"Since when have you been seeing her?" Uche's dad was questioning him in a corner when I left the principal's office.
"A while now." Uche's voice was calm, compared to the tone in which his father was using to ask.
"A while now? What is that supposed to mean? Why didn't I know about this? About the Nathan's case and about you and Nick's sister?"
"..." Uche went silent.
"Uchenna."
"Yes dad."
"Are you now mute or what?"
"What do you want me to say?" Uche spoke.
"Did you beat that poor boy into a coma?"
"No. You think I did? Do you think I lied in there?"
"I don't know what to believe, Uche. They asked you to let me know about the situation here and you didn't let me know about it. And then you and that Julie..." His dad stopped when he saw me standing there and listening.
"Call me if anything gets out of hand, I'm returning to the city. When I return, you and I will talk more on this." His father shook his head before leaving.
Uche turned to me when his dad left. His breathing was unusually loud, so I could hear it from where I stood. He was scared. Probably. I breathe loudly when I'm nervous, anxious or scared.
What I couldn't decipher is if he was scared of the Nathan case and the police getting involved, or if he was just scared of his father.
I went and wrapped my arms around his torso, hugging him tight. He didn't return the hug at first, till after some seconds.
"Julie, I'm sorry," I heard him mutter in a sober voice.
I raised my eyes to look at his face as he spoke. I was right; he was terrified."What are you sorry for?"
"What if the police thinks I did it?" He swallowed.
"Did you do it?"
"No." He answered.
"If you didn't do it, then everything be alright." I hoped to comfort him with my words.
"I shouldn't have written that note or even put it in his locker..." He inhaled slowly."...Maybe you wouldn't be involved in all of this."
I didn't know what to say after that. He really shouldn't have put the stupid note in Nathan's locker but now was not the time to scold him for that.
"My dad's probably calling your aunt right now, to find out if she knew we've been dating each other. Nick will find out about us once your aunt knows, and if Nick knows, the whole school basically does." Uche reminded me of that.
My heart sunk to my stomach. The whole school? I swallowed. I was surely done for. They would say all manner of trashy things once they find out I was dating Uche.
"I won't let anyone say or do anything stupid about you if that happens, I promise." Uche took my hands in his.
"How would you do that? Are you going to take their phones from them? And seal their lips, huh?"
"You'll see. I won't let anyone say anything hurtful, okay?" He reassured me with a smile like he was not still scared himself.
***
A week later.
I ate breakfast at the dining table with Nick. Uche has not been going to school with us. His Dad has been around more, and every morning when Nick and I went over to his place, his dad would say he wasn't in.
We fell for that the first day but after we arrived at school and didn't see him there yet, we knew.
My aunt hasn't mentioned anything about Uche and I. So it meant two things. It was either Uche's dad didn't let her know or she was just choosing to play school about it.
Thankfully, Nick doesn't know too. Everytime he asked Uche why his dad was stopping him from going with us to school, Uche brought up a distraction. But he(Uche) had let me know they he had an argument with his dad about me.
His dad had asked that he ended things with me so that the police don't get the hint that he hit Nathan because of me. He refused, and insisted that he didn't send Nathan to the hospital. I guess his dad didn't trust him after all.
Since Uche refused to end things with me, his father has been trying to cut me off from his daily life.
At our class, it was a free period. Uche's friends clustered around him like they usually did. They chatted and joked around but Uche wasn't smiling like usual. He just bobbed his head at them from time to time and smiled lightly.
Casey had left the class earlier so I just sat at in seat and stared at him for long before deciding to text him.
[I miss u]
I texted and waited for him to pick up his phone. He turned his neck to me the moment he received it. Next thing I knew, he came over to my seat and grabbed my hand to lead me out of class.
I followed and let him take me to an empty storeroom. When he shut the door behind us, he pressed his lips against mine.
"Mmn," A soft moan slipped through my lips. His kisses went down my neck and before I knew it, his face was underneath my crop top.
I threw my head back in pleasure, gripping on tight to his shoulders as he knelt before me. Footsteps. Someone was coming. Not someone, it was more than one person coming. I could hear the non syncing footsteps approach us.
"Uche," I called him but his lips didn't want to leave my skin yet."Uche, I think someone's coming." I exhaled quietly, trying to push away the pleasure and work with my other senses.
"So what?" He got his head out from under my crop top and asked. He seemed annoyed, and I got it. If he stops me from kissing all over him any day, I'd be so mad.
"It could be the janitor?" I shrugged and watched as he rolled his eyes.
"We're not the first to be doing this here, he'll surely ignore us if he see us."
"Okay," I but my lips,"What if it's not the janitor? What then? What if it's one of our classmates?"
"Really, Julie? Why would any of our classmates be coming here?"
"Probably for the same reason we're here?" I pointed that out to him and heard him curse under his breath.
"We'll find another time for this," I said and started to arrange my hair and clothes.
"You serious?" Uche bit his lips. His hair was more messy than mine, thanks to me, but he didn't seem to care about that.
"Yes." I whispered and ran my fingers through my hair roughly."Is it still messy?" I asked him but he didn't answer till after some time.
"The police, they're coming over to my house today. To 'have a talk with me'. You know what that means? I won't get to talk to you, or even be close to you till they're convinced that I didn't fucking put Nathan in the condition he's in at the hospital." He sniffed and only then did I realize he had tears in his eyes, they just wouldn't fall off the edge of his eyes.
"All through this week, I've been forced to stay away from you back home like we don't do that enough here in school. I can't hug you, I can't kiss, most times I can't even smile at you or look in your direction because I don't anyone to notice me doing that. And I've tried to act like I'm cool with it all." He sniffed again.
"Trust me, I've tried to ask like I'm okay with being away from you but I'm not Julie. You're the one person that eases my mind and I'm not even able to hug you when my mind is heavy."
He inhaled with a pause."You have no idea how happy I was to find out you missed me too. It felt good as hell to receive that text from you so I just wanted to...make you happy...make a new memory that can be in my head till when next I get to be alone with you again."
"..." I started back at him when he stopped talking till I realized he didn't have anything more to say, but before I could utter a word, he continued.
"This..." He chuckled dryly."This is one of the times I need those pills for my anxiety." He wringed his a fist with his hands and closed his eyes to take a deep breath. The veins in his arms began to pop out the more he fisted his hands. I knew I needed to stop him so I stood on my tippy toes and hugged him.