When I saw Sharon again, it felt like it had been years since I last saw her. She looked vibrant and clingy then, but now, she looks withdrawn and sad.
I wanted to ask if she was okay.
I wanted to ask if she was taking care of herself, but I couldn’t.
Not just because she wouldn’t even look at me, but also because I was here to be Adunni’s friend. Even if I didn’t know the full story, I could tell that Sharon played an antagonistic role in it.
So, I held myself back. I sat down in the reception area while I waited for the disciplinary meeting to be over. What I didn’t expect was to see Ekene here.
Maybe he is here for his own disciplinary meeting.
So I say hi, and go back to my book until he asked me if I’m here for Adunni or Sharon.
What!!!
“Adunni” I reply
Then I remember that Ekene and Sharon used to be a thing a while back. I guess he is here to be supportive, but I still ask. Just to make small talk
“You?”
“Same,” he replied. In the second it took for me to process his reply, I look up at him, stunned.
“Excuse me, What?!!” I ask again for good measure.
“I’m here for Adunni, is it that shocking?”
“Yes, yes, aren’t you guys arch-enemies? And isn’t there like a conflict of interest there because of your history with Sharon?” I reply, all the while gesticulating with my head and hands.
“Arch-enemies?!!, guy, this isn’t one of those hero and villain movies. This is real life, and in real life, people band together when something like this happens,” he responded in one of those ‘I am the dispenser of justice’ voices.
I smile at him like I’m buying his shit, but in my head I’m thinking
“Bruh!!, you are standing by your nemesis instead of your ex-girlfriend, don’t get all self-righteous with me”.
Please don’t tell me this is over a guy. That would be the most cliché thing to ever happen. I abandon my book and spend the next hours coming up with different scenarios that involved a fight about Ekene and then convincing myself that it was not possible.
The most colorful one was that Ekene had had a long-time crush on Adunni but didn’t know how to express it, and then he started dating Sharon to get close to her. There was a moment between them, and Ekene cheated on Sharon with Adunni. Sharon caught them but didn’t let them know that she knew, and she had been plotting her revenge ever since. Then she caught them again in school and got too emotional. So, she released the video ahead of time and ruined her whole revenge plan. Now, Ekene and Adunni seized the opportunity to become open about their relationship.
That is so soap-opera-like.
Hmmm!!! I have an over-active imagination.
When I see Adunni and Sharon come out from the room together, I thought they had made up. Except it is Sharon tailing Adunni, and she stops when she sees Ekene.
This is so going to be awkward!!!
“Oh, Ekene! Did you come to see me?” Sharon said, looking hopeful with her ‘everything will be okay eyes.’
I can’t help myself, I giggled.
What’s wrong with me? Now is not a good time to giggle.
Me and my inappropriate responses!.
I turn around to hide my incessant snickering.
“What is funny? Is he not here for me? I’m sorry, that was presumptuous.” Sharon smiled and walked up to him.
“Did something happen? Do you have a disciplinary case? Did you do something stupid again?” she continued her tirade and ignored the rest of us.
“I’m here for Adunni, I wanted her to know that I’m rooting for her,” Ekene stopped her by speaking.
“You are rooting for Adunni?” Sharon repeated, confused.
At this point, I look at Adunni, she seems uncomfortable and conflicted. I can smell the gunpowder in the air, a powder keg is about to go off, and the silly side of me wishes to embrace it with a comfy seat and popcorn.
“What do you mean by you’re rooting for Adunni?”Sharon questions, and then she turns to face Adunni, “What does he mean by he’s rooting for you?”
“Sharon, stop playing the victim, stop pretending to be a fragile doll, I’m sick of it,” Ekene hollered.
“You guys should talk,” Adunni said.
“There’s no need. We can go for dinner Adunni,” Ekene replied.
“Talk!” Adunni shouted in a ‘you have no choice’ voice, as she dragged me out of there.
After we leave the vicinity, I unload my many questions on her.
“When did you and Ekene become friends? Are you guys a thing now? Because that would be so complicated.”
“No, we are not a thing. It’s just that he is one of the few people I have in my corner right now.”
I laughed appropriately in my head.
Yeah right!!! That’s how it begins.
She looks exasperated. So I calm myself down.
“Sorry, my heart can’t take so much excitement. How was the meeting? Was it a group thing?”
“It wasn’t a group thing, and I’m not exactly sure how well it went. They just kept asking why I was dancing naked, and If I was aware that the video was recorded and posted on twitter.”
I was outraged!!
“Can’t they see that you are the victim?” I said.
“Let me tell you what happened,” she replied, and she told me everything.
It was Adunni’s laundry day, and she so badly wanted to eat noodles before taking a bath.
So, all she wore was an apron while she made noodles for both Sharon and her. So when Sharon put on her Spanish playlist, her body just moved to the beat (those were her exact words). It was after she was done that she realized that Sharon was recording a video of her.
They laughed about it, Sharon deleted it, and then they went out later in the day together, only to come back at night and see it all over twitter.
My brain goes over this information for a while because it seems incomplete.
So I ask, “Did she retrieve it from her iCloud and post it?”
“No!” Adunni says.
“Did she send someone to do the dirty work?” I ask impatiently.
“No!” she replies.
“Then what happened, how did it get on twitter?”
“Nobody knows!”
Definitely Fiction 