Beyond Hate

SIX

Zara.

Toby kept smiling, his set of white teeth, neatly arranged and extremely attractive was sent towards my direction. My hand consciously wandered to the Rolex on my left wrist. Some how I refused to return it to him.

"I think you're blushing." He stated.

I laughed. He got closer. I moved towards him as well. We both stopped when we were close enough.

"Hi," I laughed.

He smirked. "This your laughter sha."

I shrugged, smiling. "Been long."

"I know right? I was so excited when I saw you from afar. I'm sorry we haven't spoken for so long." He apologized.

I waved it off. "It's no worries."

"So, since it's Saturday and we are bored teenagers, let's stroll and talk and gist and gossip, like you girls do."

I looked at him and laughed. "Gossip?"

He smirked. "You, Ene and the rest of the gang. You all gossip na."

I shook my head. "We gist."

"Right." He rolled his eyes.

I laughed.

"So, tell me about you."

I raised a brow. I had no idea what to actually say.

"Ehm.. well, I'm me." I answered.

We were in the school park, a lot of people hung out there on weekends. We took a sit beside a red flowered tall tree.

"About yourself, your family, your likes."

"Oh."

He chuckled. "Yeah."

"Ok, so I like Chocolate a lot, I'm the second child out of three, I hope to study law in the nearest future,"

"Law?" He questioned. His brows shot up to his hairline.

I nodded.

He didn't seem to excited. He moved his hands together and rubbed them. "Oh. Good."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You don't like lawyers?"

He shrugged. "Well, no. Don't ask me why."

I was taken aback by his response. However, I let it slip. "Ok."

It suddenly became awkward. It was as though me mentioning that i wanted to be a lawyer had pissed him off or sent him into nostalgia. I looked around, looking for a way to avert our discussion.

My eyes drifted to the other end. I sighted Afam, Jerome, Lala and some other guys. They were laughing and talking. Afam and Jerome being Igbo boys and still blending with the Yoruba guys was no surprise. They always had this aura, that everyone could easily blend with. They talked to everyone and anyone. I liked it when they were best friends. Afam was so close to me, Jerome did look for my trouble then, but it was always playful, not that he did it often though. He just suddenly turned cold towards me, it was also the same time he fought with Afam.

"Why does Jerome hate you?" Toby asked.

I turned to him. "I don't know o. You should know, isn't he your best friend?"

Toby smirked. "He is. He isn't all that bad you know."

I shrugged. "I don't care anyways. I have better things to worry about than some petty teenage boy hating me."

Toby chuckled. "Petty teenage boy."

I nodded in affirmation. "Yes. He needs to- i don't know, grow up."