Adenike Ekon ✔

07. Crumbled Friendship

Have you ever fought with your best friend?

If you did, was there a point when you thought you had given up on your friendship?

Adenike had experienced both options. She had gone through step one and was experiencing the second step.

Although there was a possibility that Precious wasn’t mad at her but busy—a very slight chance— Adenike was worried that their friendship had ended.

When people talked about grief, they never gave it a specific definition. There was always something missing.

To Adenike, Grief was not a stage or feelings experienced by human beings, it was part of being human.

Adenike threw her bag on the front door, she was depleted. After a long day of spending time with Rokibat, she was extremely exhausted.

“Get out of the way, Ade,” Taiwo shouted. He attempted to move her body out of the way, but she ended up with her body on top of him.

Kehinde who was watching the whole scene unfold in front of him walked through them. He entered the house not bothered by Taiwo who was on the verge of giving up, she was too heavy for him.

After a few minutes of laying on the floor, Adenike's mother noticed the commotion outside. When she neared the door, she was met with her daughter's physique on the floor.

Taiwo must have left her there.

“Ade, Wake up.” She tapped her shoulders. Adenike stirred. She must be really tired.

“Hmmm,” she mumbled.

“You’re laying on the floor.” She shook her shoulders, again. The word ‘floor' did the trick, Adenike stood up in a minute.

She stumbled and made her way into the building, her mother followed behind. Carrying her bag.

“Get some rest.” she dropped the school bag on the floor, beside the door. “When is she coming over?”

“An hour from now.” Adenike got on the bed, she didn’t care to get out of her dirty uniform. She dragged the mattress close, over her body.

“I will tell the twins not to enter your room,” she muttered.

 “Sleep tight.”

In her sleepy state, she heard her mother mumbled.  She would have to wake up after an hour, Rokibat was coming over to discuss their project.

-     - -

“What's friendship?” she asked. It was another one of the terms she heard the students in her class talk about.

“It’s a bond between friends,” the girl explained.

“If I'm your friend, does that mean we have a friendship?” she muttered curiosity.

Emilia was new to the friendship world. She had no friends when she was younger, and now that she was old enough to understand the basic facts, she was still not familiar with the words. So when the girl asked her to be her friend during recess, she was determined to find out more about that world that she never navigated.

“What’s your name?” she asked. The girl didn’t tell her name. It was also a bad habit coming from her.

“Stephanie,” she stretched her hand forwards.

“I’m Emilia,” she introduced herself.

She did nothing with the outstretched hand. What was she supposed to do?