A week later,
It was time to go to the school library to study and prepare for Dr. Adams test the following week. Students sat in groups, though few students sat on their own doing their individual reading.
Mandy and Ifes sat in their preferred positions, and pulled out their course materials from their respective bags to start reading. They must have read for about forty minutes when Ifes lifted up her eyes from her book and saw Ryan.
He looked confused, like he was lost and didn't know which topic to read. He scratched his forehead several times with his pen. She stared at him for a while before she continued reading, but felt a nudge to go and help him. At first, she wanted to ignore it, but she abruptly felt a deeper urge to go to Ryan.
"Ifes, get up, and go and meet him," she heard the voice in her heart say.
But Lord, you know this is not funny!
Ifes moved her gaze towards her roommate whose eyes were fixed on her book and felt like doing the same, but the nudging wouldn't stop.
"Mandy," Ifes called out hoping her friend would not allow her to leave.
Mandy looked up from her book. "Yes, Ifes, want something?"
From Mandy's facial expression, she knew she had really distracted her.
"Will you excuse me? I will be back soon." Ifes moved her seat backwards until she could get enough space to get up.
"Okay, don't be long," Mandy said, taking her eyes back to her book.
Ifes gazed at her friend whose eyes were back to her book and wondered, ''Just like that? She didn't even ask where I'm going, or what I am going to do."
She concluded that this must be for a purpose after all, and whirled around to leave.
"Nope, I won't," she replied her roommate, walked away from her table to Ryan, praying that he would not make a scene
She got to the front of his reading table and waved her hands in the air.
"Hi!" she said, sounding cherry. He looked up and stared at her expressionlessly. She did not see the usual hate. She looked into his eyes, maybe she could get a clue of what he was feeling, but he was still enigmatic. She got nothing, nothing to use as an excuse to walk away from him, but why was she trying to walk away?
What was he thinking of her now? She knew he was not happy to see her, but was he sad or angry?
She was the Jesus girl that brought him word. She separated him from his clique of friends. Did seeing her just make his day go sour? She reasoned like a common third-party, not wanting to reason it from the stance of the girl that might be slapped in a few seconds.
What if he made a scene? What if he laughed at her? What if he called her names? What if? What if? What if? These questions ran through her mind like rapids. She started giving it a second thought if she should do what she came for or if she should turn around and just walk back to her seat without uttering another word. She wanted to choose the latter but kept hearing the still small voice telling her to talk to Ryan.
"You look like you need some help. I'll show you something, give it here." She grabbed his book before he could object or give his consent.
She flipped over the book, jotting down some topics she felt they were going to bring questions from. She gave a brief explanation on the topics, and when she was done, the look on Ryan's face was a little more than she expected.
She thanked him for giving her the opportunity to talk to him, then whirled around and walked back to her seat without looking back.
Taking her seat opposite Mandy at the round reading table, she looked up to see Ryan still staring at her astonishingly. Their eyes met and they locked eyes. She managed to break the staring contest between Ryan and her.
She gazed at Mandy, then back to Ryan and finally to her book. Ifes couldn't look towards Ryan's direction again to see if he was even going through the guidelines she gave him. She also needed to study for Dr Adams' test. Looking at the lad instead of studying would do her no good.
She studied and studied without blinking her eyes or looking to her left or right.
"Ifes, Ifes..." Mandy's exhausted and sleepy voice drew her out of her knowledge quest as she tapped her on her shoulder. Ifes had been studying for about three hours now.
"I want to leave now. I am feeling sleepy. And you know me, any time I am like this, whatever I try to read just bounces off my head"
Ifes did not want to leave yet. In her own opinion, she still had much to cover. But of course, this sounded to Mandy like her usual overkill and needed to put in more work than was necessary.
Mandy sat back on her seat. Soon after she laid down her head on the desk and drifted off to sleep.
"I have to read to maintain a high GPA if I want to continue to sustain my scholarship," Ifes said despite knowing her sleeping roommate could not hear her.
Ifes finished reading and woke Mandy up. "I'm done reading, so shall we?" Mandy groaned, clearly sad that her sleep had been interrupted.
On their way out, Ifes glanced back at Ryan's direction only to spot his seat empty. She scanned the big library reading room to see if he had just changed position, and he didn't do what she was thinking he did. She already had the premonition that he had left and was not so shocked. But she was disappointed.
I wonder why I am disappointed. It wasn't like I was expecting anything better. She shook off the thought of Ryan from her head.
"I think I have tried my best," Ifes concluded in her heart as they both walked back to their dorm room.
On Monday of the following week, Ifes said a customary short prayer before writing the test. It lasted for a duration of two hours.
The need to stretch made Ifes to look at her wristwatch. She discovered that one hour, twenty-five minutes had gone by without her stirring from her writing. At that point Ifes knew she had to raise up her head; she needed to stretch her neck a bit.
As she did, she saw him looking at her, eyes and mouth agape wide enough that flies could easily enter.
"Ha! Na wetin dey do dis one? (What is wrong with him?)" she asked silently in her heart. "How long has he been staring at me like that?" she wondered.
"You have thirty minutes more," Dr Adam's voice echoed. That was when she realised she had stared at Ryan for five minutes. She bent over to continue writing, she couldn't tell if he did the same.
The thirty remaining minutes breezed by, and the students filed out of the class, mostly in clusters, asking one another how the test went. Ifes waited for Mandy outside for another custom of theirs which was post-test analysis to determine how well they did. Some said what had been done is done, but not Ifes and Mandy.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mandy walked past Ifes without noticing she was even there. Strange, she had never seen Mandy so engrossed in her thoughts like that, nor had she seen worry lines etched so deeply on her face that she seemed like a whole different person. Mandy was always carefree and happy. This was unusual.
"Earth to Mandy," Ifes said when she finally linked up with her friend.
"Haaa! Ifes, you almost scared the life outta me."
"A million for your thoughts."
"I'm fine. Let's just leave."
"Not until you tell me what is going on in that heart of yours."
"Ha ha ha! It's nothing. Let's go, I'm famished." Mandy started walking away before Ifes could utter another word. If she was not convinced before now, she was totally sure Mandy was hiding something from her, and she didn't want to push it. Ifes believed that whatever it was, she would tell her. They didn't keep secrets from each other.
They were still moving slowly when Ifes spotted Ryan's figure walking towards them, but she didn't turn to confirm if it was him. She kept on walking as she wasn't prepared for any drama.