A Reunion
The pair; Razack and Barnes made their way out of the encirclement while sprinting; Barnes chasing after Abdul and the latter racing like a scared gazelle. They left the fuming lady in the encirclement staring at them as they left; she had nothing she could do to them after all.
Barnes turned around and seethed with anger he chased after his friend and also ran towards A-level block.
"I'll wring your neck dry when I land my hands on you. I think you should just hide behind your girlfriend's back before I can forgive you, otherwise you are dead. He bellowed and entered the A-level block.
"I won't be able to find him at the pace which I am running. I think I should make peace with him and let him off the hook this time." Bronson thought as he ran.
He saw it pointless to chase after his friend and decided to stop running. He halted and reduced his run into a trot. After running for a while and noticing Barnes wasn't catching up; Abdul stopped running and turned around to look at his friend and stood panting like a deer.
"It's nice seeing you again after such a long time."
Abdul-Razack told Barnes after the latter caught up with him.
They both stood and tried to regain their composure and breathe normally after running away from the crowd that was slowly dispersing; they made their way into the first door on the A-level block. This was the life sciences laboratory; within it was the storage section for the biology specimens, the reagents and chemicals used in the chemistry experiments and tests.
The sight that greeted them upon entering into the laboratory was a pleasant one; the room had three columns of tables arranged in the open space in between the wash basins on the edges of the room. There were 5 rows from the front to the back of the room and each room had three tables in it. Each table had four lab stools allocated to it. Some of the tables had lab equipment like conical flasks, beakers, petri dishes and dissection boards with pins all over them. These pins were during dissection to hold specimens in place so that the procedure can go on perfectly.
Fond memories and nostalgia washed over Barnes as he entered into the room with Abdul-Razack. Some of Barnes' former classmates and schoolmates were present in the room. He felt elated and momentarily forgot about the skirmish he had with Abdul. Slightly after they had gotten into the room; Abdul excused himself from Barnes and walked towards the door to the preparatory room and he left Barnes standing alone. Barnes allowed his eyes to roam around the room as he scanned the faces and tried to recognize the old ones and try to commit to memory the new ones.
Surprisingly among the people he saw in the room was the beauty he had earlier on bumped into before he entered the A-level block. She was chatting with other two girls of about the same age and both of them were new faces to Barnes. To avoid being labeled as a stalker and pervert who sought after a vulnerable girl; he put on his aloof temperament and did it so successfully. After which he decided to go meet his longtime friend and former classmate; Sahd whom he saw seated on one of the lab stools before an experiment setup to avoid being seen as idling.
He was about the same height as Barnes but of a stockier and heavier build. His skin color was lighter, more like a ripe orange or pear. He was an Afro-Asian. A half-caste as most people would call it.
"Hey! Yellow-man it's such a long time! You look all grown, what is the beard for? Do you want to scare away our teachers?" Barnes casually greeted Sahd with a bro handshake and teased him about his beard that was growing.
"Man, just leave this beard alone. It has fought many wars; it has been through a lot. The Head teacher even wanted to personally shave it off but i refused and told him it was lowering my dignity and not saving me face at all since am in A-level now." Sahd replied Barnes merrily and described a previous encounter.
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The laboratory was compartmentalized into several sections and it is what made up almost three quarters of the block. The laboratory had three sections; the first one was the biology section with a preparatory room and lab technician's room second and the chemistry section was the third and the last.
The preparatory room was the section where most of the hazardous and dangerous reagents were locked and stored for safe keep to prevent students from tampering with them; tearing or misplacing the labels on them which might cause accidents in the laboratory either from spilling them or mixing them thus causing explosions.
It was also where experiments meant to be demonstrated to students were prepared beforehand; the routine of the experiment, the reagents and the control experiments were also done and kept in this room respectively before the general experiments for the students would be made on a large scale.
This room was a buffer zone between the biology laboratory and the chemistry laboratory; it was airtight and was usually sealed off to prevent leaking of noxious fumes and gases from the dangerous and potent chemicals stored therein; the access to this room was restricted to authorized individuals only; this category of authorized individuals included the lab technicians, teachers and a few students that the lab technician permitted to access it to help in either carrying reagents and chemicals to the general properly aerated and vast section of the laboratory.
The lab technician was a young, curvy and lively lady; she was a good friend of Razack Abdul and thus he had something similar to a backstage pass; express access to the preparatory room anytime of the day as long as he found the lab technician indoors; so he entered the laboratory with Barnes and got into the preparatory room alone to speak to the lab technician. He left Barnes in the laboratory with Sahd and other students.
He found her seated at a table before a computer; she was trying to update the laboratory inventory and the chemicals they had in scarcity. When Razack got in, he intended to have a light chat with her and find out about how she was doing but he ended up changing his mind.
"Jane it seems you are busy, I will let you finish your work and come back when you're done. I will be having a conversation with my friend in the biology section while waiting for you to wrap up." He said as he stood halfway into the room looking at her seated at the table.
The lab technician heard his voice before she lifted up her eyes from the computer screen and saw his head and his upper torso come into view with the door slightly opened and she hurriedly said with a smile slowly forming on her face.
"No it's absolutely fine, we can talk. I'm not very busy not to have a good conversation with you."
Abdul Razack stepped into the preparatory room fully and walked closer to the table where the computer was stationed; at which Jane was seated and he placed the tips of his ten fingers on the table and stared straight into her eyes like a ravenous wolf looking at its prey without breath and ready to be devoured and said.
"I'm very sure that if we have this conversation right now, I won't have the time to speak to my friend and neither will you have the time to finish what you're doing on the computer so I suggest we postpone this to a later time in the day."
"What if I want to have this conversation with you right now and not later? Is there something wrong with the time now? Will you not grant me my request?" she asked him with her eyes glued on his face.
"The time isn't the issue and there is nothing wrong with it. It's just that we are both occupied with other things that we have to accomplish and we also have company in the next room. I also would never dare to deliberately deny your request for a conversation. It is always my pleasure to indulge you in one." he explained to her with a smile on his face while motioning with his head in the direction of the biology laboratory where Barnes was seated and waiting for him.
"So without further ado I'll take my leave." Razack told her as he turned around and walked towards the door without glancing back at her.
"Razack, I really want us to work out. Please rush through whatever it is you are doing as I also wrap up so we can have some private time." She absent-mindedly told him as he walked out of the room.
Razack heard her but didn't give her a response and neither did he halt in his steps or turn around to look at her. Once he got back into the main section of the laboratory; he found Barnes seated with Sahd and both of them had sheepish grins on their faces. Barnes went ahead and asked him
"What were you doing in there alone? Why did it take you so long to come out?"
Abdul retaliated with a stammer as he brushed off his friend's probing question that seemed to want to unearth his secrets.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you have better things to do? What have I done?"
"I am looking at the number one devourer of ladies' hearts on earth and the planets in the solar system; and is it your problem if I have better things to do or not? You know what you have done or do I need to remind you?" Barnes answered Razack's question with a smirk on his face and was on the verge of busting out in laughter.
"You better keep your mouth shut or else I'll make you shut up by spilling some of your secrets too." Razack quickly silenced Barnes and his pointless ranting as he pulled himself a lab stool to sit near this friend of his.
"What nonsense is this? What secrets are you talking about? I have no secrets; everybody knows that. Don't you have no shame by trying to mudsling and blackmail your own friend in broad daylight? Ptuii" Barnes hurriedly said when he heard that his secrets were about to be spilled by Razack.
He knew Razack was loose cannon and could do anything at any time once he felt pushed to the edge of the wall; his fiery and raging temper was one of the things that Barnes clearly knew about him. He was easily snapped to anger when matters sensitive to his heart were touched.
These two friends were used to each other's banter and they often joked and poked holes in each other's conversations and in circumstances where the other party seemed to be in some sort of trouble or danger; they would step up to redeem them and then later on mock them about how unlucky they were and both of them would laugh about it. One such occasion was today when Barnes was caught up in an argument with the girl he had bumped into and Razack came to whisk him away before things got really ugly.
Then when they got into the lab; Razack suddenly entered the preparatory room and spent some good time in there with God knows who, and when he came out there was this wolfish grin on his face that Barnes very well knew what it signified; he had seen it far too many times on his friend's face not to recognise it. That's why he started to taunt him and make fun of him.
Barnes hadn't eavesdropped on the conversation Razack had with Jane but he almost felt like he knew what it was about. His instincts were hinting at something he knew his friend was very adept at; making women's knees to buckle and go soft like jelly. He was a master of the craft of womanizing; his body was a tool many women yearned to wield and use for their own gratification and satisfaction; this he gladly granted them albeit with a very stringent selection procedure. Not every woman that desired to lay with him always got what they wanted. He completely disregarded some, ignored the majority, friend-zoned some and others he gave silent treatment and to the lucky few he gave blissful and explosive nights like skies on the 4th of July.
Today was a momentous day for Razack because he had finally gotten to meet a longtime friend and accomplice again with whom they shared passions and goals. They came from slightly different family backgrounds but they each held a significant backing from their families and this partially fuelled their lives of luxury and extravagance at the schools they attended.
"So are you going to tell me what her name is or do you need me to jog your memory?" Barnes asked Abdul while gesturing his head towards the anonymous girl that he had bumped into outside the A-level block.
"What if I don't want to tell you? Is there anything you'll do to me that will force me to tell you what her name is?" Abdul retorted
I'll do nothing to you but I'm not sure whether you really want to cross swords with me. Do you?"
"Tell him the name of the beautiful angel that has captured his heart or else I'll personally tell him." Sahd told Abdul as he laughed at the expression Barnes made at both Abdul and him.
"I'll tell you. Her name isn't even that mysterious; she is just an average girl with a simple life nothing like us, but she sure likes to stir up trouble, she has a bad temper and is very annoying. Are you really sure you want to know her?" Abdul stalled for time while trying to dissuade Barnes from further pursuing the issue.
"Yes I am really sure I want to know her name and I might end up wanting more than her name. I'm likely to end up wanting her." Barnes seemed unperturbed and unmoved by his friend's attempts to discourage him.
"Tell the man so that he can prepare his 'manifesto' and start laying the foundation for a bright future with the love of his love. Hahaha" Sahd told Abdul while motioning towards Barnes with a caustic look.
"Sahd its best you keep your mouth shut too. You will piss me off and I'll not ask for her name from the two of you anymore. I'll just approach her personally and ask for her name since it seems almost impossible to get it off of you two thugs." Barnes remarked and got up from the lab stool upon which he was seated. He readied himself to approach the girl into whom he had bumped earlier on. His aim was to re-introduce himself, ask for her name and to make a better impression.