DRAVITE EYES

Blocked

Osas lay down in his dimly lit room, starring  at his fan rotate slowly. Different thoughts ran through his mind. He wondered how Mario was feeling, if he was already asleep, if Mario was gay or it was just the alcohol. He thought of Mario outing him and ruining his reputation, but also thought of different ways to cover it up. These thoughts just kept going back and forth till he heard a knock on his door. He picked up his phone to check the time. It was almost 1:00am. He wondered who would have been knocking at that time. After much hesitation, he stood up to check.
He had installed a door chain on his door earlier that year for after a robbery that left him traumatized for most of his first semester.
He opened the door, squatted, then took a peek from below
"Mario?"
"Why are you on the floor?" Mario asked
"Why am I on the floor? Why are you here?" Osas's eyes bugged out
"I couldn't sleep... at least, not alone."
Osas stood up, shut the door, took a deep breath, then unhooked the chain and opened the door. Mario's face had a mawkish look that made Osas unable to say no.
"Are you okay? Did something happen at the club?"
"Something happened. But not at the club" Mario replied as he walked into the room.
" Want to talk about it?"
" no please. It's embarrassing "
"That's alright " Osas locked the door, and proceeded to the wardrobe where he pulled a duvet out of.
"Here's a duvet Incase you get cold" he tossed the duvet on the bed then lay, back down, on the couch beside his wardrobe.
" Thanks... "
"You're welcome."
"I'm sorry about the whole awkwardness. I'm new to this wasted lifestyle" Mario apologized, snuggled up under the duvet
"Haha. That's alright. You remind me of the first time I was drunk. I had no idea where I was. It was my friend's birthday and I snuck out of the house to attend it. They ordered caskets and I drank from every bottle..." Osas stopped, he could hear Mario's silent snore. He turned to see Mario asleep, he looked more ethereal than Osas had ever known him to be. Osas starred for a while with a faint smile, he exhaled sharply, and his eyelids slowly fell shut.

***
Mario woke up with a slight headache that morning. His eyes were still shut when he heard a sound from his kitchen that made his eye lids flip open. Immediately, he knew he wasn't in his room. He looked up at the wall where a painting of Osas hung and that was when he realized,
" Osas?"
"Hey... you're up. How are you feeling?" Osas asked, stepping out of the kitchen.
"I'm okay. I just have a headache." Mario replied with knitted eyebrows
"You seem confused"
"Yes..yes... how did I get here?"
"Well, you came back drunk, I helped you settle down in your room, and at midnight, you came here cause you couldn't fall asleep"
"Did anything weird happen?"
"What do you mean weird?" Osas asked, walking back into the kitchen
" I don't know. Something, intimate"
" What the hell bro, no! " Osas yelled from the kitchen
"Oh, right right... I'm not gay or anything... I just don't remember anything from last night and I'm here with just my underwear and singlet... Thanks for letting me stay here though"
"That's alright"
Mario got up and quickly checked around to see if he had his phone there. Apparently, he didn't, so he left and Osas shut the door behind him.

As Mario entered his room, a foul smell drove him out. "Eww. What's that?!" He grimaced. He took some deep breaths then, held his breath as he entered the room again, tracing the smell, he realized it was the fried rice and turkey he had cooked the previous day for Jide that never came. He quickly looked for a handkerchief that he scented with his body mist perfume and tied it around his nose. He scraped the rice out of the pot, into the toilet and with one flush, it disappeared.
He found his phone on his bed, he checked to see  if Jide eventually texted him, but still, there was no reply from Jide. He thought about sending a very angry text cause he had just flushed down his pot of fried rice and that didn't make him happy one bit, but he stayed calm.
He dropped his phone on his table where his clothes laid, folded neatly. Immediately, he thought of Osas and what happened the previous night. "Could Osas have been telling the truth? Or he's just trying to stay downlow?" He wondered. He was deep is lustful thoughts when his phone buzzed. He turned to check, and saw a missed call from Bolaji. He quickly returned the call
"Bola, what's up?" He asked in a low tone
"Hangover. How are you?"
"Slight headache. And maybe amnesia"
"Amnesia? Really? Drama king"
"No I'm serious. Something happened between Osas and I last night but when I asked, he said nothing happened."
"What happened?"
"I think we kissed but I forgot. I don't know. It probably didn't even happen"
"It probably did. That boy been all up in your shit lately."
"Well, yes. But he's straight. He's probably just a nice guy."
"Hmmm. If you say so. What're you doing later? Wanna come over?"
"Sure. I'll call you"
"Alright. Later then" Bolaji said then hung up.

Mario spent the rest of the morning cleaning up his room, doing laundry and trying not to think about Jide or Osas, but it didn't seem to work. He eventually sent another text to Jide.

'Hey, umm, I hope you're good. I really looked forward to seeing you yesterday but whatever it was that stopped you from coming must have been important and trust me, I'm not mad. Just call me as soon as you can. Take care.'

He also wanted to have the conversation about the kiss he shared with Osas but he didn't want to provoke Osas. So he concluded family guy would do the trick.

After laundry, he binged family guy for three hours before getting ready to see Bolaji.  He tried his best to look sane but he still ended up looking like a depressed, tired, fifty years old hag. "Oh well, it's just Bolaji" he sighed and left the room.

Just outside the dormitory, he saw Osas standing next to a girl he had never seen before. He contemplated saying hi or just walking away and he concluded the latter was a better option but just before he could disappear, Osas called his name. "Oh damn it" he cursed.
"Hey... Osas, hi. What's up?"
"I'm good. Where're you off to?" Osas asked as he wrapped his arm around the girl's shoulder.
"My friend's place. Bolaji"
"Bolaji that stays at JD lodge?"
"Oh, you've met?"
"Coursemate..." Osas smirked. "By the way, meet Chrissy."
"Hi" Chrissy greeted with her high pitched voice as Mario waved back
"She's my girlfriend" Osas added
"Your what now?!" Mario asked, almost choking on his saliva.
"My girlfriend. Haha. You've never seen her?"
"Never! Ever ever!"
"She's sha not always here." Osas winked.
"Oh well,I better get going. Bolaji must be waiting" Mario said faintly as though he just got drained of a huge amount of energy.
"See you around" Osas replied with a friendly punch.

Bolaji's place turned out to not be the distraction Mario wanted because all Fola and Joshua could talk about was how furious they were at Jide for not showing up and  how they didn't understand why Mario had not sent an angry text yet.
"It's not about sending angry text. That won't make things better" Bolaji advised
"So what should he do? Cause that bastard needs to understand what he did was completely wrong and stupid!" Fola replied aggressively.
"Fola you calm down. Mario is old enough to know what he wants"
"Fine, Mario, what do you want?"
"I just want to feel better" Mario replied calmly.
"And what do you think would make you feel better?" Bolaji asked
"Forgetting that there was ever a Jide in my life. "
"And how do you intend on doing that?"
"I have no idea" Mario sighed as he bowed his head. After a minute of silence, he rose his head back up and said
"Let's block this bastard!"