~Alya
..."I am leaving"...
In that moment I was confused at what to think. Finally? Or perhaps feel a bit happy at not having to see her again. But as much as I tried, I could not feel excited.
Worse still when I found out that she didn't just leave the house to go back to her home in California, I couldn't just get peace of mind.
She did not even inform my mother before leaving. And she just left! I didn't know where to, no one knew.
Firstly I was feeling guilty because of everything Chiamaka did at my birthday. I kept feeling as if I had wronged her.
Then when I found out that Kylie only used us to get to her mom, I was beyond distraught. Her father, scratch that, our father blamed my mom because apparently she came to visit me in Nigeria and then went missing without a trace.
But of course my mom didn't have time for his shit. I would give it to her, she handled situations perfectly although she didn't have a solution for this situation.
Normally she should not care. But I think she really did care for Kylie who only turned out to be an ingrate.
You know, sometimes I just felt like a really terrible person. I was insensitive, selfish, I was just a horrible person. At least I knew that. But I didn't have words for Kylie.
Just when I actually started liking her, she vanished. And then I started skipping school more often. Most times I just had lessons at home.
My mother arrived in Nigeria two days to Christmas. At least, she remembered that I existed.
Then frustration came knocking on my door when I started to think quite a lot. Do you know what it feels like when thinking suddenly becomes a hobby? Of course you don't. When you spend every unoccupied second thinking and stressing about a lot of things.
When you have thought about a particular thing several times and yet, you don't have a solution. It just feels as if you are going round in circles. I don't think you would understand what it felt like. Nobody did.
But then I had to shove everything behind me with the year as the new year made a nice arrival. I tried welcoming positivity.
I decided to enter the boarding house since I had the misconception, at that point, that having people around me would help me think less. If only I knew better!
I arrived on the exact day of resumption rather than a day before, as was a usual practice.
Mother ‘dearest’ had something ‘more important’ to do so Stephanie generously decided to accompany the driver to drop me off. The compound was almost empty when we arrived.
I assumed that classes must have even started owing to the serenity of the environment. We met the receptionist and after everything, I took my bag to my room, which was empty by then. I didn't have time to admire the room before I headed for my class.
It suddenly felt as if the class fell silent immediately I went in. I ignored that fact and all the looks thrown in my direction as I headed towards my seat.
When I got there, I saw one Angela girl sitting on my seat. She didn't try to move even when she saw me.
"Excuse me, you are on my seat", I said.
"I know", she said her chin resting on her hands crossed over the table.
I still didn't fail to notice the heavy silence around me as I felt so many eyes on me. What was up with them?
"Then could you kindly get up?" I asked.
"No", she responded again.
I waited for her to elaborate but she said nothing more. I sighed.
"Please I really need to sit", I said still calmly. She didn't respond. I was starting to think that she was purposely trying to provoke me.
"Could you please GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OFF MY SEAT?!" I half yelled finally loosing my temper. I would have easily shoved her off my seat but I didn't want to resort to violence.
She seemed unbothered by my outburst, rather, I saw the corner of her lips twitch into a small smile as she looked straight. She wasn't even looking at me. It was now clear that she was doing all this on purpose.
I glanced around the class and found an empty seat. I just moved to the seat. Sooner than I had sat down, someone sat on the chair next to mine.
I didn't even take a glance at whoever it was. I just kept my head buried in my Geography textbook until everything in the book blurred.
The whole page was soaked in ink. I turned sharply to the person sitting next to me. The person just stared back at me with a remorseless look and uttered a 'sorry'.
I felt like making the person down a container of ink or marker refill, anyone available but I was really trying to avoid trouble this year.
I stood up from the table and left the class. All these students must have sworn to frustrate me today because just as I left the class, a foolish junior student running at a high speed bumped into me and I almost fell down.
At this point, I lost my patience, I mean the junior block was two buildings away so what the hell was this idiot even doing here!? I swear he would have knelt down on sand till school was over if not for Auti's timely intervention.
"What happened to you? You would have killed that boy if I didn't get there on time", he said after leading me to a slightly secluded spot.
"You don't understand how these students have been frustrating me since this morning", I said rubbing my temples.
I remembered something just then and I spoke up, "You were really scarce after my birthday. You didn't visit, never called, never picked my calls, I hardly even saw you..."
I paused studying his facial expressions for a while. He wasn't even looking at me, just looked straight ahead. And I was sure he aware that I was looking at him.
"Was anything wrong?" I asked really concerned but I sounded anything but concerned. He finally turned his face to me.
"The whole thing with Chiamaka...", He started and I swear he lost me there.
Chinano didn't stop bothering me about what had happened until she finally left for Abuja. Though she didn't bother me much after Kylie had left. She left about three days later.
And now... Auti. Hold on, did he ignore me through out the holiday because of what happened between me and Chiamaka? So was I meant to be explaining myself or... what?
"Alya!" I blinked back to reality. "Were you even listening?" He asked.
"So you behaved as if I didn't exist for a whole holiday just because you saw a dumb fight I had with someone?" I asked.
He blinked.
"No..." He began but I cut him off.
"Let me get this straight. You went missing in action after my birthday. I called you severally but you didn't bother answering or returning the calls and you know too damn well that I don't call anyone more than once. I texted, you ignored the texts. You also know that I don't just text anyone. All this because of a fight that I had no idea what it was about to begin with. So what? I should explain myself or something?" I said beyond frustrated.
He stared at me a bit wide eyed. "Why are you blowing this out of proportion?..." Oh! So I was blowing this out of proportion.
"I don't think I need an explanation from you or anything, it's just that..." His voice trailed off.
"It's actually nothing. I just knew you needed a break from everyone after what happened and also your sister leaving added to it.
"I didn't know you would take an offence. I am really really sorry that I offended your ‘highness’..." I caught a trace of sarcasm and annoyance behind his last statement.
"I think I have Government class now. You should also go, you guys might be having Chemistry", he concluded and left without waiting for my response.
I watched his retreating figure and I thought for a while, 'Did I really blow things out of proportion?'. And if yes, then why?
The day went by with me thinking if I had perhaps over reacted. I didn't get to see Auti again even when school was over. I waited for him for a while after school but I had to leave for my hostel so I couldn't wait for him for a long while.
And perhaps, he had gone home by that time. I strolled lazily to my hostel passing through so many empty pathways, ones which I never knew existed. I would have sworn someone was following me but I was way too tired to care.
I soon reached my hostel and sooner than that, I located my bed. The rest were already taken so I was left with the one next to the window.
I wasn't such a fan of that position since the rays of light would hit me as soon as I woke up and I wasn't such a fan of light most of the time.
But this wasn't my house and I had to adjust to whatever shit I got here. After all, it was my choice. I walked towards the bed but paused on seeing Chiamaka on another bed pretty close to mine.
Not so close though but compared to the rest of the beds there, it was the nearest. I stared at her in surprise. Okay... when did she enter the hostel?
She briefly looked up from her phone and stared directly at me before returning her gaze to the phone. I noticed it was different from the one I picked up from my house.
It was an iphone 13 while I had picked up a Redmi note 7. Kylie didn't return the phone as she had said. I wasn't surprised by that fact in the least. As I made to continue walking, Kaira suddenly popped up in my face screaming 'hi'.
"Why did you do that?" I asked breathing heavily and wondering how my heart was still in my body. This girl had just scared shit out of me.
"So sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Just that I thought since you've joined the hostel as well, we could get to know each other better and become friends", she replied with a large smile plastered on her face.
"Um... Okay?" I replied and her smile, which I thought might have passed the elastic limit, broadened surprisingly. I had never seen someone smile so widely before.
Either her smile was supernatural or I had been surrounded by melancholics all my life.
She stood in front of me awkwardly for a while before suddenly saying, "I have something to do right now. In the meantime, you can catch up with your best friend."
She said referring to Chiamaka still with a smile.
"I'll leave you to unpack now. I'll be here if you need anything", she said and I nodded slowly. I looked around the room just noticing Isa on her bed sleeping.
How on earth did I end up being roommates with Chiamaka, Kairaluchukwu and Isa at the same time?!
Chiamaka for sure hated me. She could stab me in the middle of the night if she wished. Kairaluchukwu was one of the fakest persons I have met.
I would rather be with someone I knew would kill me than being around her. She could be smiling in my face and stabbing me at the same time.
Then Isa, the girl I just happened to pick a fight with when she was clearly still pissed that Alda just kissed her boyfriend in front of her. I called her house an asylum, what if she tried to show me how lunatics behave?
Could nature not have been kind enough to get me a room alone? I sighed moving to my bed. I sat down taking a proper look at this room for the first time since I arrived.
There were four beds well spaced from each other. The room in itself was extra ordinarily large with the corners around each person's bed painted in a different color.
So the room had four different colors in a definite proportion. Kaira's corner was painted baby blue. Isa's corner a shade of pink I detested... Well, I detested every shade of pink.
Chiamaka's corner was painted white and mine was painted a dull shade of green which I loved so much.
I know this sounds entirely awkward and off but it looks a lot cooler than it sounds and not as terrible as I had initially thought it would look.
It had sounded really odd when I initially heard that the school painted each student's corner their favorite color so they could feel at home or something along that line.
But it felt nice either way. It was also a way of sort of sharing the room and mapping out each person's boundaries.
I didn't feel at home either way because of the people I was surrounded by. I changed out of my uniform and after much hesitation, lay on my bed to get some sleep making a mental note to ask for a change of room.
****
The next day, I woke up. I became confused as my eyes squinted to bright light from the room lights. Who the hell turned my lights on?
Until my eyes fell on Kaira fully dressed in her white shirt and black skirt with ash tie that I realized I was in the hostel.
"Good morning", she said immediately she caught me staring at her.
"Morning", I replied in a monotone voice. I looked around and found Chiamaka lying on her bed with a sleep mask covering her eyes. I turned to Isa's corner and saw her seating on her bed.
I tried smiling at her and she glared at me in return. I rolled my eyes returning my attention to Kaira.
"I am so sorry if the lights disturbed you. Isa has nyctophobia and she didn't remember to bring her night light or a torch. Hope you don't have a problem?" Kaira asked.
I was about to say no when we heard a chuckle. I turned in surprise to Chiamaka's bed. She was still lying with her sleep mask on while laughing.
"What a big baby!" She said once her laughter ended. I looked her over in surprise. She had autophobia so what was the difference between her and Isa. She was a bigger baby in my opinion.
How did she even enter hostel anyway. She didn't take her dummies along?
"Chiamaka has autophobia!?" I heard Kaira's voice and I turned to look at her in surprise.
"You just said that Chiamaka had autophobia. Is that true?" She asked again. Oh my God! Did I really just say that out loud?
"Yeah. You heard right", I heard Chiamaka reply Kaira. "And no, I didn't bring my dummies." That was directed to me.
I sat there in shock as I heard Kaira saying wow.
****
After the morning prayer and breakfast, I left for my class. I practically dragged my legs through the hallway. I was unnecessarily in a bad mood today and I felt like making everyone feel the same way.
If only that was possible. I was still dragging my feet when I heard someone call my name from behind.
I groaned as I stopped. I was about to turn when I heard the person call my name again. It was then I recognized the voice.
Genevieve! Why the hell was she calling me!? I turned slowly until I faced her.
"Hi", I said with a forced smile.
"Hi. How are you?" She asked with a broad smile.
"Good. Really fine", I said maintaining the smile.
"I was wondering if you could meet me after school. I think Radison blue would be nice but you can choose. I have no problem with that", she said.
"I am so sorry I can't exactly come. I am in the hostel. You know hostel rules and..."
"Just call your mom. She'll handle it. After all she's the Ami..."
"She is not in the country", I said quickly preventing her from blurting out my mother's name.
"It's alright. All she needs to do is make a phone call. I mean she's Ami..."
"She can't do that!" I yelled this time around starting to get frustrated. It was like she was just waiting for every opportunity to blurt out my mother's name.
She looked at me confused.
"She can't because... She's still on the flight. She left yesterday and she's probably still on the airplane so I can't reach her", I said with yet another fake smile.
"That's okay", she said and I breathed out in relief. "I'll get my dad to call the dorms management for you", she said and my heart dropped.
"Your... Dad?"
"Yeah. They'll surely listen to him. Now you can't say no"
"Okay", I resigned. I really did not want to keep dragging this on before she found yet another reason to call my mom's name.
"See you", she said and finally left. I sighed and turned around to see Alesscia Evans standing behind me.
"You're friends with Genevieve?" She asked looking surprised. I nodded praying she wouldn't ask me how.
"I thought I was your only celebrity friend", she said with a frown and I laughed. It felt good to do so after a while.
"You might not be but you are still the best celebrity friend I have", I said and now it was her turn to laugh.
"Keep lying to yourself", she said in between her laughter. We walked on as she continued talking.
"I heard Chiamaka slapped you at your birthday."
"Wow. How far did this news go?" I asked rhetorically.
She shrugged. "I didn't know you were throwing a party. The least I would have done would be to attend".
"Yeah. I didn't know there was going to be one either. It was actually Kylie and Chinano that did the whole..." I trailed off.
"Kylie and Chinano. Who are those?" She asked.
"My step sister and friend. Chinano read here before in Junior Secondary and part of senior secondary. You don't remember her?"
"No. I don't remember her. You have a step sister. Cool. And she was nice enough to throw you a surprise party. That's mega cool. I would like to meet her some day", she said and I nodded.
It wasn't as cool as she thought. It was really terrible but I didn't want to start explaining that at the moment.
"I heard you didn't react to Chiamaka slapping you and accusing you of stealing her boyfriend from her. Does that mean it's true?"
I paused to look at her.
"No. It's not true. What's with everyone asking me if I stole her boyfriend. That's just a massively dumb thing to do. Why the hell would I be interested in her boyfriend anyway?"
"So sorry. I didn't really mean anything. In fact, I never even knew she was dating Ifeanyi Emeka. They really don't just make a really nice couple in my opinion", she said and a part of me agreed.
"So are you and Ifeanyi are like together now or something?"
"No, we are not", I said plainly.
"Do you have feelings for him?" She asked.
"Yeah", I blurted without even thinking.
"I mean..."
"There's no use saying anything else girl. I am not judging you. On the contrary, I think you guys would make a lovely couple", a now smiling Alesscia said.
"Whatever. Could you just keep what I said to yourself?" I asked.
"I don't think I can", she said and I looked at her with a frown.
"Why?" I asked.
"Cause he is standing in front of us", she said.
"Who is standing in front of us?" I asked.
"Ifeanyi"
I turned to behold... Ifeanyi Emeka. Tell me my day couldn't get any worse.