TYRALIUM

Chapter 1

I smiled as I heard the sweet moaning voice of a lady on the laptop, and the sweet clapping sound, showing the intensity of the crush between two bodies of a male and a female.

Okay, yeah. You might've guessed it. We were watching porn.

Who are we?

Well, Desmond, Ramson, Nathaniel, who we normally called Nat, and I.

These were my three closest friends since I got to high school. I've known them for 3 tears, and we were in our last year of high school.

Then my mom, Agnes, suddenly broke into the room. I closed the laptop shut quickly and we all pretended to be sleeping.

"Son, I know you're not sleeping." She said "Just finish watching whatever movie you're watching with your friends and go to bed."

At this point, we all broke our pretences, and looked at her.

"Yeah, mum." I answered.

She closed the door, and we all gave out a deep relieved sigh.

"Yo, I told you guys we should've gone to Nathaniel's house." I said, shooting a glance at Ramson, who opposed that idea most.

"Whatever." He said "Let's just continue. This whole sleepover shit is turning into a fucked up mess. We're just lucky your dad is on a night shift."

I opened the laptop again, and we resumed watching. We gradually slept, after the porn we watched had finished playing, and having to talk about our, I mean their girlfriend issues.

Desmond had his girlfriend, called Vanessa. They normally liked it cool, and easy but they really liked going on dates, especially on Valentines. Ramson was the only one of us, who had, had sex with his girlfriend, Victoria, so far. There was protection, though so the fear of having a baby was wiped out of his brain. Nathaniel was the last of the three to get his girlfriend, Valentina. They normally liked kissing in public, which I haven't understood why, up till now.

And me? Well, it's not that girls don't show up or something. They actually do, they really do. The thing's, I'd not met my type yet, so I normally turn them down. Normally, Nathaniel had tease me that I'm always playing hard to get, but I never took that personal because if you have a friend like Nathaniel, your self control should be really high, else you might kill him one day.

Yeah, that's how annoying he is.

***

I woke up and rose the curtains up. I looked at the time. It was 6:30 am, and I'd a lot of time to spare. I took a long glance at the room. Once again, the boys had messed up my room.

It normally happened like this, whenever there was a sleepover at my house. They'd stay for the night, but by the next day, they would've seemed to have vanished. I was pretty used to it now, so I hardly worried.

I got up from bed and performed my normal, daily stuff like bathing, brushing and others. I waved my mom goodbye, and left for school earlier than I'd expected.

I was there soon, since all I'd to do was to pick just one taxi there, which didn't cost much.

High school class today was boring, and I hardly paid much any attention. I could see that the other students agreed with me just by looking at their facial expressions.

Once school was over, Ramson, Nathaniel, Desmond and I went out to our usual. Our basement. Our HQ.

"Hey, Grandma!" Desmond greeted happily and hugged the old lady who held a stick in her arm, with black spectacles on her eyes.

"You are back early." She said.

"Is Aunt home?" He asked.

"Naah." The old woman answered "Went to get a job. She ain't giving up for a second."

We walked into the room, happy about the fact that Desmond's aunty wasn't home. Believe me when I say, that woman could be really intense, and not in a good way.

We sat down at the basement drinking smoothies and eating chips.

"Yo, Ramson." Desmond called "How's your job going?"

"I still think that job is bull shit. Even your boss is an asshole." I said.

"That ain't changing my mind." Ramson said "At least I got something doing. What do you guys do? Broke ass negas. At least I'm making some cash."

We all just rolled our eyes, and ignored him.

"So, I was asking how it is." Desmond said "I heard you guys got some shit to do at Energy Corp."

"Yo that place is bull shit. Don't go bro. I heard the new energy their producing is dangerous." Nathaniel said "Like, dangerous as in destroying your body kinda dangerous."

"Guys. Let me talk." Ramson said taking a deep sigh "Now the owner of the corporation said they'd found a new source of energy. Now this energy is serious."

"Oh yeah?" Nathaniel asked with a doubtful face "What's the name of this energy?"

"They named it Tyralium." He answered "This one is next level, guys. It could power up an electrical gadget way better than a few electrons could." He explained.

"Well, I'm getting the shit outta here." I said picking up my bag to leave.

"Yeah. It's getting late." Nathaniel said, following me.

"Guys, hold up." Ramson said, stopping us "We go in pairs." He said and I now knew where the conversation was going.

I chuckled so hard I could barely catch my breath, "No. I ain't going."

"Guys c'mon. Think about what this would mean to me?" He pleaded.

"Yeah. To you." Nathaniel said turning his back.

"Gu . . ."

"We are not going on a suicide mission." I cut him out angrily "If you're smart enough, you'll decline."

I returned home, where my mom, dad and little sister waited for me. Mom welcomed me home. It turns out I was just in time for supper.

Then Mom cleared her throat at dad. He placed his fork down on his plate and sighed.

"So, are you thinking about a job now?" He asked and I was so surprised, I nearly spat the food I took in unto the ground "Maybe you should start small, like a waiter or . . ."

"Dad." I called "Not now."

"Told ya." Vivian said trying to cut the meat with her fork and knife.

"Not now? When?" He asked "Ramson is a reporter now."

"And look at where that got him." I said with a smirk "He's going on a suicide mission to this psycho guy's company that's discovered a new revolutionary energy. He said it's called Tyralium."

"It's a start." He said.

"Yeah." I chuckled "Start of death."

"Maybe you could go with him." He suggested.

I got up from the dinning table and headed towards the room where Vivian and I stayed. First thing I did was to take my phone, plug my ear piece in, and listen to one of my favourite songs at the highest volume.

It was so high, that when Vivian even entered, I couldn't hear her. When I noticed she was trying to call me, I removed the ear piece slowly.

"You're gonna damage your ear." She cautioned.

"What do you want?"

She rose her eye brows high up, obviously trying to trick me into whatever favour she was gonna ask me.

I can't deny it. My little sis is a black beauty. My auntie even calls her a goddess sometimes, which isn't good sometimes because it gets into her head. She had a beautiful brown skin colour, and a huge afro hair on her head.

Well, pretty much everyone in my family had a brown skin, including me, and huge black hair, except for Dad who normally cut his hair twice in a month.

"Just go with Ramson." She pleaded "If he survives this, he'll be paid and promoted at his work."

I chuckled, "Since when did you start caring about Ramson's feelings?" I said "I ain't going with him. Maybe the others would go with him."

She sighed, "Okay. I tried. Suit yourself."