Chapter 03: Grieve

Chapter 03

I dropped my plate of rice and stew on the center table

"What is that?" Jenny asked as I scooped another table spoonful of rice

"It's stew and boiled rice duhhhh" I laughed

" Lemme have a taste" she put a spoon of it in her mouth

" So??" I looked at her closely

"Did you pour ten spoons of pepper in this??"

" Damn,It's really spicy " she dropped the spoon and ran to the fridge, I burst into laughter

"A refreshing Coca-Cola to cool it down" she pulled a can of coca-cola

" I wouldn't do that if I were you" you know pepper works

" Ahhh, it's worse" I rolled my eyes and passed her a bottle of cold water

"Village girl"

I can't believe my village girl is dead, who would do this??

"I miss you Jen, so much" I curled myself up on the couch

"I should have taken you with me" I sobbed, I felt empty inside, I never knew how attached I was to Jenny. Oh God, which kain tin be this nah??

******

I walked up and rang the bell at the Aston's house and waited for a reply

"I'm coming" I heard a woman respond

"Oh Good day dear"

"How may I help you??" She smiled at me

"We spoke over the phone some minutes ago, I'm Kelechi Okwuchukwu Deborah" the woman looked at me confused

"Jenny's roommate" I smiled

"Oh, forgive my manners, come in my darling" well, she's nice

"So you're Jenny's roommate?" An elderly man asked me

" Yes sir"

" Tea dear??" I shook my head in negativity

" Do you know what happened?" He interrogated

" No sir, I was at my aunt's place when it happened"

" I'm shocked and hurt as well" I tried my best not to mess up my English

" What did my daughter ever do to deserve this??" Her mom lamented, I stood up to console her by holding her

"She's in a better place" I wiped a year off my eye

As I walked home, I started wondering what happened to Josh, where he was that night and what they had been doing the night she died

As I thought about it, I realized Josh had disappeared completely for a month now, it's weird, very stran...

"Can I talk to you??" A hooded guy walked up to me

" Who are you and what do you want from me??" I moved two steps back

" I just want to talk to you in private" God forbid, you want to kidnap me abi??

I was about pulling off my shoes to run as my subconsciousness kept telling me to sare

"It's me Josh" I gasped and grabbed him dragging him to the floor

What did you do to Jenny??!!

"I'm listening" I sat down after giving him a ice bag for his elbow

"I know what you're thinking"

"Every clue points at me I know" he lowered his head

" But trust me...I didn't do it" he looked at me and my village people were telling me to believe the suspect in front of me

"Then narrate what happened that night" I leaned back on the chair

It's very easy to suspect that a boyfriend killed his girlfriend but not so easy to believe he's innocent when every clue is pointing at him. I decided to believe him till I found out what was going on.

"Aunty Good afternoon" I walked into her kitchen and found a dark man with her

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything" I hugged her

" Good day sir" I nodded, I'm still used to that

" I have gist for you aunty" I informed

" I'm listening" she smiled at me

"My roommate was murdered" I lowered my head

I think...ummm... We have company maybe later" I looked at the man

" You can go on, he's a police officer, he could be helpful"

" I think her boyfriend, Josh did it" I said

"Jesu Christi!!!, Don't just jump to conclusions with no evidence" She turned around suddenly

" How??" She came closer

" I don't even know how" tears gathered in my eye

" He did tell me that he didn't do it tho" I looked up at her

" He said he and Jenny had a little fight and was coming back to apologise when he saw a man suspiciously walking out of the house, he looked through the window and found Jenny lying in her own pool of blood, he was so scared that he ran away and didn't come back for a month" I explained

" That's not normal" she hugged me

" It's a pity you friend had to die like that" the man patted my back

" Why don't we go out for ice-cream??" He suggested after some minutes of silence

" I think that's a good idea" she replied and pulled me up from the chair.

***********

Josh's POV...

"Babe!!" I walked into the house

"Honey" she hugged me and locked my lips with hers. I grabbed her butt and squirmed pulling back breaking the kiss

"I've missed you so much" I carried her to the couch, put her down and laid between her legs on top of her, I locked her lips again pushing my tongue into her mouth, she responded well kissing me back sweetly and softly. I circled her nipples through her camisole with my fingers, they're hard as hell.i moved my hands down to her shorts and she pulled away from me.

"No" she tried to stand up but I held her down the more trying to force myself on her

"Ahhhhh, freaking b*tch" I yelled as she kicked my balls and ran upstairs closing the door behind her

"Shit!!, What is wrong with you??" I punched the wall and looked at the door she ran into before walking out the door shutting it behind me.

I blew out smoke as I walked back to Jenny's house, I should apologise, I shouldn't have jumped on her like that.

"What the...??" I hid as I saw a man in all black wearing a baseball cap walking out of the house looking left and right as he walked on.

"Jenny!" I ran into the house to find her lying in her pool of blood

" I shouldn't have left you" I fell back as I saw her lifeless body on the ground

"Oh shit!! The police" I opened the front door to run out

" 911, there's an emergency no. 06 on Connor's street, be fast please!!"

" Babe, hold on, lemme get help" I ran out of the house like the loser I was.

" I saw a young man walk out of the house after they argued..." I heard an elderly woman inform the police about me. I ran as far as my legs could carry me because of the fear of going to jail, I was innocent so why was I running??

I didn't know what I did, I couldn't stop running.

I'm sorry Jenny, if only I had helped you myself instead of being a loser that couldn't do anything to save you...

I walked by a lonely neighborhood to the one-room apartment I lived in

"Hey, excuse me mister" I called out to a man dressed in all black walking out of an apartment

"Yes??" The man turned to me

"You look familiar" I squinted. Hold up

"I saw you the other night coming out of Jenny's house" I held his shirt

"I think you have the wrong guy" he freed himself and walked away from me

" Strange" I walked into my apartment and shut the door

"Hey K.C"

"What's up Josh??" She said from the other end

" I think we should meet up tomorrow at your place" I heard her sigh. She's disappointed, I'm not surprised

"No problem" she hung up.

K.C's POV

I decided to walk over to Josh's house instead since he didn't show up as he said he would

"Thank you" I gave the cab driver some money and walked in the direction of Josh's one room apartment.

"The police??" I looked in the direction of Josh's apartment

"Not again"

Lemme guess, he was murdered last night" I walked up to a policeman

"Oh, Hey uncle James" I hugged my aunt's friend

" Do you know who lives here??"I nodded

"Yeah, a friend of mine" I decided to keep little details out of our conversation

"Jenny's boyfriend" he looked at me closely

" I never actually saw them together so I can't tell" I lived

" Okay then" he walked to another officer

" What is going on??"I looked at the body bag being dragged out of the house on a stretcher

Something's not right.

*********

2 months after Jenny's death

I had a class today and I'm already late, I ran into the lecture hall and the class went quiet looking at me. I mouthed sorry and took a seat beside a dark skinned boy

"Hey, I'm Jamal" he passed me a piece of paper with those words on them

"What's your name??" He passed another

"I'm not interested" I replied him and looked at the lecturer to copy down notes, maybe I was a little bit rude

"I'm Kelechi, K.C for short" I passed him a piece of paper and he smiled, I smiled back and continued jotting.

Who knows?? this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I was about to walk out of the hall when a girl dropped a piece of paper on the table

"I know what happened to Josh, let's meet at the cafe in front of the school tomorrow by 2pm"

I looked up but she was gone.

Strange

"I wonder if it's the new girl that's bringing bad luck to us" I heard Merissa comment as I walked by her car on my way home

"Some African maybe even Nigerian charms" she emphasized on the word "Nigerian" when she saw I didn't react at first

"She couldn't even spare her own roommate because she was jealous of her relationship with Josh"

Okay, she made me do it

I pounced ontop of her throwing my books to the side and gave the beating of a lifetime

Never make a Yoruba girl angry

"And don't you ever let such rubbish come out from that thing you call a mouth" I picked up my books and walked away.

My temper's always getting the best of me

I hope I don't get into trouble.

Well, she started it though but I shouldn't have stoop so low to her level

"Beep" I unlocked my phone and saw a message notification

Did they really have to video this??

I'm doomed.

Then another message from an unknown number:

"Stop investigating, or else, you'd be next!!!"

The number looks very familiar but it doesn't match any on my contact list....

Who the heck is this??