I woke up to pee in the middle of the night and when I returned to bed, I picked up my phone to look at the time. It was some minutes left till 1am.
I decided to unlock my phone and used it since I didn't feel all sleepy anymore. When I came online, I saw an expected message at the top of my chat board. It was a text from Uche. I opened it.
'I'm sorry.' It read. I was right, he did think I was mad. I checked the time in which the message was sent and it was few minutes after he walked Nick and I over to our house.
I smiled.
'I'm not mad.' I returned the text then went out of our chat to see if there were any messages that I would find worthy enough to reply.
There were two messages from unknown numbers. I hissed, wondering how on earth they got my number to message me. I scrolled up a bit and saw that I had been added to a group chat, it wasn't just any group chat, it was my class's group chat.
I opened it and saw:
'A number not in your contacts added you. Leave group? Report group? Leave and delete group?'
My mind first went to Kim. Uche had told me that he was the admin to the the class group, it had to be him who added me.
You've got to be kidding me, who gave him my number??!.
I went back to two of those messages from new numbers, he was probably one of them.
A new text popped at the top of my screen as a notification, that text immediately reversed my silent anger that Kim had my number now. It was from Uche.
I scrolled up to his number, he was online and typing so I opened the chat with an automatic smile.
"You are not?"
"I'm surprised u're online this late"
"Maybe a little, y did Nick call her name though" I typed but then read through it and had a change of mind. I quickly erased it.
"U there?" He sent after I didn't reply after him but had seen the message.
"Did u fall asleep on ur phone againΒΏ" He asked."π"he added.
I chuckled when I read that last question.
"That only happened one time π " I reminded him as to why he shouldn't think I had fallen asleep on my phone again.
"U're mad at me, aren't u?" he sent.
I paused with both my thumbs hanging over my phone's screen, not knowing what to reply. Was I mad? Maybe.
"I'm not" I decided to text that. I hope my lie couldn't be detected over a text.
"If I wasn't in the picture would u date April?" I sent but then re-read my question and saw just how weird it was to ask that so I tried deleting it but had already sent.
I saw a 'seen' under my message. It was too late to delete it.
"No." His answer came."If it ain't u, then it's no one." He added under his simple reply.
I smiled widely as I re-read that line from him.
"But she's hot" I sent again.
"Not as hot as u're"
"Besides been hot is not enough a reason to date someone."
I didn't know what to type after this, again.
"U there?" He asked.
"Yh" I texted back.
There was a lot we could talk about but I didn't think it was appropriate to say over a text. I wanted to ask about his mum, and I also wanted to know when we could repeat what almost happened at his house yesterday.
I curled my toes when I remembered how close his bare body was to mine.
"I feel sleepy again" I lied to cut the weirdness that just grew over our conversation."Goodnightπ" I sent to him, wishing I could actually kiss him right now.
"Gnβ€οΈ" He texted back.
"U could have just sent a kiss back" I told him.
"πππππππππππππππππππππ" he sent all the kiss emojis I was sure he had. It made me laugh.
"Is that enough or do u want more?" he texted after.
"ππ"
"One would hv been enough.π"
"ππ"
"Gn Julie π" he returned my text. I reacted with a heart before going offline.
Keeping my phone by the head of my bed, I close my eyes to fall back to sleep.
****
Morning.
"We are leaving, mum!" Nick announced loudly as he opened the front door for me to go through.
"Wait, I still have to tell you what to do!" I heard my aunt say as she came down the stairs. I decided to go out since she wasn't coming to speak to me.
Standing and tapping my feet for a while, I wondered what she was still telling him to take so long so I went back inside.
"Don't let Julie hungry when you both get back, okay?" I heard my aunt. Really? Was that part of what she had to tell him.
"Urghh mum, it's the third time you are repeating that. I already told you, I'll make something for us to eat when we get back, don't worry."
"You also told me not to worry the last time." His mum reminded him.
"Oh that, well, I didn't know she couldn't cook by herself back then, now I know." Nick knew I couldn't cook? Great, just great.
I went back out when they were done talking so Nick could meet me when he also walked out.
"Are we going to Uche's?" I asked him before he covered his ears with his ear buds.
"Yeah." His reply brought a smile to my face but I hid it so he didn't see.
He knocked when we got to the front door at Uche's place. The door opened like a minute later, it was Uche.
"Uchenna!" I heard a man's voice call from inside, it was Uche's Dad. Uche sighed before answering.
"Yes Dad."
"Echefula ime ihe m gwara gα» mee na mbα»₯," The man spoke in native language.
"Okay." He replied his Dad, closing the door after coming out to join us.
"Your dad's around?" Nick asked him.