Beyond Boundaries {ON HOLD}

Chapter Seven

This chapter is dedicated to my elder sister. For being so proud of me even when I have zero idea what I'm doing with my life and also for getting your contacts to check this book out.

Cause after all this time,
I'm still into you

~Paramore

LEILANI

There's dead silence for a minute as both of us take our time processing. Me, his confession and him, my silence.

Finally I hear a sound from his end "You still there?" He asks and I sigh, my mouth suddenly feeling too heavy to make any words.

"Mhm" my mouth opens and closes as I try for more words but come up short.

"I take it you were not expecting this" he says trying to fill the awkward silence.

"No, I wasn't" I reply absentmindedly. My brain was wheeling with thoughts on how I'd end this conversation without hurting my best friend or putting myself in an unwanted situation.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have dropped it in you like that" he quickly apologizes "Maybe waited till you got back or something" I imagine him bent over on his sofa, running a hand through his dreads.

I can practically taste the despair in his voice as he scrambles for whatever he can to keep this from going awry and I know that he wants just as much as I do to not ruin this friendship.

"We could talk about this later?" I try for an optimistic tone and crack a smile when I nail it "I'm currently not in the best of moods for this" I feel somewhat awful but I have to be truthful with him.

He agrees, telling me to take care and I hang up, slumping on the corridor couch, as I felt even worse than I did before his phone call.

I didn't want to lose him as a friend but I sure as hell don't want to be like that with him.

I hear the game room door open and I prep myself for passers-by "Ok, why are you being such an ashawo?" My sister walks in, both hands at her side taking me by surprise.

"What?" I can't believe she used the prostitute term on me and didn't look sorry about it either.

She rolls her eyes unapologetically "You know what I mean" She sneers "You're pining for more than one guy so.. What do you think that makes you?" She deadpans, staring me down as if challenging me to say otherwise.

I finally get her drift, shaking my head "It's not like that" My voice shakes with the motion.

"It's like what then?" I sigh heavily, knowing that she isn't going to give up till I tell her what she wants to hear "Ok, first it's that Uzo guy who sent you flowers the other time" She starts, using her fingers to demonstrate.

My head immediately snaps towards hers "Hey, I told you I don't like him" I counter.

Uzo was an estate neighbor who thought I was cute after a run-in with me on my morning jog. Somehow, he had found out which house was mine and had sent flowers with a note talking about how he intended to know me more. I had turned him down. Nice guy but government workers weren't really my type.

She goes on like she didn't hear me "Then there's that Feyi guy you're always talking to" my heart squeezes at the mention of my best friend.

"Feyi and I are just friends Dinma" I resort to using her native name.

Apparently he thinks of me as more than a friend but I'm not about to give my sister ammunition to use against me.

She eyes me up and down like she's sizing up one of her employees "You're telling me you feel nothing for him? With all the phone calls and late night texts?" There's a faint shadow of disbelief in her voice, one I know will disappear once I tell her everything.