Toxic

Second Date?

They made it to the 2nd round as unsurprising as it was,  Mariah still felt a little excited.

The announcement was currently going for lunch but Mariah was far from hungry. She just trotted along with the rest of the students to the large hall that served as the dining room for the day.

Not wanting to argue with Kami she took a seat to her left leaving a couple of seats between Kami and herself for Harrison and maybe Mr. Micah. Who was she kidding Micah wouldn't care about shit like that.

Kami showed Harrison to the chair she kept beside her. Mariah had to remind herself that she didn't care. Why would she?

"Is someone here?" A voice brought her out of her thoughts
She looked up to see a boy in a dark blue blazer and a red tie. He was a lot lighter on complexion than Harrison.

"No. You can sit" she said. He pulled the chair out and sat muttering a form of greeting to Harrison who was on his other side.

"My name is Tega" He said holding out his hand. Mariah shook his hand

"Mariah" she said

"Oh I know who you are" He said

"Wow...  Stalk much?" she queried

"No. No.  Forgive me. I was here last year and you were too. You took it all the way to nationals."

"Yup and lost it there" Mariah said

"Are you kidding? Did you not see what I saw?" He asked. Mariah stared at him quizzically. "The whole hall was in awe of you. How could you not see that?"

Mariah chuckled. "Huh" she hummed.

"Are you always hard on yourself?" he asked Mariah shrugged. He smiled, "So where are you applying to? I assume that you are applying on early admission"

"I haven't thought about it" she said as she watched the line at the service table lessen. "Do you want to go now?" she said pointing to the line

"Sure." he said nodding.
Mariah ended up getting peppersoup, a chicken avocado salad and some bread. She notice the salad on Tega's plate, some rice and a bit of chicken.

"That is not food" he says when they got back to their seat and he notices her plate.

"Have you forgotten I have the bread" she said

"Yeah... One slice" he said shaking his head

"So where are you going to do your uni at?" she asked him

"I have a lot of choices"

"Like?"

"OAU, UNILAG"

"You do not have plans to leave the country?"

"There Birmingham and NYU but that's only if I get in."

"I mean you're here so you have got to be smart"

He laughed, "Thank you for that off handed compliment"
Something fell on the floor and her shifted his chair backwards to get it. It was then that Mariah noticed that his blazer read Pristine on the breast pocket. She was surprised she hadn't seen the logo before.

"You go to Pristine?"

"Yeah. You remember how you killed me last year?" he asked.

"No actually I don't" Mariah replied, "And no hard feelings. I have nothing against you or your school, I just like to win."

"I know. I feel we could actually be good friends." He nodded, "This is good" he said gesturing to the food.

Mariah nodded.  The food was good. Much better than she'd expected.
"It doesn't taste like shit like school food tastes"

"You're lucky you get to go home to good food" Tega mused.

"That's right you're a boarder" Mariah noted, "How annoying"

"My father said it teaches you life skills"

"Okay. I don't believe that. I was a boarder at Surefoot and it didn't teach me shit"

"You went to surefoot? I love that school. I really wanted to go there but it was too expensive. Why did you leave?"

"My parents wanted me to be closer to home because they travelled a lot they wanted to be able to call me at any time "

"Can you dance?" Tega asked
Mariah laughed, "that's so out of the blue"

"I know" he replied, "so can you? "

"I guess so... Though I'm not exceptionally good at it"

"People who talk like that are usually very good musically" he said

"Oh no..  " Mariah replied shaking her head, "My father would disagree"

"He's a music lover?"

"He's a musician"

"Really? Full-time? Has he had any hits?"

"A few. Let me see...  pretty woman, My angel,"

"I'm not sure I know it, the pretty woman I know is by Mystique"

Mariah nodded, "Your father is not... Holy shit... Your father is William... That's where I saw you..."

Mariah nodded again.

"I'm surprised you're even schooling in Nigeria sef, OBO like you"

Mariah laughed.
She thoroughly enjoyed her conversation with Tega much more than she'd expected.

"Who's that?" Kami asked her when they got in the car.

"Tega" Mariah replied simply

"What did you guys talk about?"

"Stuff"

"Did you tell him you have a boyfriend?"

"Are you the boyfriend police...  Kami I'm not in the mood please" Mariah chided turning  to face the window.

"Why are you acting like that?" Kami asked, "I'm just trying to help you"

"Kami I don't need your help!... Free me jareh!"

"Why are you yelling at me?" Kami retorted. Mariah ignored her leaning against the window and staring out of it. She wished she had earphones around her to block out the sound of others breathing and the awkwardness in the air.

Kami was dropped off first, her house was the closest to the e-center the competition was held at. Micah dropped next and Harrison shifted closer to her once Michael had gotten off.

"You yelled at her" Harrison stated, "Was it because she talked about JJ?"

"If you're going to probe me the you can move back to where you came from" Mariah retorted

She wasn't feeling like herself at the moment. Theses ghings tended to happen. It might be the side effects of the medications she took ever so often. At times like this she hated being touched,  or sitting beside anyone or even hearing the sound of anyone's breathing.

Harrison nudged her, she turned to see a big grin on his face.
"You should know it would take more than hurtful words to get me to back off. " He chuckled. The faintest of smiles tugged on her lips. Harrison was persistent, if you met him you'd know.
"Have you seen your doctor?" he asked her
Assuming he was talking about her therapist she shook her head,  "Tomorrow"

"Are you going to take Kami on a second date?  She's been going on and on..."

He winced.

"What? What is that face? You didn't enjoy it as much as she did?" Mariah asked but Harrison didn't reply.
"What is it?"

"I'm not sure there would be another date.." he began

"Why? " Mariah asked cutting him off

"Well... " he said, "There's this other girl I really really like...

And we have lift off people.😁😁
I'm excited!!!