"What are you thinking about?" Uche tickled me from behind, surprising me as where I sat alone, eating. Casey was with Nick, who knows where doing God knows what. She mentioned how they were dating, but I knew Nick was just toying with her; he's been hanging around with other girls.
"My Aunt said she had something she wanted to tell me. She wasn't excited about it, so I'm worried it's something bad."
"Oh," He sat next to me."Wanna play a game?" He asked out of the blue, making me turn my eyes to him in question.
"What?"
"Get on the desk and yell 'I like my boyfriend so much' and I'll give you fifty bucks."
I scoffed, "You're kidding."
"I'm not," he folded his arms with a smile and I immediately knew what he was attempting; to change the topic and make my mood better.
I sighed and shook my head simultaneously, "What motivated you to bring up that challenge, is it the assumption that I wouldn't do it, or do you just want to give me free money?"
"Both," He reached for one of the two sandwiches sitting in the lunch box my aunt had made for me.
"My food..." I protested when he picked it up and took a bite.
"But you weren't eating," he argued with his mouth full.
"I was gonna. Put it back." I held my lunch box in front of him so he could put back the one he had taken a bite from.
He did like he was really putting it back but brought the sandwich to his mouth again. I had to hold his hand and take a large bite out of it first, but my 'large' bite wasn't as large as I thought. He shoved the rest of it into his mouth with a smile of victory.
"Uche," I dragged and immediately secured the last sandwich. His smile persevered proudly."I don't feel like eating the food lady's meal today and you've eaten one of my sandwiches already."
"I'll get you ice cream after school," he offered but I shook my head.
"I don't want ice cream."
"Donuts? Cookies?" I heard him ask and realized this was just another way to get me to stop being moody since he probably predicted that I wouldn't accept his challenge.
What did he make of me to assume I couldn't get on the desk and yell out how much I liked him?
"You really got fifty dollars to give me?" I looked at him meanly but he knew when I was really angry and also knew when I was just feigning it to get at him. He didn't reply, just a naughty smirk. The same smile that made me fall for him in the first place."Of course, you do." I added once I remembered he recently won his online gaming competition.
"Watch me," I told him before getting up on the desk. I saw his pupils dilate in awe, but he still didn't think I could do it."Everyone! Look at me!"
Half the students in the cafeteria turned to my direction, and just then I saw Nick walking in with Casey right behind him. She immediately gave me the 'What are you doing?' look from where she was.
"I like Uche!" I announced and saw Nick mutter something to himself before walking to where his other friends sat, making sure to cover his face along the way."I like my boyfriend very much!" I yelled again and the food lady scolded me.
"Get down from there before a teacher sees you and you get in trouble!"
"Okay," I nodded." Sorry." I told her but she only returned a look that showed she felt sorry for me, maybe she thought I was bullied into what I just did.
"My money," I opened my palm in front of Uche after he helped me get down."Where is it?"
"It's in your locker, I slipped it through. I was gonna give you the money whether you played the game or not."
My jaw dropped."And you let me..." He laughed.
"Should I do it too?" He asked and I just wondered if he thought I'd say no to that.
"I like Julie, my girlfriend a whole lot. She's cute and she's sweet and she's..." He stopped when a teacher walked. It was Ms Suzie, one of our strict teachers. She didn't have to utter a word before Uche got down and sat back next to me.
****
"Wow. Uche really left all that for you?" Casey asked after I showed her the cash Uche left in my locker.
"I thought he was joking about it," I really did.
"Well, he's not. If only Nick would..."
"Casey, you're not really expecting much from Nick, are you?"
"..." She said nothing at first and when the silence between us grew weird, she laughed nervously. I immediately knew she knew.
"You know, don't you?" I asked and she replied with a sigh.
" I stay up sometimes reading his conversations with them. One asked him about me yesterday and he said I was stupid and wasn't a problem." Her tone got dull.
"SO why are you still letting him play with you like that?" I worried for her. I knew Nick was my brother but he was the absolute worst.
"I don't know. It's fun. I might get bored of it one day and send them all his different chats with all of them."
"..." I didn't know what to say after so I just got up from where I was squatting and closed my locker."Do you wanna help me after school with something?"
"What is it?"
"I want to get a shirt for Uche. I made him throw out one of his fine shirts." I successfully changed the topic without going into details about what I was talking about.
"Sure, no problem."
****
Later, at home.
I sat on my bed, dousing the new shirt I had gotten for Uche in my perfume because I wanted him to pick the shirt up and think of me.
"Julie, you in there?" It was my aunt waiting outside my door.
"Yeah," I opened the door to answer, expecting she'd come in but she just stood at the door and stared at me almost pitifully before changing her mind about talking to me.
"Just checking if you're okay," She said and turned around.