Purple Bougainvillea

Eleven

“So they even talk”
“Vera said she came from the village”
“Of all the girls in Overcomers high”
These were the words that people said as she and Kelly walked into school together on Monday. The second made her flinch in pain, Vera had betrayed her, again.
It felt like she was the only one hearing all these as Kelly who was supposed to be affected by their words was wearing a huge smile on his face as they walked through school together.
“Aren’t you hearing all these?” she asked him and he shrugged before placing his headphones on her ears, blocking her ears with the music that was playing from it.
Truth is, her friendship with Kelly had been hidden since. No one at school, except Vera of course, knew they were friends. His friends didn’t like her, especially Deji, so he kept her hidden from them as much as he could.
So the whole day at school, Jumoke kept hearing whispers of people saying hurtful things about her.
It felt like they hated her. She missed her ghost life, where she could walk through school for the whole day without being noticed. Kelly was quite popular, everyone wanted to be in his clique and everyone who was in his clique was hated by all.
“Boo!!” he shouted bringing her out of her thoughts while she glared at him. They were at their spot.
“It’s not funny” she said as he laughed at her
“You were so scared, like you’d seen a ghost” he said as he kept laughing but her face remained the same. He stooped and stared at her, normally she would try to hide her smile and act stern but she’ll laugh anyway, but today she was cold and stern.
“What’s wrong??” he asked and she looked away
“They hate me”
“You don’t need them to like you”
“Easy for you to say, everyone likes you”
He stared at her, quiet while she looked down at the floor
“Ramdom people are always going to hate for no reason, but they're random people so they don't really matter”
She raised her head and looked at him, a smile tugging at her lips.
“Just smile ah. You know you want to smile, stop forming hard guy”
She turned her face away from him as she chuckled, smiling in the process. He smiled too and sat down beside her. He picked up the book on her laps. It was her biology note.
“You’re already reading for the next paper??”
“I’m not lazy like you” she said sticking her tongue out at him. He laughed and shook his head.
“You and I know that I don’t need to read to pass my exams, my brain is not empty like yours”
“Ouch! That actually hurt” she said and held her chest, feigning pain. He laughed and she joined too
“Besides, I won’t be needing the exams for anything” he said, sober this time, staring deep into her eyes.
She froze when understanding crossed her eyes; it was like someone had actually poured her cold water. They both went silent.
“Isn’t there anything you can do about your sickness??”
“There is, but it costs a lot of money”
“Like how much money??”
He smiled at her, it was a sad smile, it didn’t reach his eyes. Instantly she knew it was sad news.
“18 million naira” he waited for her to take it in “That’s the total amount of money I need to fly abroad and get a bone marrow transplant”
She looked away from him, the tears threatening to escape her eyes. How was he so comfortable with the fact that he was dying. Using his middle and ring finger, he turned her to face him.
She didn’t struggle, it was useless, he had seen her tears already. He held her face in his palm as they sat there, eyes locked in each other’s for a while until the tears came rolling down her cheeks. Swiftly, his thumb moved to capture them before they fell completely.
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me” he said to her and all she did was stare into his eyes. After a while, she backed away from his touch, forcing a smile on her face instead. She cleaned her eyes with the handkerchief that was in her hands.
“So you’re ready to die??”
“What other choice do I have?”
“Have you tried reaching out to NGOs and the community?”
“No one is willing to help” he said, his eyes staring intently at the floor
“Just drop it”
They were both silent for a while, each occupied with their own thoughts. Then the closing bell rang.
“Are you ready to go home?” Kelly asked, breaking the silence
“Yeah, let me get my bag from the class” she answered, standing up to go
“Get mine for me too” Kelly said and Jumoke nodded at him before walking away.