One Hundred And Eight

"She's fine." I heard my aunt saying to someone over the phone when I gained consciousness. I was in my room, on my bed. Nobody else was in the room, just me and her.

"No, I haven't told her..." My aunt sounded worried."No, that's not why she fainted. Like I said she's fine. She just got overwhelmed by the competition, I believe."

"I'll tell her once she better...alright, take care." My aunt ended her call and slumped in my chair tiredly, that was when she saw me seated up on my bed.

"Baby, you okay?" She left my chair and joined me in the bed.

" Yeah, I'm good," I rubbed my face, embarrassed as I asked."Did I really pass out? In front of everyone?"

"Yes. Luckily, you didn't hit your head too hard when you fell." She answered with a calm smile.

"I didn't know you'd come to the competition," I said in my mind.

"Yeah, about that, why didn't you tell me it was today? I got informed by Uche, and speaking of him, he's downstairs with Nick, do you want t..."

"He is?" I cut her short, getting out of the bed.

"Yeah, he's been waiting for you to wake up." I heard her say as she followed behind me on my way downstairs. She stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Julie..." Uche hurried and hugged me before I could get to where he sat with Nick on the couch."You're alright," He said as he inhaled the air around me. I hugged him back, snuggling him in.

"Did we really win?" I found my tired self getting excited like I should have earlier instead of fainting.

"We did. We really did." He separated our hug and cupped my face."Hold on," He began to check the pockets of his jeans, searching for something.

"What are you looking for?"

"This," He took out a small black box."I got it for you." He opened it and took out a shiny bracelet with a small heart pendant.

"Did you use the money you owe me to get her that?" Nick questioned from behind him and he turned to his friend.

"Shut up, I don't owe you shit." Uche's words made Nick laugh. I think Nick has forgotten he was speaking to Uche again because of me and was now back to what they used to be before I came.

"It's beautiful," I muttered in awe as I touched it.

"It's supposed to be," Nick stood from where he sat and came to us."Uche spent his entire savings on it."

"No. No, I didn't," Uche stuttered and glared at Nick like to tell him to shut up.

"How much did you get it?" I became concerned.

"Wasn't much," He shrugged through his reply, switching glances over at Nick to make sure he didn't say anything more.

"But was it your savings?" I pressed.

"No," he shook his head and hurried on to put it around my wrist."It's beautiful right?" He wanted to take the topic back to that, but I had to know how he got it because it looked expensive.

"How did you get it then?"

"From my winnings from last month," he finally answered without being vague.

"The online gaming stuff?"

"Yeah," he fixed the hook of the bracelet's chain and held my hands as he admired it on my wrists."Worth it." He smiled and bit his lips.

"And there's nothing else you planned to do for yourself with the money?"

"Nope." He lied. I could tell. He barely ever lied to me so when he did, it was so easily detectable.

"He planned to get an Xbox for himself," Nick exposed.

"Bro...really?" Uche turned to him.

"She asked," Nick defended.

"Well, you didn't have to tell her...and my dad was never gonna allow me to set it up at home, you know that."

"And I didn't mind if you set it up here." Nick's reply immediately told me why he was being generous with information Uche didn't want me to know.

Uche had used his prize money from a game he usually played online to get me the bracelet rather than the Xbox he planned for. It makes so much sense now.

"Come here," I pulled Uche by the arm towards a corner.

"Yeah?"

"This bracelet...I...I don't know, I haven't got a lot of clothes that would match with it...and I dunno...I..."

"Are you rejecting it?" He gave me sad eyes and I couldn't identify if he was feigning it so I accepted the gift or if he really...

"No," I shook my head, "I just...It's too expensive. You can get your stuff, I really don't mind...I could take it off right away and..."

"So you do want my gift? You don't like it?" Oh boy, he was not happy that I was trying to return the gift.

"That's not it... it's just that the money you spent in buying it...you bought real gold, how much did you get it for..."

"I swear I only used some of the money, not all of it. The bracelet is expensive, but not that expensive like Nick was making it out to be..." He strained and I could just tell he was lying again. The chain was definitely THAT expensive.

I took in a deep breath, "Okay."

"Okay," he said after me with a smile, knowing that he just got me to accept it. I just know Nick is going to keep whining about it even after Uche's left.

****

Next school day.

"Bro," Kim came out of nowhere, praising Uche and shocking the shits out of me with him popping out like that. Uche heard me hiss and rubbed my hand which was intertwined with his.

"Congrats bro," Another of their mutual friend joined us, slapping Uche's back lightly.

"Thanks, guys," He just smiled, trying to not make it obvious how he didn't want to see them yet. We were gonna spend some time alone somewhere before class, but they were taking away some of the time for that.

"Where's Nick?" Kim noticed he wasn't with us.

"He stopped to talk to Leah when we got here," Uche answered and they nodded.

"Okay," The other guy said plainly.

"Okay," Uche said after, making me want to give myself a facepalm because this was the point where he walked away with me, but I I guess I had to be the one to do it.

I separated my hand from his and started without him. I only had to count to three before he hurried after me and took my hand in his again.

I rolled my eyes, "You weren't gonna leave them if I didn't leave first?"