The Day Before Yesterday

Chapter 4: Monday

Chapter 4: Monday

The awaited Monday finally did come...and pass. When Mofe came back to school on Sunday evening, Ife tried to stay out of her way.

She tried well because, she car d about Mofe and for some unknown reason, she wanted to pat her back as she cried into her pillow in the middle of the night. Ife knew that would be weird. She and Mofe were not that close. If she tried to do that, Mofe would probably flash her the middle finger and tell her to piss off.

Ife was trying really hard no to run over to Mofe's desk, raise her head, clean her tears and tell her God is in control. She couldn't help herself. That was who she was.

Ife the golden girl.

The brilliant, top student who seemed to have a lot of friends and was always def ending those in need. To Ife, she was Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Americannah main character. Ife really believed she was Ifemmelu. The girl, as the author wrote, that all the boys respected but were a little bit afraid of.

Two weeks after that Monday, at night after prep in hostel, Ife finally stopped hammering the fortress in her mind and simply walked through the door.

"Hi," she said.

Mofe looked up from her past questions, looking at the pointed features of the girl hanging at the ladder of her bed. She looked back down, answering Ife with silence.

"Can I sit?"

Mofe folded her legs, resting her Physics past questions on her lap never looking up to acknowledge the girl that was now perched on her bed like a bird. Ife took that as a yes.

Ife could feel she wasn't welcome, but she didn't care. She felt she had to be here for Mofe.

"Is that Tonad  past questions?," she reached forward attempting to look at the cover, but Mofe quickly withdrew her book shooting her with an icy glare."Is it? Tonad? Cause if it is-"

"Ife, what is it?"

Ife was at loss looking for the right words to say."I-I just-"

"You just what Ife? What?"

"Well," Ife started blinking rapidly,"if you will just let me finish a sentence-"

"Then what? Then what, Ife?," Mofe said sniffing. She quickly wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie."Ife what is it that you want? Can't you leave me alone? We're not friends. You just started talking to me after this whole Tu-tu thing. None if you in that class are my friends. None of you. So what is it that you want from me?"

Ife blinked precisely three times, straightened her posture and said "Okay."

With that one word said, Ife picked up her blanket, pillow and schoolbag banging the door in Mofe's slightly red eyes.

At first when she left the room, she didn't know where to go. She had friends but who was she comfortable enough to sleep with? And she had to make a decision quickly before the matron saw her loitering about.

She ran to Aisha's room ignoring Blessing's plea for her to come back. Mmesoma seemed happy with what happened between the two. She probably thought Ife deserved it.

Aisha's room was a bit bigger than the other rooms in hostel. Her being the head girl, she enjoyed special privileges that other students could only hope to get when they got to SS3.

She had her own single bed, a vanity desk, a full size mirror and a private bathroom. As Ife admired herself in the mirror, thinking how all of this could have been hers if she had come to the school a bit earlier, she barely noticed the sound of the window opening.