A Loner's Journey Through Lemonade Making

Chapter 45|

Kari could not have come at a better time.

Ibidun's mouth temporarily stopped running while we hugged. Leilah stepped aside and Kari entered. We went in after her and shut the door.

Ibidun did not waste time in relaying the day's happenings to Kari, who gave both expected and unexpected reactions to her tales. She was of the opinion that Leilah and Ibidun should not have brought such up with Ms. Mosun, and publicly too. It would have been better to go to JJ and Tiara first and hear what they had to say. Even then, she added, why did they feel the need to tell them anything? Why did Ibidun allow herself to fall into JJ's trap at lunch? What did Banji and Lolu say?
At least, to Ibidun's delight, she agreed that Joju had changed, and not in a good way. Tiara should have declined his invite to sit with us—him, rather. I should have spoken up instead of acting uninterested. He should have said something after Ibidun told him what had happened.

There was a long stretch of silence.

Ibidun sniffed. "Yewande, I'm sorry for what happened with Ms. Mosun this morning. I should have let you bring it up and handle it yourself." She said, playing with her fingers.

I was amazed. Ibidun never apologized to anybody. Ever.

"But, but," she spoke up again, "you should have said something all this time. You should have told JJ not to let Tiara sit with us anymore. You should have told him to respect you and whatever both of you have. If you had, I wouldn't have had to-"

"It's okay!" Leilah cut in, clapping in her face. They laughed. Then Leilah put on an apologetic look. "I'm also sorry, Yewande. We shouldn't have done that...at least not without your consent. IB is right sha, you should have spoken up."

"Yes." Kari agreed. Her eyes shone with remembrance before she turned to me, "Ehen! Did you ask him what I said you should?"

I looked away. "No..."

"That was over a week ago, 'Wande."

"What?" Leilah looked at us confusedly.

After Kari had explained, Leilah chuckled. "Yewande you're trying abeg, honestly. Ha! Since all these days, you still don't know what both of you are doing?"

"Woh." I waved it off. "I don't want to force things. And like I said at lunch, I'm done fighting for lost causes."

"It's not called 'fighting for lost causes', dear." Ibidun corrected. "It's called knowing where you stand and who you stand as."

Leilah nodded. "You should know. He owes you that much."

I exhaled and fell onto my bed. I stared at the ceiling. The fans were not on. "It's complicated."

Kari clicked her tongue. "Na so. If something isn't working, you end it. You're not married to him, after all. Even if you were, I'd still advise you to end it. Haba! Why do you like suffering?"

"He said he wants something outside school, not here." I explained. "I don't know why, but I respect that. I just...don't think anything will happen after school." I kept nodding, telling myself I'd accepted it. "This is it."

☆

The bulbs along the passageway flickered on and off and suddenly shattered on our way to prep. Kari said it was like the beginning of a horror movie. Leilah said it meant something bad would happen. I agreed.

Fifteen minutes later, I was walking along that same passageway, heading to my room. If not that I knew the ins and outs of the building like the back of my hand, I would have fallen into the darkness many times.

I found my jotter under my reading table--it must've fallen while I was arranging my things.
My hand hadn't touched the door handle when something unfamiliar came into my side view. I walked backwards and stopped in front of the bed.