Chapter 8

Distinctive voices chattered in the background endlessly awaking Angel from her sleep.

She shifted for a while before opening her eyes. Laying face down on her stomach while her face rested on the pillow, Angel opened her eyes and spotted her laptop on the edge of falling off her bed.

Angel reached out and positioned her laptop well on her bed before covering her eyes from the glare of the light bulb on the ceiling.

"Angel, you are awake?" A soft voice which could only belong to her bunkmate said.

Angel sat up tiredly and nodded. She glanced at her cold food beside her before looking at her roommates who sat in the middle of the room on a soft cushion mat eating.

"When did you people get back?" Angel stood up from her bed to change to her nightwear.

"My prayer meeting ended late so I got back three minutes before curfew," Tife replied, picking up the finger sized fish on her rice with her bare hand.

Tife was her bunkmate.

"I got back after 11pm, Mama Yu wanted my head," Joy replied and cringed.

Mama Yu, short for Mummy Yusuf was their hostel supervisor who was in charge of the hall and roll calls at night.

"Well, she shouldn't be surprised when you get back after curfew always," Ifeoma commented.

Joy glared at her, "What about you? I thought you went for dance practice, why did I see you at love lane with the football captain?"

"Football captain?" Everyone's head turned.

The present football captain was a tall, handsome but arrogant jock who was in his final year which was his fifth year.

Ifeoma coughed slightly and stuffed a full spoon of beans into her mouth so that she wouldn't be able to say a word.

Angel had changed into her night wear and went back to her bed to get her food before joining her roommates on the cushion mat.

"I thought you said you were done with him?" Tife asked.

"Girls, let's not forget that he is also dating two girls down this corridor," Joy glared at Ifeoma and picked up her phone which buzzed.

As Joy stared at her phone, a smile arose on her face as she began texting.

"Or that he has a thing with our architecture senior year class representative?" Angel added, inwardly shaking her head at Joy whose attention was stolen so easily by a text.

"Girls, we are just friends, nothing going on between me and James," Ifeoma finally swallowed the beans and spoke out.

"Boys, boys, all you know is boys, Iffie, didn't you promise to not have anything to do with James after the last time you saw him with another girl?" Tife shook her head.

"Enough about it girls, we are just friends, there is nothing going on between us, besides a new semester just began, old things are all passed away and everything has become new," Ifeoma shrugged it off.

Angel rolled her eyes and turned to Tife who was a literature major. "Indeed, keep quoting the Bible wrongly," Tife glared at Ifeoma who was nicknamed Iffie.

"Tife, I need your help on a report I am writing," Angel asked.

Tife nodded, "What is it?"

Joy looked up from her phone to Angel, "Are you not the writer? Why ask Tife when you are so high and mighty, publishing a book on webnovel but you can't help a friend."

Ifeoma scoffed, "Here she goes again, pursuing her man's fight."

"I know right, just let it go, because I refused to help your boyfriend in the exam doesn't mean you should crucify me anytime it comes to my writing skills," Angel shook her head.

"You see, James is even more better than that useless boyfriend of yours, all he knows is to come out at night to see his girlfriend," Iffie added, glaring at Joy.

She was paying back Joy for earlier.

Tife laughed, "Both boys are terrible, one is a player, the other one is..."

"Mind your words, Tife!" Joy's face was starting to be red.

Angel rolled her eyes at all of them. It happened like this always, nothing could make them fight unless it pertained to boys.

They were all in their third year and had been roommates since the first year. Tife was a petite pretty girl who liked to wear exposing and short clothes.

Things changed in their second semester when she attended a program that took a turn in her life.

After that, Tife became a better version of herself over time. She loved to attend prayer meetings, praise concerts and was slightly superstitious.

Joy was the exact opposite of Tife in statue. She was very curvy and slightly plumb.

Joy was a simple girl who loved to wear jeans and baggy clothes. She was more introverted and never liked trouble, until she met Enoch.

Joy was a food and nutrition major while Enoch was an architecture major just like Angel. They met in the second semester of the their first year through Angel.

Then Enoch and Angel could have been considered as good friends till Enoch started showing his true colors by trying to flirt with both Angel and Joy.

Enoch was an exploit manager and had manipulated Joy to the extent that she once wrote an exam for him. Not to mention how many times he had cheated on her but Joy forgave him every single time.

No one in the room liked him, except from his girlfriend. Joy could be said to be the kind of girl who would do stupid things for love and even fight her homies.

Ifeoma —a business admin major —on the second side was an extrovert and was the most popular amongst all of them. She was said to be one of the most beautiful girls on campus and had many boys on her trail.

She has dated a total of more than fifty guys since her first year. Iffie was tall, slim and very light skinned. She was also half Nigerian and half British so she had a beautiful accent.

Unfortunately, Iffie had a thing which attracted players and bad boys. Her longest relationship was not up to a month but Iffie was on an eternal quest to find her prince charming.

Lastly, Angel who just loved to write.

There was a time Enoch tried to flirt with Iffie when he was having relationship issues with Joy and that had caused a huge strain in both girls relationship and it seemed like they were always at odds with each other.

"Angel, don't mind Joy, she is just jealous of anyone that her boyfriend has ever wooed, I like your book and I look forward to more chapters," Iffie said, intentionally cutting short Joy who was mumbling something.

"It's not that I don't like your book, I also like Yin Su and Fang... Fang..." Joy stopped trying to pronounce it well.

Angel laughed, "Fanglie."

"Yes, Fanglie, some one here is trying to make me the bad guy because I revealed her secret," Joy stuck her tongue out at Iffie.

Angel rose to her feet and went to her bed. It seemed like today was bicker day between both of them.

They seemed to have no worries. Angel had a lot of project deadlines but what was disturbing her the most was this novel, she had gotten to a dead end on Ancient Star.

Tife seemed to perceive her thoughts and crawled to Angel's bed side. "Angel, what is wrong?"

Angel shook her head, "Nothing much, just having writer's block."

"For your book?" Tife asked.

"Yes."

Tife sighed thoughtfully, "I am not a novel fan and I have not read your book but I have an advice for you."

"If you feel like you have gotten to a dead end, trace your way back to the last cross road and follow another path."

"Follow another path?" Angel asked, her words slowly sinking in.

Tife nodded, "Yes, follow another path. In writing, one must never be rigid, be flexible, there are plenty fishes in the river and plenty stars in the sky."

"If one doesn't work, try another one."

Angel nodded. Amongst all her friends, Tife was the deepest of them all.

"Alright, thank you, Tife."

It was dead in the night and all her roommates had gone to sleep. Angel could not sleep and kept thinking of how to take a step back.

Where could things have gone wrong? She opened her laptop, staring at the last sentence.

Now that they were married, what happened next? Or could she really go back to correct some things?