FOUR

If you live for seventy years

I hope to live for sixty-nine

So I don't get to feel the sting of your absence

Happy birthday, Best friend.

She was found dead on the night of the same day she gave me this. I still keep the card under my pillow, very absurdly it made me feel so close to her. 

"Hey, we need to get to school", Malik's voice was hoarse. "You be dressing up like a female, my Man, you've been at it for twenty minutes". 

Laughter erupts from my lips. "Says the boy that has a skin care journal". 

"Guyy, No loud am nau". Malik's face twists in embarrassment. 

"Ehhh so na me good to embarrass shey? you never start ". I finally get my tie in a perfect knot and we join the rest of our room mates to leave the hostel block. 

"Guy, she's so fine I swear", Noni says and we all laugh. "But check it", he pulls out his phone and shows us the animated girl as the race car game is about to start. 

"God! Guy, you're a mufu!", I say and slap his back. 

"What we're you expecting?". 

We walk into the breakfast hall, the breakfast hall is set in between the two hostel blocks; male and female. We had breakfast and dinner here. While, the day streamers ( non-boarders) see only school lunch Caf, the real jungle is Breakfast hall. The intoxicating scent of Ogan's akara filled my nostrils, the best part of Tuesdays was the akara and bread we had for breakfast. Everyone had a spirit of joy on Tuesdays, everyone except Lola, she hated it and I never understood why, perks of being the best friend, I got her share. Just as I turned to go to my table someone bumped into me. 

"I'm so sorry, shit!", her feline voice was in panic. 

"It's cool"

"Still, I should be more careful". She lifts her head and staring at me with small pale brown eyes is Chidimma, seeing her charcoal black face takes me back to the note I got in Accounts class that is lying in my school bag. 

Ms. Adrenaline

"I should go", she whispers and walks away as I nod. I collapse into my chair tearing the akara the moment it's in my hand. 

"Baba, calm down", Mustafa says with a mouth full of bread. I smile at him. He runs his hands in his curls while smiling at me. 

"Guy,Mustafa", I reply and he laughs. He does the unexpected, he takes out two akaras from his plate and place them in mine. 

"You def need it more than I do".

"Why's that?".

"Coach put me on a diet, he said I need to drop one weight class".

"Bruhh, you just went to get fat with all thoseJamaican delicacies, didn't you?". 

Everyone on the table joins in on the laughter this time. 

"My mama never lets me go a second without eating". 

"Mommy's boy". Dave cooed from the end of the table. Mustafa was mixed with a Jamaican and Chinese. Dude was good looking. In year 7 to 9 Lola was insanely crushing on him, she would leave him notes in his lockers and sometimes I was the courier of some of her letters. 

"Do you think Mustafa would notice me in this school skirt or this one?"

She holds up Ogan's school two skirts, the black one and the Navy blue. 

"If he likes you he'll notice you in rags" I replied.

"Hmm.... I'll go with black". She said, I look at her intensely hoping I would tell her how much I notice her. She had such a focused look as she finally pulls the black skirt over her blue and white stripped panties. That's how close we were, I had seen her naked and it felt like nothing. 

"I really want to kiss him today at socials, he said he'll take me to his secret place". Excitement dripped from her voice. She was a fourteen year old year mistaking infatuation for love. 

"Don't you think that's fast?". I interject. 

"Come on, Silly. Rhema nothing's ever fast in Ogan". 

I fell on her bed scanning the empty room while she prepares for her first date. 

Assembly bell goes off and we all scamper out of the breakfast hall to the assembly hall, I'm walking with Mustafa and the other guys on my table when I spot Ibim in front with Mofe and Tochi. They seem to be so invested in what ever Tochi was telling them. I suddenly remember I need to talk to her, the need to talk to her comes down on me in all urgency, I might throw up. 

"See you later, Fam". I tell Mustafa and walk away. 

"Malik! Brother, how's the phone number going"

He looks at me and then moves away from the junior girl he was speaking to. " Why'd you need it?"

"I heard she makes mixtapes and ummm Lola wanted me to get myself a mixtape one of these days, I'm ticking off everything she wanted me to do". 

He looks at me with some sort of intensity in his eyes before handing me a slip of paper. "Have fun, Bro, but be careful, you know how everyone looks at her, she's basically an outcast". He looked worried and scared but those feelings were for me they were for someone else. 

"Yeah, it's just the mixtapes and that's all. Besides, we'll do everything over text, no one needs to see us to". 

He nods. "Good".

He nods his head towards the hall and walks ahead. I watch him go for a while before continuing. 

"Good Morning, Students". Ms. Yakubu, the school's principal; Malik's mother's voice boomed from the speakers. She was a strict faced woman with skin so light, you would fear, she'd be red if she stands in the sun for too long on the contrary, her children were very dark skinned. 

"Welcome back from the longest holiday of all your time in our prestigious academy. This term we have increased school time with effect from today so you close school by 4 pm  now not the usual 2:30 pm. Emails have been sent to your parents as a this morning so they are aware.  We are aware of the incident that took place last year, here, in the school grounds. We are taking preventive measures and from tomorrow you'll begin to see some electrical work going on, we will be putting CCTV cameras at all the main entrances and exits. The dorm rooms are excluded but surveillance will be on the hallways of the dorms. We advice that use your free period wisely and stay away from lonely places we don't want another incident ever again. You may leave". 

A teacher came and whispered something in her ears that makes her pull her face in a grimace. 

"Year 10s and 11s stay behind". My heart misses a beat.

They want to talk about Lola.