Just do it √

Fourteen

Two chapters were updated

Needless to say, the holidays were boring. Christmas had never felt so lonely. When I stayed with Alade, Iya and her friends would cook and exchange food amongst themselves and she’d spend half the day talking about our next door neighbor whose entire family were Jehovah witnesses and did not celebrate Christmas.

‘So if I buy motor for this woman today, she no go collect? Because na Christmas’. Iya would always say, leaned on the half-wall, staring at our neighbor as she carried out her usual chores.

Despite being an unbeliever, Alade would always ensure I had a dress to parade the neighborhood in with my friends, singing, dancing and collecting gifts from all the houses we visited. We had age-grades; associations were children of the same age bracket would come together and contribute money for refreshments at the end of our patrol.

Abike tried to get me to attend the carnival with her and other friends from school but I couldn’t leave my mom alone at home. She was there again on Christmas evening with her mother. They brought with them fried rice and soft drinks and we ate, drank and laughed like everything was okay for once.

It was only for that day because the next morning I woke up to an empty house and when my mom did return later that night reeking of alcohol, she dragged herself to her room without as much as a glance in my direction.

Most of the days were like that until resumption day appeared and despite my reluctance, I felt liberated until Mrs. Dapo’s car stopped at the gates of Apex.

New battleground, new enemies, new focus, I thought.

The hostility and mockery I saw in the eyes of my fellow students gave me some sort of comfort that my mother’s numb face couldn’t give me. I had a new goal; to have peace.

Luckily for me I had my friends, so regardless of the storm within me, they kept me calm on the outside. The field was where I found myself and coach was more than willing to have me back on the team.

‘He didn’t throw it away’. Henrietta said with a frown on her pretty face.
‘We all saw him toss it into the trash. The cleaners haven’t gotten to it yet, you can go check’. Vivian said before feeding herself a morsel of eba coated in afang.

Henrietta’s frown slowly faded as a pained expression took its place. She wasn’t going to cry over Christopher Lawal, was she?

‘If a single tear drops from your eye, I swear I will make you sleep on the floor for three days’. Vivian warned when she saw the look on Hen’s face but I could tell she didn’t mean it.

‘Seriously Hen, this shit has to stop. That boy doesn’t deserve all the attention you give him’. Abike said sending a glare at an oblivious Chris who was dancing on top of the table he and his friends had their lunch on.

When Principal Flora had talked about renovating the boy’s refectory, we hadn’t imagined it would involve bulldozing the entire building and rebuilding from scratch. She had managed to grammatically mislead the entire school.

‘It’s not like I can just ignore him, he sits right next to me for the most part of everyday’.
‘You can start by not trying so hard to get his attention’. I advised. Hen tried to scowl at me but only managed to look like a tickled puppy.

‘Whatever’. She grumbled and stabbed her eba with her fork.

I caught sight of Rasheed sitting alone a couple of tables’ away, back to the wall, trying to balance eating whilst reading a voluptuous novel. I washed my hands and walked to his table. As I sat down, he looked up immediately with startled eyes.