Ifes looked at Ryan and glanced down to her feet, looked up again to Ryan and back to the floor.
"I must be hallucinating," she thought. She almost went to scoop sand and pour on this person, because she was fairly sure this was a ghost!
"Ryan!" Ifes said his name cautiously, soaking in the fact that he had not poofed into thin air. Ok, maybe it was actually Ryan standing before her in flesh and blood.
Why, for goodness's sake, was he here? Was he here to see Mandy? Or could it be that he had mistakenly knocked on her door? All these questions flowed through her mind in consecutive sequence.
While she stared at him blankly, he continued looking at her. He glanced down when his gaze met hers fixed on him. She stepped back to discard whatever tension or nervousness that was working its way between them, but of course, that seemed like an invitation to come in, which he did.
"Welco–" Further words ceased as her eyes widened in alarm at what she could now see more clearly on his face. For all the staredown that had occurred, she had missed some great details. His nose was bleeding. His left wrist was swollen.
"W–What? What happened to you, Ryan?" Ifes breezed towards Ryan, taking up his swollen wrist in her hands, inspecting the severity of the damage done.
"Ouch!" He winced in pain when she placed her right thumb on the swollen spots.
"And your eyes!" Ifes said diverting her gaze from his wrist to his eyes which was now close to tears.
He hissed and looked away. "I was attacked."
She looked at him with her eyebrows raised questioningly. "By whom? By what?"
"I don't know!"
"What? What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I don't know the people that attacked me, and why they did this to me," he said through clenched teeth.
"I never knew the bruises were quite obvious. I'm sorry!" He exhaled sharply.
"I never intended to come to you like this."
"Come to me?! But I thought he wanted to see Mandy? Or was that a slip of tongue? Or a trick of my mind?"
"Maybe I should be on my way now." He yanked his wrist free from her hands, whirled around and made for the door.
She quickly grabbed his hands from the back, careful not to cause him further pain.
"Not yet. Allow me to administer first aid."
He glanced over his shoulders. "Thanks, I'll go to the school clinic."
"Yes, you sure will, but you need to get your first aid treatment." She gave him a look that she could only hope was reassuring.
He sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Okay, if you insist."
"Yes, I sure do." Ifes let go of his hands so he could sit on one of the seats.
Finding the first aid box didn't take long. She immediately went to work, cleaning his injury cautiously.
"Ifes, why don't you find out why he's here?" Ifes tilted her head around to check if someone had been there with them all this while as she didn't hear or see the door open.
"W–what's wrong?" Ryan asked when she abruptly stopped treating him to look around for the person with the voice.
"Nothing!" Ifes smiled, taking back her attention to what she was doing, but this time, not fully. She began to ask herself questions. Was it that he was headed here then he was attacked. Why did he not just head to the clinic? What was so important he had to risk himself to say it?
Okay Lord, I will. Help me. Let him talk.
"Umm! You said you wanted to see me?" she asked, her eyes still focused on Ryan's bloated wrist, her fingers dabbing the swellings with cold compress.
"I came to apologize for all the wrong I've done to you from our freshman year," Ryan said in one breath. One would think he had crammed the sentence and was afraid he would forget his line if he didn't spill it fast enough.
Gen-gen! Ifesinachi froze. Her heartbeat increased so fast, it could be used for a drumming and dancing competition. She felt like someone poured both hot and cold water on her.
He should be the one feeling this way. But why exactly? She didn't know. Was it that she was so excited? Or astonished? Or was it that she suddenly felt apoplectic? Probably. But hey! Why should she? Wasn't this the opportunity she had been waiting for all this time? Was this not what she wanted? To reconcile one day with Ryan, to see him give his life to Christ like Mandy, Avery and Bradley did.
Oh, Father! Just take control, I haven't heard it all but I'm so excited right now that my heart could jump out of my body. Oh, Lord, take all the glory.
Seeing that she wouldn't let him go down on his knees while apologizing, he sat back and started sobbing.
"I am a fool, a big fool! I'm so stupid, very stupid for having a wrong perception about you. I am the biggest fool on planet earth!"
"Shush! She placed her index finger on his lips. "Don't ever say that again, Ryan. You are one of the most wonderful people I have ever met."
"B–but why would you say that? After all of my meanness!" Ryan buried his face in his palm and wept some more.
Ifes patted his shoulder. "We all have a reason for all our actions."
"Yes, it all started back in our high school."
Oh! She could already guess that he wanted to tell her how it happened. What if she asked him not to bother telling her since she had heard it all from Mandy. She wanted to do that but decided to let him speak if that would help release whatever guilt he felt at that time.
"A Nigerian worked for my dad as his financial secretary, and his son was my classmate in Woodway Prep. He worked diligently for fifteen years under my dad, so my dad thought he knew him well enough to trust him with his finances.
"Sometimes, my dad even sent him as a Representative in some of his business meetings. His son, whose name was Emeka, was a dummy. Because of our close relationship with his family, my dad would always ask me to assist him in some of his school assignments, and help teach him what he didn't understand. That was because my squad of friends and I were part of the most brilliant students in our high school."
"My dad loved him like the brother he never had! Sometimes I even envied my dad because I also don't have a brother; I'm the only child of my parents. So you see, he was more than just a secretary to my dad."
Ryan looked up from his palm and tilted his head towards Ifes.
"Do you know what happened next?"
Ifes shook her head, nudging him to continue.