty of Sciences suffered a lack of lecture rooms so the over seven departments under it was left fighting for space for classes, it wasn’t surprising to find students from different departments in one hall – because they didn’t belong to any particular unit. It meant that Amina should see Ire more often but she’d been skipping classes for a few days now.

“Do you have a few minutes?” He asked.

Amina tamped down on her irritation, she wasn’t like Joshua Phillips who could balance a hundred different responsibilities, excel at all of them and still be top two in his class. Amina wasn’t like that, she was smart but she’d always had to work very hard to be where she was – in all aspects of her life. With Orion, there were concerns that she was a woman, too fat, too something. So she worked two times harder to prove everybody. It was exhausting and Orion demanded too much of her attention, especially recently. She was in her final year and just wanted to graduate with her 4.15 CGPA intact.

“Sure.” She lied easily. She shifted to the next seat in the row so Ire could sit beside her. He remained standing though. If it was some other boy, she might have made a joke about how she didn’t bite unless asked, but this was Ire. He’d bolt for the next room if she said something like that, or spray holy water on her – if he was a Christian.

“I know that the last thing you need is me meddling into the investigation.” He began.

“I’ve always found your input relevant.” She declared firmly and a bit guiltily. She was too sarcastic with him, she admitted to herself. But if she was being honest, it was hard to be mean to him; Ire was just naturally good natured. Maybe she despised him for it because she used to be like him before she realized that people stepped on good natured women.

Ire blinked. “I appreciate that.” And she could tell that he meant it too.

“What did you want to tell me?” She asked.

“Last semester, one of the courses I took as a Forensic Medicine student was taught by a professor who was a recent hire by the university. During one of the classes, he let it slip that he used to work as a professional profiler for several police forces in America.”

“Profiler?” Amina asked, the term rang a bell in her head but she wasn’t sure what it meant.

“Basically, a profiler is someone who creates a psychological profile for an unknown criminal. They basically narrow characteristics down to the important few and it helps shine better light on who the police are after. Profiling can help determine motive.” Ire explained, his voice was animated as he spoke. Amina could tell that he’d liked being a forensic medicine student and she wondered if he regretted giving it up to please Joshua.