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My legs felt heavy when I awoke the next morning and I was reminded of mine and Ekpe’s little excursion to the market. I lay on my bed for a few minutes, pumping my legs into the air to relieve the pain. I couldn’t tell if it was working so I decided to get to my chores, maybe a little moving around would help.

I paused once I stepped into the living room, not because what I saw was horrifying but because I couldn’t discern how I felt about it. I heard Marcel’s heavy, lazy footsteps as he entered the room. He stopped beside me and wiped his eyes.

‘Well, isn’t that cute?’ He too was gazing at the scene before us.
There were a couple empty cans around, junk wraps, soiled newspapers and a half eaten bowl of popcorn on the side stool. My mom was lying atop Kunle whose body had covered the entire sofa.

‘What the hell happened here?’ I couldn’t believe I had slept through it all.

‘After you locked yourself up in your igloo and served the rest of us the silent treatment, those two right there decided to feed themselves and each other. I think it’s called Netflix and chill but Ekpe turned off the generator by 4 and I’m guessing they couldn’t find their room’. He gladly explained.

‘This is weird and you should brush your teeth before leaving your room’.
‘I brush after breakfast but let’s wake those two up, shall we?’ He smiled evilly and I understood why when he screamed and our parents jumped out of the sofa.

Mom began frantically looking around but Kunle just sleepily stared at us and slumped back into the chair.

‘What is going on? Amanda. Who was screaming?’ She looked panicky.
‘Sorry for waking you, I saw a rat licking your toe and I freaked’. Kunle groaned and I began to think Marcel wasn’t only well vested in 1*500meters races.

‘A rat? It’s been ages I saw one in this house’.
‘There was one. Browny you saw it right, didn’t you?’ He smiled brightly at me.
‘Huh? I mean yeah. A tiny, small, little rat’. I saw him roll his eyes as I struggled to speak.
‘I will have to get rat traps on my way back’. Mom said as Kunle rose and shuffled to their room.
‘Can you help me clean up baby? I’m late for work’. I nodded and she followed Kunle.

‘Aren’t you a buzz kill? Can’t even tell a tiny lie’. Marcel said as we began picking up empty cans of soft drinks. I paused.
‘Maybe I was taken unaware by you suddenly buddying up to me. We aren’t friends Marcel and I don’t need your help with the chores, I can clean up just fine’.

‘I’m sure you can but contrary to popular belief, I’m not an ingrate and your mom is letting me crash in her guest room’.

I wanted to know how long he and his dad had been displaced but asking would take him out of his sunshine mood and despite being able to, I didn’t want to deal with his aggressive side.

‘Fine, you spend more time in this parlor than anyone else anyway’. I left and let him clean the living room while I took care of the other areas in the house.
He did a good job for someone who never participated in clean up at school.

By the time I was done, our parents were leaving for the hospital, turns out Kunle worked as a physiotherapist there and that’s how he met my mom. He had been staying with a friend but it was a one bedroom self con and he couldn’t take Marcel there so mom offered him a place.

I made breakfast of boiled yam and eggs for myself, Marcel and Ekpe.
Mom had stored the perishable goods I had gotten from the market so I made lunch too before leaving to go see Abike at the hospital.
The nurse on duty wouldn’t let me go in because it wasn’t visiting hours but fortunately, Mrs. Dapo walked out of the ward at that time.

‘Ekaro ma’. I greeted and she smiled at me before moving in for a hug.
‘I’m glad you are here, I have a session for the next hour. Can you stay with her? So she doesn’t terrorize those poor kids’. I laughed.
‘Of course’.

She whispered something into the nurse’s ear and I was granted entry.
Abike was laid out on the bed with her phone in her hand above her head.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked as I got close. She sighed in relief.
‘Good timing for once Mandy, can you…’

‘Did I hear you say Mandy?’ Henrietta’s voice resonated through the device.

‘Hen and I are trying to have a video call but I can’t angle the phone well since mom said I’m not allowed to move. She keeps calling me a buffalo’.
I grabbed the phone from her and sat on the stool beside her so both our faces would be visible.

‘Hey Hen’.
‘Mandy!’
‘What’s on your hair?’
‘I’m doing this hair enhancement thing. It’s a paste I made myself from ginger, garlic, onion, tomato, spinach and baking powder’. Her smile couldn’t have been wider.

‘It definitely sounds organic’. I held back my laughter.
‘And like a good stew if you exclude the baking powder’. Abike teased.
‘Shut up you incomplete metamorphosis’.
‘That is so primary 3’.

‘Where did you get your recipe?’ I inquired
‘YouTube’.
‘That explains a lot’. Abike said and Hen gave her the finger.
‘I miss you Mandy, can’t wait for school to resume and Bike told me about your new housemate’. She wiggled her brows.

‘You weren’t supposed to tell anyone’. I reprimanded Abike.
‘Don’t yell at me. I’m sick and bored’. She
‘Anyways, as much as I take offence to you trying to push me out of the inner circle, I still demand details’. Henrietta pressed

‘There are no details’.
‘Come on, it’s the mighty Marcel. There has got to be gist’. Abike backed her
‘Not you too’.
‘What does he wear to sleep?’
‘Clothes?’
‘How much does he eat? Is he an indoor or outdoor person? Does he have a girlfriend? Have you seen him bathing before?’
‘Hen!’

‘Okay. What does he watch; supersport or trace?’
‘I thought you were dating his best friend’.
‘What’s wrong in getting to know him better? A friend of a friend is a friend right?’
‘Pretty sure you just destroyed that quote’. Abike quipped
‘Whatever. I’m bored with you two already’.
‘You can always go make more organic paste’.

‘I was thinking of visiting Vivian again but I don’t think her mother likes me. Maybe it’s because I broke their ancestral portrait but it was just so weird and confusing. I couldn’t tell who was the man between her grandma and granddad but I guess her mom inherited both their traits, you can understand why I’m a little scared of her. I think the gene is recessive in Vivian but still present.

‘Wow. Thanks for the biological breakdown of Vivian’s family’. Abike said with a fond smile.
‘I’d love to stay girls but it’s time to wash the enhancer out of my hair. So, ciao’.

Abike and I both breathed out in union.

‘I love her but I’m happy to miss her’. I announced.
‘Are you telling me? Nowadays she’s a bit occupied with her beauty products and shit. She used to call me three times a day, said when she thinks of food, she thinks of me’.

‘We all do’. I raised my face to the ceiling as she smacked me.

‘Screw you’. I laughed.
‘How was the operation?’ I asked
‘Successful, I don’t think I’d be here if it weren’t’.
‘I mean, how did it feel?’
‘I don’t know, I was unconscious’. She gave me a weird look and I sighed.
‘How was being unconscious? Is it like sleeping?’

‘Pretty much, except I was having this weird dream about some bizarre creature with actual chocolate abs and a doughnut face’.
‘Your dream guy is a junk hunk? Charming’.
‘You want to hear the dream or not?’
‘You want me to listen to your creepy relationship goals with food? Dude, I’ll pass’.

‘Whatever, I’ll tell Henrietta when she calls again’,
‘Yeah sure, she’ll swoon all over his chocolate abs’.
‘Bad belle’.
I laughed until a nurse cast me a glare loaded with all her family problem.
‘Your mom came to see me earlier. She looks happy, papa Marcel is doing wonders huh?’
‘You can say that. They were cozied up on the couch this morning’,

‘Aww. Isn’t that romantic?’
‘My God, you sound like Marcel’.
‘He saw them?’
‘It’s not like they were hiding’.
‘Your house is becoming a real movie scene, now I want to visit’.
‘Think of sitting up first, buffalo’.
She struck me across the head with an Eva bottle.

Mrs. Dapo was back after her session, she had her lunch right in front of Abike who wasn’t allowed to eat until after the sound of her bowel movement was heard. The duration of the fasting wasn’t certain, Mrs. Dapo said it varied according to the nature and severity of the appendectomy or something.

The house was quiet when I got back, mom and Kunle were still at work and there was no sign of Marcel in the living room. I thought he had gone out for once when I heard voices coming from his room. The door which was down the hall from mine was left ajar but all I could see from my door was a quarter of his bed and Usain Bolt’s right eye.

Someone’s laughter echoed down the hall, someone I knew too well. Henrietta would sell her soul to the devil to get to my house immediately if she knew Christopher Lawal was here.

‘Guuy’. I heard Marcel drawl.
‘Is it my fault I’m a fine boy?’ Chris playfully bragged.
‘Abeg wither. But how can you let a girl sub that huge amount for you? It’s not like you can’t pay your bills’. There was slight annoyance in his tone.
‘She insisted na, I for stop am? That girl will steal her father’s money for me if I ask her, she’s crazy like that’.

‘So, you are serious about this one? I swear I never pictured you two together’.
‘Serious ke? I can’t date that girl na, haba! She is a clown, imagine walking around the school holding hands. She’ll probably bath me in glitter and start calling me booboo’.
I heard marcel let out a short laugh.

‘Honestly, I’m just using Henrietta because it’s fun and watching her fawn over me is still entertaining’.

My legs inched towards Marcel’s room but I stopped them and got into my room instead, slamming the door after me. Picking a fight with two buff guys when there was no one else around wasn’t wise. If Rasheed were around he’d commend my ability to restrain myself.

After last night a part of me thought Marcel wasn’t so bad, that he was kind underneath that arrogant tongue but I was being delusional, he was the frigging demigod of Apex for a reason and Chris Lawal is still his right-hand man. Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are, right?