The Waiting Game

chapter fifteen

“Happy birthday, you bastard.”

“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t call me a bastard on my birthday.” Joshua said dryly as he put on his socks. He raised his head to meet Firepemi’s twinkling eyes in the screen of his Macbook. He was not surprised to see that the other boy was grinning unapologetically.

Joshua’s relationship with Firepemi Kingston was complicated to say the least. The older boy was probably Joshua’s only friend and for most of Joshua’s childhood Fire had played the role of older brother even though he was just three years older than Joshua. They’d become friends when Joshua reached his teens and by the time Joshua had taken his place as Orion’s leader, Fire was still there, supportive since he’d once been Orion’s leader himself – although he’d taken the role of seat warmer until Joshua turned eighteen and gained admission to study law. Everybody had known that Joshua would be leader sooner or later and that Fire was a brief placeholder.

Fire had never been resentful of this and Joshua liked him more than anybody else in his life. He was the only one who called Fire’s name like the Yoruba name was pronounced, everyone else just called him Fire as in flames. Their friendship had taken a hit two years ago though, when Fire betrayed Orion for his freedom. Joshua hadn’t even known that Fire wanted an out of the organization. The Orion Project was a political organization but it functioned like a cult sometimes; an Orion member couldn’t just leave. It was a long process that required the approval of the council but the leader of the organization could grant a ‘leave of freedom’ to one person every year. If Joshua had known of Fire’s desire to leave, he might have granted it. Or maybe he wouldn’t have.

“You wouldn’t have.” Fire had pointed out a year ago when he reached to mend their rift. He was right, Joshua wasn’t certain of many things but he knew definitely that he wasn’t the same person that he’d been two years ago. The old Joshua had gone to ruthless depths to please his father.

So he’d let Fire’s betrayal slide and they’d return to some semblance of their friendship – which was scarce phone calls and happy birthday wishes like now. They hadn’t seen each other physically since the betrayal.

“Any plans?” Fire asked.

Joshua shrugged from where he sat at the edge of his bed. “There’s a party.”

Fire nodded, the motion lagged because of poor network connection. “There’s always a party.” It was the truth, Joshua couldn’t recall a single birthday where there hadn’t been a party in his honor. As he’d grown older, the parties had become less for his enjoyment and more to create alliances. There were usually two parties sometimes; one for his peers and the other for his father’s friends and political allies. They ceased when his father died.

“You’re free to stop by if you want to, Fire.” Joshua said offhandedly, he knew that Firepemi was in Lagos.

“Amina will kill me,” He pointed out fondly. Fire was one of the few people who wasn’t afraid of Amina and it probably had something to do with knowing Amina as a cute, chubby toddler obsessed with the Little Mermaid.

“She doesn’t even talk about you. I don’t think she cares.” Joshua said, he was only half mocking. Amina didn’t take to traitors well and she pretended that Fire had never existed.

A look of hurt passed Fire’s face. “She’s good at that. Pretending.”

Joshua felt a surge of indignation on behalf of Amina. “And you’re good at tiptoeing two lines. Come to the party, or not, it’s none of my concern.”

He stood after lacing his shoes, straightened his tie and grabbed his backpack. It was his birthday but he still had school to deal with.

“I’ll be there.” Fire simply said. Joshua frowned, he wasn’t gullible to think that Firepemi simply wanted to catch up and rekindle old friendships.