"Together we are... dangerous!"

This chapter is dedicated to lovetori_xo who is and amazing writer and also happens to share the same birthday with me. Even though it was three days ago😂😂😂

So uh...belated happy birthday to us!!!!!

We move!!!

•ORE•

"Oh, God, I don’t think I’m getting this!” Bolu whined and dropped her pen, exasperated and looked down.

I looked at her and quirked up a brow. “Don’t say that.”

She scoffed. “Why won’t I say that? We’ve spent almost an hour on this stupid problem, no offence, and I have not made any progress. Useless!”

I sighed, looking at her. Trying to decipher her thoughts, understand her feelings, trying to get to the bottom of the problem.

Her head was in her arms now, little beads of sweat trickled down her forehead and I could hear the faint sound of her breathing.

Today was Wednesday and the last day of our holiday classes. After our group meeting, Bolu and I agreed to meet at a small café directly opposite the school so she could start her physics tutoring today.

Since we got here over an hour ago, she’d been trying to solve a particular physics problem. I’d explained to her and she even seemed to be getting it, saying the next steps as I solved several examples for her but when it came to her turn, it was like she totally blacked out.

“I’m sorry I’m a blockhead,” her voice almost broke as she said that.

She looked up and tears were already in her eyes.

“No, no, no. You’re not…”

“You don’t have to make me feel better by saying that. I know, I’m wasting your time… I-I probably shouldn’t…you shouldn’t…” She sighed as a tear slipped down her eye.

I looked around the café and saw people were chatting away and not looking in our direction. Thankfully, none of our school students were around. Since they heard about the opening of Tammie’s place, they kinda ditched this place and went there, just few blocks away from the school.

This café was not so sophisticated, walls painted a warming coffee brown and cream, seats — tables for two, three and even seven — were arranged neatly. Television hung in a particular corner of the place at an angle everyone would be able to see. A counter where waiters stood to collect ordered food.

“Boluwaji,” I called softly and wiped her cheek. She looked up at me.

“You’re not a blockhead.”

“I…you wouldn’t understand.”

“I wanna understand…please? Open up.”

I sure sounded like a hypocrite, telling her to open up to me when I never open up to anyone.

She shook her head, another tear slipped down her eye. “It’s… nothing.”

I sighed and frowned, thinking of a way to make her smile, then an idea popped in my head. I smirked.

“You look beautiful.”

She looked up at me. “Liar, nice try but I’m not laughing.”

“Are you sure?” I asked and quirked a brow.

“Yes.”

“Really, sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you a hundred percent sure you are not gonna laugh?”

“Heck, yes!”

“Okay.” I shrugged. “Then let’s frown together.”

I sat back, crossed my arms, furrowed my brows, locked my jaw and scrunched my nose, staring intently at her.

After one minute of both of us trying to remain stoic, she broke character and cracked up, laughing uncontrollably. I smiled.

Mission accomplished.

“Ore.” laughs, “you are.” laughs, “a goat.”

“A spec,” I replied smugly.

“A goat and an actor.” She kept laughing.

Her laughter was somehow infectious so I joined in too and laughed along with her. I’m sure we got weird looks from the other customers because of how we were laughing like mad people.

“Did you see your face, you looked like a freaking zombie!” She exclaimed.

“Some zombies might be fine but I’d rather say I looked more like a handsome werewolf.”

“Yup, you kuku know that you are related to dogs. Point taken.” She nodded in mock understanding.

I shook my head and chuckled. “But I wasn’t kidding about the, you-look-beautiful part, you know?”

“Yeah, right. Be whining me oh. God dey!”

“I’m not whining.”

I wasn’t whining at all. She did look beautiful. She had her braided hair let down with a grey face cap on it but turned to the back.

Her naturally dark eyelids sort of matched with the black plain tee shirt she had on. Her face glowed in all its melanin glory and her eyes had their natural shine. But what occasionally got me distracted was her lips.

For some reason, maybe because of the harmattan, she’d decided she’d start using lip gloss and that has made her lips, very noticeable. Very, very noticeable. I had to stop myself from staring at them.

But it’s been real…hard.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” She exhaled. “Thank you for…making me laugh on my worst moments.”

“Don’t mention. Friends help each other.” I winked at her.

She smiled to the side.  “Can we take a break?”

“Of course.” I nodded and ordered something for both of us to eat.

Bolu was silent as I ate my chips and ketchup. She didn't touch her food. And that was a whole new for her. I knew she was a foodie.

I watched as she kept fiddling with her fingers, sighing occasionally, then inhaling and exhaling deeply. I decided not to say anything because I figured she should say whatever she wanted to when she wanted and if she wanted.

“How do you do it?” she looked up and spoke after what felt like an eternity.

I wiped my mouth with a serviette and raised a brow. “Um… do what?”

She sighed. “How do you, you know…get all those good grades? I mean, you laugh, play and all. You’re Ore Jumai! How do you pull off being so good and perfect at everything you do?”

“Perfect is not what I’d call me…” I replied. If only she knew.

She scoffed. “Yeah, right. You are the most popular boy at our school, head boy, star athlete and football player, you don’t play basketball but you’d probably be good at it if you tried, best student in physics, math…all subjects__”

“You’re best in chemistry and English,” I stated.

“Um…duh! Still you come second or third.” She rolled her eyes like it was too obvious. She kept counting with her fingers. “You’re dating the most popular girl, the staff of the school love you, and almost all students love you.”

“Almost?”

“Yeah, almost ‘cause duh, no matter what not everyone will like you…”

“Okay, touché.” I nodded.

“So Ore, with this solid points of mine, I hope I’ve been able to convince and not confuse you that you are perfect without any problems?” She raised both eyebrows in anticipation for my answer.

I shook my head and smirked. “First off, Waji, you’re adorable and would make a cute lawyer if you were in the arts class.”

“Not the time, Jumai,” she said sternly and I laughed. Did she just call me by my surname?

“Okay, okay. Believe it or not Boluwaji, you have good points — solid ones, like you said, but the fact remains that I’m not perfect, nobody is…”

The perfection you and everyone see about me is just a façade.

A big façade that would soon become a whole pile of ashes and push me into a world of nothing-ness. My freedom is still short lived. Even if Aaliyah’s still missing.

She shook her head in disbelief. “Some people actually escape the stereotype of imperfection, for example, you.”

I shook my head. “No Waji, listen. If we were all perfect, what then would be the need for school or this world in itself? Everyone would be so busy being perfect that they’d actually leave earth and create their own world. Everyone would be so alike, we’d all think the same way, do the same thing, speak the same language, be so serious all the time…and trust me that would be super boring…” I faked a yawn and snore which caused her to giggle.

I smiled. “That’s why we’ve been created this way. Molded by our imperfections, our perfect imperfections, our beautiful scars. That’s who and what we are. Everyone has struggles, deep or not, it’s still a struggle. Some people just smile and laugh and keep them in so it keeps them moving. So that they won’t fall down and die. They pretend it’s okay when they are actually going through hell.”

“Whoa…I’ve never actually thought about it that way.” She said with furrowed brows.

“Well, you should.”

“But…” She urged. “You didn’t answer my question. How do you do it? How do you keep moving despite all your supposed imperfections which I don’t believe you have.”

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “I learned to believe in myself. As much as it is important for others to believe in me, I make sure I believe in me too.” I shrugged again.

But judging from my life right now, honestly, What if I weren’t this popular or no one believed in me at school, would I probably be too miserable to believe in myself?

That’s not the point here.

“Hmmm, believe in myself…”

“Yeah.”

“I do believe in myself but when it comes to physics…” She sighed. “I don’t think my brain is wired for physics. I’m a blockhead when it comes to that. Maybe if they could just remove physics from being science?”

I stared at her in disbelief. “Why physics?”

“Just because…”

“Because, what?” I urged on.

“Because…” She shrugged. “It’s nothing.” She looked down and then mumbled. “You’d probably think I’m crazy.”

“No, I won’t. I’ve seen worse than crazy. Fawaz, Josh, Jeremy and the other hostel guys have shown me, trust me.”

She laughed. “Okay, that seems fair.”

“Yeah, so tell me. What’s the stuff?”

She sighed. “They speak…I-I hear them.”

“Hear who?” My brows furrowed in confusion as I leaned closer to her.

“Mr. Noah?”

“No…I…ugh.” She rested her head in her hands. “This is so hard.”

I pulled her hands from her face and kept them in mine. “Tell me, Waji.”

She looked up and I could see her eyes watering. “Stop crying.” I wiped her cheek again.

“They um…I…uh, whenever…um I pick up physics, you know, to read?”

“Eh-ehn…” I nodded slowly.

“Remember that time when I slammed a physics textbook under the staircase in the junior block?”
“Yeah, the day I told you to calm down with the textbook,” I said as I recalled that day when she mercilessly slammed a physics textbook. Annoyance and anger clearly written on her face. I also recalled how she’d avoided every question I’d asked her that day.

She nodded. “Well, that was…one of those times…”

“Okay, okay, let me get this straight. You pick up physics, you start to get it and then you hear voices?” I said trying to understand her.

She nodded.

Wawu. If we were in the real world, our people would have said this was a spiritual problem.

“I hear them say stuff…” She said and told me her whole experience.

“It’s all in your head,” I said after she finished her heart wrecking story.

No wonder she was like that. Having sudden mood swings, that is, before we became friends. Sinking back when she heard what Gift said the other day in the lab.

Not wanting me to tutor her in the first place. Seriously detesting the physics teacher—okay, that man needs serious warning, this was partially his fault.

Lying to her friends about her result. Now I understood it all.

The voices in her head made her insecure, irrational and delusional. 

“W-what?”

“I said it’s all in your head.”

She scoffed. “Wow, I honestly am offended! I come in here, tell you how I feel and then all you tell me is that it’s all in my head?!” She snapped angrily— which surprised me — and then made to stand up.

I pulled her and sat her down, once more. She was fuming.

“Relax, mama,” I said calmly which seemed to anger her more.

“Relax, bawo? That’s why I didn’t want to speak in the first place. I knew you’d judge me!”

At this point, heads turned to our direction so I whispered; “Relax, Boluwaji. Calm D. People don dey look us oh.”

She exhaled deeply. “I am calm.”

“Yup, clearly,” I added with sarcasm.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes.

I sighed. “See ehn, nobody’s judging you, it’s all in your head.”

“Can you stop saying that?!”

“I’ll try but that’s the truth. I’m not judging you. Told you before that I’ve never and will never judge you. You have to work on your mind.”

“How do you mean?”

“Let me ask you this; If anyone told you, you would fail chemistry or flunk a basketball game or you were a bad runner, how would you take it?”

She didn’t hesitate to say; “Well, I wouldn’t believe them?”

“Exactly. Now what’s your reason?”

“For starters… I know and am good at all those stuff you mentioned, My friends tell me I'm good so I’d yell right back at anybody who told me I wasn’t good at those stuffs.”

Such confidence. With the way she just spoke, one would think she held the world in her hands and could twist and bend it at her will. That was the kinda aura she portrayed but not who she was deep down.

“And what if the voices came in your head concerning those stuffs?” I asked.

“Ah, they wouldn’t dare!”

“I believe I have made my point.”

She raised her brows. “You have?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I have. And I trust that you know what to do.”

“I-I do?”

I nodded again. “I think we should call it a day. It’s getting late.”

“Um…okay.” She responded in her still confused tone.

I smiled and winked at her. “You’ve got this Bolu.”

“Okay?”

"Looking forward to disturbing your whatsapp dm." I said.

She glared and I winked at her as we walked out of the cafe.

I didn’t want to leave her hanging or clueless but I felt she needed to figure it out on her own.

Heyyyyyy!!!!!!

Hiiiiiiii

Happy Sunday!!!!!

How are you?????

Happy Sunday 😁✌️

First off...thanks for over 1k reads. You guys are freaking amazing and I love you so freaking much!!!!

Second: I'm super sorry for stalling😩😩😩😩😩 it was out of my control.

So... Tell me what you think of this chapter!!!!

Vote and Share.

And thanks to those who sent me messages on IG, reminding me I have people reading my book.

God bless you!

~Ife♥️♥️😎