Black Pride

07.

Ayo relived the incident in the music hall as she walked with Brie to get some foodstuffs. Gwen had gone back to the hostel immediately after the music classes while Elizabeth had followed her sister to a party. Brie led Ayo through a secret way out of the University. It was getting late but the city was lit up by neon signs and street lights. The city never slept.

"Where are we headed to Brie? We've passed three large supermarkets now," Ayo said as she fumbled with her map, trying to pinpoint their location. They had long gone out of the University by then and were heading to a place that was not on her map.

"Maps don't know these areas, girl; I do," Brie said and chuckled. Truly she had lived here since she was five, unlike Gwen who had moved from New York to California three years ago. Ayo face palmed herself. It was getting late and they hadn't gotten anything on any grocery list. Gwen had given them her grocery list because she was afraid of the dark, even though there were street lights on.

"Whose grocery list are we attending to first?" Ayo asked but Brie just chuckled. They soon reached a pizza store. Ayo then realized that Brie was attending to her own grocery list first. That seemed like a selfish act to Ayo but she kept quiet nevertheless. Brie walked up to the counter.

"Hey, you do home delivery?" she asked. The man behind the counter nodded. Brie winked and gestured for him to come closer with two of her fingers.

Ayo gasped. "Brie was behaving like a criminal," she thought.

The man looked at Brie suspiciously before reluctantly leaning closer.

Brie put a card on the table and pushed it towards the man. "That's the address," she whispered. The man frowned when he saw what was written on the card.

"This is a university ma'am," he said.

She nodded as she raised her eye brows at him. "Got a problem with that?" she asked.

"We only do 'home' delivery," he said, stressing on the word 'home'.

"Alright, just give me four family size with meat toppings and one extra-large," she said and brought out money from a purse she hung around her waist.

The man brought them out and collected the money, giving her the change. She took the pizza boxes and winked at the man. She and Ayo then walked out of the store.

Not too long after they left the store, a light skinned boy with dark curly hair rode on a bike and parked in front of them. "Hey," he said as he got down.

Ayo froze. He was so cute and he had those gleaming blue eyes. Brie walked up to him and they started conversing and laughing. After about ten minutes of gisting and laughing, he hopped on his bike and rode away, but not before waving Ayo bye. Ayo felt a tinge of jealousy and didn't talk to Brie for the rest of their journey back.

On getting to the secret entrance to their university, Ayo decided to break the silence.

"You didn't tell us you had a boyfriend," she said and glanced the other way.

"Who?" Brie asked, looking a bit puzzled.

"That handsome dude we saw, the one with a bike," Ayo said without looking at Brie.

"Oh," Brie said and started to laugh. "You mean my brother?" she asked amidst laughter.

"Your brother?!" Ayo asked as a mixed feeling of relief and joy swept over her.

"Uhn uh," Brie said.

"Your brother?" Ayo asked again in disbelief. "You said you had two older brothers and didn't say that they were white," Ayo said again. "But your parents are black, how come your brother's white?" she asked again, curious. "And he had blue eyes," Ayo said, dreamily.