Adenike Ekon ✔

15. I hate you

“I would like to tell you a story,” she dropped her bag on the floor. She lay on the grass, the moon radiated its light.

“A story of how I overcame misery and embraced achieving,” she played with her ponytail.

Sitting on the grass, with the moon and the stars watching. And the silence of the night, she narrated her story.

—❣—

Precious was crazy. She had never seen her like that, not even the day she failed the chemistry competition she spent a year preparing for.

Sometimes friends are meant to let go, yet, why did she feel as if she owed her an explanation?

An explanation for what? She didn’t want to know.

She had watched and witnessed some documentaries about friendship, some friendships lasted for thirty years. Adenike wondered if she would ever experience such. Not with Precious of course.

“Hi,” Rokibat greeted as she sat on the chair. She watched Adenike closely. As if she was detecting any dysfunction.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she yelled at her. After the incident with Precious, Rokibat became extra nice, she even offered to do her math homework.

“I’m not,” she took a book from Ade's desk and flipped through it.

“Sure,” Adenike stated. She stood from the bed.

“Did you fill out the form yet?” she asked. Something must have caught her attention because she didn’t once look up to meet Adenike's eyes.

“No, I will,” Ade fiddled with her fingers. The truth was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to participate in the competition. What if she fail? It would be a great shame.

“Tonight,” she added after a long pause.

Rokibat was extremely quiet, Ade tiptoed to where she was sitting, on her study desk.

When she was about to smack her on the head, she looked up.

Adenike snatched the book away from her prying eyes.

“Why were you reading this?” she held the book to her chest.

It was the notebook she jotted Emilia's thoughts before she processed them into a software format.

The words were littered all around. To her, Emilia's thoughts were secretive.

“That’s awesome,” Rokibat yelled like a fangirl. Adenike rubbed her face tiredly. She had never shown anyone her writings. Apart from family, which also included Precious.

“Yeah?” she was confused. What was she supposed to say?

She had two options, to brag about her writing, or to scold Rokibat..
She did the latter. She could’ve chosen the former, but she wasn’t much of a writer.

She was just a teen who discovered her talent for writing, and thought why not?

Then she set up an online account which turned out to be the worst decision she made.

“Why did you go through my stuff?” she began. If she wished Rokibat to forget about her writing, she would’ve to show her that they meant a lot to her.

“I wasn’t going through your stuff.” She stood up from the chair and hugged Adenike.

Adenike didn’t complain about the hug, it was ordinary comfortable.

—❣—

“Is there something going on between Precious and you?” Adenike closed the book she was reading. She closed her eyes and inhaled.