₦airaland Forum

Chapter 12

She got to her aunt’s house at about 7pm and was met by her overjoyed little cousin who ran into her arms as she walked into the living room. “Aunty Shade! Aunty Shade!” The little girl with three missing front teeth shouted out as she waved her hands in the air. Shade trudged over to the long couch in the living room and dropped the chubby kid on it. The girl jumped off the couch and ran off, saying something about having to finish her homework.

Shade smiled and snapped her neck from here to here as she looked up at her slim figured aunt, wondering how she gave birth to such a big kid.

“I might not have much time when Charles gets back so let’s get right to it.” The aunt said and leaned on one of the high back dining chairs close to where Shade was seated.
“A friend of mine has a problem.” She said, and her aunt had a blank stare on her face. “You know…The kind of problem you deal with.” Shade added
“Okay?”
“Umm! I think he has already gone through the rehabilitation stage on his own.”
“Hmm! So, what’s the real problem?”
“I…The thing is I was wondering if…” She was saying, and then stopped to hit her forehead with her palm. “It’s hard to explain.” She added.
Her aunt stood straight, walked over and sat on the edge of the couch Shade was on before saying “just talk. Ramble on; I will get it at some point.”
“Okay.” Shade said and looked up with a smile. “You see, he is my BFFs boyfriend, and he wants to break up with her.” Her aunty smiled and Shade smiled back before continuing, “He was on a certain for a long time, but now that he is no longer on it, he wants to break up with her.”
“Do you know why?” The aunt asked.
“Yes, because he feels he can’t be the person she fell in love with any longer.”
“Okay.”
“I was wondering if maybe, since he was that person she fell in love for a long time, he could go back to being that person without the drugs.” She said. And when her aunt was taking too long to respond, she continued with, “I mean; can you maybe help build his confidence or something. I don’t want to see my friend sad.”
Her aunt studied her for a long time before saying, “I have a feeling something else is bothering you.” Shade didn’t respond and her aunt continued. “I have known you since you were a kid. I know when something is bothering you.”
“I’m feeling very guilty aunt Dami. I feel like a bad person.” Shade said and covered her face with her hands.
“Why? Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“I think I might have feelings for Freddy.”
“Who?”
“Or, sorry, that’s my friend’s boyfriend.”
“Hmm! Now I understand what’s going on.”
“Aunty, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t plan for this to happen.”
“Most times, we don’t plan, love just happens.”
“I feel so bad aunt Dami.” Shade said and got off the couch. She walked to the window. “I wish he would go back to being the old Freddy so I can care less about him.”
“Hmm! I understand why you would feel that way, but how does the boy feel about you?”
“Well, he kissed me once, but that was when he was still crazy Freddy.” Shade said as she walked back to seat on the couch. When she saw the blank stare her aunt gave her, she added, “I hope you won’t tell Mom about that?”
Her aunt laughed for a few seconds before saying, “Shade, you are a 20 years old. You are a big girl now.”
“I don’t know what to do aunt Dami. You know I am a novice in this territory.”
Her aunt laughed some more before saying, “Well, first of all, I would like to know the drug your Freddy was taking.”
“Umm! Give me a second.” She said, and pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket. “Meth…Methamphetamine.”
“What? Are you sure?” Her aunt said and slowly took the phone out of Shade’s hand. “That drug is really complex, and it is rare here.”
“Oh!”
“Are you sure he is fully off it?”
“He said he takes Red Bull as a substitute now.”
Her aunt kept staring at the phone in disbelieve as she spoke, “Shade. I don’t believe your friend is completely rehabilitated. Can you please convince him to come see me?”
“Umm! I’ll try.”
“Please do. If you really like this guy, you will make sure he comes to see me.”

bellefidel:
ok i full ground dey wait...... thanks for the lovely story

I posted the chapter earlier than planned.

Obinnau and Lala, make my week and move this to Front Page. I am 80% done, and I am sure I will be done this week if I am motivated by the story being on Front Page.

Chapter 11

When she walked back into the room, Angela had a big grin on her face. “How did it go?” She said and jumped off the top bunk.
“What?” Shade said with a puzzled look on her face. “You put Nasir up for that?” She added.
“Umm! Well, you guys like each other. I just thought of speeding things up.” She said and walked passed Shade to look out the window close to the door. “Where is he?”
“He’s gone.” She answered and turned around.
“What? I thought you guys were going out?” She said and turned around to face her friend.
“He tried to kiss me.” Shade said with a blank stare on her face.
“Cool.” Angela said with a smile.
“Not cool Angela. You shouldn’t have told him to do that.”
“Umm! Am I missing something here? Don’t you like the guy?”
Shade sighed before saying, “Angela, Freddy is downstairs.”
The smile on her face disappeared and was replaced by an expressionless stare. “What?”
“I saw him at the mall, and he drove me back to school.” Shade said and walked over to their corner.
“Wait; is there something you are not telling me?” Angela said as she walked over to her friend by the locker.
“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” Shade said as she got out of her clothes in a hurry; obviously angry at her friend for what happened earlier.

Angela stood in front of her angry friend, searching her eyes for answers. Shade said nothing as she got out of her clothes and wrapped a white towel around her naked body, and then put a pink shower cap on her head. She looked at her friend and they did a five second stare down. Without word exchange, she walked out of the corner, and headed out the room.

………………..

When she got back to the room, she was glad Angela wasn’t there. She hurriedly threw on jeans and a t shirt, and left the room. A lot had happened in such a short time that disturbed her emotionally, and she felt she had to be away from it all.

A campus shuttle cab was dropping someone off as she got outside her hostel, and she got in the front passengers seat with no destination in mind. She lay back in the seat and closed her eyes as her mind wondered.

The car would accelerate for a few seconds and then come to a halt to climb a speed bump, and then accelerate again; and the cycle continued. With her eyes closed, it felt like she was on a roller coaster ride. Her mind went back to times when Freddy would complain about the number of speed bumps on the road and she slipped into daydream world. Her mind made up different scenarios with Freddy, and then her with Nasir. The ones with Nasir never lasted before they were engulfed by the ones about her and Freddy. Guilt crept in, but she had been battling with it ever since the night at the hotel. She wished she never decided to go for that party, as she felt it led to the chain of events that eventually led to events that was threatening her best friend’s relationship.


Somewhere in her subconscious, she recognized that the car had stopped moving and she snapped back to reality. The driver was collecting cab fares and cursing under his breath at people that were paying in high denominations. She fumbled through the top compartment of her laptop bag, pulled out a green Naira note, and then a red Naira note, paid and got out of the car.


At the school gate, she stopped to read some newspaper headlines at a small kiosk. It was one of her favorite things to do whenever she needed to come up with the next title for a blog post. But right now, her mind was too clouded to enjoy that so she walked off after a few seconds, still with nowhere to go. As she walked up to the intersection of the University road, an idea came to her mind, and she waved down the next Taxi that approached her.

dammyd46:
Nice story.... feeling sorry for Andrew

Thanks. I will come back and finish it when i am done with the one i am currently writing.

The next chapter will be up by 10pm today.

bellefidel:
nasir abi nama respect ur self
#shaddy = shade and freddy

lol! Nice. That's very creative.

Chapter 10

During the ten minute drive to the school campus from the mall, Freddy had revealed some secrets about himself to her and she found it hard to believe. When he eventually parked outside her hostel and turned off the ignition, she still sat at the passenger’s side of the car dumbfounded. It made a lot of sense now why he had been acting strange lately, but she still found the whole story confusing. She turned around to look at him and he nervously looked away. ‘You mean you took it every day?” She asked him and he nodded. “Every day since?”
He looked up for a few seconds before saying, “Since Christmas 2015.”
“Wow! How could you afford that?”
He smiled before saying, “Let’s not get into that.”
“So…”
“I was high daily for almost two years.” He said and turned his head to the left to look out the window.
“Why? Why did you do it?”
He chuckled and turned to face her for a few seconds, before averting his eyes. “I guess I just wanted to live.”
“To live?”
“I mean to live life. I used to be extremely shy.” He said and Shade looked ahead, lost in thought. “Apart from my bleeped up cognitive skills right now, I don’t regret what I did.” He added. When she didn’t say anything, he continued, “I have a 4.3 GPA, I became one of the most popular guys in school, and got more girls than I knew what to do with.” She turned to look at him with a frown on her face but didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry, but this is the truth. My reality.” The frown on her face was replaced with a concerned look, and then she turned around to look out the window.
“So what happens now?” She said without looking his way.
“Actually…” He was saying and stopped to cough. “I’ve been thinking of a way to breakup with Angela.” He added.
“What!!?” She said in a loud voice as she turned her head sharply to face him. “Why would you want to do that?” She added.
“Because I am no longer the Freddy she fell in love with.”
“But…But…” Shade stuttered
“We can only deceive ourselves. You know your friend and you know it can’t work anymore.”
“My aunt can help you.”
“What? How?” He inquired, with a quizzical look on his face.
“She…She helps people with rehabilitation.”
“Shade you don’t get it.” Freddy said, looking deflated. This is the original me. I can’t be the old Freddy unless I go back to the drugs.” When she didn’t say anything, he continued with “Hell, I drink two cans of red bull daily just to function properly.” He turned around and reached to back seat to get a can of red bull, opened it and took two quick gulps. “And I’m still kind of bleeped up.” He added.
“I don’t know what to say.” She said after a long silence.
“You don’t have to say anything or feel sorry for me.” He said and crushed the empty can of red bull in his hand. “Just go upstairs and call Angela for me.’ He added.
“But don’t you love her? Didn’t you ever love her?” Shade said as she searched his eyes for answers.
He bent over to put the crushed can under his seat and starred at her for a few seconds from that angle before saying, “Shade, to be frank with you, if I told you the truth, it will complicate things the more.”
“What do you mean?”
“Please, let’s leave that subject for now.” He said and let out a sigh.
After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Shade opened the car and got out.

....................

When she walked into the room, she saw a guy’s head popping out from their corner. She got closer, and saw Nasir and Agela talking. She cursed under her breath. She remembered she had agreed to go on a date with Nasir this evening.

They were so deep in their discussion that they didn’t even notice her standing beside the locker, until she dropped her bag on the locker. They quickly sat up, and Angela smiled at her before saying “Hey Shade, I asked him to wait since I knew you would soon be back.”
“Okay.” Shade said and smiled at the quiet Nasir, who was looking so nervous she couldn’t even think of what they could have been talking about.
“How are you Shade.” Nasir said as he got up from the bed. His white long sleeve shirt was well tucked into his khaki pants, and he had on well polished black loafers.
“I’m fine. I was delayed at the mall.” She said and ran her hand through her hair before adding “Nasir, please let’s talk outside.”
“Okay.” He said and looked back at Angela, who had a mischievous smile on her face. He smiled and waved at her before walking off with Shade.
Shade leaned on the veranda when they got outside, and took time to think of her next line of actions. She rubbed her nose and pushed up her glasses, looked down for a few seconds, and then looked at Nasir before saying “Sorry, I know I agreed to go out with you tonight, but something came up. So…”
“I love you Shade.” Nasir said as he slowly closed the gap between them.