Naya and Vince

40

It was the first day of school. Again. We had resumed for the second term and in as much as I didn't fancy the idea that I was going to see people I definitely did not want to see, I was superbly glad to grab an opportunity to leave the house.

Dinma was making life literally unbearable for me. She was somehow now sticking to a guy who I was certain was homeless because the man legit spent twenty hours of the day in our room. He even stayed when Dinma was not around and I was forced to start spending extra time with Bolaji at the workshop where he learnt his mechanic trade. Worse of it all was that I was forced to go back to madam hips. Granted that I no longer tutored Vincent, I figured I just had to go back, not only to stay away from the house but also because I needed the money. Mrs. Daniels had told me before we vacated last term that we were to continue tutorials even during the holidays.

Even if Vincent's Dad was never around when we studied, I knew there was absolutely no way the man didn't know that we had ended the tutorials. I felt Vincent would let the man know because he most definitely did not want me enjoying his mother's hard earned money. I would never forget Vincent's statement that day.

I headed to my class not necessarily ignoring people because there weren't really people to ignore. I was as early as I was on my first day.

I smiled.

The day I met Chijioke. I wanted to laugh at the memory. . .

But my smile faltered.

I also met Jessica that day.

"Naya Bear!"

I felt air leave my body as someone apparently rammed into me. It took a minute for me to resume breathing properly as Chijioke kept squeezing me all in the name of hugging.

"Chijioke you're strangling me!"

He released me and stared at me, his brown eyes twinkling. The last time I had seen him, well I couldn't remember what those eyes were doing because I was blinded by anger honestly. Chijioke called me that night asking after my welfare and apologizing with all his heart on behalf of Stephen. Chijioke didn't come to visit me again though we just kept contact by calling.

I walked to my locker at the back of the class to drop my textbooks.

"Chijioke," I called waving his jacket in the air. The same jacket that he left with me when he ran out of the cafe that day with rage that surprised me.

He walked towards me, laughing in unbelief. "You brought it? I thought you have colonised it. That's what girls normally do. And you didn't bring it the next day. There was absolutely no reason to doubt."

I tossed his jacket to him and locked my locker. "The only reason I didn't bring it during the competition was because I washed it and it didn't dry well."

I was walking towards my former seat when I felt something fall on my head. I knew it was his jacket. I turned to Chijioke with hands on my hips. "Why did you do that?"

"You can keep it."

I pulled the clothing from my head and shot up an eyebrow. "Why?"

I had so many assumptions already made in my head and they weren't really good assumptions.

Was it because I had been with it for two weeks and he wasn't comfortable with the environment it had been in?

"Because I feel like giving it to you," Chijioke laughed easily.

I only hummed and shoved the clothing into my school bag. I liked the jacket so whatever his reasons were for giving it to me, whether good or bad, didn't bother me. What bothered me was. . .