Life Of Jiji

All Rights Reserved

©2022 Tena Ifiemi

####

bites the dust - adekunle gold & simi

glimpse of us - joji

####

By evening I was weak as hell. I couldn't come out for evening sports but I knew I'd have to man up before dinner and prep.

"You know this is because you didn't each lunch right?" Ayo complained. "Khadijah, why did you allow her to not eat?"

Khadijah just mumbled something that I'm sure no one heard.

When Ayo would not stop finding more and more things to blame for my state, I groaned, "Are you not going for sports? I know I did not eat lunch. It's in the past now, let it be."

She frowned and marched off.

"Khadi, please put off the AC. I'm going to freeze to death."

She mumbles again as she moves to the switch but this time I hear her. She says, "You're obviously sick cause this weather is the definition of global warming."

By dinner time I wasn't much better. I still had a fever but the headache had gone down a tad. I still didn't have much of an appetite but I made sure to eat a worthy amount of the food so that I don't look dead. Khadijah's words not mine. Besides, I've been having visions where I faint head first into Damain's birthday cake so I'd like to have enough nutrients in me to counter that.

While I was still thinking of what to wear, Reya burst into my room. "Why are you getting pretty for prep?" She asks wrinkling her eyebrows and if I'm not mistaken her voice sounded kinda...off? "It's just reading isn't it? You could just wear pajamas and no one will care." She falls on my bed, "Being attractive is a scam. They still wouldn't like you."

"Ovieya are you drunk?" Khadi asks and my sister finally stops talking and the whole room goes quiet as well.

My class girls never know how to act around my sister so to say this is awkward is to be putting it lightly.

Then suddenly she bursts out laughing. She laughs so hard that she rolls to her side and falls off my bed and I most can't look. Then she stands up and looks at all of us before bringing her index finger to her lips.

"Shhhhh." She tells us, long and loud. "You can't tell anyone."

And then she skips out of my room.

Everybody looks at each other mirroring the same confused expressions. Khadijah suddenly looked alarmed,

"I'm just gonna... Well, that looked kinda bad so I'm just gonna check..."

And she ran off.

I turned back to my mirror and examine the edges I just laid. How did Reya even get Alcohol into the hostel? Is she old enough to be drinking? Should I be worried? I sigh and massage the sides of my head, I can't add a pounding headache to everything I have to deal with tonight. My skin is already hot enough.

Just as planned 30 minutes before the close of prep, one of Damian's friends went round the classes telling all members of blue house and green house who are in Year 11 to move to the cafeteria.

We decided that our entire class was too much to invite and not everyone would want to be there anyway. Anyone else who we thought was worth inviting and was in neither of the two houses, like some of Damian and I's friends, we invited separately.

Since we didn't really tell people what was happening, there was a bit of ruckus as people packed their books, asking numerous questions. I did the same as everyone else and almost laughed when I came out of my class and saw Damian standing outside the door.

"You're getting extra clingy these days mister." I tease.

"Narcissistic much?" He fires back with a smile, "This is so random. I wonder what they want to say to us."

"Same."

Maybe it was a good thing Damian came to walk with me because as if someone was passing info at the back, everyone walking behind and beside us soon passed us until we were the last pair to walk into the cafeteria. And of course when we do, the lights have been turned off and the room is dark.

"What's happening here?" Damian wonders aloud and I smile and slide my fingers into his hand just as the lights go on and everyone shouts.

"SURPRISE!"

At first, he's still squinting and doesn't react then just as I begin to panic that I might've made a terrible mistake, he begins to laugh. He grips my hand tighter and leads us further into where everyone was standing round the table with the cake and drinks. Someone has put on the music and everywhere just feels excitingly lively.

Then he finally turns to me, "You did this, didn't you?"

I only look up at him and smile...and maybe blush a little. He still doesn't let go of my hand and it doesn't seem like he's likely to. Not that I'm complaining though.

"I'm not going to take all the credit, Mide bought the drinks." I tell him.

"Dude!" He turns to Mide.

Mide grins, "You're welcome."

Amarachi spoke from beside him, "We better begin though, before they chase us to our hostels."

"Right. Birthday boy, stand in front of your cake please."

He looked so happy as he obliged. He was actually going to take me along when Mide pried our hands apart.

"Birthday boy alone please." He winks and Damian rolled his eyes.

"What do we spell?" Someone yelled.

"Jesus?"

"Let's spell his name. Damian."

"Let's do Briggs instead."

"Spell my name!" Another person suggested and everyone laughed.

"I know what we should spell." Damian spoke, placing his hand on the knife and making everyone turn to him. "For reasons I refuse to disclose, we're spelling GENESIS."

My brows draw in confusion at his choice and even more when just as everyone starts to chant the spelling, he turns and winks at me. I just smile in return and at the last letter, he cuts the cake and everyone cheers.

After that, cake and drinks are being passed around and Damian and I lean on a table while he decides to scold me.

"I told you Ejiro, you didn't have to do anything."

I roll my eyes, "By the time you said that my mom had already finished baking the cake.

"NO..." His eyes widened in shock and disbelief, "Your mom...?" He looked away from me and yells towards our classmates,

"Nobody touches another piece of that cake!"

I giggle, hearing someone reply, "Okay boss."

"You seriously had your mom bake me a cake? That's crazy!"

"You liked her red velvet last time." I defended.

"It's my favorite."

I grin, "I'm glad."

"Thank you Ejiro." He says with a serious look.

"Are you happy?"

"Is that even a question?"

Before I can overthink it, I wrap my arms around his torso and rest my head against his chest. He tenses and seems to be in a bit of shock until I squeeze again— lightly— and I finally feel his arms around me.

I'm startled when a loud, "Aww" comes from some people in the crowd. I totally forgot about the people! I start to pull away, but Damian only grips me tighter.

"You don't get to chicken out now. That'll be unfair."

I blush and hide my face in his shoulder and I hear him laugh although he soon pulls away.

"So this means I'll have to wait four years for another hug like this?"

"Only if you want to." I tell him and he smiles.

Amarachi brings a plate to us, "Guys, cake?"

"Of course." Damian says and we both take a piece. Well, Damian takes like three but who's complaining. People had started leaving so I sensed that now would be the best time to give him my gift.

"Um, wait. I had something for you." I tell him and as I leave, I hear him groan,

"That's not all!?"

Seeing me coming, Khadijah gets the box and I whisper a thank you and take it before going back to where Damian was. When I got to him, he scratched his head and if I wasn't mistaken, something looked off.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He seemed a bit surprised as the question as he looked up at me and shook his head, "I'm fine, of course. I just feel..."

I frown, I didn't think I'll ever see the day Damian would find it hard to put his words together. From the corner of my eye, I see Khadijah mouthing to me that we need to leave. Only her and Amarachi were left. I turn back to Damian.

"A bit overwhelmed." He continued, "You've outdone yourself Ejiro. You really shouldn't have." His eyes darted to the box on the table underneath my hand.

"Is that it?" I sigh in relief, "Why are you so worried? It really wasn't a problem. You're my best friend remember?" I look into his eyes as I say it making sure he understands how much deeper that title means to me, "You deserve it."

He smiles a little but there still seems to be something the matter but I knew I couldn't ask, Khadijah called again. More impatiently.

"Thank you." Then he strokes my head with his palm, letting it linger for a bit. "I know you have a fever Ejiro, and I'm sure you're tired as hell. I didn't forget that the first time I saw you today was in the school clinic."

I bit my lip and looked down at being called out.

"But I understand, and I really do appreciate everything. Just don't forget your medicine tonight and try to sleep early."

"Sure thing Doc." I muse, dropping a peck on his cheek before leaving.

                |Damian Briggs|

"Guy, just open it." Mide berated for the thousandth time, only slightly enjoying my dilemma, if the smirk on his face was anything to go by. "you will eventually.

I sigh, I guess I will. I pulled on a ribbon on the blue, black and gold box and pushed the flap causing it to fall open. I saw an envelope on the top of it and on the bottom of the envelope I saw Ejiro's small writing. 'For Damian.' I grabbed it and slipped it under my pillow, not being able to hide the smug look forming on my face, Mide has no business seeing my possible love letter. It seems I didn't need to worry though cause something else had caught his attention.

"My God!" Mide exclaimed.

Any enquiry I wanted to make about his outburst dies in my mouth when I saw what he was holding up. "No way." My voice is more of a whisper. Almost unrecognizable.

"This is the sexiest thing I've ever laid my eyes on."

"Are you sure?" Mide snickered, wiggling his brows.

"Sexiest non-living thing. I know what I'm talking about." I deadpan.

"What's going on here?" One of my roommates called, stalking towards my bed.

"Party neva end?" Someone asked in pidgin and I groaned not liking the way things were going.

"Hmm, all this one na from one woman o." Another guy mused as they saw the things Mide had actually gone ahead to spread out on the bed.

"Boss, teach us the way na."

"I swear. Na rich girls I wan dey land now."

I got up, suddenly very pissed. "That's enough." I declared, packing everything up, not forgetting the letter under my pillow and locking it up in my wardrobe before stripping to my boxers and grabbing a towel.

"Boss why you con dey vex..?" My roommate started to say, reclining into my bed.

"Please stand up." I say as calmly as I could and I catch Mide's confused gaze from his own bed. More annoyed for whatever reason, I leave the room not bothering to see the guy actually get up.

I stand in the shower long enough to wonder how the water still hadn't run cold. You see that comment my roommate made about Ejiro being rich? That's exactly what has been bothering me. And like I've already said countless of times, it's exactly why I wanted my birthday to just show up—surprising her, so she won't be able to surprise me.

Does she realize that I'll never be able to get her even half of everything she spent tonight when her birthday rolls around in August? And I know it may seem petty but I can't help that it hurts my ego. I want to be able to take her out and buy her whatever —treat her how she must be used to. But my allowance hasn't been something to brag about since mom got worse and since I understand that it's no one's fault, I've never had a problem with it. I've never had to.

Isaac's comment really riled me up, I never wanted to land a 'rich girl' or a girl with anything attached to her to make her worth pursuing. Like a tall girl or a short girl or even a fine girl. I never even wanted anyone. Not to be cliche, but everyone else had just been just that...just someone else. But I wanted her. I want all the things she makes me feel and more.

When I go back to my room I see the time on my alarm clock; it's past twelve. I sigh, March 1st. It's gone again, like it was four years ago and like it'll be till four years from now. You tend to lose the excitement. But today though, I can't deny that I was happy. I unlocked my wardrobe and took everything out to my bed.

My mom always made it a big deal. She went out of her way to throw a party every single time—which I know is not much since this is my fourth birthday ever. But today, someone apart from my family went ahead to do something really big for me. I took out the jersey and straightened it out on my bed not being able to stop myself from smiling.

She even had them put my name on it.

It's too late to have anything sweet, I thought as I glanced at the cookies. Besides, I'd feel better if I shared it with her. I held up the water bottle and let out a low chuckle, she really just fed off my sports addiction in searching for ideas. Even the slides were from the biggest sports brand to ever exist—I don't care if you don't agree.

I brought out the letter, finally after pushing it aside for the last causing my anticipation to flare up.

Dear Damian, she began.

And by the time I had finished reading, my thoughts finalized on one thing. If I wanted Ejiro like I claimed I did—and I do. Then I have to accept every part of her, no matter how insecure or...lacking they might make me feel because it was part of her and she couldn't help it. She didn't choose it just like I didn't choose my problems. Although, who wouldn't choose to be her? She's perfect—

"Hey dude." I heard Mide's voice punctuated with a yawn.

"Did I wake you up?"

"You might have. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I say truthfully, knowing he was asking about my outburst earlier on and that has been, well...settled.

There's a heavy pause before he says, "Amarachi and I might finally be telling the class that we're not best friends."

I smile, "She agreed?"

"Said her sister would just have to deal with it." He chuckled and I join in.

"There's nothing wrong with being best friends though." I defend, my mind fleeting over to Ejiro and the title she has given our relationship.

It had pained me at first; that she would call me her friend despite the feelings neither of us deny having. Everyone knows how much the word could like an insult...a dismissal. But Ejiro—and I hope I'm not mistaken—had said it like a promise, like a snippet of all the other things she left unsaid.

And there's so many things she's left unsaid.

I do not hold it against her though. No matter how much I may be dying to know everything she has refused to say, everything she has omitted; the reason why she cries or laughs, I will allow her to unfold in her own time.

Even though that clock was ticking way too slow.

But then, if not for patience, I'd have never imagined I would be happy with something as simple as a peck on the cheek. A peck on the cheek, can you imagine that? That me; Damian Briggs got excited because a girl gave him a peck.

But that is the beauty of Ejiro and all the more reason why I would wait for her.

"But we've been saying we're best friends for way too long, it's beginning to tire me. Do you know that there's this Year 12 guy that likes her?" He says the last part with obvious annoyance, "And he's beginning to act on it."

I snort a laugh, "That's unsettling."

"It is."

He lay back down and just when I think he may have drifted back to sleep, he says, "You and Ejiro. You guys are dating right?"

I sigh, "I honestly don't know how to answer that question ."

"You sure do act like you're in love though." He seemed to probe.

Love.

How can I claim to feel what I do not understand?

####
Frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Writing Damian's POV is almost as hard as a Physics exam. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there was never supposed to be Damian's POV in the first place but sometimes it just felt like it was needed and then I begin to struggle.

Advice to anybody who wants to write,
Plan out your entire story before you start. Don't wing it. Don't be like me. You have enough time to sit down and plan.

Anyways, how is everyone!? Hope you're well and I love you, as always.

Tena.