Entangled Hearts

2. Winifred

Winifred

                   She woke up with a wince, holding the left side of her loc covered head.
         Lots of empty beer cans littered the floor and even the bed. A  saucer hung at the hem of the duvet, at the mercy of her toes that threatened to push it down to its shattering ceramic death on the tiled floor.                        The ash residue from the blunt that once occupied the saucer had now scattered all over the bed . Even on her body, which visually explained why she had woken up feeling blank and empty like a plain sheet of paper, with a  throbbing head and this churning feeling going on in her stomach.
         The throbbing pain came again, this time with a slight pounding. The boots of a hundred tiny soldiers doing their demonstration match on her head. Too many tiny kicks that threatened to burst the major blood vessels that gave her brain, life.
          She was having a terrible hangover.
         The price she often paid for smoking so much " Arizona", the popular name of the blunt she took and getting drowned in so much beer. Now she was awake with a throbbing head pound and a memory wiped clean, like a slate.
         She could remember things from the day before . Yesterday. Yesterday morning, afternoon but not even a thing from yesterday night. She was only in her sports bra and boxers. Her clothes from last night were no where in sight and she had no idea of where it could be. She sighed hoping she hadn't done anything crazy last night.
         Winifred slipped up from her bed, pulling her duvet and bedsheet with her as she did, wrapping them up into a ball and at the same time bringing them to her nose. A smell of alcohol and a tinge of very feminine perfume hung to it, a perfume she couldn't place her head on. That she couldn't point out. Her heart skipped a beat. Momentarily.
          Someone had been here and on her bed!.
   The pounding came again. This time harder. Dumping the sheets in the floor,she made for the adjoining door on her right. Her bathroom door.
         The bathroom was messed up, as if someone had  recently thrown a vomiting fit in it but only on the part close to the toilet seat. There were things like food crusts on the inner walls of the toilet seat. Vomit. Hers and dried up. Her clothes hung on the crook of the shower. She had thrown up and did not flush . She had a lot of extra clean up to do.
          She moved to the sink, stooping low to the cabinet below it. The safe haven where she kept her drugs, both blunts and over-the-counter. Where the police would not think of searching.
         She rummaged through the whole three drawers carelessly , only stopping when she pulled out the empty emzor paracetamol pack. She exhaled furiously at her self, both in anger and disappointment.  Her supply had finished and she had forgotten to get a new one. She had been so clumsy.
       Going to the pharmacy was impossible now . it was too early and they were all closed down. Campus businesses opened by nine and this was probably seven or thereabout in the morning. She couldn't go to the campus clinic either. What would she tell them was the reason she needed pain killers. She couldn't go to her lodge mates either,she had no cordial relationship with any one apart from the boys and their girlfriends.  Even after three years of living in the lodge, she was still strangers with her next door neighbor. Going to his door or any other door to ask for pain killers was exactly out of the suggestion box.
        She could imagine what it felt like to talk to him out of the blues. Not because she wanted to but because she needed  painkillers to dull her hangover headache. To her, that was the most irrational thing to do in such a situation. It was much better she sat down here waiting for time to pass, so she could get her painkillers straight from the pharmacy .
          Her next door neighbor wasn't even a sure bet. Apart from the fact it was weird to suddenly pop at his door to ask for painkillers, it was a big possibility that her request would be turned down. That she would just make a fool of herself , and everything she had invested in to bring her self to his door would be a total waste. All that bended will and swallowed pride. She would rather stay in here and wait for the pharmacy or die of a swollen brain. Die waiting. She missed silver.
         If he had been around, all she had to do was to walk across to the second floor of the adjoining lodge building. The floor he stated on and simply ask. Silver never lacked painkillers, being a regular customer of party hangovers. Even if he was around, even if she wouldn't still go there looking like this. Like how the mirror currently visualized her.
         Rubbing furiously against her locs admist the throbbing , she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. A puffed up morning face, sore eye bags and sticky ash residue sticking all over her face. Even on her arms. She needed a bath and a lot of chilled water , to calm her headache.
   
   
                 The feminine scent was even much more stronger in the kitchen as if the person were still there but she ignored it instead and opened the fridge door.  Cold air whooshed past her face. Ignoring the temptation to stick her head in for some munites she bent instead to pick bottle of water from the top shelf of her almost empty fridge save for booze, two untouched crates of egg, a loaf of bread and random snacks.
         She never bought foodstuffs because she rarely cooked. Cooking seemed to drain her inside out and if she ever mustered enough energy, it would be either to make noodles, fry egg or boil it. Eating out at the school restaurants alone or with the boys, her main and only clique was something she was totally used to. But now, she knew she was going to be eating alone that morning, the whole weekend. Till Monday or any other day they returned from their weekend fun at the outskirts of town.
        Winifred sighed inwardly, wishing she hadn't turned down down. That she followed them. At least she wouldn't be so messed up, knowing that she'll mostly spend her weekend cooped up in lodge room having only to go out , if she wanted to eat or when she felt the urge to drive around campus.
         The pounding came again but this time she was prepared as she gulped more water in harmony with the wicked throbs. She kept gulping till the contents were fully drained, then she settled for another bottle.
         Halfway down the second bottle, her fridge hummed lightly and the florescent encased bulb came on, burning a brilliant white despite the daybreak. As if on cue, very loud poly phonic music from the neighbouring lodge room, filling the room, pounding through the walls, erupting her ear. Disrupting the peace and quiet that had once unbelievably existed.
          She groaned internally.
          But that wasn't all, it was just the beginning. They were just warming up.
  It was as if they heard her groan and decided to show her that she hadn't seen anything at all. Annoying sounds of shuffling feet , plates and pots clashing, people screaming for no justifiable reason at all, followed.
  " This cannot be happening", she groaned as her phone rang from where it was on the island kitchen. Strange enough it was there. She hadn't seen it there when she came in. She didn't look.
            She was suprised it was there, because she couldn't remember being in the kitchen last night. She couldn't even remember anything from last night hello...
          It was actually who she never expected and rarely ever called. Not the boys or Silver calling to check up on her but her mum. Her mother of all people.
         Although she never saved her mother's number or any contacts belonging to her family members. Her unwritten rule to avoid seeing them in her socials . She recognized her mother's contact . The eleven digit number that gave her an increased heart beat and for an unknown reason.
         She was suprised and at the same time wondered why she was calling.
         " Mum ,good morning", she greeted with her eyes closed.
         " I hope you slept well my dear", she replied a little off tone. " You're preparing for your lectures",
          " Yes mum, and I'm in a hurry", she lied. Hoping she would take that cue and let her be.
          " That's good", her mother remarked.               "Keep studying hard my dear and continue carrying the okiyi flag well. We're known to be industrious", she added. More characteristic of her.
         "Odinma. ok ma", Winifred replied, with an eye roll.
         A smug smile hung in her lips. She wondered what her mother would sound like when she was sixty, If she sounded like this at fifty two. She even smiled more wondering what she would say if she discovered that she just woke up from a terrible hangover and with totally no plans of attending her nine o'clock lecture or any lecture at all, till Monday next week.
          " So mum how are you doing?.", She asked. Humoring her more than asking.
          " We are busy my dear, we're having our get together party.. excuse me dear", she said.
          Winifred obliged her. She could already hear her mother yelling out her voice in the background. She wondered who the poor victim was. Her mother could be so comical.
           " Ok dear", her mother said. " I want you to come home this weekend say by Saturday, when I'm sure you will be done with your lectures", she added breaking the ice.
          " Really , why?.", She blurted in suprise unable to contain herself.
          " It's for our get together, our rich friends will be coming .. it's has been long since we last did that and you know it will be good for business",
          " So how do I come in?", She asked almost biting herself for speaking so unconsciously.
          "It also concerns you dear, since you are the only child around. Not like your brothers can leave the states to attend", she replied. She was obviously too happy to notice Winifred's sarcasm.
            "Oh", she was speechless this time.
            " They're bringing their children with them you know, you could even meet your future husband there...
           " Mum!",
           " Legodi nu. Look at you. I met your father in secondary school",
           " Ok', Winifred replied with another eye roll. Humoring her again.
           " That reminds me!", her mother piped. " The Adeniyi's will also be coming",
           " Ok", she replied this time. The name struck a cord .
           " Jalade is back from the states",
           " Jalade!", Winifred piped uneasily as a memory flashed through her mind.
           " Yes Jalade", her mother clarified. " She's done with her studies and working. She came back for her leave",
          " Oh ", she replied in a low tone try to hide the anxiety building up in her.
          " And she looks so much better.., her mother paused. "Ok, let me call you later. Bisi came to tell me the drinks have arrived",
          " Ok, bye mum", and the line went dead.
           Winifred's heart beat had increased now. She had never expected Jalade to come back. Not after the initial six years she had promised to return.
         Tall, beautiful. Very beautiful and six years older than her. Jalade had surprisingly been her best friend since her first year in senior secondary school. When she was still very much innocent and naive.
         Jalade was in her third year in banking and finance economics in the university of portharcourt. She had come to like the older girl very much. To the extent of choosing to do the same career. She used to have thoughts of them growing old together as banking and finance economists then.
         It could have been a questionable friendship because of the age gap but her parents and everyone else saw it as good influence and anyways, Jalade's parents were wealthy too. But then, it was the other way round. Jalade was a big baddie. She taught her basically everything. Blunts, drinking. Jalade was her first crush and the first girl she had ever experimented with. She could only ever be submissive for Jalade. Only her.
        That was how it had always been, before she left to do her masters degree, a year after. It had even six years now, since she left.  At first she had missed her a lot, called a lot, until it seemed that they had come to a stand still. She stopped. Her mother's news had just wakened those old neuroses. Those feeling she had thought were dead. There were probably sleeping.
         She wondered what would happen if she saw jalade again. If she would even stand a chance of  still being wanted by Jalade again. If they could continue things or start them all over.
   The consistent knocking, seemed to bring her back to her surroundings.
          " Just hold on, I'm....", the words barely left her mouth when the door knob turned.
         It was Debby. Silver's girl. Her best friends girlfriend. The one of the best brother's she had, the one she never had. Popular by university standards, very handsome and a hot cake. The dream boyfriend of most girls except her. Siblines don't date, also applicable to school siblines too moreover, She didn't fancy boys. The girl walked in shutting the door behind with so much confidence. She even turned the lock!.
           Winifred swallowed as she looked at her.
           Tall, near yellow, beautiful not like Jalade and then scantily dressed in sleek singlet and cotton shorts. Absolutely normal, since she lived across the lodge in the next building. A tall two storey lodge. She cohabited with silver.
          " You didn't go with them?.", Winifred started when she saw how close they were.
          The girl seemed to have ignored her question. She moved closer instead. Looking  Winifred straight in the eye naughtily. Her hand reached across to her dreadlocked hair , rubbing it softly.
          The perfume scent wavered again. This time it was stronger, coming from the girl. Her mind lit instantly in suprise as if someone had just connected the two ends of a positive and negative wire in her brain.
         The faint scent had been there on the bedsheet, in the kitchen. Her clothes found hanging on the crook of the shower. She had woken up in her sports bra. The girl standing in front of her with a glint of naughtiness vin her eyes .
        Winifred winced for the second time that morning.

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