₦airaland Forum

Contd

We all sighed as Josh said he had an idea. I just hoped this one would have at least an iota of reason in it but judging from the smirk on his face now, I highly doubt it.

"What?", He asked when he realized we weren't as enthusiastic to know his idea as he thought we ought to be.

"Nothing man, just carry on. What's the big idea?", I urged him on. It seemed rude to just downplay his 'idea' without hearing it first. At least after hearing it we can politely downplay it…..again. Lol.

"No it's something, y'all got that face on", Josh accused.

"What…what face?", Vic asked as we tried to keep our faces normal. We didn't know he'd latch onto us real quick.

"You know what?", Josh began again. " I'm just trying to help but if you're gonna be a d**k and make fun of me without hearing what I have to offer first, then that's real low of you guys. I'm serious", he finished as he gulped down the remnants of his drink. There was no joke in his voice this time and we knew we had gone a tad too far this time.

"Hey man, it's not like that. I'm sor….I mean we're sorry bro", I apologized. "Let's hear it".

"Yeah whatever", he murmured as he poured himself another drink.

"Cmon man, don't be like that. Oya sorry na", Femi joined with a teasing smile on his face. Vic then started poking Josh at his sides trying to get a smile out of him.

"Okay okay", Josh finally gave in, trying really hard to hold back his smile. "Enough with the childish gimmicks already", he added.

"Well", he began. "I figured since we know for a fact now that Henry was in on the whole thing, why don't we use that to our advantage?"

There was silence for a while as we waited for him to tell us how that was going to be possible but he just stared back at us smiling, probably enjoying the temporary power of suspense he held over us.
It took all of me not to roll my eyes at his dramatics.

"OK Josh, how?", I asked as I sighed closing my eyes.

"Nice question", he clapped as he stood up now and all I wanted was to just strangle him now.

"Now, we know Henry was involved…",

"We know that already, you've made that clear", Vic cut him cut off in a tired tone.

"Yeah, but Hailey doesn't. She doesn't know that we know Henry is involved", Josh continued.

"And that's a good thing because…..", Femi asked. Now I sat up beginning to get a whip of what Josh might be thinking.

"Because we can use that to our advantage. Now look, if we can make Hailey believe Henry wants to snitch on her and then make Henry believe the same thing about Hailey then I think we might find some leeway in the issue. So am I a genius or what?" Josh finished, spreading his arms out side with a smile.

"Wow", I muttered, completely awestruck at the brilliance of the idea.

"Nice Josh, but how are we going to make them turn on each other though? I mean it's not like we're just gon walk up to Hailey and tell her Henry's gonna turn on her, she'd deny knowing what we're talking about. We need to do it in a way that we wouldn't be involved at all cus if she knows we're involved, it's game over man. First, she'd know we're just bluffing and second, she'd up her game the more", Femi said.

"True. I thought of making Henry believe we already have evidence that Hailey planned the whole thing and that if he doesn't come forward and make a statement now throwing Hailey under the bus, he'd be caught in the crossfire too but then that will be like shooting ourselves in the leg", Vic chipped in.

"Besides he'd ask why come to him again when we claim we've already got evidence", I reasoned.

"What if he has a copy of the video file?", Vic asked making us all turn to him. "Think about it guys, since he's in on the whole thing she'd have probably sent him a copy of how things went down too", he continued. I thought about it for a while but it just didn't add up.

"Nah, I don't think so", I said shaking my head. "Based on what Hailey's former help told me, that video showed her having her way with my unconscious self. I don't think she'd let someone else see something that private and intimate, plus Hailey's might be a psychopath but she's also smart and there's no way she trusts Henry that much to give him something that can implicate her like that".

We sank back into our seats, each of us deep in thought on ways to crack this hard nut called Hailey. I felt good this time though than the other times when I was doing the thinking alone. Now I had my bros and I just had this feeling that this time it was going to be different in a positive way.

"Weed", Josh said out of the blue.

"What happened to weed?", I asked having this feeling that I was going to regret asking that.

"What if we smoke weed and get inspiration from it. You know weed somehow enhances the creative capacity of the brain. It's like a muse of some sort, you kn….", He was saying before Vic threw a sofa pillow at his face.

"Look guys, why don't we call it a night, it's late already. We can convene again tomorrow and hopefully we'd find the break we need. Let's give our brains a rest", I suggested as I looked at the time, remembering I've still got work and some school work to catch up on.

"Yeah man, our brains really need the rest. Some more than others tho", Femi agreed as he said that last part looking at Josh who was still trying to sell us on his weed suggestion.

"Quick one Vic", I said as I held him back while the others were leaving.

"Yea, what's up bro?", He asked.

"Uhmm…how's Debbie?", I asked.

"She's OK man. She misses you badly but she's scared to reach out", he replied.

"OK man. You continue to take care of her and tell her not to worry, we're good", I replied feeling happy she's fine.

"Gotta run now man…see you tomorrow", I shook him as we reached the parking lot…..TBC

Dibz's POV

Things seemed to have gotten a lot much better since the whole make up/reconciliation incident at Fola's apartment.
Sure there were times where she still seemed to be worried, especially whenever my mum calls when we're together and I can't blame her, I'd feel the same way if I was in her shoes but generally though, it's been more bliss and very little crisis.

One thing though that hasn't changed at all was how I was going to get myself vindicated. I won't lie, it's kept me up at nights lately and the whole Fola thingy just made it worse.
Just how am I going get anything that exonerates me from this whole mess? Worst of all is the lack of any iota of evidence. There have been times when I even considered Josh's idea of kidnapping her,and maybe torture her a little bit till she spills the truth.
The only way that seemed a bit effective was trying to get close to her. By getting close to her, I mean dating her. I know she has the hots for me,even on that fateful day she admitted to liking me and had insinuated that if I had chosen her instead of Fola then what happened wouldn't have happened. So maybe if I pretend to reciprocate her feelings, she'd drop her guard and get her to open up about everything on the guarantee that I would be with her regardless. Right?

"Argghhh", I screamed in frustration, scratching my head.
"How lame?", I said to myself.
"Like, she'll just agree to confess to a crime she committed just because she has feelings for me. Can you get anymore naive Dibz?", I reprimanded myself.

"Oh God pls me with this mess. I need you now more than ever Lord, pls come through for me. I promise to start going to church again", I prayed quietly. Yeah, I've thought of every way possible but always met a dead end so I might as well just lay it all on God and trust him to take care of it. Just then my phone buzzed and without looking, I picked.

"What?", I barked.

"Woah, you can at least pretend to be happy to hear from me", Josh laughed.

"What's got you in such a mood…that time of the year?"

"Your father", I chuckled. "Look man, I'm a bit out of it at the moment, can we talk later?"

"Ouch!", He faked sounding hurt. "Well, too bad I don't care one bit about you. Meet me at the club, the guys are here and we just might have gotten a break in your Hailey case", he said and I sat up immediately.

"Wait, what guys are you talking about and what break?", I asked impatiently.

"What do you mean which guys, our guys of course.Femi and Vic are here man so hurry up", he replied.
Immediately, the whole positive vibe just died down as he mentioned Femi and Victor.

"Forget it, I'm doing nothing with those two", I replied flatly.

"Look man, I get how you feel but cmon how long would this whole ish with them drag on,huh? We're bros man, for life. Besides, they've got something that might help with your vindication, would you let some useless beef stop you clearing your name?..Cmon man, reason am", Josh pleaded. Not bothering to reply him, I just hung up. Now they want to help, now they want to reach out?
Including that idiot that calls himself Victor that refused to tell me my sister's whereabouts just because she told him not to. All of a sudden, he remembers we're bros, haha, jokers.

Thirty minutes later, I'm handing my keys to one of the valets at Josh's club. Yes, after all my shakara I still came. A few minutes after the call, my anger reduced and I realized it'd be foolish of me to deprive myself of peace and closure because of I feel hurt by my friends abandoning me at a very tough time. Besides,It'd be very much hypocritical of me, seeing as I forgave Fola when hers was even worse. I'd just listen to what they have to say and then I'll go back to hating them again. Lol.

"Papi", Josh hailed as I stepped inside our VVIP booth. "What's good bro?", He greeted as we bro hugged.

"I'm good man", I replied as I settled down.

"Hey man"

"What's up bro", Femi and Victor greeted respectively.

"So what's up, what was so important that you called me for?", I asked Josh while folding my arms, completely ignoring the other two.

"Dibz…", Josh started but I cut him off immediately.

"No Josh, I'm not doing that now. So if you're not telling me why I'm here now then I might as well just leave", I retorted even pretending to stand.

"It's fine Josh", Femi said calmly and then turned to me.

"No need to leave bro, please just listen to what we have to say", he pleaded.

"I know we're the prolly the last people you want to see now and we deserve it but we're sorry. Bro we're very sorry for deserting you like that, we should have stuck by you no matter what. That's what bros are for and we failed woefully in that aspect, we're truly sorry man. Nothing we do now can make up for what we did, we know that but please, please let us help you. It's the least we can do", Femi begged and even got on his knees, Victor too.
I don't know why my anger doesn't last long, like I can be really mad at someone right now and say in the next twenty minutes, it's all gone even without the person apologizing. Now it's worse cus they've offered their sincere apology and it'd be petty if I remain hardened and not forgive them.

"It's all good guys, pls get up", I said helping them get up.

"Sure?", Victor asked uncertain that I'd really forgiven them.

"Yeah.…but I've not forgotten and honestly, still don't want to have anything to do with you guys, but for sure you're forgiven", I said calmly.

"Oh", Victor said, bowing his head slightly in hurt.

"Just kidding guys, gotcha", I said immediately while getting up to hug them. The relief on their faces was everything, as we hugged and made up.

"So about why we're here", Josh said while sipping his drink.

"Femi said Henry confessed to being a part of Hailey's plan to frame you for rape".

"What"?, I immediately spilled my drink as a result of shock.

"Yeah man, we were coming back from a party. Henry is drunk as f**k so I decide to drive him home and then dude starts rambling on and on and then he spills everything about the whole incident", Femi says.

"You're sure it wasn't because of the alcohol?", I asked already feeling excited.

"I'm sure man, cus the next morning I ask him about it and dude goes pale for a while before weakly denying it", Femi replies.

"Wow", I whisper, too stunned to say anything else. God really wants me to start going to church again.

"I have a plan",Josh says smiling….TBC

Nice...keep em coming

Eaglernorwich:
oga moura,help us with update nw,pls

Lol chairman no vex, I still dey. I go update on or before Friday. I'm sorry guys

This story is so fire....nice one Grace