Penfield's Greatest Swimmer

🌊~46

Aside from the unintelligible babble coming from inside the JCR, the whole floor was fairly quiet. Not surprising, since it was a Friday night.

The humming device stole my attention once again and before I hit the green button, I pulled in a breath.

"Hello?" I exhaled.

"Akwasi." There was something like a shuffle, then a solemn "hey" followed.

When it seemed like he wasn't going to add anything, I said, "What do you want, Ethan? You've been calling me non-stop and I'm in the middle of something very important."

"Oh um sorry, it's just that I... really needed to talk to you." He cleared his throat. "I just came from Coach's office and she took the time to talk some sense into me. It made me realise that I took things a bit too far tonight."

"A bit?" I pushed my eyebrows up. "Dude, you totally overreacted! I get that you were upset, but it was absurd of you to go trashing out my locker for drugs. And tossing that crowbar at Seth? That was beyond messed up!"

"I know, I know, I know," Ethan chanted, "And I'm sorry, I really am. I don't know why I did all those things, I just lost touch of who I was for a split second," he huffed, speechless for a minute. When he spoke again, his voice was soaked in deep penitence. "If I could take it all back, I swear I would... but I can't."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Ethan's next utterance stopped me. "The last thing I want to do is to fight with you, Akwasi. I know it's going to take a lot to make it up to you, but I still want to try. Come to Eden's Lodge, I have a surprise for you."

A crease formed on my forehead. "What surprise?"

"You'll find out when you show up. I'll be expecting you."

"Ok. But before that, call Seth and apologise to him too."

"Sure, no problem."

He hung up and I pulled the phone off my ear, wondering what he had in store for me.

The door soon creaked open, announcing a second presence, and I turned.

"Did you talk to him?" Akunna stepped out. Deon followed, munching on a Mars chocolate bar.

"Yeah." I leaned against the banister. "He said he's sorry and wants me to come to Eden's Lodge for a surprise."

"Oh so are you going to go?" Deon quizzed through caramel.

"I dunno." My shoulders shrugged. "I mean I don't want to, but I also want to see what the surprise is about?"

"He didn't give you any clues?" Akunna asked.

"No. He just said I'll find out when I show up."

The two of them paused, mulling over the situation.

"Frankly, I don't think you should go," My roommate voiced out first. "I suspect that Ethan has something up his sleeve with this 'surprise'. What if it's a ploy to throw you of your game tomorrow?"

"It could be but... I don't know. He sounded quite remorseful on the phone, like he regretted everything that had happened."

"I think it makes sense that Ethan is trying to apologise to you with this surprise," Deon added. "The two of you have known each other since you were kids. It'll be stupid to throw away all those years of friendship just because of one fight. I think you should go see him and patch things up."

Folding my arms, I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled. My mind was leaning more on Deon's words, but it also didn't cancel out the possibility of a ploy like Akunna had said. Ethan was capable of a lot of things. I noticed it when he ended Seth's relationship with Amina and turned him into an object of ridicule, even though they were friends.