11:40 pm. I couldn't sleep. I was sleepy though, but I was just forcing myself to stay awake, to see if Uche would make it past twelve without waking up.
I watched videos online till I felt my stomach rumble while I yawned. I then remembered I had the food I had taken out earlier in the room with me.
I immediately went to it and brought it closer to my nose, to see if it was still good. It smelt normal but I still had to be sure so I used the spoon to stir it and taste with the tip of my tongue.
"Mmn. Still good," I smiled and took the food back with me to my chair which was positioned to face Uche's room window.
I was eating thoughtlessly while watching more videos till the voice in my head came.
"And you wonder why you're fat."
I stopped eating and stared at the food for some time."Who cares if I'm fat." I told myself and continued to eat."I'm not even fat, I'm just not skinny," I said again to myself, my mouth full. I was trying to make myself feel better.
The lights in Uche's room were suddenly turned on. I dropped the plate gently and quietly on the bedside table and stood up to see better.
It was Uche's dad checking up on him. I hid behind my curtain, not wanting him to see me. I think he just came back. He stood talking at the door for a while and when he saw that Uche didn't answer, he went to his bed and pressed his palm against Uche's forehead.
He checked Uche's neck too before turning off the lights and walking back out the way he came in.
****
Morning.
I skipped breakfast so I could go to Uche's house early. Nick didn't bother to make breakfast for himself since I was eating. He dug his teeth into an apple as I knocked on Uche's front door.
Uche opened the door himself, all dressed and ready. I smiled, relief surging through me. He woke up. I was scared he wouldn't wake up when it was morning.
"Hey babe," He kissed me and I tasted the mint of his breath.
"Hey." I smiled."You didn't have breakfast?"
"Not hungry," He shrugged and turned to Nick who had been staring at him to see if he remembered yesterday."What?" He asked his friend.
"Nothing," Nick just said and started to walk into the road without us.
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah," I answered, not knowing if I should tell him what Nick did.
"Okay, something's up," He came closer to me and leaned in.
"Nope," I shook my head.
"You're lying," he smiled and fuck, I felt my knees weaken. I bit my lips and squeezed my fingers.
"Let's go, we're gonna be late," I pulled him by the arm towards the road.
***
At School.
Every time I looked over at Uche's seat, he looked dull. He was listening to the teacher but he wasn't as vibrant as he usually was. When it was break period, I went to his seat and sat on his desk.
Uche moved his chair backwards so he could bring both my legs between his so that I could face him.
"You okay?" I had to ask.
"Okay Julie, I tried to not think about it but now you've got to tell me...what's bothering you?"
"What's bothering me?" I chuckled nervously, knowing I'd been caught.
"Yeah, what's on your mind? You kept glancing at me occasionally when the class was still on, and now you're asking if I'm okay?"
"What?" I laughed again, "There's nothing wrong with a girl checking if her boyfriend's okay."
"Julie..." Uche placed his hands on my thighs softly and smiled while giving me the 'You are horrible at lying' looks I've become accustomed to.
"Fine," I sighed."Nick gave you sleeping pills yesterday." I confessed.
"I knew it!" He snapped his fingers." The fucking headache, that's why."
"I didn't know when he did it, I would've stopped him," I explained.
"I told him I didn't wanna take the fucking..." He stopped for a moment she sighed.
"Are you gonna confront him about it?" I wanted to know.
"Nah. If I do, we're just gonna argue about it, and maybe he'd find a reason to really stop talking to me this time around." Uche ran his fingers through his curly hair.
"Nick's an asshole," I said my mind to Uche."I actually wonder to myself how you became friends with him; if he wasn't my cousin, I wouldn't even talk to him for one day."
"Funny thing, we started at enemies," Uche laughed."They had us at the town's annual spelling bee beefing each other over spelling words nobody gives an f about."
"Let me guess, you won over him?"
"No, he won, but it was almost a tie, but my dad wasn't having it. Had me visiting your house and being close to Nick because 'Keeping smart company makes you smart', and I hated Nick for it. I hated having to be friends with someone I've never even said hi to even when he lived next door. But we started doing shit together and realized we weren't as horrible as we both thought we were."
"No way," I giggled."Tell me you didn't just go through that story to convince me Nick's not an asshole. I still think he is, nobody's changing my mind." I said as I got off Uche's desk.
"You going to the cafeteria?" He stood up when I wanted to walk towards the glass door to leave."Let's eat together."
"Was going to the library," I stopped to answer him.
"To read?" He looked surprised, and I would be insulted but I also had that reaction when I started reading at night since the night I stayed awake with him.
"What else would someone go to the library to do?" I wasn't offended by his surprise but I wasn't going to show him that.
He went mute for some seconds and I assumed he had taken my question to be a rhetorical one but no, he lifted his eyes to mine after his brief silence, and with a naughty ass smile, he whispered."To shag?"
I immediately checked around us to see if anyone had been listening to our conversation and when I saw no one was near us, I laughed, crazily but in a hushed tone.
He had exhaled shakily as a form of laughing because I didn't want anyone to know why I was laughing; what he had said."What?" I asked when I could laugh anymore.
"What?" He returned my question with a smile like he didn't know what he said.
"Stop it," I pushed him lightly, "You seen anyone fuck in the library?" I whispered and he shrugged.
"Should we do it? Let's do it..." I bit my lips in anticipation after asking and answering the question myself, and then I heard him laugh and that was when I knew anything this boy did could turn me on like a switch.
My whole being channelled its sensitivity to my ears, filtering every sound around me just to pick his laughter, deep and low-voiced. Fuck, I'm just realizing if Uche was like any of his friends he hung out with and wanted to just use me and dump me after, he could.
"You trying to get us suspended?" His laughter was reduced to a chuckle now.
"What are you saying? No one would even know."
"Every fucking person in the library would know, are you kidding me?"
"We'd be at the back, maybe the last shelf area, no one even goes there," I assumed.
"And you're forgetting how quiet the library is, and how loud you get when..." He paused and leaned in to whisper the rest. My face turned red as I listened to him say those things in my ears.
I felt his hands around my waist as I listened to him whisper more, and the anxious part of me had to look around and check again that the class was empty of people who cared if Uche was this close to me.
"Fuck." He suddenly stopped and let go of me.
"What?" I asked, worried.
"Remember when you thought you were a distraction to me?" He scratched his head with a half-witted smile."I...I might be the one distracting you."
"What?" I immediately understood what he was saying but tried to laugh it off.
"I'm being selfish right now, I really didn't want you to leave me when it seemed you wanted to go to the library alone and so I distracted you."
"Don't be silly, you aren't distracting me. We're still talking about the library, aren't we?"
"We're talking about shagging at the library," he corrected out loud just when the guy that usually says behind me in class walked by. He adjusted his glasses before going over to his seat.