CHAPTER FOUR
“What you did in chem class today was rude” Krish said as he sat down with the girls to eat
Zainab really wished he hadn’t said anything; she had her palm on Vee’s back rubbing her gently as the latter slept on the cafeteria table.
“Why are you seating with us again?” Vee raised her head up to look at Krish
“Vee, I invited him to” Zainab chastised her
“As per birthday party or marriage” she hissed before keeping her head down again
Krish looked at Zainab who muttered ‘sorry’. He smiled lightly before excusing himself to seat with his friends and after he left, Zainab pinched Vee.
“What is wrong with you?”
“What?”
“Why were you so rude to Krish? He was just stating a fact”
“One no one asked him to”
Zainab opened her mouth to say something when her phone started to ring; she looked at the caller’s ID: unknown. She ignored the caller who kept calling much to her friend’s annoyance.
“If you won’t pick the call, switch the phone off abeg”
“It’s an unknown number, I don’t pick unknown calls na, you know”
“It could be someone important, pick jor”
Zainab hesitated before picking up “hello”
“Hey, I hope you weren’t busy” the voice greeted
She smiled recognizing the voice “not at all”
“You do know who’s speaking, don’t you?”
“Of course, Doctor Tristan”
“Just by my voice?”
“If you asked me the question, then you must have known I would have an answer”
He chuckled “so how’s your sister?”
She looked at Vee who had her eyes closed with her head on top the table “she will survive” she petted Vee’s head
“Luckily hangover isn’t something dangerous” he joked
“Nope, it isn’t”
There was a bit silence before she said again
“I owe you for getting her home safely”
“Why don’t you buy me lunch as payment?” he requested
“I would but” she paused “I am not the hangover one”
“You are the grateful one and you just said you owe me”
“True” she nodded
“So?” he pressed
“I’m not so sure about that” she hesitated
“You don’t seem like someone who wants to owe a favor for too long”
He wasn’t wrong, she didn’t like owing favors.
“Fine I will buy you lunch”
Vee opened her eyes with surprise.
“Yay” Tristan chuckled from the other end of the phone
“How’s Saturday?” she asked him
“Saturday?” she heard him flipping papers before he spoke up again “Saturday works”
“Okay, I will text you the address”
“I will be waiting” he smiled “enjoy the rest of your day”
“You too” she hung up before turning to Vee “don’t ask”
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“You’re not actually planning to go, are you?” Vee asked as they walked out of the school gate
Zainab shook her head “No”
“He knows where you live”
“True” she nodded
“What if he comes to look for you when your parents are home?”
“I don’t know” she shrugged
“Zee”
“What?”
“Stop giving me one word answers”
“I don’t know isn’t a one word answer”
“Talk to me jare”
“I will stand him up obviously”
“What if he comes to look for you?”
“That’s his luck”
“Sounds like a lot of trouble for you”
“Caused by you” Zainab glared at her “if you had ordered a real Uber and not gotten a ride, I wouldn’t be worrying this much”
That caused her to keep shut till they got to their different cars “update me if anything changes”
“Nothing will” she hugged Vee and climbed into the jeep while Vee walked to her car where her driver was waiting for her.
Zainab’s cousins were home when she arrived back and well… so was her dad.
“Welcome Sir” she knelt before her father
He looked up from his phone “Zee, you’re back from school”
She nodded “how was your trip Sir?”
“Allah be praised” he smiled before turning back to his phone
She took that as her cue to leave and got up. She was putting on her hijab cap to pray when her phone started to ring, she quickly switched it off and started her prayers. After praying, she went downstairs to assist in the kitchen. If there was something else she had been raised with, it was technology restrictions. She had control over her mobile and she knew when and when not to use it, that was why even when she heard the phone ringing, she had the power to turn it off rather than answer it before praying.
“Aunty Yewande, Ekabo (well-done) ma” she greeted their house keeper
Yewande smiled at her “Laide, bawoni”
She was the golden daughter, everyone who knew the Kafachan family wanted a daughter like her. Only after assisting with dinner did she go upstairs to check her phone.
2 missed calls, one from Vee and the other from the doctor. She quickly called Vee back.
“They are called mobile phones for a reason” she could hear her best-friend loudly popping gum
“What do you want abeg?”
“Calm down na, are we fighting?”
“Vee talk now, it’s 6pm and daddy is back, you know I have to go down for dinner soon”
“Well, I need your help”
Zainab sighed “what did you do now?”
“I haven’t done anything yet”
“What do you want?”
“I won’t be in school tomorrow”
Zainab bit on her lip to control her anger “where are you going to?”
“PH”
“PH as in Port Harcourt?” she asked again “why?”
“There’s a birthday party being thrown for one Alhaji like that. Tunde and I were invited”
“I thought you and Tunde were done”
“We were till the invitation came in”
“Why do you keep doing this now Vee, what is it that you want that your parents can’t give you?”
“Abeg, don’t start with this your preaching jor” Vee hissed over the phone “is it a crime to enjoy my life? 3 years from now, we will be in the university with little or no time to flex, after that they will try to get us married to their colleagues, they are already doing it to you so leave me alone to flex biko”
“Sorry”
“I will be back on Tuesday evening; I told my housekeeper I will be spending the weekend and Monday night at yours”
“Wow”
“So will you cover up for me in school?”
Zainab knew there was no other way “fine, but just this once”
“Just this once” Vee agreed squealing “I love you” before hanging up.
“I called but you cut the call, great”
They both knew it wasn’t going to be the last time, nothing that had to with Vee had a last time.
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At school on Monday, everyone even the cleaners noticed Vee wasn’t in school. Zainab stepped out of the noisy compound after school but her driver was running late so she found a cool shade to seat right outside the school and few minutes into waiting for her driver, a dark blue Benz car stopped in front of her, she ignored it at first thinking it was here for someone else till she saw who stepped outside: Doctor Tristan, why was this man everywhere?
“Zainab?” he asked surprised
“Doctor Tristan” she smiled, but one who knew her well could tell it was fake “what are you doing here?”
“I have a friend here” he said cheerfully “you school here?”
“Yes” she nodded and looked around feeling uncomfortable with the looks she was getting from other students and he noticed it too.
“What happened on Saturday?”
She looked up “Saturday?”
“Yeah, you stood me up, I called throughout the weekend but you ignored my calls”
She bit her lips “I had to attend to something”
“You could have called or texted”
“I’m sorry, it skipped my mind”
“Really” he asked amused
“Yes”
“Why don’t I believe you though?”
“That’s strange, I am telling the truth” she lied smoothly
“I believe our meeting here today is fate”
“I don’t even think it’s coincidental” she snorted sarcastically
He laughed taking no offense to her words “so what? You think I’m stalking you?”
“I didn’t say so but are you?” she asked
“I honestly came to see someone here, I had no idea you schooled here” he smiled “pictured you as a stereotypical Muslim girl that goes to a same-sex school” he admitted
She laughed “now that’s a stereotype”
He sat beside her temporarily forgetting his real reason for coming here and she was starting to ignore the looks.
“No offense”
“None taken” she smiled “so who are you looking for?”
“Professor Martins” he told her
She looked at him “why?”
“I’d have to kill you to tell you” he joked
“I keep secrets very well” she smiled
“You will have to wait to find out”
“I see I won’t be able to get it out”
He shrugged chuckling; Zainab looked towards the road and spotted her driver.
“So about my lunch?” he started
She turned to him “I will be really sincere with you” she said standing up “I will stand you up next time too”
“Why?” he stood up as well
“I’m just that kind of person and my ride is here” she moved to leave but he blocked her path
“So you would rather owe me a favor?”
She smiled “people normally wait for the debtor to pay back but you seem to be in a rush”
He chuckled
“And” she started as she walked into the car “technically I’m not the one who owes you, my sister does” damn Vee.
He laughed “fair enough but you promised”
She shook her head and climbed into the jeep texting him back immediately ‘people break promises all the time’
She watched him pull out his phone and give her a smile before he typed away. She turned to her driver who had already started driving
“Uncle Tete, good afternoon” she greeted
Her driver returned the greeting “afternoon how was school?”
“Allah be praised” she answered politely, her phone beeped and she opened it coming to face with Tristan’s message ‘promises aren’t made to be broken’
“Who was that man you were standing with?” Uncle Tete asked her
“Just an acquaintance”
Uncle Tete nodded in understanding before turning his full focus to driving
Zainab struggled with an answer for Tristan’s text but soon she got one ‘this is Nigeria, nothing is sure’
It took him two more minutes to reply her ‘we could always change that’
‘I still won’t buy you lunch, Doctor Tristan’
‘Then let me buy you lunch’
She blushed slightly at his last message but she didn’t reply back, instead she opted to call Vee.