"The ten commandments sum up to two things: the love of God and the love of neighbor. The first three commandments talk about the love of God, while the remaining commandments talk about the love of neighbour.

"If you love God, then you would love your neighbour. You cannot claim to love God who you cannot see if you don't love your neighbour who you can see.

"If you love your neighbour, you wouldn't kill, you wouldn't steal from him/her, you wouldn't bear false witness against the person, you wouldn't be envious of the person's wealth and success..."

The homily dragged on with half the population of the church dozing. Chidiogo glanced around her seat, taking note of the others. Amelia kept herself busy with wiping off her nail polish.

She had been applying and wiping off nail polish for half of the time they'd been there. At least it was better than the other half she spent drooling over the priest.

Next to her was Mmachi who rested her head on the chair in front of her. She seemed to be sleeping but something about the way she stayed convinced Chidiogo otherwise.

Sky was also seated on the same bench, though far from the rest of them. She just stared at the pulpit, watching with such keenness, it felt a bit weird.

After her last exchange with Mmachi, Chidiogo had concluded that she was a bit weird. Although the conversation ended with her reply, Mmachi leaving right after giving her a bone chilling hiss, Chidiogo couldn't just shake off the feeling that something was wrong with the girl.

But she had saved her life and the least she could do was think nicely about her.

Chidiogo's eyes continued its idle roaming until she locked gazes with Kamsi. She looked away that same instant, shuddering a bit.

She'd learned to dread her from the moment she was comfortable with leaving her to bleed after Amarachi's assault. The fact that she had somehow ignited the whole situation just made the dread deeper.

Chidiogo became convinced that Kamsi was not alright when she was the first person who turned up when she woke up at the nurse's office. At first she was startled and just as she was about to call for the nurse's help, Justin appeared.

His arrival put an automatic end to whatever conversation or encounter she would have had with Kamsi but she was certain it wouldn't have ended well.

Chidiogo was grateful for Justin's arrival for one reason—it gave her a sense of safety. The one word she'd always known to be an illusion felt like it could be a reality for once with him by her side.

She longed for the warmth which had engulfed her just by having his hands wrapped around her and she didn't know when she started looking around for him.

Her mood dampened at once the moment she realized he wasn't there. There was a good explanation—he wasn't a Catholic—but that didn't help her mood in any way.

She let herself relive the brief time they shared at the school clinic. She hadn't expected to see him, not after he had said himself that very same day that it was better they stayed away from each other. Then a dangerous thought came creeping into her mind.

'Was he only moved by humanity or could he just not keep to his own words? Could he not get himself to stay away from me?'

Something else in Chidiogo's head reminded her to stop, reminded her of her tendency to overthink things. Justin was Mmachi's boyfriend, he was in love with Mmachi not her.

The kiss was a mistake, it didn't matter that she kept dwelling on it. It'd only be wrong if she thought of him any more than she already did.

With a sigh, she looked back to the altar to find the priest leaving the pulpit. The homily was done and the rest of the mass ended not more than thirty minutes later.

She left the church once the priest was gone, stopping only once to take a proper look at an inscription on the confessional which stood at the back of the church.

She knelt in front of it to get a closer look, running her hand over the model of an open book—carved in ivory—bearing the words: The greater the sinner, the greater his right to God's mercy.

She stared at the inscription for a long time until a tap on her shoulder forced her to turn her head. Her eyes met with that of a familiar looking boy with honey brown skin.

"Hey. What are you doing there?" he asked, his lips curving up.

She glanced back at the model, wiping off her dusty palms on her navy blue skirt before standing up from her kneeling position.

"Wanted to know what that said. Thought it'd be something important."

On reflex, her pointer flung towards the direction of the confessional. The boy's eyes followed her movement and they both stayed quiet for a moment.

"The greater the sinner, the greater his right to God's mercy," the boy read out, his eyes fixed on the inscription, "bullshit right?"

She frowned at his words. "No, not bullshit."

She started heading towards the exit again, the boy hot on her trail.

"You're different," he said, catching up to her.

"Different?" Chidiogo's brows managed to push through the deep creases on her forehead.

"Yeah. You're different from Mmachi. The first time I read the inscription to Mmachi, she called it bullshit. Just wanted to know which twin I was dealing with this time."

Chidiogo scoffed. "How smart."

"Maybe you two aren't so different after all."

Chidiogo stopped walking. "Please, who are you and why are you following me?"

"You don't remember me?" The boy bore a solemn look as he stared at Chidiogo.

Chidiogo stared hard at his face. She was certain she had seen him, she just couldn't place where.

"I do but... I can't really remember your name."

The boy's face brightened up. "I'm Paschal."

The name didn't help her memory in any way but she decided to play along. "Right. Paschal... What's your surname again?"

"Edet."

She nodded several times, putting on a broad smile. "Oh, of course. Of course."

"We met at the dinning room," he said as if he could read through her facade, "I invited you to hang out with my friends but Mmachi said you were going home for your grandmother's burial."

Then it clicked, her lips forming the shape of an 'O'. She hadn't seen him since the encounter and she wasn't one to recognize people.

"You also bumped into me the other day at the dinning but I don't think you noticed."

"Which day?"

"It was on a Wednesday, I think. You had macaroni all over your clothes. I was just walking in and—"

"Oh, I remember now." Her eyes drifted to the ground.

"Yeah."

The ringing of a bell filled the silence that ensued causing Chidiogo to look up from the floor and glance at her wristwatch. It was twelve on the dot. The Angelus followed afterwards, the two joining in the prayer.

Once it was over Chidiogo searched for an excuse to leave.

"I'll get going now."

"Why? You can hang out with me for a few more minutes."

"But the bus—"

"It's having problems, they'll send another one to pick us but that'll take twenty to thirty minutes. In the meantime we're free to hang around so far we don't leave the church compound. And besides I wouldn't want the bus to leave me behind either. So don't worry about it."

Chidiogo gave a weak smile when she couldn't come up with any other excuse and followed him to a granite bench.

Once seated, she found herself staring at the razor sharp edge formed by the backrest of the chair. Replaying the incident with Amarachi, she was just about to stand when she felt someone's hand on hers.

She first glanced down at the brown hand which had covered hers before glancing up at Paschal.

"Are you okay?"

She got lost in his gaze for a moment before nodding. He stared at her for about a minute, not letting go of her hand, before speaking.

"You looked a bit lost."

She nodded, absentminded, before he let go of her hand. She hugged herself when her hand was free, and unlike when Justin had done the same in the hospital, she was grateful that he left her hand. She looked away from him, moving her eyes to a flashy yellow car parked in a distance.

It didn't make sense to her that anyone would paint their car yellow. Just slap on some black and white paint and you had yourself a taxi. Had the person not considered that?

"Are you sure nothing is bothering you? I'm always there if you need someone." Paschal's voice came again forcing her eyes away from the car and back to him.

He was beginning to annoy her.

"Yes, I'm fine."

She gave him a reassuring smile to prevent him from asking any further questions. She returned her gaze to the yellow car to find it pulling away from the parking lot.

She watched it with keen interest wishing she could believe her own words, say it with a certainty that even she couldn't question. But that was far from it. She lost a piece of her mind with each passing day.