Me ✓

#25

A secret.
IPA: /ˈsiːkɹɪt/
(weak vowel) IPA: /ˈsiːkɹət/
Noun

Secret

(countable) A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
"Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."

The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.

Something not understood or known.

Me dating Daniel was not a secret. It only happened not less than an hour ago and it was infront of basically everyone, so my friends had no reason to give me the silent treatment.

But this was Love, Glory and Maureen we were talking about. They were the most annoying and loveable people in the world and at the moment, they were annoying.

Let me share a few details. Glory and Love were, how do I say this, extra good christians. That means, they'd made me promise to never involve myself in anything relationship of any kind with any boy. Back when we were in Jss2. We were kids.

I did it. Only because I was sure that I'd be single all the years of my life, and I was still in Junior School then, so sue me for not thinking it out then.

"But why aren't you guys shunning Maureen?" Both hands landed on my hips as I pursed my lips in annoyance.  Glory sighed loudly and walked over to me, poking me in the shoulder as she said, "Because it was expected of her. "

My eyes widened. So they were cool with her dating someone else and not me. My eyes narrowed and I scoffed, this was quite irritating and worse than partiality. They were fine with Maureen having a boyfriend and not me. Because it was expected of her. Bull crap.

I stormed back in the classroom and straight to my seat. I needed to cool off. The three girls followed after me, each of them taking their respective seats one after the other, all ignoring my existence. Asshats.

My jaw clenched as I shook my head silently, my friends were worse than I thought. I shut my eyes and placed my head on the locker, trying to make a little sense of what the hell was going on at the moment.

We'd spent a total amount of 1 hour, 22 minutes and possible 16 seconds outside the class room, with my friends telling me how disappointed they were in me for breaking a promise and for keeping it a secret.

A secret? The whole school probably knew and they're calling it a secret. I took deep breaths, one after the other as I tried to calm myself. It proved much of a difficulty as more thoughts of the scenes continued to play out in my mind.

The alarming sound of our school bell was just what I needed to race out of the class and away from the others. I picked as many dirt wrappers as I could find and I shoved them into the basket at the gate as I walked out. Shockingly, no one tried to stop me.

There was no lesson today which gave me more joy that I hoped for, all I wanted was the soft comfort of my foamy bed and my beautiful phone between my fingers.

"You're quite ugly." I kept my head down as I sat at the infamous bus stop. Never fear, it was too early for The Them to be out of school, so it was safe. "I'm talking to you Poppy."

Poppy. Where had I heard that before? Poppy? It sounded so familiar.  Then like the book that was thrown at me earlier today, it hit me. Emeka.

"If I'm ugly what are you?" I retorted crossing my arms. My lips pursed on their own accord and my eyes narrowed ready for battle. But Emeka only broke into a fit of laughter, before hopping onto the side of the bus stop I was sitting on.

I let out a sigh and reached for my bag,  nothing would be better than a very big, very interesting novel at the moment. But before I could complete the task at hand, Emeka whistled, no he cat called.

I furrowed my brows in confusion, only to turn to my side and notice him staring at my chest which was quite nonexistent. I blinked for a second before realization kicked in. Gasping lightly to myself,  I shoved Emeka off the wall top.

He stumbled lightly to the ground, catching himself right before he hurt himself, hard. He bursted out into laughter, hoping back onto the wall to sit beside me in an instant. The wall had a full side step that people used to hoist themselves onto the top, to which he used easily.

"Poppy dear, you know I was messing with you na." He bumped shoulders with me, to which I only shook my head and rolled my eyes. What a jerk.

I continued to ignore Emeka as he attempted to catch my attention with shoulder bumps and cheek pokes. Our duo soon became a Quad on the arrival of Oreva Adams and Aliyu Ali. (If you know, you know. 😁)

The three boys engaged themselves in one of those dumb boy greeting things  while I just stared. "Kolupo, How far?" I was madly taken aback. I had to blink Atleast 4 times before replying.

"I'm good." Oreva nodded lightly before returning back to the boys. Oreva Adams was my friend. 2 summer ago. Yes back when we were in Jss3, I could say we were close friends.

We'd spend countless hours talking online and barely any time in real life.  But our conversations were fun and they kept me awake almost everynight till 3am and that was enough for me.

Then we hit senior secondary school and he became them. Oreva stop texting any of us and he started texting them. He stop smiling at us and started going to parties with them. Oreva Adams was no longer my friend, he was now one of them.

Aliyu just like Oreva was also one of them. Except Aliyu was nicer, he was funnier and he was quieter. He barely spoke to anyone, yet he had most of them flocking around him like flies.

Aliyu was cute and handsome. Yes. Both. He had this look that reminded you of a child on one hand but then at times, when he was just silently observing everything, he was handsome.

Unlike Oreva, Aliyu didn't ignore his friends. He waved when he saw me, he smiled when we passed eachother in the hall way, he replied to my messages on time. So it was quite a mystery why the two were bestfriends, one was a snub and the other was a bunny.

I caught Aliyu's eyes for a few seconds and we both smiled at eachother to prove my point. I always wondered why Aliyu hung out with them. It was so sad how he was always caught up in one messy situation or the other along side his dumb friends. Why did the best people have to walk with with the worst crowd.

I let out a scream as I flew off the top of the wall and towards the ground. Accidentally falling into Aliyu and Oreva. Both boys had caught my arms right before I slammed face first into the ground and steadied me.

I whirled around in anger, my fists clenching at my sides, only to come face to face with a cheeky looking Emeka. "I didn't know you'd fall like that." I released a deep annoyed breath and stalked towards that bag that was on the step at the side on the wall.

Emeka flinched when I reached him,  probably thinking I was going to attack him. But I simply took hold of my bag and walked away. I was taking the high road, a fight would only cause me more stress.

The sun was undeniably hot today and I couldn't stand the heat any longer. I began contemplating following the bus today. I'd have to wait until 5pm, while watching my crush play cute guy with my best friend. Barf.

Deciding on a strong no, I aimed towards the gate. Forget my friends. They were undeniable partial jerks and I was sick and tired of them in general. So today,  I would not wait for any of them.

As I walked past countless bystanders, I began to think. Tomorrow there was lesson. I'd have to spend the whole day with them and then lesson too. And then I would wait the remaining hour after lessons with those so called friends. Tomorrow would be hell.