Drinks were brought in buckets of ice but I was less interested, I didn't like the way Fatima kept whispering in Jafar's ears. It was not like I was jealous or something, but she should atleast say what she wanted to say loud and clear… oya I was jealous small.
Just when I was calming down, the one called Mariam decided to talk.
Mariam: Please you guys should spread the word to all the Kano students in your school, my dad is gunning for governorship.
It was not like I was from a poor home and all o, but these entire politician's children sef
Toun: oh that's nice although I have few Hausa friends…
Fatima: but Jafar is Hausa and from Kano, isn't he your friend..
There was a deafening silence, I wondered how Toun would have explained that our host, who engineered our being in Abuja, was not our friend..
Jafar: I never told them..
Fatima looked at him and spanked him playfully like he was a naughty boy. He smiled at her too..
Me: he actually told him he was from Kano
Jafar looked at me, puzzled with the point I was trying to prove. I smiled as I looked at Fatima.
Me: we were preparing his favorite meal, Yam and egg when he told me..
Fatima: awwww, Jafar is such a homely guy. He seldom eats outside. I taught him how to prepare the yam and egg just the way he likes it. Did you know just the right amount of onions to slice?
Me: yes!
My answer was a bit too loud. Fatima and I were not fooling anyone around the table, this was beyond Yam and egg. Thankfully Uche broke the façade
Uche: their peppersoup here is mad!.. cow-tail, intestines, chicken..
Abayomi and Toun that had been relatively quiet opted for cow-tail, Hauwa and Mariam went for Chicken, instead of Fatima to other for herself, she asked for two plates of cat- fish for her and Jafar
Me: make it three plates, I want cat-fish
I wondered why it didn't come earlier but when it did, Toun's laughter was sonorous. I was a little embarrassed but I kept a straight face. I didn't know what was wrong with me, with all the Timi drama and having told myself that Jafar and I were in parallel universe, I didn't like Fatima claiming him.
The drinks were served chilled; the Hausa girls went for Malta-guiness while Toun and I took our normal Gordon-spark. The stupidly pretty one among them called Mariam gave us this condescending look as we sipped our drinks. Abayomi and Uche discussed about something that was very interesting to both of them. Sparrow and Aji were trying to impress Toun with the amount of bottles they could drink. The three Hausa girls were all over Jafar, telling him what has been happening to guys he knew who attend Nile University. I was left alone with my thoughts.
Some minutes past 8pm, Jafar went to his car and came back with a shisha jar, chocolate flavor and coal were also available. Though I hadn't smoked shisha before, I pretended I had. As we passed the pipe between each other, I couldn't help but notice that after Jafar smoked, he passed the pipe to Fatima, who rubbed her lips on the mouth of the pipe. I wondered how nice it would have been if I was the one passing the pipe to Jafar. I wondered if he would smack his lips. Okay I was getting stupid and Toun's disciplinary stare told me she could guess what I was thinking. I held on to my Gordon-spark…I didn't smoke with them anymore.