Fortitude

37-Frenemies

Usipoziba ufa, utajenga ukuta.
(If you do not fix a crack, you will have to build a wall)

______________________________________

Raziya

The ride to the airport was dreadful. The girls had been unusually quiet all morning. Taji wasn't saying a single word to anyone. Bobby came over to pick us up since the twins were apparently coming back with us. The tension was so dense that you could cut through it like a hot knife through butter.

If you think that was horrible, don't get me started on the 8 hour flight back to Nairobi. Tessa and Terry sat together, Taji and I were supposed to sit next to each other but he convinced some guy to switch seats with him. He sat at the aisle seat on the left side of the plane while I was like a thousand miles away from him on the window seat on the right side. I slept through the ugly experience of him shouting at me for asking him about Anita. I was actually going to talk to him in the morning but as I said, he wasn't talking to anyone.

Touch down in Nairobi and nothing changed. It was around 5 pm when we left the plane. Taji walked away, not looking back at us with his phone pressed to his ear. I started walking towards him before Terry stopped me.

"Give him some time. He'll cool off."

"What? No, I need to talk to him,"

"You can't do that now, he's in his dark side of... wait... you don't know?"

"Know what?" I asked, completely puzzled by literally everything. They looked at each other and probably telepathically decided not to say another word.

I pushed through them and went to talk to him anyway. His cab arrived just as I got to him. I grabbed his arm and he sharply threw it off as he spun around. He stared straight into my eyes with a chilling serial killer type of stance. I'd never been that terrified of anyone my whole life. For a minute I had no idea who he was. His eyes softened slightly as he clenched his fists and released them continuously. Without a word, he sighed then got into the cab. It took me 24 years to get a boyfriend and less than 24 hours to lose him. Classic Raziya.

"Don't worry, he'll tell you himself. He's a nice guy. Don't let any of this change your perception of him okay?" Tessa said as she held onto my shoulders.

"Please give me something I can work with,"

She sighed then told me about Tanya. My heart shattered at the thought of Taji losing his best friend. I don't know what I'd do without Lily.

Blue bird.
I need to talk to her.

They left shortly after when their cab arrived. I took a cab straight to Lily's. It was about time I stopped acting like a stubborn kid and manned up to my mistakes.

After a 20 minute ride, I was there. My whole body was trembling as I walked up the stairs to her apartment. Her car wasn't in the parking lot so I was pretty much taking a long shot. I knocked. No one answered the first, second and third time. Feeling hopeless, I turned and started walking away but stopped in my tracks as I heard keys jingle in the lock. I rushed back only to find a half awake Shaba glaring at me in the doorway.

"Did I wake you up?" I asked apologetically.

"Yeah," he grumbled out. He looked hungover.  That would explain why he was alseep at that hour. "If you're looking for Lily, she's at the hospital. Some friend of hers is in labour or something like that."