Jeremiah

I cleaned my wet face with a towel slowly, and then threw it on my shoulders, walking as fast as I could into the big kitchen with my eyes staring into my phone, a huge smile finding its way on my face. I was always that way, all the time I talked to her. All the time I talked to Kora. Thank God we got to talk again after such a long time. I guess she needed all the time she could get to heal from all that had happened between her and that boyfriend she always talked about. Crazy how she never really told me what happened between them, even after so much time had gone. I didn't want to ask her to. There was no point bringing up the past anymore.

She was typing.
Why was she taking so long anyway?

"Basically, I've come to a conclusion that this country is not for me. I'd do anything to get a green card at this point, and let's not talk about this really crazy weather. It's so hot and annoying."

Reading Kora complain about a lot of things somehow made me chuckle faintly. I loved talking to her, much more than I had expected. I pulled out a chair from the counter and sat comfortably in it.

"How hard is it to get a green card anyway?"

"Trust me," I texted back "There's really nothing great about living in the states or anywhere else. Life's going to be the same no matter where you go."

"😫"

"But anyway, I have a green card just in case you'd like to share." I chuckled. Now I was just being corny. Or was I?

"Stop playing with me 😂. But really, how can you prefer to be back here than over there?"

'Because this is my home? Because everyone I love and care about are right here, and I've been away from them for so long. Because I'd rather stay here forever than go back there and be all alone again.'

I wanted to tell her all that so much. I wanted to tell her who I really was, but a part of me just wanted to hold back. I mean, I trusted her. But I just didn't trust how she was going to react if she knew how I became who I am. If anyone knew everything.

"I mean," I continued. "I don't get the fuss about this country everyone's complaining of. So far so good, everything has been Aiit ."

"That's because you're a rich kid living in the suburbs of the federal capital territory of Nigeria. Tell that to the remaining eight percent  of Nigerians that don't have it as easy as you do."

"Lmao. We do. You're rich too."

"No, that's my stepfather, not me. But don't be surprised when I take you up on that green card offer real soon."

"😂 I'll keep that in mind." I took a long sip from my bottle of water.

"Do you ever feel like you just need to sleep one day and wake up the next in a place where no one knows you, and you don't remember anything about your life?"

Story of my life.

"Where you could have a chance to just start over again. A second chance to just- live. If God ever gave me a wish, I'd wish I was never born."

My jawline tightened as I frowned.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my life. I mean I do, but I won't make that wish because of me. I'd make it because of my mum, and everyone else that was and is still affected by my existence. I just feel a lot of things would have been better for everyone if I just went away and never came back. If I just disappeared like everyone wants me to. I don't want to sound like a sad person, but I kind of feel like there's nothing here for me anymore. I've lost my best friend, I literally have no more friends, and now I'm about to go to this school he goes to and watch him rub how well he's living without me in my face. I kind of have second thoughts about NAUN, but my mum really thinks it'd be good for me. For me to face everything head on. I don't need Luke. Why would I have to give up everything for him? Why does my life have to end because of him? Why should I give up my dreams for him?"

You still have me.

I wanted to say those words to her so badly but I just didn't know how. Should I just tell her? Should I tell her she didn't have to feel that way anymore? That I was going to NAUN too? That she didn't have to be alone anymore? I could be that friend, I could be whoever she wanted me to.

I scoffed,

What on earth was wrong with me? What did I think I was doing? We were probably never going to meet. She didn't look like it was something she was looking forward to anyway, and when I brought it up, she just found a way to talk her way out of it.

"Who are you texting?" I shook, and almost dropped my phone the moment I heard a loud thud on the table, right after Emmanuel's voice. I hurriedly turned to him.

"What the hell man," I stared at him while he stared into my phone "You scared me." I had my hand over my racing heart.

"Hmm, Kora with a heart emoji." He raised his head to me "Who is Kora with a heart emoji?"

I hurriedly turned to my phone, and then turned it over.

"It's no one." I told him. "Just this girl I talk to."

"She's the girl you talked about before isn't she? The wrong number girl? The one you have feelings for?"

"I don't have feelings for-" I grabbed my phone from the table and got up quickly. "What's the point? Nothing can happen between us anyway."

I knew that for a fact. Kora and I, for the past few months had established a bond I could not explain. I found myself always wanting to talk to her, and know how she was doing. I don't know how, but a part of me just wanted to know her. To really know her. I was just trying to be a friend, nothing more. I had too much going on in my life to be thinking about petty things like girls and feelings. I didn't like Kora like that. I possibly couldn't. Even though my heart raced every second I talked to her, even though we talked almost everyday and told each other almost everything, even though we couldn't really sleep without texting each other goodnight every night, even though she was becoming a very important part of my life, I didn't like her like that. I was just trying to be there for a friend.

"It better not." Emmanuel told me just as I turned to him. "Jeremiah, in a couple of years or even months, you're going to be married to Oma, just as your father had hoped you would. You have no idea how much that's going to be to your family's advantage, and to the company's advantage. One wrong move, and it's over." He glared at me. "Screw this up, and your father is never going to let you get away with it this time."

Yeah right. Like I didn't think about all of that before. I walked to the counter and then picked up my bottle. I looked at Manuel, he always had a way to make everything so awkward and serious, to ruin the damn mood. It scared me.

"Yeah, whatever."

I turned and then walked away from the kitchen.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Lady K

"Olivia, That silly bitch thought she could run her mouth and get away with it. Good thing she messed with the wrong girl. My mum sure gave her a good scare."

Remember the three best friends they always talk about in popular movies? The girls that seem to be the hottest in the story, and the meanest too, they did everything together, and went everywhere together, planned their lives together, yeah, in this story, you're looking at the three of them. Queen-Esther AKA Queen, Sonia, and of course Oma, the leader of the mini gang. You'd have thought something was really going on whenever they had one of their girl time, and locked themselves up in any of their rooms, it was Oma's that day.

"You should have just ignored her and let it go." Sonia had her eyes glued to the magazine in front of her, with her legs up in the sky.

"How could I have let her go after that all she said to me? After humiliating me like that? No way." Queen turned back to pushing the buttons on her phone. "You have no idea how irritated people like her make me feel. Trust me, getting back at her was what was best for my sanity."
She turned to Oma, who was busy sitting straight in her bed, cuddling her legs like she was cold and looking into blank space.

"Isn't it, Oma?"

Oma didn't move a muscle. Was she even listening?

"What do you guys think about that school everyone keeps talking about? NAUN?"
Queen scoffed.

"What do you care about what people think of that dumb school?"

"Well," Sonia drooped her magazine "I heard it's a school lazy rich kids go to, so they don't have to stress about anything. You could decide to read or not, and still have a good future waiting outside when you're done. I heard the people behind the school are actually powerful. But I also heard they teach well there too, and their curriculum is really great-"

"You mean stupid and a complete waste of time." Queen added. "I mean, why would anyone want to go to a school like NAUN? We don't need any connections from that school, we have all we need. I've got a whole wine company to inherit, waiting for me the moment I'm done from the university. That's a whole empire. What can NAUN possibly give me that could be better than that?"

Sonia shrugged her shoulders.

"Besides when we get into Nile, we'd get to meet a whole lot of other people that are just like us. Who knows? I could fall in love with a senator's son, or even the president's."

"I'm not going to Nile."
The both of them slowly turned to Oma.

"Neither are you two." Oma raised her head to look at them too. "We are going to NAUN."

"What?!" Queen and Sonia chorused as they sat up quickly. "NAUN?"

"What?" She asked them. "Jerry is going there."

"Oma," Queen stared at her. "We've spent the last six months talking about getting into Nile, and preparing for Nile. It is Nile. It took me a lot to convince my father to cancel my admission at Harvard for this, and now you're saying we should go to NAUN instead?"

"I mean the only reason I was going to Nile was because I had no idea Jeremiah was coming home, and I didn't want to school abroad and leave my mum to handle my company while I was gone. I need to be close enough so I can watch her. Jerry is back now, and he'd be going to NAUN. I can't let him go there alone-"

"NAUN?" Queen scoffed. "Really? NAUN? Why would any of us want to go to NAUN? Why would we want to go to a school where they still dress in uniforms? My father is going to kill me if I dare bring this up."

"You have no idea how popular that school is going to be the moment everyone finds out Jerry would be going there. It'd be way bigger than Nile, and much bigger when we go there too. It'd be just the way we planned. I'd get to be with Jerry, and you can fulfill your dreams of being popular and dating a senator's son. I heard NAUN is filled with lots of them." She stretched her legs "You guys can go to Nile if you want to. We don't have to go to NAUN together."

"I'm in." Sonia raised her hands in the air. They both turned to her. "I've kind of always wanted to go to NAUN. I heard their music class is really amazing, and they have a big swimming pool too, fine male teachers and a big gym. My mum won't mind, I'm not the smartest of her children, so she doesn't really care about things like that."

Queen scoffed just as a tiny smile carved its way on Oma's lips.

"We could come talk to your father if you want us to Queen-Esther. Your father is good friends with Sonia's mother isn't it? Good business partners too. We could ask her to talk to him on your behalf. It'd really be a shame if you don't come with us. We've planned for this moment for so long."

"What about you?" Queen asked her. "In what world would your mother let you get away with this insane idea?"

Oma scoffed.

"Handle your father, and I'd handle my Mum." She flicked her finger and sneered. "This is going to be the best year ever."