Elder Benson is dead.
He had a gift of taking pictures in a surreal manner and didn't care people thought he was strange.
When his body is found with a bluish substance in his system, everyone concludes that he overdosed on drugs.
And no one cares...
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One year ago
When Elder enters his hostel room, his nostrils are immediately filled with an acrid and foul smell. It is suffocating to him as he's always able to pick up the smallest of scents and gets a cold afterwards. He puts his left hand in his sling school bag and takes out his camera.
He checks the corner beside Malachi's bed and finds his roommate's basketball jersey stashed in the corner. This boy will be the death of me, he sighs and with his camera, a Nikon D500, takes shots of the sweat smelling jersey.
A habit of his that always made people think he was weird; taking photos all the time. One hour later, he's propped on his bed, checking his Twitter feed when Malachi enters the room. He nods to Elder and searches through the messy clothes on his bed.
"Hey El." Malachi turns to him. "Have you seen my charger?"
"Have you checked the extension board?" Elder answers without taking his eyes off his phone.
"No I haven't. That was the last place I would check," Malachi's voice drips in sarcasm.
Elder puts his phone aside and looks at his best friend. "Then check the corner where your smelly clothes are stashed."
A taunting smile breaks on Malachi's face. "You took photos of them already didn't you?"
"Don't start man. Take my charger. It's on my study desk.
Elder points to the charger and when Malachi plugs his phone into the charger, Elder picks up the smelly clothes and moves stealthily behind his best friend.
The moment Malachi turns, Elder covers his nose with the clothes and watches as Malachi choked on his own sweaty smell. When Malachi's. able to get Elder off him, his eyes are bloodshot and has a murderous look on his face.
"I'm going to kill you El!"
But Elder is already out of the room, laughing hysterically and running for his life. Malachi chases after him and sees Elder bump into a lady. He reaches them as Elder is apologizing to her and an idea strikes him.
He watches closely as his roommate starts a convo and says, "Hey El. Isn't this the lady you were always talking about and take photos of?"
A frightened look appears on her face and quickly, she walks away from the two guys. Elder stares at her while this time, Malachi laughed hysterically.
"Ha-ha. Still got her number though," Elder says.
Malachi, still laughing, throws his arm around Elder. "Of course you did bro. Of course you did." Three days later, Malachi and Elder are walking back to their room after accompanying Simi to her hostel. They see the lady Elder bumped into.
Elder raises an eyebrow at Malachi and waves at the lady. She approaches them and surprisingly to Malachi, hugs Elder.
"Elder!"
"Hello Abby." He smiles sheepishly. "Where are you off to?"
"Oh just some errands."
Malachi notices how Abby is grazing her hand over his friend's forearms and smiling as if Elder is a king.
Later when they almost reach their room, Malachi says, "Wasn't it weird how Abby was all over you? I doubt she even saw me."
"We've been chatting on Telegram. She's a really fun person."
"Alright."
"Is someone jealous?" Elder throws his arm around Malachi and makes kissing noises.
"Get off me man," Malachi says, laughing.
He's trying to shake it off but he has a bad feeling about Abby. It's as if his intuition was telling him there is something wrong about her friendship with Elder.
He shrugs it off and thinks, probably because she pretended I wasn't there.
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Present Day
"I-I-," Simi's words spluttered as she thought of what to say. She had been found out even before she got the chance to get Dr. de Heer to talk to her.
She turned to Peter to see a mischievous look on his face and when she whipped her head to the lecturer, Dr. de Heer broke into a loud laughter.
"Oh I got you good!" Dr. de Heer put an arm around Simi, her eyes filled with tears from laughing too much.
Peter gave Simi a shrug as she stood there, feeling awkward and no idea what to say. Dr. de Heer had given her a scare and had almost thrown her off balance.
When the lecturer finally stopped laughing, she said, "You looked too serious and I hate that. I want my students to feel comfortable around me." She winked at Simi, "I'm nothing if not their friend."
On the other side of campus, Malachi walked to his room in his jersey, twirling his basketball on his finger, sweaty and his afro tied in a bun at the back of his head.
He'd left his mother's the morning after they had the argument and went straight to the hostel. Malachi had planned to see Simi and vent out his frustrations to her but Peter had swept her off her feet and he decided to play ball instead.
His phone had blinked a few times with missed calls from his mother and he mentally decided to call her back when he had taken his bath and was feeling refreshed.
Malachi got to his door and fished the key from a side pocket on his shorts. He opened the door and his heart gave a leap. Sitting on his bed, was Jamal with a glassy look on his face.
"Hey man. I'm here for my photos. Give them to me or else one of us will be in trouble."
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Author's Note Thanks for reading! How did you guys find this chapter? And I'm sorry for the late update. Will make up for it by two more chapters before Friday.
