₦airaland Forum

-31-

FUNMI

Nowadays, there is no small child anymore. This Indomie generation are not as naïve as our parents used to be all thanks specifically to the advancements in technology and the great worldwide web. IPad and smartphones have replaced the water and brick games as kids no longer find them interesting.

This change, just like most changes is a double edged sword as while the kids now have easy access to good information, they also get to see things on the internet that can damage their under developed minds.

As I and Ayo got home to see Greg and his 'friend', Susan all alone in the house, this really bothered me because I sure hated to think that my little brother was growing a lot faster than he should.

I was a notch relieved when he explained that Susan was our new neighbours who had only moved in when I was in school and my parents had actually been the ones who instructed her to stay with him to look after him and keep him company.

On that note I and Ayo went to my room and Ayo was of course ready to tease me.

"Hope you are not going to fall for Greg's cheap lie?" She asked me.

"Thunder fire you there," I fired.

She chuckled at my response, "Seriously though, you know that's his girlfriend shey?"

"Na him sabi," I replied. I was not going to give her the satisfaction of arguing with her.

"The Susan chick is probably teaching him how to do nasty things," she pushed.

"Good for both of them," I replied plainly, "I am going to look for something to eat in the kitchen," I said as I walked out of her, walking towards the kitchen.

She followed me of course.

"At this rate, your bro would grow up to be a better player than even Maxwell," she said again.

That struck a nerve not because of what she said really but that she just succeeded in reminding of the last person I wanted on my mind, Maxwell.

"That would be nice," I refused to show any emotion. Its times like this I wish I did not know Ayo or she was still at her school.

I got to the kitchen and was going through the freezer, looking for some snack and Ayo was still trying her possible best to frustrate me when the doorbell came alive.

I rushed to open the door but Greg got to it at first. My dad and mum strolled casually into the house.

It was my mum who saw me first.

"Ah, Funmilayo come here!" She screamed in excitement and I ran into her open arms. She gripped me so tight I was scared a bone was going to break. She had clearly missed me and frankly the feeling was mutual.

"Good evening mummy and daddy," I said as I freed myself from my mum's arm.

"Which time did you get home?" My ever serious dad asked.

"About two hours ago," I lied. If I had told him the truth he would have scolded me for coming so late and I did not want the perfect moment to be spoilt.

"Hope you have eaten something?" My mum asked.

"No ma, but I'm not hungry."

"Me I am hungry o," Ayo who had been quiet all this while blurted out.

"Ah! Ayo, you are here?" My mum asked the obvious and I prayed silently that Ayo don't try to be funny and give a sarcastic response.

"Yes ma, good evening ma," she said and then turned to my dad, "good evening sir."

It was nice to know that she still had little sense in that porous head of hers.

My parents went on to as her for an explanation for why she was not in school and being a good liar, it was not hard for her to give them a cock and bull story.

They later retired to their bedroom and we did the same thing as well.

Just before we slept that night Ayo called Tunji to inform him that she was around and asked if they could see the next day. He accepted, adding that he had a surprise.

Judging from our history with Tunji, I was sure the next day was going to be eventful and I'm always right.
***

MARY-ANNE

I think I should drink more often. I had been going through so much issues that I had forgotten how to laugh and it took a couple of shots of Vodka for me to remember how to curves my lips into a smile.

Amaka assisted me to that effect though. I had not expected her to be so open and real with me so when she told me about her affair with Maxwell, I figured what the hell? I may as well open up as well.

I had always envied her. Not the evil kind of envy but the good type. I just wished I had a hot body like hers and behaved the way she did, I was too serious and stiff for my own liking so I felt really good when she complimented me. It would be really nice if we were a closer, I sure could use a best friend like her.

I was going to build on the moment by asking her about what had been bothering her so much that she too needed an excuse to stop thinking but the bald cutie who had asked her to dance with her had stopped that from happening.

I was not mad or angry at the very least when she left the lounge with the guy some minutes later cause I might have done just the same if I was in her shoes but courtesy demands that she at least waved me goodbye... But hey! I am not complaining, the new bottle of Vodka which the bartender had just brought was not going to drink itself.

As I drank all alone at the bar, my attention was drawn to a white guy who was pretty much as drunk as a fish. His dance step could be likened to one dancing to a reggae song but ironically an afro pop song blared from the speakers.

Although it was quite interesting to watch him, what really fascinated me were the group of girls that flooded him. They cheered him on as he danced and let him touch them in places and ways that was definitely improper for public viewing. I had been in enough places like this to know that they were prostitutes or what do they call it these days? Runs girls, yeah?

The girls probably assumed that since he was a foreigner, he most likely had enough money to pay for whatever services they could render. I however have an inbuilt antenna which alerts me when someone has money or not and I received no alert but who am I to judge?

As I drank my beautiful bottle of Vodka and watch the white guy dance with his new fans, I noticed when a random guy slipped into the stool that Amaka had sat on and from his reflection on the window just behind the bar I could see that he was staring keenly at me. He said nothing though but I assumed that he was probably thinking of a good pick up line.

"You know a pretty lady like you should not be drinking all alone," he finally said.

That was the most stale pick up line I had heard my whole life, I did not even know that guys still used it. I was so disappointed that I decided to ignore him.

"Can I ask you a question?" He pushed. I kept mute but that did not deter him from going on to ask the question. "Why do a beautiful lady like you have such an ugly character?" He asked.

That irked me... A nerve was struck. I slowly turned to look at him and was about to spit some venom at him but the sudden surprised expression on his face made me hesitate.

"Mary-Anne! So it's even you that's doing all this shakara for me," he said like we were some kind of close friends.

"Sorry, do I know you?" I asked as my brain was doing a deep scan of where I knew the guy.

"Oh c'mon! We've been in the same faculty and had several combined classes together for years and you want to tell me you don't know this face?" He pointed at his face.

I am not sure I know all my course mates to start with and this guy expects me to know him when all we share is a faculty?

"Err... I'm sorry, I guess I've not been observant as I should be," I apologised.

"I even helped you out in about two examinations in our year one," he added.

I am not dumb so I write all my exams myself but nobody can know everything so from time to time we all copy at exams, or am I wrong? Chances are I just asked him for a couple of answers and he's letting it get into his head.

"Anyway, it's all good since you've apologised. I'm Ebuka by the way," he said as he noticed I was not going to reply him.

"Nice to meet you," I replied. I wondered how he knew my name.

"Do you mind if I drink with you?"

"Feel free," I replied. Drinking alone is never fun.

He requested for a cup and poured some vodka in it then emptied it down his throat almost as quick as he had poured it.

"So I'm quite surprised to find you here, by such time," he said.

I was interested in this conversation, "why?" I asked.

"Well, you seem like a very reserved and quite person who would rather stay at home and watch movies," he elaborated.

I laughed, he had perfectly described me. "Are you sure you are not a psychic?" I asked.

He laughed this time, "I'm not o, I'm a serial killer though," he joked.

"What prompts you to kill?" I asked. Serial killers usually killed people in a very strict pattern.

"I usually go for pretty girls who drink alone at lounges," he grinned.

I caught myself blushing. This Ebuka guy was not as bad as I thought.

"So I should be worried then?" I asked.

"It depends, if you are of good behaviour I might let you go."

I smiled, "I'll do my best."

I took a sip from my glass and watched as he brought out his phone as it seemed he just received a message.

"Mary, I'm having such a good time and really hate to leave but something important just came up," he said looking truthfully sad.

I was sad as well, my night was looking much brighter.

"It's okay," I reluctantly said.

"Can I at least have your digits so we could hook up sometime?" He said as he stretched forward his phone for me to input my digits.

I took the phone without any hesitation and typed my number.

"Thanks, I'll call you," he said as he stood up and made to leave the lounge. I just nodded

I sat for a few seconds as I watched him leave and for some reasons I was already thinking about the possibility of us becoming good friends as well. When you are drunk, everything is heightened in your head.

I thought about the possibility of the 'something important' being his girlfriend who was waiting for him outside the lounge. I decided to see if my thoughts were right so I quickly ran after him towards the door.

I was however wrong but I saw him enter the front seat of a Range Rover Autobiography with a bald guy who looked kind of like the guy Amaka had left with about two hours ago.

I just wiped away that thought. Alcohol was really messing up with my head, I concluded. But maybe I should not have.

TO BE CONTINUED

WHIZKIDEFE:
Chai! Henry is about to be busted o

You think?

KimBerlyie:
Henry is covered IJN . Maxwell my boyfriend shldnt dare bag up oohh

lol... You know Maxwell has more than enough girls chasing him shey? Do you really want to join the queue?

mahxiimus:
You should just end the suspense.

Where's the fun in that?

Megadon109:
Would have love to click like, but I don't have a twitter a/c. good work though, keep it up!

Fair enough. Thanks.

Galacious1:
Henry is busted. Story is about to end.
I dont mind visiting twitter bcuz of u man.

I'll appreciate that.

Ay04z:
twitter is operated joor...

Operated? I don't get.

MzChistar:
I'll go any length for u, im not on twitter but will join for u. u r d best tin that has happened to literature as a whole since shakespeare

lol...Ah!!! You need to see my head right now, it's prolly going to burst in a bit

emekajerry:
9iz one Chistar u r about d best..... so far my favourite xertc still remains Amaka d babe too strit4wrd n fun typ,next na Henry diz guy na d boz alwyz av a way out n vry unpredictable

hmmmm... good to know. Thanks sir.

dannybomb:
guy ride on non-stop

Yes sir!!

Let's do a poll. When this story is completed, which it would in a bit, I'm considering running a short series on Twitter just to expand my fan base. It would be like a once a week something. So the question is this, would you follow the Twitter series or nah? Like for Follow and share for Nah.

My largest fan base is here, so I figured I'll get better response here so kindly don't ignore this as the results would assist me in making a final decision.

MAXWELL
Henry never used to be one to talk about girls and issues related to them until he met Tonia. The girl seemed to have brainwashed my guy to the point where almost everything he had to say was about her and this was starting to piss me off because I had my own issues I needed to think about.
“But Tonia sabi vex for nothing oh,” he lamented to me.
“Dude, you told her to her face that she’s a broke ass, how did you think she would react to that?” I asked looking uninterested as we sat at the back seat of a cab taking us home.
“But I been no actually mean am na, na just vex wey I been dey vex.”
“Sorry. Next time try to control your tongue when you are vexed,” I advised.
“But nawa for the babe o, why she no wan pick my call na?”
“Give her a little time, call tomorrow.”
“Time to do wetin na?”
Somebody should please shoot me already, I thought.
“Guy leave this girl gist first. I get small issue wey I know say you go fit help me with,” I said changing the topic.
“Wetin be that?”
“Some boys been obtain me this afternoon,” I complained.
“At your old age dem still dey obtain you? Nawa for you oh, abi you no get mouth to follow dem talk?”
“Guy, dem be no even allow me talk anything and dem plenty,” I explained.
“Wetin dem collect?”
“Na just my phone o,” I replied and then went on to give him a well detailed story of how it all happened including a perfect description of the guy in particular who snatched my phone.
When I was done, he was very pissed as it seemed like he knew the exact guy that snatched my phone. He brought out his phone and made a call.
“Souja Boy, you get mind collect my last born phone?” I heard him say over the phone. There was a brief silence as he listened to what the person at the other end of the line had to say.
“If dem born you well, no bring that phone come my house this night,” he said and hung up.
“All this small small boys go just dey do anyhow,” he said to me referring to Souja Boy, “no worry my guy, the bastard go bring your phone come this night,” he added.
“Rugged you,” I said as I anchored him. I was really starting to consider bagging up. Bagging up is a phrase which means joining a frat.
The rest of the trip home was less adventurous. We got home about ten minutes later and after settling the bills we walked into the compound.
A thought crossed my mind as we climbed to Funmi’s floor. It seemed like a good time to talk to her about what had transpired earlier in the day but after banging at her door for what felt like hours and getting no response, I gathered she was not at home and gave up.
By the time I got up stairs Henry was already at the balcony smoking a joint. I was already smoking too much so I didn’t join him but rather went for my remaining bottle of vodka and joined him at the balcony.
“This one wey you don come up now now, e be like say the babe no dey?” He asked me.
“I guess so.”
“What’s up with the two of you sef? The package don click?” He asked. He was trying to ask if I and Funmi were officially an item.
“Nah, far from that actually. She been catch me dey kiss Mary-Anne this afternoon?”
“You are back with that bitch?” He asked looking all surprised.
“God forbid, e get as the story be, I said.
“I been think say na my matter bad pass o,” he said laughing.
“I been just dey look you when you dey complain about Tonia matter. You wey never see anything.”
“Well, you na baddo na,” he said and I was about to deny his accusation when a bang at the door stopped me.
It was about 12am, who could be knocking at the door by this ungodly hour?
I went to look through the peep hole and was surprised by who I saw.
“It’s Amaka,” I said to Henry.
TO BE CONTINUED

Canme4u:
Double Wahala for dead body.

and the owner of dem body

lumzybo:
She has no orientation @ all. Even Henry too. I wonder what they were all doing arnd the schl. They shld av laid low.

You sound really experienced, should we be worried?

nikz:
Wow! Kip it coming ........ure good

I try my best...

BadBullet:
secret agents are bad guys
i see Amaka spilling the beans oo

you are probably right or nah...

Galacious1:
wow! some peeps are just too gud for my liking. I've learnt a lot from you chistar01

Apart from entertaining you guys, the primary purpose of this story is to enlighten the readers. Glad I have succeeded in doing both duties.

mahxiimus:
I so much hate suspense. Keep it up tho

lol... mzchistar has said it all. Thanks though.

MzChistar:
i knew dis case wud turn to anoda thing. amaka should av just laid low for a while na. so all of skinny's mouth na just wash?

lol.. don't be too sure

KimBerlyie:
Chistar01

yo!

DY20:
Me and my siblings are glued to your story.. The matured ones though.. keep it coming chistar.

lol... Thanks. Do keep out of reach of kids... ejoor o

Favour222:
2 bad 4 Amaka.keep it coming dear u 2 much

Eniqurl:
Where is Chistar01 now

see me here

Encorecasmie:
I just came..
Dz movie pure ahbeg..since 2k14..
BTW, @chistar01, kudos...ure v.good!
Keepin' mah fingers crossed..

thanks sir

-30-

FUNMI

I was surprised at how good it tasted. This was actually the first time I had tasted Ayo's food, that's of course minus the regular Noodles and Spaghetti I expect everybody knows how to cook and I was impressed... Very much impressed.

She had cooked jollof rice and beans and I am sure that even the Ghanaians who always argued about which jollof is superior would have stopped such senseless argument if they had tasted as much as a spoon of Ayo's miracle jollof.

We emptied the entire pot in a rush and I went on to start teasing her over her poor measurement. That was our first meal of the day and she had cooked just enough for us to have just one round each. If the food turned out to be less tasty, I would have teased her for cooking too much though.

Once the plates were washed and everything in the kitchen returned back to normal, the electricity distribution company decided to surprise us and supply us power. The scream of 'up NEPA!' Was so loud that I was sure even people on Mars must have heard. Less the generator supply, we had not as much as had our light bulbs blink even once for over two months I had been in the school so the ear deafening scream was expected.

I looked down at the street from my balcony and saw people dancing all over right there in the middle of the road. The last time I think Nigerians had been so excited was when the news of Sani Abacha's deaths reached the masses. The funny thing about this whole situation is that the electricity distribution company always bring new bills every month, light or no light, this makes me wonder how they get the details they type on the bill.

In matters of seconds almost everybody in the lodge had switched on their home theatres and started jamming up. I could not exactly make out any song anyone was playing as the sounds all got mixed up so I locked my doors and windows to obstruct the noise from penetrating and that worked like magic.

I was not exactly left out of the excitement as I quickly ran into the room and slotted the best Korean movie I had in my into the CD player and just when I was about to sit down to watch the movie the worse happened; the power supply was cut off.

Thousands of hearts were broken. Even Ayo who I had expected to laugh at me was too heart broken to do that. I pinched my myself for even falling for the electricity distribution company cheap trick.

If it's too good to believe then you are probably right.

Down and dejected, we both returned to the balcony to chill and Ayo starts rolling another blunt, I could not understand how the cannabis still remained. Once she was done rolling it, she lit it without second thoughts.

I stared at her keenly for a brief moment and was impressed at how delicately she handled the blunt, I even considered taking a drag but my subconscious kicked against such thoughts with immediate effect. My years of good home training was finally paying of.

She was so much engrossed in smoking the blunt that she totally ignored my presence so I went to the room and picked up my phone where I had plugged it for it to charge and took it to the balcony. I needed to keep myself company.

I went to my music player and started playing a rather slow song before going on to reply my Whatsapp messages and then a text message from my service provider led me to my inbox and that was when I was reminded of the text my dad had sent earlier.

"Let's go to my house," I suggested to Ayo. I had planned on disobeying my dad so I could have time to spend with Maxwell but I did not want that anymore so what was keeping me in school? I thought. Besides I had not exactly kept my deal of visiting home every weekend as I and dad had initially agreed.

"Which house?" She asked.

"My family house," I replied. "The only thing we will end up doing if we stay here is waste money and food stuffs."

She thought about it for a brief second, "If we go today, when would we come back?" She asked.

"Monday na... Besides, I hear Tunji is still around o," I winked at her. Tunji was a guy she had history with, I'll explain more on that another time.

She smiled and looked at her phone to check the time, "don't you think it's quite late to be going home now?"

"I know a short route that would take less than thirty minutes," I replied, dad had made sure home was not so far away.

"Okay then, let's do this. But I must finish my joint first, you can go and start packing."

Having convinced her, packing was not so much of a big deal. Since I was going to just be away for a few days and I had more than enough clothes to wear at home all I really needed to pack was my laptop and a couple of handouts I had photocopied just incase I felt like reading.

Few minutes later she had finished smoking her blunt and we were out of the house not long after.

The road was very free surprisingly and we got to my door steps five minutes than I had anticipated.

My junior brother jumped on me immediately he opened the door. I almost fell in the process, the boy was just thirteen years old but had the weight of a thirty years old man. How he grew that fast in just few weeks was something I could not decipher.

"Ah! Sister Ayo you are welcome o, do you go to the same school with my sister?" He asked Ayo who I noticed had purposely kept my brother, Greg, at arms length so he wouldn't be able to jump on her as well.

"I don't Greg, well, not yet though. How are you na?" She replied.

"I'm fine, hope you bought something for me?" He asked.

"I sure did! But I will only give it to you tomorrow because I want to make sure you are still the good boy I used to know," She lied. A rather good lie, don't you think?

"Where is daddy and mummy?" I asked.

"Daddy is not yet back from work and mummy is still at the shop."

"So you are the only one in the house?"

"No o, my friend is in the parlour," he said excitedly.

It was only then I realised we had been standing at the door all this while.

I led the way into the house and bolted it. The parlour was of course the first place we walked into and that was when we saw Greg's friend.

"Good evening," said the girl who did not look so much like Greg's age mate, her big boobs was evidence of that, a quick glance at her and I noticed she even had bigger boobs than me.

I looked at Greg and then at Ayo, she smiled at me and I figured she was probably thinking what I was thinking.

It was almost 7pm and my junior brother of thirteen was all alone with such a busty in the house.

He definitely had some serious explanation to do.


TO BE CONTINUED

PS: This is just part A of chapter 30 and I will post the other part here later on. The complete chapter is already on my blog though so if you cannot wait till I post it her click on this link https://sochistar./2016/05/21/why-i-want-to-be-bad-30/ to read it on my blog.

Do have a lovely day.

PEACe

KimBerlyie:
Ghen ghen

lol! exactly the reaction i was going for

-29-

AMAKA

"You know say you no need fear anything or anybody for this school abi?" Skinny asked. He was sipping directly from a bottle of beer as he spoke.

"But what if the workers at the hotel decide to talk?" I asked. That was my major concern, I have heard so many stories about Nigerian prison and that's not a place someone should look forward to.

He laughed one of those sinister laughter evil people laugh when they see their evil plans taking place without a hitch.

"No worry about that one babe," he said coldly.

I decided that maybe he was right and I was just over reacting. I stood up to go to the kitchen to get a beer and just as I came back to have my seat Skinny took a glance at his wrist watch and suddenly remembered he had somewhere he had to be.

I was so relieved that he was finally about to leave.

"Take my number, you go need am," he suggested before going on the call the eleven digits.

Once he had made me dial the number so that he too would have my number he was gone.

I walked to the table and dropped the scissors I had placed in my back pocket.

Once again I was all alone in my house.

It was evening already, I did not even notice when time went by so fast and I noticed the Whatsapp messages had stopped coming so my phone insistent buzzing had stopped. I could not be more thankful.

I scanned through the messages quickly and learnt that the police had finally controlled and dispatched the crowd. Two students and one police were fatal victims of the riot. Apparently the riot had turned into a war as students who had guns started shooting back at the police, they had to call for reinforcements and once the reinforcements came hundreds of people got injured in the process but eventually the police had dispersed the crowd.

I was sad because of the death of those students and I knew staying at home would only make me think endlessly and maybe make me to start to panic again so I decided to go out and do something fun to get my mind of the issues that burdened it.

I wore a jean and a top before I left my house.

I almost ran into Mary-Anne as I walked out of my house in a rush, I could barely breath in there.

"Are you going out?" Mary-Anne asked.

"Kinda. What's up? Were you coming to see me again?"

"Sorta... I'm bored to the teeth and trying not to think about certain things."

"Well, that makes us two. I'm going to look for somewhere to chill as well in an attempt to run away from my thoughts."

She chuckled, "can I tag along?"

I thought about it, I could really use some company. "Sure," I said excitedly.

She watched me locked my door and then we both walked out of the compound.

At first I was not sure of where we should go to but then I some girls walked pass us looking all flashy and that gave me an idea.

I stopped a cab that was about to zoom pass us and directed the guy to take us to a fairly popular lounge around school.

As we drove pass school area, the air was still a bit choking probably due to the tear gas that was released in the area and the road looked like somewhere a serious war had happened. This sight saddened me.

We got to the lounge few minutes later and I was glad to see that the riot had not stopped people from turning up as we were welcomed by a burst of extremely loud music.

The atmosphere was electric as people danced all over the place to a reigning Nigerian pop song.

I looked around for somewhere to sit and noticed that all the couches were taken so we had to manage the stools at the bar.

"You drink alcohol right?" I asked Mary-Anne. I had to literally scream into her ears before she could hear me, all thanks to the massive speakers.

She nodded I response so I went on to order for a bottle of Vodka, a drink Maxwell had thought me to love.

I took poured a shot into Mary-Anne's glass and then poured in mine.

"Why don't you propose a toast?" Mary-Anne asked me.

I thought about it and then smiled as I figured out the perfect toast, "we drink to a night where all our problems, whatever they might be are forgotten."

We clinged our glasses before downing the contents in one quick gulp. I filled our glasses once again and downed the contents again but Mary-Anne was probably not as excited as me as she didn't rush the second glass but that was not my problem, the goal was to get drunk as fast as possible.

"So tell me, what's on your mind that you don't want to think about it?" I asked after downing my third shot.

"I'll rather not talk about it," She replied.

"Let me guess, boyfriend issues?" I pushed on, I knew that's the only thing girls like Mary-Anne thought about.

"Kinda," she replied rather reluctantly.

"Maxwell or Henry?" I asked. I knew those why the only two guys she had things with. I figured that out when she was at the hospital.

"I'm not sure of what exactly you are asking me here," she replied as she took her second shot.

"I know that you are fucking both of them," I blurted totally forgetting she was not supposed to know I knew about her and Henry.

Damn you alcohol!

She instantly became pale. She poured some vodka into her cup and drank it all, "how do you know that?" She finally asked.

"Because I and Maxwell used to Bleep although we stopped a long time ago and won't mind fucking Henry as well, so tell me, what's he like in bed?" I replied. The alcohol was clearly taking effect.

I had obviously struck a nerve as she became more pale and then went on to take three straight shots of vodka totally emptying the bottle in the process

"Bartender bring another bottle," she instructed then looked at me mutely for a while before replying, "he's a beast in bed!" She exclaimed.

We both bursted out in laughter. That was so unexpected from her.

"So what's the problem?" I asked her when we had collected ourselves.

"Maxwell found out about my one night stand with Henry and refuses to forgive me. I love the guy so it's driving me crazy," she explained.

"How did he find out?"

"I don't know o, I guess he saw something suspicious and then asked me if its true so I told him the truth."

"Babe I must say, I used to think you are some kind of loner but it turns out you are a nasty bitch, we would make really good friends," I suggested.

"It's not like that jhur, the Henry thing was an accident!" She lamented.

"So you just tripped and fell on his dick right?" I laughed.

"That's exactly the question Maxwell asked me when I told him it was a mistake," she said, "I just mean that I did not exactly plan to do what I did."

Before I could reply, a guy, dark skinned with no single strand of hair on his head walked up to me and asked if I cared to dance with him. He was so handsome and he’s baritone voice made it impossible to turn down the offer.

He took my hands and led me to the dance floor. I staggered a bit and nearly fell but his hands were there to save me.

“Seems you’ve drank quite a lot?” he rhetorically asked, “You don’t have to bother dancing with me if it would be too much work.”

“Nah, I’m fine,” I said as I gained back my stamina. He was too handsome for me to reject the offer to dance with him.

“Well, show me what you’ve got,” he said as he spanned me around and came closer to me, o could feel his breath on my neck as he exhaled.

His hands started wandering and for some reasons I did not want that just yet so I grabbed both his hands and pushed him to the wall where I went down on him. As my arse caressed his laps, I could feel his rod get erect, just as I had expected.

“Do you want to go somewhere more private?” he whispered in my ears.

“Sure,” I said. People naturally do not make the best decisions when they are drunk.

He took my hands and led me out of the lounge down to the car park where his car, a 2015 Range Rover Autobiography stood out amongst other cars. I had hit the jackpot!

I hopped in without taking second thoughts and he drove off without saying a word to me.

We drove for a while and I was starting to worry where he was taking me when he suddenly pulled to a halt right in the middle of the road.

“Your name is Amaka right?” he asked.

I could not remember telling him my name. “How do you know that?” I asked all surprised.

“I work for the Nigerian secret service and I think you have some information concerning the murder of one of your school lecturers.”

I immediately started regretting my decision to leave my house.

TO BE CONTINUED

Megadon109:
Correct bobo! Relax ur nerves so that 2moro upd8 will be long

New updates coming up asap. thanks for following.

druxy:
aaha bro not again...no prob sha tomorrow

arabaribiti:
Its been long I hail someone but for this I no get choice cos I be confirm bariga man omo iya ori e ofoka sibe, oya owo meji fun enikan, o ti poju o popopo, olorun ko e je bi superpack so fun won ko ma lo wa.keep it up bro you are good.

, Eshe.

MzChistar:
chistar i av just one personal question 2 ask u, do u smoke?

lol... Do you think i smoke?

stuff46:
Good job boss, still I follow.

dadido:
Chistar u are talented

thanks

HDoc:
Dude U 2 much,ride on.

yaaga!!!

segsbenks:
hmmmm lik waow! chistar lik seriously am lost in waaaaaaoooooowwwwww!!!!!!!. Bros to say d fact "u ar killing it ". hop u ar still expecting dose "oder tins "just keep d update cumin, i will get back to you on dat. in love with ur works bro!

patiently waiting.

Eniqurl:
Following

was starting to wonder where you are... It's good to have you here.

-28B-

HENRY

If you go to a 'mama put' eatery and eat free food the highest they can do to you is make you wash plate that would be equivalent to the price of food you ate and that would be all.

But the system in a more advanced setting is quite different.

I searched every corner of my pocket reverently and by the time I was through beads of sweat had started forming on my face.

"What's the problem?" Tonia asked as she had been staring keenly at me for a while, probably hoping I explained the situation to her.

"My wallet is gone," I said rather dramatically.

"Have you checked your pockets?" She was starting to panic.

She had watched me search my pockets just not too long ago and her she was, asking the obvious. I decided not to give her an answer that I might regret later.

"Wait here, let me go and check the cinema."

I left the eatery and walked to the cinema where we had just left but the security guard refused to grant me access without a ticket because apparently, another movie had started.

After speaking all the grammar I could think of and watched as it all fell on deaf ears, I had to retire back to the eatery.

By the time I got back there, I saw two uniformed men standing beside Tonia.

"Young man, is there any problem here?" One of the guard asked me.

"What makes you think that there might be a problem?" I asked defensively.

"I was the one who called them," Tonia replied. "I was hoping they could be of some assistance."

I glared at Tonia for this unnecessary act and wanted to punch her in the face. I know she had done the right thing but at that moment I was not thinking straight and everything she did pissed me off as I felt it was all her fault.

"Did you find your wallet sir?" The other security guard had asked.

"No, I was not granted access into the cinema where I guess I lost it."

"Okay then, come with me in that case." He said.

We went back to the cinema and I was allows access this time only that my wallet was nowhere to be found.

"Don't you have some cash on you, lets settle this bill and get out of here," I asked Tonia when we were back. "I'll reimburse you," I added.

"I can only afford to pay about half of the bill," she said.

"How can you be so broke?!" I heard myself ask angrily before I could stop myself.

Immediately I noticed what I had just done I started apologising but Tonia said nothing... Absolutely nothing.

"Sir can the both come with us?" One of the guards politely asked like we had an option, whereas in reality that was not even a debatable question.

We walked behind them in silence as they led us out of the eatery and then out of the mall down to the back where we entered a small building which I immediately noticed was the security house. Wondering how I knew that? Well you tend to know all these things when experience has taught you a lesson in the past.

"Wait here," one of the guard informed us before I watched him walk through a door and come out minutes later with a more elderly man.

"Young man, I heard you don't want to pay for services rendered," the elderly man said to me.

"My wallet is missing sir and all my cash and credit cards are in it," I replied.

"Well, you understand that there's not much we can do about that. You just have to pay."

I was quiet. I did not even know what else to say, I had never felt so embarrassed before all my life. The money was there but I had lost access to it and just as a smart idea popped up in my head the elderly man suggested the same thing.

"Don't you have someone that you can call on phone that would come and help you out?" He asked.

I had just one person I could call that would definitely be able and willing to help, Maxwell.

With a new wave of enthusiasm I pick up my phone and dialed his number but it was switched off and for a brief moment I panicked but then I remembered that he had tried calling Funmi with my phone some days back when he had no network on his phone.

I searched for the number and dialed it, luckily she picked on the first ring.

"Funmi?" I asked.

"Yea, who is this?"

"It's Henry, are you home?"

"Yea," she replied after a brief silence, she was probably wondering why I cared to ask.

"I'm trying to get to Maxwell but he's number is switched off, can you please go up stairs and give him the phone quickly? It's an emergency."

I listened as she went upstairs and banged the door so hard my ears hurt.

Shortly afterwards Maxwell was on the line. I told him my current situation and as expected he he offered to help out even before I asked him to. The joy in my heart flowed like a river.

I informed all interested parties about the new new situation and everyone was relieved, even the elderly man.

As we waited for Maxwell to come and bail us I tried to apologise to Tonia but she just ignored me. At some point I got tired of begging and kept quiet myself.

It took Maxwell about an hour to get to the mall and that felt like the longest one hour I had had my whole life. How my perfect date had turned out like this baffled me.

Two attempts at a date and both of them ending on bad notes. First we had to run from the police and now we could not afford to pay for our meals, how perfect!

Once Maxwell settled the bills and we were released from their custody Tonia stood up from her seat and made to walk out of the security building.

"Don't ever call me or try to talk to me again!" She said just before she stormed out of the building.

Maxwell was too surprised to open his mouth for a while but when he did all that came out of it was uncontrollable laughter.

TO BE CONTINUED

-28-

FUNMI

The only thing more difficult than writing Chemistry 130 examinations is trying to understand the way the male mind works. They never know for sure what exactly they want and to cover up their cluelessness they say females are more complicated than they are.

Guys tell you they love you, they cannot live without you, they cannot get you out of their mind and do almost anything just to get your attention but when they eventually get the long anticipated attention they change the story right before your very eyes as they start complaining that you are too available and tell you they need a little space.

I am not speaking out of experience because I am too smart for that but I have friends who have experienced things like this and I always wonder if they are so blind to see that the guys are in it just for the thrill of the chase and perhaps sex and just when they get those things they lose interest and then go on to look for another unsuspecting victim to do the same thing to. It goes round and round.

I would not lie, I actually liked Maxwell. I mean with those pink lips, his curly hair which is either black or brown pending on how the light hits it and his ability to always know the right words to say, which girl would not like him? But just like every other guy, he is fantastically deceitful and I cannot deal with the kind of drama and heartaches dating a guy like him would bring.

“Abeg, where you keep your salt sef?” Ayo asked as she tasted the food she was cooking. It was only then I noticed I had been lost in my thoughts.

“Check the white container,” I instructed her.

She added salt to the food and then came to join me at the balcony where I sat down, the kitchen was just right before the balcony.

She had rolled a blunt before she started cooking so all she needed to do was to light it. Once it was lighted she offered it to me but I refused so she retracted her hands and continued smoking the joint.

“Where did you get the weed from?” she asked.

“Maxwell gave me.”

“Chai, you be small ashewo with style o,” she teased me, “you just use the weed as excuse to go talk to the guy.”

I was not surprised at this statement, Ayo had always been able to read me like a book. “No be wetin been dey my mind o,” I denied still.

“You no even sabi sef, you no know say na better bump short you for wear before you go see am? Na so dem dey take catch fine boys like that” she went on to ask.

“I’m not trying to seduce him,” I said plainly. It was quite disappointing to hear her talk about the guy I did not want to even think about in such manner. Who fine boy don help? Fine at face and ugly at heart.

“Abegi! Forget that thing,” she waved her hand as if to signify her pushing my fable denial away, “give me better gist, wetin you and the guy been reason na?”

“I caught him kissing some other girl,” I said staring at my feet. It only felt right that I opened up to her.

Ayo is a weird girl and just as expected she did a weird thing. She bursted out into an uncontrollable laughter frenzy.

“It’s not funny,” I lamented but that only added fuel to the already wild fire.

She only stopped laughing when the smoke from the blunt choked her and turned her laughter to a coughing marathon. By the time she caught her breath her eyes were pepper red.

“You see, if you wear a bump short anytime he’s around I am sure he would not have any reason to kiss another girl but you would say ‘I am not trying to seduce him’,” she said that last part trying to mimic my tone.

I wished she had choked to death.

“If I have to be nude to get his attention then I don’t want his attention!”

“Babe, I did not say you should go naked, I only said you should wear something sexy. Guys are easily moved by what they see so you have to show him the right stuffs,” She explained, “anyway, what happened after you caught him?”

“He tried to explain but I was not really interested in whatever lie he was about to spill so I just asked for your weed and left when I got it.”

“Do you really like the guy?” she asked me the dreaded question.

“Maybe I did before but not anymore,” I replied. I frankly felt that way.

“Because of what you thought you saw shey?”

“Madam! Are you on my side or on his side? I said I saw him kissing a girl abi I don’t know when two people are kissing again?” I asked irritated by her assumption. I know what I saw!

“I’m not on anybody’s side here,” she stood up to go and check the food on the fire before coming back and adding, “even though you won’t admit it anymore, I know you like the guy and I saw the way he stared at you. You don’t look at someone that way unless you really have true feelings for the person so maybe you should give him a chance to explain himself, there’s always more to what meets the eye.”

I thought about what Ayo had just said, “when you start to dey get sense?“ I asked. She had never said anything that smart all her life.

She laughed, “That’s why some people call this thing Solomon’s grass,” she was referring to the weed, “a taste of the ganja and you’ll attain wisdom.”

***

MAXWELL

I was just sitting in my balcony all alone trying to loosen my tensed nerves when I started hearing Funmi and Ayo talking from the apartment down below. I reduced the volume of my laptop so I could hear them clearly.

I heard them talk about my matter and was glad to know that her friend, Ayo on my side even though she told Funmi otherwise.

Their conversation was quite enlightening as I got the answer of a question that had given me much headache; was Funmi eventually going to let me explain how my lips ended up colliding with Mary-Anne?

I had heard enough and decided it was time to give them some privacy as they started talking about a Telemundo program they were following, so I left the balcony and went to sleep my long anticipated sleep with a smile firmly planted on my face.

However, a series of loud bangs on my door made me jerk up from my bed and briskly walk towards the door to open it. Lo and behold, Funmi stood at my door post.

“Well look what do we have here,” I said with a warm smile. So she could not even wait for me to come to her?

“Maxwell be serious! I think something bad has happened,” she said. She clearly was not here to talk about whatever was going on between us.

TO BE CONTINUED

PS: I'm tired and my body hurts in places you guys can't imagine so I decided to stop here for today. The second half of this chapter would come tomorrow so you can look forward to that. It would definitely be worth the wait, trust me.

PEACe

Hey guys! today was a bit hectic and I'm only just getting home. I just started typing today's update so it might come a little bit late.

I see all you guys lovely and encouraging comments and I'm grateful. Do keep them coming.
PEACe.

27b

AMAKA

I am a very stubborn and disobedient person, I do not like being forced to follow any rule as I love my independence and would not trade it for anything. I can be plain rude to anyone to prove this point.

As a child, my mum used to be the only person who could call me to order because the only thing I feared more than losing my independence was the double-mouthed koboko which always seemed to only appear when she wanted to use it on me. I tired several times to look for the whip so as to dispose it but all to no avail.

However, at the same time I loved my mum so much because I could always vouch that she would have my back in any wahala my big mouth might have gotten me into even though I was the guilty one.

Watching the skinny guy bolt the door after making such statement made me wish I was still a child because I knew my super mum would save me once again but that was not to be the case this time.

I was scared to the bone. If this guy decides to hurt me or even kill me there was very little I could do to stop him.

"You said Henry sent you right?" I asked, trying all my possible best to play it cool.

"Yes," he said plainly as he looked round the house.

"We haven't been formally introduced, I'm Amaka," I said as I stretched a hand forward.

"They call me Skinny T," he replied as he took my hand and held it a little longer than necessary before left it. I was so scared!

"I have Orijin in the fridge, should I get you a bottle?" I pushed on.

He was quiet for a while before he replied, "you be like correct babe, but why you dey Bleep up?"

I was surprised, "Bleep up? As how now." I asked.

"Why you go send Biggie that kain message Na?" He asked.

I had to make a decision. Either to just play dumb and act like I do not know what he is talking about and sees where that leads or just play along.

"The guy no dey pick my calls and you know say school don scatter, I need to dey updated na," I decided to play along, but frankly I had no idea what I said there.

"Na wetin you for send am be that, you no know say them no dey threaten Chief Whip?" He asked me.

I figured Chief Whip must be some very important title.

"I no too reason am, abeg no vex," I apologised. Mum had always said that a simple apology can be the difference between life or death.

He looked at me for a brief moment and I stared at him right back in the eyes. At that moment I do not know where I got the courage but I feared no one.

It was like a who's going to blink first situation. Veins were bulging, I clenched my teeth so hard it hurt just to make sure I showed no fear.

He suddenly broke the stare and started walking towards my kitchen, "Na for your kitchen the beer dey?"

I was relieved. I let go of my clenched teeth.

"Check inside the fridge. The top compartment," I said as I sat down grabbing the scissors on the table and slotting it into my back pocket.

Just in case.

TO BE CONTINUED.

-27-

MAXWELL

I swear, I am tired of this pot of beans life. I think I need some serious deliverance because it is like my village people are just busy shoot spiritual arrows of problems my way.

My phone was stolen because I was attempting to be caring and then the last person I wanted to see popped up at my doorsteps unannounced then went on to kiss me, unannounced as well. Just when I thought my day could not get any better, the girl who I only just discovered I sincerely liked recently - Funmi, decided to visit me out of the blues. I am pretty sure she has never climbed above her floor since she moved into the lodge but just had to explore the building the one brief moment I wish she had not... So you see why I think my village witch have a hand in my matter?

After praying at the church the other day when Funmi came over to take me back to the hospital, my relationship life had started to take shape, surprisingly without me actually doing anything.

Mary-Anne who I was not sure if I should break up with her or choose to be faithful to only her had eliminated herself from the equation following her sexual activity with my roommate and best friend, who does that anyway?

Amaka on the other hand has been really scarce. No phone calls, no text message, the only contact we make is on Whatsapp where we do not even chat but when we both notice we are online on Whatsapp we go ahead to change our display picture every minute in an attempt to show the other that we are doing just fine without the each others company. So basically the forces of time and space had also eliminated Amaka from the equation, leaving just Funmi or so I had thought.

To tell you the gospel truth, I am sure I lost my guard for a micro second when Mary-Anne's lips had collided mine. What I am not sure of is whether that was just a one-time mistake or if my subconscious was trying to tell me I was not ready to let go of her.

"So can you help me with the cannabis?" Funmi had to say to snap me back to reality.

I was surprised by that question, "What do you need cannabis for?" I asked.

"I want to use it to cook," she said but then gave a face that made me know she was just being sarcastic.

Did you know that minus your regular addition of Cannabis to your meals, especially beans, you can actually ground the seed to make a porridge - gruel - or baked into cakes or bread. Hemp seed is the single most complete food on the planet and can be grown quickly almost anywhere, yet the world is allowed to starve as a result of the often total prohibition of cannabis. I am not a weed activist or trying to promote the usage of the plant so I would not go on to tell you about the conspiracy behind the issue of the legalization.

"I swear Funmi, what you saw is not what it looks like," I said. I figured she was just using the cannabis talk as an excuse not to address the issue at hand but I was not going to let her do that. The issue must be addressed.

"Am I speaking Chinese or you did not hear what I just said? You owe me no explanation! All I want to know right now is if you have some cannabis or not?" She said plainly.

I was confused. What this girl wanted to do with the Cannabis baffled me but I was not going to ask her what she needs it for again to avoid another unnecessary sarcastic response. You know how some people just need time and space to cool down when they are pissed? decided to just give her what she wants and try to salvage the situation some other time.

"I think I should have some in the house," I said.

"Maxwell, you now smoke?" Mary-Anne who had not said much in a while finally asked.

"Can you please leave my door post so I can attend to my guest?" I ignored her initial question, as far as I was concerned she had lost all her right to even speak to me, let alone ask me a question.

She quietly moved out of the way and at long last I got access to my house.

In reality, I actually had no hemp in my possession but I trust Henry to have, all I needed to do was just find where he kept it. This was not hard to do as he had this school bag that acted more of a decorative piece as he never wore it but hung it on the wall. I had known Henry long enough to know that he always kept his stash in the bag and one glance into the bag proved two things. One, I was right and two, Henry was probably dealing as he had so much hemp in the bag that the only other possibility was he was planning a party.

"How much do you need?" I had to go back out of the house to ask Funmi who had not move an inch closer to my house.

"Just a little would do," she replied.

"Well, you'll have to come closer to collect it." I said in an attempt to draw her closer. It worked.

I package a little in a piece of paper and handed it over to her. She said her thanks and left without saying a word.

"Is that your new girlfriend?" Mary-Anne asked. She had already made herself comfortable as she sat on the bed.

Which kind of pest is this one? I thought.

"How is that any of your business?" I replied with a question.

"You like dating strange girls."

"Well look at how perfect that's working out for me."

"Don't worry about her, she'll come around. All this one she's doing is shakara, my sis would call it initial gra gra."

"Yea... Whatever. I want to rest and I need no disturbance so can I please have some privacy?" She had over stayed her welcome, hec! She was not even welcomed in the first place.

"I'll leave on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You would stop ignoring my calls and promise that you'll make time so we can talk about us."

"There is no 'us' anymore."

"Then I'm not going anywhere," she crossed her legs for effect.

I really needed to sleep and I simply could not drag her out of my house like she is garbage, even though we all agree she is. I decided I had to compromise.

"I need time and space to think," I started to say, "don't call me, I'll call you."

"Do I have your word?"

I sighed, "yea, if that would make you leave now."

"Alright then," she said as she stood up and walked out of the house. "I'll be expecting your call," she added before she locked the door behind her.

Good radiance to bad rubbish!

Now before I slept I decided to loosen my nerves. I grabbed Henry's bag, a pack of rolling papers, a lighter and went to the balcony where a very comfortable chair awaited me.

I switched on my laptop and played one of my favourite Burna Boy jam.

How would you like, to smoke some weed? He asked passionately over the speakers.

@Toykathy - Hello ma'am... i kind of dropped a post here mentioning all my followers her on NL but I was banned and the post hidden. I had to send the mod an email to rectify the situation and it was rectified... well not entirely as apparently it's against the rules to post messages with so many monikers listed. It's good to have you here, I'll send you a mail asap.

-26-

MARY-ANNE

I think I was going crazy. Should it be possible to think about someone this much? I mean if someone does not want to talk to you, and you try to make them see reason why they should not make such decision but they still do not want your presence, you should be able to get them of your mind and move on with your life.

I had actually been true myself and avoided calling Maxwell all morning even though that was the most difficult thing I had had to do all my life but I was at the verge of breaking down.

Crying was not exactly an option because I had tried that already but nothing had change so the thought of crying did not even cross my mind, but still what could I do to keep him out of my head now that Amaka had indirectly chased me out of her house.

Speaking of Amaka, I am pretty sure she has nowhere to go to but probably just want to be alone. You see the funny thing about this life? While I do not want to be alone to avoid thinking too much, someone else wants to be alone so she can think. What she has to think about that is so important she had to chase me out of her house baffles me though.

Back then, before I made a few friends and actually had reasons to leave my house, I used to depend on novels to keep me company. As a matter of fact, I am that kind of girl who would take a novel to a night club and actually succeed in reading it while other people get drunk and dance like 'Cele' church members during praise and worship.

With that in mind, I dug out one of my old novels which I never really got the chance to finish and started reading it. I had forced myself to read the first two chapters before I closed the book and threw it to the wall angrily. Who was I deceiving? The book was so boring or maybe that's not what I wanted to do at the moment.

I needed to talk to Maxwell. I needed a chance to explain to him that whatever that might have happened between me and Henry was a huge mistake. I thought about calling him one more time but I already knew the outcome of that so I made up my mind to go to his place, at least that way I am guaranteed an audience.

Choosing which clothes to wear was easy, the goal was to dress so sexy that the mere sight of me would make him forget all that has happened in the past and just take me back... I could not bear the thought of having lost him forever. Once I was done dressing, I grabbed my purse and left the house heading for Maxwell's place.

I got to his place about twenty minutes later and after banging the door for five minutes and getting no response I decided that there were two possibilities. Either he was in there and knowing it was me, refused to open the door or he was not home, whatever be the case I was going to wait till he opens the door to address me or comes back from wherever he went to.

Luckily I did not have to wait much as I saw him walk out of the staircase and down the hallway towards his door few minutes later. For a moment he looked like Daenerys Targaryen walking out of a burning temple of dosh khaleen with her boobs all bare and I actually considered bowing down to him but that would have been awkward. I smiled at this thought and for a moment things seemed like they would be alright but that moment was short lived.
"What the fkuc are you doing here?!" He said immediately he got close to me.
I have never been known to someone who is good with words even though I actually know more words than most people my age, I mean at the age of 14 I represented my school at one major spelling bee competition and brought home the gold medal, the runner up was 17 years old. But constructing wit-cracking sentences to serve my purposes was not just my forte.

I had a dazed expression on my face. The way he had fired the question had left me dumbfounded. I just could not understand how someone who had confessed so much love for me just recently suddenly stopped loving me to the extent of asking what I was doing at his place as if to say I am not welcomed, he could not even at least let me in his house before asking such question.

"I asked you a bloody question!" He yelled at me once again as I had been mute. He seemed really angry about something and I was sure it was not all about me.

"I... I was.." I stuttered before deciding to reply from another approach, "you were not picking my calls and I desperately had to talk to you."

"So avoiding your calls was not enough sign to let you know that I don't want to talk to you?"

"Maxwell, please don't do this to me, I can't live without you," I pleaded.

"Look at this LovePeddler o, so you did not know that one when you opened your legs anyhow shey?" He asked.

"You know me better than anyone else on this planet... You know I'm not a LovePeddler. I just don't know what happened, I guess maybe Henry had drugged the Suya he brought that night or something because I don't even know when he removed my clothes."

"I don't have energy for this kain talk this afternoon, excuse me let me enter my house. I need to sleep." He said and made to push me out of the way but then I did something unexpected, I leaned over and kissed him.

Now, before you start to judge me and call me a desperate h0e, I want you to understand that I make really bad decisions when I am not emotionally stable and you can use the Henry incident as reference.

For a brief while, I think Maxwell actually kissed me back but then he started trying to pull out but I held on to him until I heard someone call his name. I was so stunned I had to let go.

He turned to look at the person who had just called his name and I saw his face grow pale right before my eyes. I could see the despair in his eyes as he turned to look at me and back at the girl who frankly looked really disappointed.

"Funmi, it's not what it looks like," he pleaded as he walked towards her.

She was quiet for a few seconds but then when she spoke, even I was surprised

"I really don't care about what it looks like but I came to as you where I can get cannabis to buy."

***

HENRY

My date was going as perfect as I had imagined I to be. The viewing room was so cold that Tonia had to cuddle up with me to enhance the body heat and frankly I would not have had it any other way.

I am not one to be really engrossed in a movie let alone a romance movie but I must say that the movie I had chosen turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had expected and for almost half of the movie I had forgotten about all my earlier mischievous thoughts but then my phone started ringing again and I was sure it was Amaka again.

I ignored the call as usual and I was sure Tonia was going to find that suspicious so I gave an answer for a question I was not asked; "That was Maxwell calling," I lied.

"So why didn't you pick the call?" She asked without any hint of suspicion in her tone.

"I'll have to go out to pick the call and I don't want you to freeze to death in my absence," I teased with a warm smile.

"You are not serious," she smiled and tapped me playfully on the arm before returning to her former cuddling position.

I looked around and observed our environment. I came to the conclusion that today was not going to be the lucky day where I have sex in a cinema as people were around us but no one was so close to see us do other fun things.

I placed one of my hands firmly around her and pulled her closer then kissed her on the forehead, then I went lower and pecked her cheeks and just as if she knew what I was thinking she raised her head to a point where our lips met and we kissed so passionately and started caressing her slowly. Finally! I had gotten her right where I wanted her and was already thinking of going for the mammalian glands when my phone started ringing again.

Left to me, i would have ignored the phone but Tonia pulled out and said, "I think you should get that." She pulled out of my arm as well and sat up right on her seat, it was clear the moment was gone.

Damn you Amaka!

I reluctantly stood up and left the viewing room. On getting outside I saw a text message from Amaka had entered my phone.
If you don’t want me to go to the police and tell them everything I know, you had better call me in less than ten minutes. I am not joking here. The clock is ticking.

This girl never learns, and in as much as I wanted to cut of her big mouth, it is against my principles to lay a hand on a girl but that's not Skinny's principle.

I forwarded the text to him and then called him immediately to explain the situation to him. He laughed and told me to return back to my date, he would take care of the issue.

I walked back into the viewing room and tried to instigate the moment I had lost but all to no avail.

The movie that was so interesting not so long ago now seemed very uninteresting to me and I was so glad when it ended.

"That was a nice movie," she said as we walked out of the viewing room.

"Yea, it was okay I guess," I replied.

"So what next?" She asked.

What next? This girl wants to finish my money, I thought but then replied, "What do you want to do next?"

"Lets go window shopping as you suggested earlier," she grinned at me.

"On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You will not ask me to buy anything for you," I returned the grin this time.

"Which kind of boyfriend are you self that don't want to buy thing for his girlfriend?" She asked grinning so wide, I figured she was just teasing me.

"Wait o, since when did you become my girlfriend?" I asked.

"Oh! You don't want me to be your girlfriend shey?" She asked and pulled her arms out of my mine.

I just smiled and grabbed her hands, "I'm kind of hungry, let's go and look for something to eat."

She followed me as I led the way to the most expensive eatery in the mall. I wanted to prove that just because I did not want to shop for her does not mean I do not have the money spend.

The price of the things sold at the eatery was so expensive that a bottle of coke was twelve times the regular price but I was not complaining.

We ordered for our meal and went on to devour the meal in minutes barely talking all through. When we were done she ordered for a take-away package for her roommate, Jessica but still I was not moved by that.

Then the worse happened... The waiter brought the bill and even though I expected it to be expensive I did not expect it to be that much.

I sighed and reluctantly put my hand in my back pocket to bring out my wallet which I was sure was supposed to be thee but of course, it was no where to be found.

TO BE CONTINUED

saintbeejay:
Nice piece here. I finally catch wit u but chistar longest time!

yea... It's a while... Hope you good?

Godsgal:
Oga.Chistar. Later in the day, u said; but its 6:35 alrdy & nothin 4 the gals? D gals are angry.

lol... But that's the promised part right above your comment Na. The gals should chill o

bigkahuna704:
cool story...... abeg add me up na 08105977629

noted sir.

tetula123:
Been trying to open d site u ve been directing us to but it dosnt open

hmmm... Try using another browser. The blog opens just fine or is anyone else experiencing such difficulties?

@hfinest - glad you like the story

Preciousbouy:
I've been reading this nw and I never for once dropped a comment and if I continue like dis God fit vex punish me...... In a nutshell ur story na kampe.. More powerful power to ur elbow bro.

lol... God won't punish you now at least. Welcome on board.

ZAMANI123:
my guy u try.

thanks sir.



NEW UPDATES TO COME BEFORE YOU CAN BLINK.

AMAKA

You do not get to see someone butchered everyday so cruelly, as a matter of fact I am sure the closest most of you have seen when it comes to butchering is that of a chicken on Christmas day. But no matter the amount of times you have seen an animal being butchered nothing really prepares you for seeing a human-being being cut that way into pieces.

The sick feeling I had in my stomach was proof of that. I continuously felt like I was going to throw up so I sat on the floor in my toilet, leaning on the water closest just in case I finally actually vomited something.

My anxiety was growing larger as my phone kept on beeping as several whatsapp messages kept on flooding my phone, majority were broadcast messages and messages from my department’s group chat. The messages all had one thing in common though, everybody seemed to be talking about the riot going on in school which all started as a result of Agbaya’s murder.

The police have started throwing tear gas at the students and shooting live ammunition towards the sky in an attempt to disperse the massive crowd that have turned up for the riot, someone posted in the group chat.

It has been confirmed that one student has been shot and you are here saying they are shooting at the sky, abi was the student a Benin witch? Another replied almost immediately.

From the hundreds of messages that entered my phone by the second I gathered that the protest which had started all peaceful by the Social Sciences students who were protesting the sudden refusal of their lecturers to teach them had now developed into an non-peaceful protest by all students generally in which most participants were more interested in the massive increment of the school fees.

All these would not had happened if I had not involved that heartless son of a b.it.ch, Henry, into this matter and to even make matters worse the idiot was not picking my phone calls. At the thought of this, I re-dialled his phone number.

As I listened to his caller tune which I found to be very ironic because how would the devil use a gospel song which glorified God as his caller tune? I kept on thinking about the what ifs and what not.

What if this all comes back to me somehow? I thought. Surely the riot would ensure that the school authorities look deeply into the matter and they would most likely start at the scene of the murder. But Henry also told me not to worry as he had taken care of all potential witnesses… but was I to up hold the words of a heartless murderer?

The automated voice which told me the user is not answering my call snapped me back to reality. He did not pick again as expected and then I thought of using the only method I knew how to get his attention; a threat text message.

If you don’t want me to go to the police and tell them everything I know, you had better call me in less than ten minutes. I am not joking here. The clock is ticking.

I sent the message without even thinking twice. And then knew I had to wait for him to call me, I was so sure he would call.

Having done that, I finally accepted the fact that I was not going to vomit even if I sat by the water closest all day so I stood up from the floor and went back into my room. It was then I really saw how messed up my room was so I did what any normal human would do, I went on to arrange the room.

I had just sweeping the room and was about to pack the dirt when I heard a knock on the door.

I smiled as I expected it was Henry, turns out the text message worked more effectively than I had hoped. I opened the door without even trying to check who it was only to see that it was definitely not Henry.

Standing at my door was a very tall and skinny guy who looked so mean that I felt like running away at the mere sight of him. I recalled the last time I saw him and that was when he was striking a cutlass at Agbaya’s neck.

“I was sent by you know who to put an end to all your drama,” he said as he walked into the room and bolted the door firmly.

TO BE CONTINUED

segsbenks:
hop u wont enbark on an indefinate strike lik u had done in d time past,besides dis, ur work had always been a hit especially dis one, der ar oder tins i will lik 2 say abt ur work, bt let me see if you av actually cums bk lik u said.

I flattered, thanks for the compliment. My school is currently on strike sef so i doubt I'll need to go on my own personal strike. I look forward to reading the "oder tins" you have to say.

MzChistar:
This is the only reason I visit this website. welvome back sire but if you leave us stranded again im done following you. this is not a threat.

it sure sounds like a threat to me but its all good. Thanks for sticking around

efemena24:
you f*ck whoever you want and he f*cks whoever he wants but at the end of the day he's the one for you and you for him. How I wish every girl was like you, the world would have been a better place...

lol... don't we all wish that?

kayoday1:
Please don't keep Us waiting for too long, I am enjoying every bit of dis story would follow dis till the end

I'll appreciate that

iamnlia:
Tuale baba!

dannybomb:
started reading this interesting masterpiece today. and am happy to catch up. thumbs up bro. you are a raw talent.

That's how we roll. welcome on board sir

Godsgal:
Wow. Can't believe almost the whole of my sunday was spent reading a story that started last 2 years. No regrets sha cos its worth it... OP I jst hope this story won't take the next 3yrs to end. Cos i dnt have such patience. And pls kindly tag me too in ur next update.

Lol... nah, you won't have to wait for 3 years... more like 3 weeks or less, the season one is coming to a very dramatic end shortly.

dview001:
Nice story @ OP jus tag me in new update pls

tagged.

Favour222:
Thank God u re back i pray u finish d story.more pls it's interesting.

hfinest1:
yaaaaayyyyy!!!!!! so good to be back on this story.... chistar01 please don't let this story die please.... I'm a doe hard fan of this story...
fire on, i dey ur back like backpack

thanks sir.

ZAMANI123:
add me 07083397774

noted.

Hundreddegrees:
This dude too much....ride on bro

thanks

Helkayklassic:
Spent the whole of today reading this, from first page and here i am. Nice story Mr. Chistar, mention me when you update. #Following

Mzzpeece:
Wow....really impressed with dz creative literary piece
pleeeaaaseeee do mention me when u update d story!

mentioned.

Y'all should have a lovely day.

-25a-

FUNMI

Ayo and I got home few minutes after the slap incident and I laughed at her all through the journey, you can count on me to do that.

While we were in a bus heading home however, my dad sent me a text that went something like this; I heard your school is in a state of total chaos as students are engaging in violent protests. Oluwafunmilayo, come home today!!!

He did not add the exclamation marks but it was clear they were there. I was definitely not in the mood to go to that boring house of mine where all I do is cook, sweep and run errands so I made a mental decision to disobey my dad for the first time in my life. Besides Maxwell and I were in good terms and I expected to spend more time with him now that the riot would mean no much academic activities to keep us both busy. Why that mattered so much to me was quite surprising though as I just met the guy.

On getting home we were faced with a minor challenge of who was to cook. I can be a good host and not make an issue out of small things like this when it is a cute guy or a not-so-familiar girl who is squatting at my place Ayo was more like a sister to me so no need to form for her. Besides I had been the one who had been cooking since the first day she came to my house so it was only normal for me to take a break.

“You can form boss now that it’s me but if it’s one of those your cute neighbours that came that other morning I’m sure you won’t dare have this conversation with me,” she said.

She sure knew me very well, I’ll give her that but there was no way I was going to accept that. “That one na for your pocket,” I replied, “if you wan chop for this house today then you better enter that kitchen start to dey cook.”

“What’s even the name of that one that took you to the balcony and started kissing you like he would die if he didn’t?” she teased.

“He did not kiss me o!” I corrected.

“Eh… I hear, what’s his name anyway?”

“Maxwell,” I replied but then I realised that was none of her business, “what do you need the name for?” I inquired.

“Nothing o… just that I saw the way you looked at him and just wanted to know the name of my besties boyfriend,” she grinned mischievously at me.

“He is not my boyfriend,” I said plainly to avoid further talks on the matter, but deep within me all I wanted to do was talk about was how thoughts of Maxwell gave me goose bumps and normally I would have talked to Ayo since she was my best friend but that was not what was important at the moment.

“If he’s not your boyfriend I know you clearly want him to be,” she said with all conviction.

“Babe leave that one first, e be like say hungry no dey catch you?” I tried to bring back her attention to the more important topic.

“Since you insist I have to cook I’m going to need morale.”

“Which one is morale booster again?” I asked.

“You don’t know what morale booster is?” she feigned ignorance.

“If I knew I won’t be asking.”

She placed two fingers on her lips and inhaled deeply in an attempt to describe what she meant by morale booster to me.

“If you want cigarette you can go and buy downstairs,” I said indifferently.

“Yuck! Not cigarette jhur, I don’t want to die young. You know exactly what I need na,” she winked at me.

“Well I don’t smoke anything at all so where do you want me to get that for you?” I asked.

“You are a very resourceful girl. I used to always admire you for that, or have you changed?” she pushed.

I knew she was just saying all those things to get into my head and make me want to help her but I decided to just play along. Life comes with moments where we all have to compromise, right?

“I’m only doing this because I want to and not because you told me so,” I said before walking out of the house to look for something I had no idea where it was.

I walked straight out of the compound and stood at the gate looking all around me for any sign that might help my search but that was fruitless as everybody seemed to be going on with their various activities.

Then an idea struck me. I could use this as an excuse to go and see Maxwell, he might know how I can get what I was looking for or might not but either way I would have achieved my main goal of seeing the guy who I really had no idea why I was so much attracted to. Maybe seeing him would answer some of the questions I had in mind. Like why was I looking for an excuse to see him?

My brain told me popping up at his door just like that was a bad idea but my heart kept on urging me to go and look for answers to my questions. I did not even know when or how I started moving but I just know that I turned and walked back into the compound heading for Maxwell’s room which was on the floor right above mine… don’t ask me how I knew his room even though I have never been there.

The staircase and hallway of the lodge was almost always dark as the engineers who constructed the building had not thought about giving the hallways windows or outlets of any pattern to ensure that it was properly lighted. Maybe they were foreign engineers who assumed there would always be steady electricity supply to power the light bulbs or that basically skipped their minds.

I was used to the hallway already so that did not pose a huge challenge, besides there was just enough light to see whatever one would need to see so I walked passed my room floor and kept climbing till I got to the next floor. I left the staircase and walked towards the direction I was sure his room was and that was when I saw it.

I saw Maxwell kissing the girl I had met at the hospital the other day. Mary-Anne, I think that’s her name.

I wanted to just go back the way I came and act like I did not see anything but my heart was too broken to do that and I just had to see his face to confirm my doubts. Can you believe I was actually making up excuses for him in my head by thinking that was definitely not him?

“Maxwell!” I yelled out his name and watched as he pulled out of the kiss forcefully before turning to face me.

I could not clearly see his face considering the poor light but I saw enough to know it was him and he was pale like someone who had just seen a ghost.

TO BE CONTINUED

PS: Part B of chapter 25 is already on my blog, you can click on the link in my signature to check it out now! However, it would be posted here much later in the day. PEACe

I know many of my old followers are in doubt whether to join the band wagon again this time as this story has been filled with several break in transmission and broken promises (maybe that should be the title of my next story, “Broken Promises”) so I am not going to make any promises this time but just know that I have a really good motivational source at my back this time and I will finish the story this time.

To my Whatsapp group members, you guys are my family. You all were a solid rock that always held me down and always would be and I will always be grateful for that. I just hope the group is still functional even in my absence and don’t worry about when I’ll be coming back as that’s really soon. By the end of this week I should be back with full force, new members are welcomed by the way.

Before I get carried away with my long speech let me stop here so I can go and write what really matters – the story.

PEACe.

-24-

MAXWELL

We were supposed to have two more lectures before calling it a day but the chaos in school had put all academic activities on hold so I decided going home was the best thing to do since I really needed to sleep as I had not exactly had much sleep for a few days.

So I packed up my books and instructed my course mates, well, the few ones that remained to go home with a promise to inform them of any new development via text message.

I left the lecture hall where we were initially waiting for our next lecture and headed for school gate with my school bag firmly positioned at my back.

As I walked, I noticed that new groups of people were mobilizing to strengthen the riot and on asking what was the reason for the riot, I was informed that it was headlined by the Faculty of Social Sciences students who were pissed by the fact that their lecturers had refused to teach them knowing fully well that examinations were just a few weeks ahead all because of a very corrupt lecturer was murdered. Apparently, they were glad the lecturer was killed as he was very wicked and wanted lectures to continue.

I understood their plight and would have joined in the protest as the spirit on Aluta would have loved but this was not directly my fight to fight and most importantly I needed to sleep really bad... My body aches from head to toe.

About hundred metres before getting to school gate I saw a more aggressive crowd walking through the school gate and approaching me.

They all had at least a green leaf with them, what that signified? I had no idea but some of them held big sticks and different things I believed to be weapons. They sang songs of solidarity as they matched on.

Today today!
Tomorrow no more!
If I die today!
I would die no more!

The chanted as they approached me. The sight reminded me of scenes from the movie Beast of no Nation and with that in mind I knew things had escalated. I decided to call the few people I really cared about to be sure they were alright.

First I called Amaka but she did not pick, then I Funmi but she also did not pick up and then I was forced to call Henry, not because I was scared that something bad had happened to him because I knew he could take care of him self for sure but to ask if he has any idea of where Funmi was, we all lived in the same building so I figured he might have seen her but then something unexpected happened.

"Who you dey call?" One of the rioters yelled at me as he jogged towards me, brandishing a big stick over his head.

"You dey call police for us shey?" Another asked as he jogged behind the first guy. In a matter of seconds I was surrounded by a bunch of the rioters.

"No o... I no dey..." I tried to say before I was cut short by a slap from a hand I had no idea where it came from.

"C'mon bring that phone!" Someone said and next thing I knew was that someone was trying to drag my phone from me.

"I no dey call any police!" I shouted as I struggled to keep possession of my phone.

Several slaps followed and I was forced to let go of the phone.

"Make we see as you go call police now," the one with the phone said as he raised another solidarity song and matched on with the crowd following him.

I was dumbfounded. All I wanted to do was to call my loved ones to check if they had suffered any loss in the riot and it turns out I was the one who suffered a loss.

I knew the face of the person who took my phone and was sure I was going to get it back one way or the other so I just picked up my school bag which laid opened on the floor with all its content littered all over, I did not even know when it was pulled from my back.

I was so depressed following what had just happened but I knew crying or standing in the middle of the road would not solve anything so I walked on to school gate and boarded a cab straight to my doorsteps not minding the cost.

Only for me to get to my house and find the last person I wanted to see on this earth standing at the front of my door.

"What the fkuc are you doing here?!" I yelled, referring to Mary-Anne.



HENRY

So many thoughts ran through my head as the uniformed men walked towards Tonia and I. My first thought however was; what had I done that would warrant them coming all the way to school from their station to arrest me? And to that effect I had a few things in mind, the Agbaya incident and the hot pursuit after RayJ’s birthday bash.

Running seemed like an unwise thing to do as they were too close to me already and I did not want to make matters worse by adding Resisting Arrest to my list of my possible offences, so I stayed put and decided to leave matters to fate as I watched the uniformed men pull out their baton as they approached me.

To my greatest surprise the officers got to where we stood and walked passed us in a flash. I turned as I watched them in awe as they walked towards the rioters and grabbed one of them before the others dispersed like dandelion seeds spread by the wind.

“Una papa send una come school to read book but una say na riot una wan riot abi?” One of the officers said in a mean tone as he tightened his grip on his victims belt.

“Agbe no worry, we go teach this one lesson today,” his partner commented and then went on to hit the victim with the baton to show he was not joking.

“Thank God the police has intervened this quickly before we start to hear stories that touch the heart,” Tonia said as we watched the police drag the scape goat towards their car.

I just smiled in response as I took her by her arms and lead the way to the car park.

Tonia probably did not notice my smile was still firmly planted on my face as we boarded a cab because she did not ask any question but deep within me I was so happy to know that things could have gone differently… very differently.

I let the thoughts of what could have been slide about twenty minutes into the journey as the romantic part of me came alive on realising this was my first proper date with Tonia and I had to make sure it was perfect.

“What movie would you like to watch?” I asked her breaking the loud silence.

She turned to me and smiled, “I don’t know really, I usually have a lot of movies I’ll have loved to watch but none comes to mind at the moment,” she replied.

“Well, today is your lucky day as I know just the movie you’ll like,” I announced with all certainty while in reality I had no particular movie in mind but I figured anything romantic coupled with lots of kissing scenes would do, after all is that not the kind of things girls generally like?

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” she said gleefully.

Afterwards there was no much conversation except for a few jokes here and there until we got to mall. We got down, I settled the bills and led the way into the mall.

The sudden change of atmosphere hit us with a bang. The sun was in its prime so obviously everywhere outside was very hot but on entering the mall we were welcomed by a cool wave of conditioned air and the faint voice of one of our popular pop stars who passionately sang one of his hit songs through the strategically placed speakers.

The mall was a four storey building which spread on ground I believed to be slightly more than an acre. I could spot several escalators and elevators from the entrance where we stood and it would have been easy for someone to not know which way to take if it was his first time but luckily I had been to this particular mall several times so I knew just the way.

We jumped on the nearest escalator and stopped on the second floor before taking a left towards the corner where I knew the cinema was located.

I grabbed a copy of their schedule and in one quick glance, I knew the perfect movie to watch, “The movie I had in mind starts in about thirty minutes so what do you want to do to burn time?” I asked.

“You are the boss here, I’ll let you decide,” she replied as she grabbed my arm with her two hands before leaning on me in a romantic gesture.

I liked the way things were going, really perfect.

I thought about it for a while but then I had been to this particular mall several times so I knew all the fun spots.

I led her to the nearest elevator and waited a bit for us to get to the top floor. On getting there we went to the gaming section where one could win prizes like teddy bears and stuffs like that.

We approached one of the vendors and decided to a play a game which involved shooting a gun at a screen where a bird flew across continuously. The idea was to aim at the bird and shoot it down. Piece of cake, I had a real gun and knew how to use it pretty well so what challenge can using a toy gun bring? I thought.

I paid the token for a round which involved three consecutive shots and picked up the gun.

"I'll win two teddies for you," I said to Tonia before taking my aim and shooting at the bird on the screen.

"Just one would be fine and I promise to do something nice for you if you actually win the teddy for me," she cheered me on.

I missed the first time but that did not discourage me from trying again. But then I missed the second and the third as well so I had to pay for another round. I was so sure I will definitely hit my target this time.

You know how things almost never really go as planned? That was exactly what happened the second round as I went on to miss my first two attempts. This was no longer funny.

"Guy, you sure say you never adjust this thing?" I asked the game moderator before trying the last time. Tonia would be really disappointed in me, I thought.

"I no adjust anything o, Na you wey no sabi shoot anything," he replied laughing.

I took my last aim and made a subconscious resolution to give up if I missed this time but just as I was about to pull the trigger, Tonia grabbed my hand and whispered in my ears, "let me try."

This was my opportunity to save myself from total disgrace and shame so I gladly gave her the gun, I knew she would definitely miss.

Tonia took the gun from my hands and then grabbed it firmly with both hands. She closed one of her eyes and bent her head slightly probably to get a better view. She waited a few seconds before squeezing the trigger.

To my greatest surprise the bird suddenly stopped flying and fell to the bottom of the screen. She had shot it!

"That's how you shoot," she said as the moderator handed over to her one of the smaller teddy bears with a grin so wide his lips nearly touched his ears.

"Where did you learn to shoot?" I asked her sounding obviously surprised. She sure did not shoot the bird down by luck.

"My dad works for the Nigerian Navy."

"You sure are full of surprises," I said as I pulled her away from the gaming section. "Let's go buy our movie ticket, the movie would soon start," I added.

She had replaced the grip on my hands with the teddy bear she literally won for her self and I was not exactly happy by that but what could I do?

We got to the cinema, bought the tickets alongside the biggest bowl of popcorn they had and then entered the viewing room.

I have not mentioned this before and it might be a shameful thing to say but I have never really been to a cinema before. Okay, to avoid any misconceptions let me rephrase, I have never really been into a viewing room before.

I have been to cinema facilities before but have never really felt the urge to sit down in a dark room to watch a movie on a big screen before so each time I somehow find myself in a cinema I end up doing every other thing the cinema has to offer except watch a movie so I was a bit surprised at how big, cold and dark the viewing room was.

I have heard stories of how people had sex and did a lot of other ridiculous things at the cinema but I never actually believed any of them because of obvious reasons but on seeing it now with my very own eyes, I actually for a moment considered the possibility of doing naughty things to Tonia right here.

Who knows? My first time in a viewing room might be more exciting than I had expected.

I smiled mischievously at this thought as she led the way to our seat.

TO BE CONTINUED

PS: Because this hit front page today and I am feeling particularly encouraged and inspired, here’s a new update. Do read, enjoy and let me know your thoughts, thanks.

PEACe

captaing59:
[color=#000099][/color]
real mature of you to come now although am not paying you but at least an explanation would have been good

No real explanation except maybe; Life happened. But let's not dwell in the past and enjoy the present which would of course entail a good story being told. thanks.

Previously on Why I Want To Be Bad…

FUNMI

Immediately the lecture ended, Happiness spoke her first eleven words in a while, “If dem born you well, no run commot. Just wait small.” The girl who had called Skinny T challenged Ayo.

Ayo stood up in anger, “Me? Run from you?” she asked, tapping her chest continuously as she spoke.

“Good, then wait small.” Happiness replied, laughing.

“Wetin dey happen here?” I overheard one of my course mate ask another.

Things were starting to get interesting for the guys as Ayo had succeeded in removing one of Happiness button when I noticed someone made way through the crowd, walked up to the back of Ayo and slapped her. She immediately loosed her grip on Happiness.

“Who slapped me?” she asked. Her eyes were blinking continuously like an epileptic.

“Let’s go home jhur,” I said as I dragged her out of the classroom. She kept on asking me who slapped her and promised to come back for Happiness the next day. After receiving such slap, I knew deep within me that she would not, just trying to cover up for her wounded ego.

***

MARY-ANNE

I have never really had much friends and I know exactly why; I do not know how to socialise.

It is for this reason I have no single friend in my entire compound which houses over thirty-five people, well, except Amaka and we are not exactly close friends, except for the fact that I know she is friends with my boyfriend, or is it ex-boyfriend now?

After trying Maxwell’s phone number all night, I woke up the next morning with one single goal; a promise not to call him again.

After trying to distract myself from calling him by watching TV and realising that was not working I decided to go to over to Amaka’s room…. Something I have never done before. We are just the ‘please give me Maggi and Pepper’ kind of neighbour.

“What I want to talk about is why Maxwell, your boyfriend, is not home with you?” she stressed on ‘your boyfriend’.

Perfect! Just exactly who I needed to be reminded of.

“We are having a small fight,” I said handling my phone.

Do not call him… do not call him… do not call him, I repeated under my breath trying my humanly possible best to give him his space.

“Really? What happened na?” she asked looking like a curious puppy.

I was not quite sure if I should go on and tell her how I had slept with Henry and Maxwell found out so I decided to play her card, “It’s not something I want to talk about.”

She laughed, “Well played.”

I joined her in laughter but was cut short when certain images on the television screen caught my attention.

First I saw my school, Yaba-Tech, badge pop up on the screen and then the pictures of the senate building was showed. Then a picture of Professor Iyagba was shown.

“Turn up the volume,” I said and she picked up the remote and pressed a button. The audio came alive. The voice was that of a female.

…following the brutal murder of one of its lecturer, in person of Mr Elijah Iyagba, the students and staffs of Yaba College of Technology are being advised to be cautious while participating in regular school activities. Although the case is still under investigation, it’s believed he was murdered by cultist. The I.G of Lagos Police has vowed to bring whoever was responsible to book and also stated that some people with valuable information had already stepped forward.

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed as a blurred picture of his headless body flashed very briefly on the screen after a warning.

Amaka stood up and went to her bathroom immediately. I could sense something was amiss.

MAXWELL

I got home from Mary-Anne's place all pissed. Actually, I was not even pissed, but disappointed. Disappointed about a lot of things.

Firstly, disappointed in Mary-Anne for opening her legs so easily.

Secondly, I was disappointed in myself for not figuring it out sooner. I mean, the signs were all there! Henry taking her accident matter so personal as far as going ahead to pay the bills was also a sign. I had dated quite a significant amount of girls and Henry had never even offered any of my girls the least water but suddenly he was settling the hospital bill that was clearly over ten thousand naira.

I had zeroed Mary-Anne out of my mind, she was literally dead to me and although I wished it was that easy to do the same to Henry, I was not. I needed to hear his part of the story.

"Err... Henry, I wan make we talk about something o," I said.

"Wetin be that my man?" He asked as he took a rather long drag from his joint.

"What's up between you and Mary-Anne!" I asked straight up.

"You really wan know?"

"Tell me," I replied.

"Alright then," he said and took one long drag. "I bleeped your b.itc.h and I know how this sounds but it wasn't exactly intentional. No vex." He was very calm as he said this.

There was no way I was going to stoop so low as to fight any guy over a girl. Fact!

I decided it was best to just let it all go since it was all history and Henry had been truthful to me.

For the first time I took note of my environment. I was around 2am in the morning. The moon was nowhere to be found but the stars were doing a good job with lightening up the earth. The breeze flow was so soothing and everywhere seemed so peaceful. Only one thing seemed to be amiss.

I dragged the tray of weed, picked up the rizla and swiftly tapped a joint. I was surprised at how beautiful the joint looked as it had been a while I rolled.

I lit it up and leaned my back on the seat.

"So did you t.its fkcu her?" I asked.
***


AMAKA

The news of Agbaya death had spread like wild fire. School was slowly building a low level of chaos as everyone was tensed. Just a day after he was killed right before my eyes and he was already on the news, can you imagine? Just one fucking day!

I needed to talk to someone, I thought, as I sat on the closed toilet seat. This meant that I needed to get rid of Mary-Anne who still sat in my room so I could talk freely. I stood up from the seat immediately and went straight to the room with that in my mind.

“Anne, I need to go out like right now,” I said as I walked into the room.

“Going far?” she asked.

“Yea, kinda. My boyfriend just called,” I said out of the blues. I needed her to leave by all means.

“Oh! Okay. Boys always win at the end,” she said before leaving rather reluctantly.

I locked up the door and leaning my back on the wall I dialled Henry’s number.

HENRY

After such great night I expected a better morning to follow but I was wrong.

“Taking you to the movies today. I’ll pick you up at your place by five, the movie starts by six so don’t be late and don’t dress too sexy please ” I texted my new found love, Tonia and got a reply almost immediately, “okay dear.”

Did you notice the ‘dear’? I was sure going to smile for the rest of the day.

“Hello, where are you?” I sent her on WhatsApp as the lecturer started talking something about blue and red wires.

I watched the double grey ticks turn blue to indicate she had read the message before a reply shortly popped in my phone, “School gate oh, trying to get in but some students have blocked movement”

“Okay, wait there, I’m coming.” I replied and left the hall immediately the lecturer left the hall which was not too long. I was pretty confident no one could stop me from passing through the gates.

I walked through the gates and spotting Tonia was easy as she wore the brightest colour of shirt she had in her wardrobe… who wears such shouty orange?

“Which Cinema are we going to??”

“Film House at the mall, we could eat and do a little window shopping before the movie starts,” I said feeling like I had it all mapped out in my head.

“Good, I’m badly in need for a new black jean, one of all those ripped types,” she said with a grin.

“I said window shopping o, not actual shop….” I was about to say when the screeching sound of A Toyota Sienna and a Hilux interrupted me as they pulled up to a halt right at our front.

Two uniformed men jump out of the Sienna and walked briskly towards me.

Bleep! I murmured.

Okay. lets round this up. New updates from Monday.

TIFFANY J!!!

Wow... Just wow. Nice piece clemzy!

Hello guys, first thing first » Merry Xmas and a happy new year in advance.

Due to the festive period, this story would be continued january.

If you want to be added on my Whatsapp group feel free to drop your digits here or send me an Email (sochistar13@gmail.com). You should know that we don't exactly discuss about the story or literature, it's just a group for Chistar and friends to get to know one another and other fun stuffs.

Once again Merry Xman and a prosperous new year.


Have fun!

HENRY

I was in a good mood. It had been a while I woke up in the morning with a smile on my face. It is not like something exactly was making me smile but for a moment everything seemed alright.

While Maxwell and I smoked last night two quite interesting things had happened.

Firstly my course rep had out of the blues sent me a text message containing details of my last semester result and to my greatest surprise, I had passed considerably well with two distinctions and four credits. For an examination I did not read much and did not exactly cheat in, that was pretty impressive right?

Secondly I was feeling really confident after seeing the result, like one kind of super smart – super cool bad arse guy. And Maxwell had resumed his role as my Chief Adviser in Women Affairs.

“You for like call Tonia now oh, girls dey like all this kain thing,” he said as he poured a little quantity of the codeine into the 10mm measuring cup that usually comes with a new pack. You see, codeine is quite expensive, not exactly on coke or crack standard but close enough. We both did not trust ourselves well enough to sip straight from the bottle and since we long knew a bottle came with enough content to fill the 10mm measuring cup about nine times, we did the maths and knew exactly how many millimetres each of us was entitled to. The system walked flawlessly.

As he said this, I was already pretty much wasted so I forgot my number one rule; if you are drunk, high or tipsy and the time is after midnight do not do anything your mind tells you without proper consultation from other people.

“Call am now? Asin you know say time na almost three shey?” I asked to make sure we were both on the same page.

He downed the contents of the measuring cup and made sure he used his tongue to lick every single drop.

“Let me explain something to you,” he started to say after he passed me the bottle, “The female mind is very easy to manipulate. They judge with their fore sense, asin the judge based on what they see and hear. So you have to make sure you show them the things you want them to see and tell them what they want to hear.” He concluded.

“What does this have to do with calling her by this kain time? You wake make she think say I be winch?” I was sincerely not getting his point.

“Ode!” he cursed playfully, “the girl likes you already so you calling her by this time would be perceived as romantic. There are like a million things you can tell her if she asks why you are not asleep by this time. You can say it is because you were thinking about her or you had a dream or whatever… just used your head na.”

He had won me over, “You sure this is a good idea?” I deflated.

“Nigga, have I ever given you bad advice? He asked me.

I took a sip from the bottle before I dialled Tonia’s number.

She did not pick on the first attempt and of course, Maxwell urged me to try again which I reluctantly did on the condition that I would not attempt again. Two missed calls can easily be explained, at least more than three, I thought.

“Please don’t pick… please don’t pick,” I murmured consistently as I listened to the continuous mechanic pooon pooon sound.

“Hello,” a voice suddenly said from the other end of the call thus interrupting the mechanic sound.

It was the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard.

L-O-U-D S-P-E-A-K-E-R Maxwell mouthed to me as he saw my shock.

I clicked on a button just in time for the second “Hello, who’s this?”

A-N-S-W-E-R Maxwell mouthed again. I had forgotten everything I was supposed to say.

“Hello…” I said.

“Who is this please?” the person asked again.

“It’s me, Henry,” I replied just exactly as Maxwell had mouthed to me.

“Henry?”

“Yea, this is Tonia right?”

“Yup, which Henry please?”

I nearly fainted at this point. Here I was already thinking she was my soulmate and she did not even know who I was. I wanted to hang up and just go to bed to sleep or maybe cry but Maxwell quickly took control of the situation. He mouthed some instructions to me.

“Henry na, the guy who most recently fell for your trap,” I replied starring at Maxwell for approval, he nodded.

“My trap? Please I don’t know what you are talking about and I don’t know who this is,” she said and hung up immediately.

This time I did not need any tutoring, I immediately redialed her number.

“It’s three am in the morning, I’m not in the mood for games so better tell me who you are right away!” she instructed as she picked on the first ring.

“You’re sure one very angry fire house o,” I teased to ease up the tension, “It’s me, Henry, the guy you recently ran from the police.” I figured there’s no way she must have ran from the police recently with anyone but me.

“Shit!” she said as she realized who I was. “I’m so so sorry Henry, I didn’t know it was you, I’m sorry I was so rude,” she apologized.

Accepting the apology was very easy but keeping the conversation going as I waited for her to ask me the why-are-you-still-awake question was a big problem. I found myself asking her how her the previous day was for her… by 3am! Can you imagine?

Finally she too go bored of the convo and asked the long anticipated question.

“This one you finally decided to call me and chose this kind of time, hope I’m safe?”

“I was asleep but I had a horrible dream which involved you which woke me up and I just had to call you so here I am,” I said.
.
“Me? Horrible dream? God forbid! What happened in the dream?” she said in quick successions.

“You don’t want to know, trust me,” I replied.

“Tell me jhur,” she urged me.

“Well if you must know, the dream involved a white gown, a black suit, a church and a reverend,” I said bluntly.

There was a brief pause as she thought about what I had just said before suddenly bursted out in laughter, “You are not serious,” she said while laughing.

I noticed Maxwell chuckle too, he seemed impressed.

“I am very serious o. It’s like getting married was what made the dream horrible but the fact that when the reverend asked for anyone who thought we should not be together, Jessica and Maxwell, my roommate stood up but before they could speak I woke up screaming, I just called to tell you that you should be careful of Jessica and I’ll be careful over here. There are people who don’t want us to be happy.”

Y-O-U-R F-A-D-A Maxwell mouthed at me. I just smiled.

“Henry you are a clown” she could not stop herself from laughing.

“I’ve warned you o,” I said, “so can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“You know we need to talk right?”

“Maybe.”

“So when next will I see you?” I figured fixing a date would be a good idea.

“When do you want to see me?”

“I dunno, let’s go out tomorrow,” I foolishly said knowing fully well my account was red.

“To where?”

“I’ve told you I dunno, I’ll call you tomorrow morning when I’ve figured it out.”

“Aright. So this is why you really called me by this time? To ask me out on a date.”

“Maybe,” I fed her from her cup, “I know you need to go back to bed cause a beautiful lady as you surly needs her beauty sleep.”

“Stop flattering me please.”

“I’m not flattering you, I’ll call you tomorrow, sleep tight,” I said before I hung up.

It’s not every girl that you could call at such time and successfully have such conversation with. Just as Maxwell had said, the girl had to like you for it to happen. I was glad the feelings I had for Tonia might just be mutual. But I intended on finding out for sure the next day.

***

AMAKA

The news of Agbaya death had spread like wild fire. School was slowly building a low level of chaos as everyone was tensed. Just a day after he was killed right before my eyes and he was already on the news, can you imagine? Just one fucking day!

He was the dean of Social Sciences so the staffs of his faculty immediately decided to take matters in their hands and shut down all academic activities by going on an impromptu and indefinite strike, or well until the culprits were brought to justice. Although the students of the faculty are cool with this at first it’s expected that over time they might get pissed and take certain strategies to counter the strike.

Other faculties and departments still went along with their normal school activities, the only lectures they missed where those that were borrowed from Social Sciences. But even though the police do not seem to have any solid clue as to what happened, they did announce that some people with valuable info had stepped forward and this extremely bothered me.

I had cried all through the night and littered tissue paper all over my house, I could not even sleep or eat as images of Agbaya head rolling over to Henry’s feet kept flashing in my head. I had never such bleeped up sight my entire life… my entire thought was totally in shambles.

Somewhere in-between tears sleep came my way just a few hours shy of the hour of five-am and I was glad because by the time I woke up I felt a bit better. I woke up with the mentality and believe that what had happened has happened, since I cannot kill myself in guilt, I have to move on but the fact that I just watched the news and the case was already being publicize to a larger audience did not seem like good news at all.

I needed to talk to someone, I thought, as I sat on the closed toilet seat. This meant that I needed to get rid of Mary-Anne who still sat in my room so I could talk freely. I stood up from the seat immediately and went straight to the room with that in my mind.

“Anne, I need to go out like right now,” I said as I walked into the room.

“Going far?” she asked.

“Yea, kinda. My boyfriend just called,” I said out of the blues. I needed her to leave by all means.

“Oh! Okay. Boys always win at the end,” she said before leaving rather reluctantly.

I locked up the door and leaning my back on the wall I dialed Henry’s number.

***

HENRY

After such great night I expected a better morning to follow but I was wrong.

Maxwell advised I did something really nice for Tonia as this was our first date and further recommended I took her to see a movie. I immediately bought into the idea because I knew the total cost of the outing would roughly cost ten thousand naira and I believed I could spare exactly that much.

“Taking you to the movies today. I’ll pick you up at your place by five, the movie starts by six so don’t be late and don’t dress too sexy please ” I texted her and got a reply almost immediately, “okay dear.”

Did you notice the ‘dear’? I was sure going to smile for the rest of the day.

I stood up from bed around nine-am and decided I had missed enough lectures already so I decided to go to school.

An hour later I was already at the main school gate and noticed a small crowd was gathering around there. They were not looking so happy and I overheard some of them instructing the security guards to lock up the school gate. I assumed it was just some random school issue, maybe the school increment matter or something so I ignored them and boarded a cab to Ibitemi Hall where I was to have my lecture.


I spotted Maxwell in the hall as his department just finished using it and were stepping out for ours so we exchange pleasantries and a few jokes but as expected he had to leave as he was the course rep and had another lecture almost immediately. This course rep thing is something I knew I just could not do.

The lecture happened to be very nice as for the first time in a long while I actually got to learn something new and that’s something that excites me about school. Right before the lecture ended I decided I could not wait to see Tonia and decided to push up the outing.

“Hello, where are you?” I sent her on WhatsApp as the lecturer started talking something about blue and red wires.

I watched the double grey ticks turn blue to indicate she had read the message before a reply shortly popped in my phone, “School gate oh, trying to get in but some students have blocked movement”

“Okay, wait there, I’m coming.” I replied and left the hall immediately the lecture left the hall which was not too long. I was pretty confident no one could stop me from passing through the gates.

As I sat in the back seat of one of the school shuttle which drove me to the gate, I got like three phone calls from Amaka but her voice never came with good news so I ignored her call, I was not going to let her spoil me fun.

I got to the gate all ready to cause trouble if they did not allow me to pass but fortunately for them, they had developed a pattern which involved letting people leave the school but not allowing people to enter. The idea was to empty the school.

I walked through the gates and spotting Tonia was easy as she wore the brightest colour of shirt she had in her wardrobe… who wears such shouty orange?

“I see you are trying to compete with the sun?” I teased her as I hugged her. I wanted to kiss her but was not sure if that was a nice idea.

“What do mean by that?” she asked sounding all serious.

“Nothing o,” I quickly said. “Let’s go out now since you clearly aren’t going to have any lecture today.”

“Which Cinema are we going to??”

“Film House at the mall, we could eat and do a little window shopping before the movie starts,” I said feeling like I had it all mapped out in my head.

“Good, I’m badly in need for a new black jean, one of all those ripped types,” she said with a grin.

“I said window shopping o, not actual shop….” I was about to say when the screeching sound of A Toyota Sienna and a Hilux interrupted me as they pulled up to a halt right at our front.

Two uniformed men jump out of the Sienna and walked briskly towards me.

Bleep! I murmured.

TO BE CONTINUED

-22-

FUNMI

The girl who had called Skinny T for Ayo had made her phone call before she quietly packed her books and neatly arranged them in her bag. She then ended up paying total attention to the lecturer for the rest of the lecture period. A quick glance at one of her books and I saw the name Happiness written on it, I figured that was her name.

Having heard what she had said on phone, Ayo had made so nasty remarks to the girl, probably trying to get her to engage in physical combat but the Happiness had ignored Ayo and with that I knew this whole event would not end well for Ayo. I tried to caution her but my warnings fell on deaf ears as Ayo was in the zone so I zipped my mouth and waited for things to play out.

Immediately the lecture ended, Happiness spoke her first eleven words in a while, “If dem born you well, no run commot. Just wait small.” She challenged Ayo.

Ayo stood up in anger, “Me? Run from you?” she asked, tapping her chest continuously as she spoke.

“Good, then wait small.” Happiness replied, laughing.

I do not know what was wrong with Ayo that made her not to see the danger that was coming. I pleaded and urged her to leave now that she had the chance but she bluntly refused. She was bent on seeing what Happiness had in stock for her.

“If you like call police, I no dey go anywhere,” Ayo said as she went on grab the other girls shirt in an attempt to pull her up. I just could not understand how someone can be so troublesome even when there was absolutely no need to be.

Happiness could not take it anymore as Ayo handled her so roughly. She dropped raised her hands and dropped it on Ayo’s chick, letting out a thunderous sound and thus attracting more people to the former four man audience who were watching alongside me initially.

“Wetin dey happen here?” I overheard one of my course mate ask another.

“Guy I no know oh, I just dey wait make dia two start to naked themselves,” the other replied excitedly as he cheered Ayo who had just returned the slap.

In an attempt to stop things from elevating pass the level it was, I walked closer to Ayo and tried to beg her to let it all go but she was more interested in holding tight to the Happiness shirt as she tried to break free from Ayo’s grip. I shifted back from the two of them before the involved me and joined the crowd that had surrounded them at this point. I folded my hands as I watched in disgust. I made a mental note not to ever let her come to school with me again.

Things were starting to get interesting for the guys as Ayo had succeeded in removing one of Happiness button when I noticed someone made way through the crowd, walked up to the back of Ayo and slapped her. She immediately loosed her grip on Happiness.

In my life time as a Yoruba girl, I have seen so many people get slapped and received quite a few myself. I have seen people name different types on slaps based on the pressure applied and where it hits. Igbati, for example would make you correct your wrongs, Ifoti would make you confess your sins, Abara, which is usually administered on the back would literally make you pee in your panties and the list of different slaps goes on but the one Ayo received is one I have never seen before. It seemed a lot like Igbaju Oloyi as she showed the necessary effects from receiving that type of slap; losing balance and searching for where the slap came from but in addition to this she lost her ability to speak… and this was highly unusual as Ayo always had something to say.

If you be king for your area, leave am like that, you get mouth for your area, leave am like that, because if you no send me, I no go send you. That song by Suspect was the song that came to mind as I watched Ayo fall to the ground due to the stunning effect of Skinny T back hand slap.

“Why you dey embarrass yourself like this?” I heard the guy who I now believed to be Skinny T said to Happiness as he took her under his arm and walked away.

I waited patiently for Skinny T to go far beyond sight before I stared at Ayo as she was on the ground and busted out in laughter, not caring that she was still on the floor in pain. She had her hand on her ears like she was picking a phone call.

“Shebi I warned you?” I asked rhetorically as I helped her up. The crowd had reluctantly dispersed at this point as they saw the drama had ended.

“Who slapped me?” she asked. Her eyes were blinking continuously like an epileptic.

I could not hold back the laughter as I went into another laughing frenzy.

“Let’s go home jhur,” I said as I dragged her out of the classroom. She kept on asking me who slapped her and promised to come back for Happiness the next day. After receiving such slap, I knew deep within me that she would not, just trying to cover up for her wounded ego.

***
MARY-ANNE

I have never really had much friends and I know exactly why; I do not know how to socialise. Going out to places where you meet fun people and starting all these petty talks that sometimes leads to great friendships is something I find very difficult to engage in. It is not like I am a loner or have not tried but it is not just my thing.

It is for this reason I have no single friend in my entire compound which houses over thirty-five people, well, except Amaka and we are not exactly close friends, except for the fact that I know she is friends with my boyfriend, or is it ex-boyfriend now?

Since he left my house with such a temper, I have been trying Maxwell’s phone number and he has been ignoring my calls as expected. I do not know what is wrong with me, it seems like I always find a way to chase the guys I really care about out of my house. First it was Henry when I told him I was pregnant and now Maxwell.

After trying Maxwell’s phone number all night, I woke up the next morning with one single goal; a promise not to call him again. I figured he needed a little space to think about what he really wanted and my incessant calling was clearly not helping matters but to do this I needed to get my mind off him.

I tried watching television but after staring blankly at the screen for twenty minutes, I figured I needed to do something different. After deep thoughts I decided to go to over to Amaka’s room…. Something I have never done before. We are just the ‘please give me Maggi and Pepper’ kind of neighbour.

I had no idea what we were going to talk about or what we were going do but I left for her room cladded in a black bump short and black top to match.

Her room was on the first floor so I had to make use of the staircase to climb down. I got to her room door and knocked lightly. I got no response then I knocked a second time, a little harder this time. Still no response so I went on to knock five more times before I decided to give up.

She is not home, I thought as I headed back to my room with the sole plan to go and try calling Maxwell once again. Who was I deceiving? I needed to hear from him, the silence was killing me, but just as I got to the stair way I heard someone struggle to open his door and then, “Maryanne!” followed shortly. Amaka had opened her door and called out my name.

Saved by the bell, I sighed as I walked back towards Amaka who had only half her body out of the door. She had only a wrapper tied loosely round her waist as if she had tied it in a rush.

“What’s up?” she asked me as I got back to her frontage.

“Nothing really, Sorry to bother you,” I replied. She did not look so good. Her mascara had washed down her face and dried on her cheeks which if it is anything to go by, she had been crying. I reasoned she might need to be alone so I decided to give her space.

“No… no. You are not bothering me,” she forced her lips to curve into a smile. “I could actually use some company if you don’t mind?”

Great! Just exactly what I need, I thought. “Well, if you insist.”

She used her hand to signal that I entered the room, I walked and a stood still, watching her bolt her door tightly.

Her room was a total mess. The T.V was on but the volume was totally reduced. The bed was filled with clothes, dirty and clean ones, pieces of damp tissue papers was littered all over, and the floor was so sandy I felt I had just walked into a beach. There was a blanket spread out on the floor and a pillow at one edge, looked like that was where she was lying before I knocked. She confirmed my deduction as she sat on the blanket and placed the pillow at her back, to ease the supposed discomfort leaning directly on the wall might have caused.

“I know the room is a mess, I haven’t had the room time,” she said as she noticed my eyes wander all over the room.

“Looks like the Second World War happened here,” I said, my weak excuse of a joke.
“Yea, I know. It’s not usually like this but I haven’t really been feeling too well,” she replied in regret, “speaking of health, I didn’t know you’ve been discharged from the hospital. I would have dropped by to check on you.” She maintained the regret tone.

“It’s no biggie, I was only discharged yesterday,” I replied.

“You are lucky oh. When I saw that car run into you I thought you would die immediately,” she said.

“It’s God’s grace,” I said with a smile.

A short silence followed and I got to observe the room once again. The clothes, I understood, the sand, I understood, but the damp tissue papers baffled me.

“Why is tissue paper littered all over your room,” I broke the short silence.

She looked at me, then turned her attention to the pieces that was littered all over the floor. “Well if you much know, I cried a little too much last night but please don’t ask me why.”

“You know that’s impossible na,” I stood up and walked over to join her on the blanket. “Someone as pretty as you shouldn’t be crying.” I said meaning every single word. I had found Amaka to be the perfect girl. Perfect ass, perfect boobs, pretty face, jovial character, easy to talk to and basically everything any guy would want from a girl.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not something I want to talk about,” she replied. “What I want to talk about is why Maxwell, your boyfriend, is not home with you?” she stressed on ‘your boyfriend’.

Perfect! Just exactly who I needed to be reminded of.

“We are having a small fight,” I said handling my phone.

Do not call him… do not call him… do not call him, I repeated under my breath trying my humanly possible best to give him his space.

“Really? What happened na?” she asked looking like a curious puppy.

I was not quite sure if I should go on and tell her how I had slept with Henry and Maxwell found out so I decided to play her card, “It’s not something I want to talk about.”

She laughed, “Well played.”

I joined her in laughter but was cut short when certain images on the television screen caught my attention.

First I saw my school, Yaba-Tech, badge pop up on the screen and then the pictures of the senate building was showed. Then a picture of Professor Iyagba was shown.

“Turn up the volume,” I said and she picked up the remote and pressed a button. The audio came alive. The voice was that of a female.

…following the brutal murder of one of its lecturer, in person of Mr Elijah Iyagba, the students and staffs of Yaba College of Technology are being advised to be cautious while participating in regular school activities. Although the case is still under investigation, it’s believed he was murdered by cultist. The I.G of Lagos Police has vowed to bring whoever was responsible to book and also stated that some people with valuable information had already stepped forward.

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed as a blurred picture of his headless body flashed very briefly on the screen after a warning.

Amaka stood up and went to her bathroom immediately. I could sense something was amiss.

TO BE CONTINUED

www.sochistar.

Uncleluke1:
Aluta!! ur head dey der.. C as i bin serious dey wait for update lyk those banni's wey dey read for first clas for ofrima

victoria ascerta! Lol! So glad you can relate.

Dropping a new update today.

-21-

HENRY

See no see, tell no tell for the eyes that see today may not see tomorrow.

*

Amaka stared blankly into space as her hands vibrated uncontrollably. I understood what was going on with her so I was not really worried about that, I figured she would get over it in a few days or weeks top.

I had walked out of the room after I handed the machete to the executioner and went to the car to wait for my boys to finish what I had started. They were fully aware of what they had to do so I was not really bothered.

They had made sure Amaka left the scene with them and passed the emergency exit at the back of the hotel to avoid being seen by anyone at the front.

There was a pair of new clothes for everyone at the car, including Amaka, because blood is something that splashes easily from the body, especially when a cutlass is used.

"Don't worry Amaka, I'm sure Agbaya won't be a problem anymore to anyone again," I finally said to Amaka, I had been very quiet lately. She looked at me to indicate she heard me but then turned her face back to the window, looking outside as we drove. She had been in that position for over ten minutes and I was starting to get worried. I felt the need to explain to her.

"Agbaya deserved what he got," I started to say, "he has been on our radar for quite some time and we had warned him but the bastard could not just leave his dick in his pants."

My explanation was welcomed with total silence.

"If it's the police you are worried of, don't worry, we cleared all our tracks. Naija police is not yet technologically advanced to check for finger prints and we convinced the receptionist and the security guards into believing Agbaya went to the room all alone," I explained further. Again, I got silence in response.

At this point I decided to stop talking.

We got to her place few minutes later and dropped her off then we drove to a bar. After what just went down, we all needed a drink, or a couple of drinks.

The bar was a rather famous bar around Yaba-Tech, Cortiz bar was what it was called. People often joked that the name Cortiz was only chosen because it sounded like 'cultist' and this was because cultists were known to spend hours at the bar daily, drinking, gyrating and basically doing 'other' stuffs.

As I walked into the bar, everyone became quiet as it was expected that when someone of my calibre entered such settings everyone was to acknowledge my presence. The foot soldiers who were known to gather at the bar were the first to approach me.

"Aro Boogie Smallz! Rugged you!" One of them 'capped' out loud as he came over to anchor me. Anchor is just what we call our coded mode of hand shake.

Few of the others came over and basically repeated what the first one had done, anchoring me.

I approached a table and the former occupants immediately stood up and cleared it as I, Skinny T and the other two guys took our seat round the table.

"Madam Rose!" I yelled out loud for the owner of the bar. I used to be a regular at her bar some years back but stopped as things changed. So that explains why I knew her name.

"Boogie, how far na? You just forget us like that," she said smiling as she came over to my table.

"Madam Rose, you wan start this evening. I no get your power abeg," I replied.

"Na your way na," she replied still smiling.

"Madam, I wan drink major today oh."

"That one no be problem na, wetin you wan drink?" She asked, rather excitedly.

"The usual na. You get pepper soup shey?"

"E get the time wey you don find pepper soup come here wey I no get?" She teased.

"Things fit don change na," I replied, "bring two bottles of star and one plate of pepper soup for me then give my boys dem anything wey dem want!" I declared. The boys went haywire with their praises as soon as they heard this.

"Rugged you!" Skinny T said as he anchored me. He sat closest to me.

Skinny T was a dark guy of around twenty-three years of age. He had spent a few years in prison but came eventually out, SARS things. He usually wore one of those armless top designed to promote an event or something of such nature with boot cut jeans to match. His black Ray Ban shades was always there to cover his eyes... The glasses were original though. He was known for ‘obtaining’ wristwatches. His only flaw. But apart from all these, he was brutal.

My bottles of star and the pepper soup came shortly afterwards before every other table in the bar got filled up too. At a point I started to think if I had made a wrong decision because the bill was not looking pocket friendly but the voice of Skinny T cut my thoughts short.

"Wida your control na?" He asked.

"Which control?" I asked in response, not quite sure what he was talking about.

"That fat barney na, Favour, abi wetin be that her name sef?" He asked.

I thought about this for a while, thinking of which Favour I knew that was fat and then it hit me... "Oh! You mean Faith?" I asked as I laughed.

"Enhen, na Faith be her name. You don knack am shey?"

"No o, no be my type," I replied.

Faith had been one fat chick we both went to visit some weeks back. She was a Veron Queen. Veron Queen is what we call our female counterparts. The only time I had 'knacked' her was during her initiation and that was customary so I figured that did not count.

"Your own better o, you dey select womanliness. Me, I never even seen woman pant not to talk of Bleep for like one week now, my body dey do me like say my sperm go soon freeze," he said and I bursted out loud into a laughter frenzy. That was the sickest thing I had heard all day.

"T, na you dey jonze na," I replied when I had collected myself, "if you really wan mess, you go mess." I was sure he understood what exactly I was talking about.

Anyway, we drank deep into the night until I decided it was time for me to go home.

I left the boys at the bar after I settled the bill which was surprisingly not even up to ten thousand naira and boarded a cab straight home.

Today had been quiet eventful and I would have loved to stay with my 'people' to gist and laugh over it but I needed to sleep.

***

MAXWELL

I got home from Mary-Anne's place all pissed. Actually, I was not even pissed, but disappointed. Disappointed about a lot of things.

Firstly, disappointed in Mary-Anne for opening her legs so easily. I am not totally against her screwing other guys, without me knowing or giving a Bleep of course, but she just had to screw the one person I actually gave a Bleep about.

Secondly, I was disappointed in myself for not figuring it out sooner. I mean, the signs were all there! She did not call me as often as she used to. Henry taking her accident matter so personal as far as going ahead to pay the bills was also a sign. I had dated quite a significant amount of girls and Henry had never even offered any of my girls the least water but suddenly he was settling the hospital bill that was clearly over ten thousand naira.

Most importantly, I was disappointed at Henry. When you live with someone for so long, you expect certain things from them and don't expect certain things. You develop a certain shelter of trust in which you both stay in. We did not exactly have a conversation where we talked about not fucking one another's girl except where authorized, but I did not think I needed to state the rule out loud. Henry had broken this rule, he had broken the trust and thus disregarded our code, the sacred bro's code.

I had zeroed Mary-Anne out of my mind, she was literally dead to me and although I wished it was that easy to do the same to Henry, I was not. I needed to hear his part of the story.

I had gotten home around 10pm and decided to stay awake, waiting for Henry to come home, but after one hour of waiting and not seeing him, I decided to just go to be. I had a 7am lecture that I could not afford to miss... Hec! I am the course rep of my department! I can't afford to miss any lecture.

The sweet aroma of cannabis, however, woke me up later on in the night. A look at the digital wall clock told me I had slept for four hours and with that I knew Henry was back. He had his own keys to the house so I was not bothered about how he had gotten in.

I felt the need to just close my eyes and go back to bed, leaving the matter that I could not get out of my head for some other time since I really needed the sleep but like I said, I could not get the matter out of my head.

I stood up from the bed grumbling to myself as I walked straight to the balcony. My boxer shorts, the only piece of clothing on my body, hung loosely round my waist.

Just as I had expected, Henry was at the balcony. His Beats headset was tightly fitted on his ears so he did not hear when I walked into the balcony and sat on one of the two empty seats.

"Nigga, how far," I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Hey! My Max! E don tay wey I see you last o," he replied as he disconnected his headset from the phone. Pepenazi's song, Illegal, was playing. It was one of my favourite songs at the moment.

"We no see this morning?" I asked as I clearly recalled we had both been at Funmi's room earlier this morning, all scared over the police arresting us.

"Oh! That's true. It sure doesn't feel that way though."

"I been see Tonia for school today oh," I lied in an attempt to change the topic to one I could work with. I needed to find a way to bring up the matter that had been on my mind for a while.

He tapped his head as he seemed to have just remembered something, "I been suppose call the girl o, bit I forget," he said. "She been look hot shey?" He asked grinning mischievously.

"Sure thing na," I replied. "Err... Henry, I wan make we talk about something o," I said as I noticed I had set the right mood.

"Wetin be that my man?" He asked as he took a rather long drag from his joint.

"What's up between you and Mary-Anne!" I asked straight up. I figured we were both guys and there's was really no need to beat around the bush due to our straight forward nature.

He took another drag before he replied me, "as in how?" His face showed no emotions, it had always been impossible to read Henry.

"Okay, make I rephrase. Is there anything going on between you and Mary-Anne that you think I should know?"

As I asked, I hoped he would not lie or further delay the question. At least that way, maybe I might be able to still trust him.

He was quiet for a long while. He seemed more interested in his joint than in the conversation I was trying to have with him as he took over ten drags before he finally asked, "You really wan know?"

"Tell me," I replied.

"Alright then," he said and took one long drag. "I bleeped your bitch and I know how this sounds but it wasn't exactly intentional. No vex." He was so calm as he said this.

Normally one would expect I got really angry and engage him in a fight due to how he had opened up but that is not me. I had known Henry for years. I knew everything there was to know about him and obviously we had had lots of fights in the past but this was not just enough reason to pick a fight.

There was no way I was going to stoop so low as to fight any guy over a girl. Fact!

The fact that I could not fight and chose not to argue or get pissed out loud does not necessarily mean I was happy with all this and the thought of running his head over with a tractor did not cross my mind.

I decided it was best to just let it all go since it was all history and Henry had been truthful to me.

For the first time I took note of my environment. I was around 2am in the morning. The moon was nowhere to be found but the stars were doing a good job with lightening up the earth. The breeze flow was so soothing and everywhere seemed so peaceful. Only one thing seemed to be amiss.

I dragged the tray of weed, picked up the rizla and swiftly tapped a joint. I was surprised at how beautiful the joint looked as it had been a while I rolled.

I lit it up and leaned my back on the seat.

"So did you tits mess her?" I asked.

TO BE CONTINUED