Living off campus 4

It turned out to be Ola. Ola was a casual friend of mine, those kinds of friends you make as a result of a necessity or a joint responsibility. More like an acquaintance, I had an inkling Ola really liked me but I pretended not to notice. Seeing him that afternoon really surprised me, we were through with the fellowship project that brought us together, what could he possibly want? I thought within myself
After exchanging greetings and settling down, I expected him to state the reason for his visit but he only looked at me and smiled. This got me more impatient and irritated. He obviously wasn’t my kind of person. As if that wasn’t enough, I had secretly hoped that Ife wouldn’t leave me alone with him but unfortunately she stood up and excused herself from the room.
I was angry, now he will think he is being given free space to talk. i didn’t bother offering him anything, I didn’t want to prolong his stay. He picked up our album and started looking through making comments which I only managed to respond to. He later spoke about the church and recent developments. After few minutes which seemed like eternity he declared his leave. I was more than pleased to see him off.
When I returned to the house Ife wasn’t in still. I heard her voice inside Doyin’s room so I went there. As soon as I entered, Laura who was also in the room started taunting me asking if Ola was my boyfriend. They all burst out laughing I was so embarrassed and angry that they actually thought I could date Ola. I later got them to change topic. Doyin started praising her boyfriend. She made us look to the left side of the room where she arranged foot wears, sandals, shoes of different colours and designs like Laura. She claimed she had just ordered for them, courtesy her boyfriend. Ife and I continued to admire the collection.
After sometime we went back to our room, we had to prepare for the next day. Later on before sleeping that night Ife kept on talking about Doyin’s collections. She couldn’t bring herself to accept the fact that she was envious though. she later ended her talk with the fact that Tunji was richer than Ronald, Doyin’S boyfriend. It really infuriated me that Ife could think that way, more so she was still serious about Tunji after all we knew about his relations with different girls.

The days went fast, I was so busy that I hardly had time to relax. It was getting to that time of the semester when one could expect tests anytime. But one thing that got me wondering was that Ife was never busy. Infact she wasn’t going to school everyday. yet I saw her departmental mates in school running from one lecture hall to the other. Each time I asked her why, she would reply she already had the notes and someone wrote attendance for her. Asking her what she had been doing with her time usually brought about anger and explanations which were obviously lies. Ife’s behavior was becoming more unacceptable as the days went by, she left the house at odd times, stabbed lectures, came home with different stuffs and worse of all she kept on lying.
She was changing overnight, I was so worried and felt guilty each time our parents called and we say we are fine. Especially when Ife’s parents call me. I discussed her with some of my trusted friends in school, some advised that I just keep managing and praying for her others suggested that I called her parents anonymously and inform them. I still continued to contemplate this. Then one day suddenly Ife moved some of her things to Tunji’s room. she even started cooking in his room. I was really angry at this. Our once tight relationship was beginning to slack and she didn’t care.
One evening I got back from school and met Ife’s absence as usual. I didn’t bother to look for her I just fixed myself something to eat, I was eating when suddenly the door burst open and Ife rushed in. she fell on the bed and began to weep profusely.

Living off campus 3

It was Wole. We had no choice than to serve him. Then few minutes later, Laura came in to “greet” us. She started to complain about having stew but no vegetables I was getting impatient and angry but Ife had already entered the kitchen taking a bowl to give her . As we all sat eating I was calculating in my head our three hundred naira 10 pieces of meat was finished. The stew we were hoping will last all through the weekend. Yet it was still Thursday.
After all our uninvited guests were gone, I started to blame Ife out of frustration she was supposed to lock the door since she came in last. In the midst of these we had totally forgotten we still had to fetch water for the evening and the following day. By the time we stopped arguing and realized we hadn’t fetched water, it was too late to go out. Our house was surrounded by thick bushes which the caretaker had refused to take care of even after collecting money from each room for it. This made snakes our estranged visitors.
Neither Ife nor myself could summon up courage to go out so we decided to wake up early the following morning and fetch since we both didn’t have early morning lectures. Unfortunately in the middle of the night I started feeling the call of nature to use the “white house”. I tried all my possible best to repress the urge to no avail. In frustration I rushed into the toilet and almost screamed halleluyah when I saw a half bucket of water. Ife must have left it behind the previous morning. As I eased myself I basked in my relief but suddenly Ife rushed out of bed and started pacing at the doorway to the toilet. She began to urge me to be fast as she was pressed too. Ha! I exclaimed “no water o”.
This was definitely the aftermath of the vegetable we ate in the night. Ife continued to threaten me has she paced up and down. As I hurried up I began to wonder how both of us will manage half bucket of water. When ife got in and started offloading hers it was as if she hadn’t been to the toilet in days. I definitely knew we had to get water and the only way was the most terrifying way. It was 2.45 am in the morning.
As I walked through the passage to the main door, I had an ominous feeling like I was going to regret going out, I had heard different stories of strange occurences in the middle of the night so I dreaded moving in the night. I also thought within myself our housemates will definitely think something was wrong with us for going outside at that time. Nevertheless I opened the main door which wasn’t locked, I wondered why.
As I fetched, I kept looking around fearfully to be sure there was no dangerous reptile or person lurking around. There was a strange offensive smell in the atmosphere , I decided to hurry. After fetching two buckets I was about hurrying inside when i heard a strange sound by the side of the house this was followed by footsteps. I was about to run when something stopped me in my tracks. It was someone’s shadow, then whoever it was called out my name, my heart skipped. It was AK, Relief flooded over me.
I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me he had been smoking crack. He asked why I was fetching water at that period , I was so embarrassed that I had to lie. I told him I needed to shower because of the heat. That turned out to be a good alibi because he also claimed he came out for fresh air. i quickly excused myself.
When I got back into the room I told Ife what I had seen. We both didn’t like the fact that someone smoked crack in the house. But we had no choice, we went back to sleep.
Weekend came and we had enough time to do assignments, personal chores as well as relax. I thought of tunji and Ife together, I tried to persuade her to stop the relationship but she wouldn’t listen. Tunji would definitely give her money but he would end up dumping her. She later went out with him in the evening and came back with packed restaurant food and drinks. I was tempted to eat with her but I knew I shouldn’t if I wanted her to listen to me. So I refused. Ife started talking to me about considering dating someone too but I refused vehemently, after my ordeal with my last boyfriend, I didn’t want anymore such fake relationships.
Later in the evening, uche came in to check on us after chatting for a while he left for his room. Ife and I started teasing each other about whom we thought uche was interested in, we were still doing that when we heard Timothy’s voice he was talking to himself again. What a strange guy we thought.
Sunday came we both left for church and got back in the evening tired. We had barely laid down to rest when someone knocked on the door. I opened it grudgingly after few minutes of which we had to tidy up the room. It was supposed to be our siesta period. As I opened the door I was surprised at who I saw.