CHAPTER 3

For the party, I put a classic party dress. It has so many openings and I love it. I join a certain group of students. They're so welcoming and I put my hands on the table.

"Ian." One of the boys' whispers, her face full of terror.

"Is that Ian's wristwatch?" Another asks, looking really blank.

Looking at these guys, I can guess that something's wrong.

"Yeah. He gave me." I respond while looking at the beautiful piece of work on my wrists.

"Holycrap, give it back." A girl stands up as though she's possessed and screams it to my face.

"Why is that?" One of the girls' curiously ask, her eyes focused on the beautiful piece.

Now they are all staring at me. Am starting to freak out.

"Rumor has it that he's not normal." A guy. comments.

"He's a freemason." The other adds.

"Have you seen his tattoos?" Bam, now they've got me thinking. Ian's tattoos never used to bother me.

These people are definitely scaring me right now.

"Yeah. It's some sort of dragon and stars." I respond with a cracking voice. To no doubt, my mood has moved to zero.

I can hear my voice trembling right now. One of the guys draw two different stars; a normal one and the triangle one.

"Do these stars look the same?" The guy points out, looking at me.

"Those aren't just stars. They're symbols." Another adds.

"Illuminati symbols." One of the guys hisses.

Now I want to cry until this guy shows up. This guy looks so jovial and he's walking towards me. He vividly looks at me and then the wristwatch.

"A nice wristwatch." This guy holds my hand to clearly look at the wristwatch.

This guy sees the name and drops it. It's broken. Now I can't even hide my emotions.

"What have you done!" I yell with my eyes watery and a helpless face.

"I'm sorry. Just give it back." He says as he picks up the pieces.

How do I even return this now. As it is, they've already ruined my mood.

"Don't worry, Toriah. Just forget all this and jump into the conversation."

Nothing seems interesting no more. I just wanna leave this place.

"I'm going to the washroom." Without a second thought, I hurriedly leave. Am really not feeling well.

On my way I meet Ian. I don't know what's on my mind but I close my eyes and scream. Ian puts his hand on my mouth. As I open my eyes, we have an eye contact. Then he notices that am not wearing the wristwatch.

"Where's the wristwatch?" He looks at my wrists.

"It broke." I hesitantly reply.

Ian holds my hand and takes a good look at the broken wristwatch. He then smiles and shakes his head.

"So careless." Ian concludes.

Ian then frees my hand and starts to leave. I get relieved soon as Ian leaves. I immediately run back to the guys.

"What's wrong, Toriah. You're sweating." One of the girls notices the sweat on my face.

"Am not feeling ok right now so am leaving." Without a second thought, I pack everything and run to my room.

My roommates find me watching a movie.

 "Are you ok now?" Samya asks upon arriving.

"Maybe you wanna talk?" Lisa adds as she joins me on the bed.

"I wasn't feeling ok." I admit while closing the laptop.

"Lauren told us." Samya warns as she takes off her shoes.

"Yeah. We met her. What happened. I mean you seem ok now." Lisa adds.

"You guys didn't even tell me Ian's satanic." I sadly respond with a breaking voice.

The girls were just as puzzled as I am.

"That's not true." Lisa sadly responds.

"Who told you that?" Samya joins me on the bed to hear the story in details.

I explain exactly what happened.

"So you actually believed that, Toriah?" Samya teases while smiling at me.

"People make up stories here. You know; he's cool, cute and people wanna bring him down." Lisa adds.

"Yeah. Maybe they're just bored and they decided to cook up something." Samya shrugs.

"Yeah." Lisa agrees.

Gosh, these are literally my sisters. Even though they have advised me, I am not satisfied.

"I think I should call my aunt today. This week has been a mess, honestly." I say as I type my assignment.

So am basically in my room with Lisa who seems to be busy on the phone but is also chatting with me.

"I feel you. With the Ian thing." Lisa responds as she hardly looks at me.

"Now I don't even wanna talk about it. I think I've lost my notepad. Gosh it's the one that has all the contacts." I suddenly remember about my notepad.

"Did you just say contacts?" Lisa asks looking all shocked.

"I mean a list of what I need." I respond as I flip the pages of my notebook.

"Was wondering." Now Lisa's applying some lip gloss.

"I really wanna scam them." I sarcastically admit.

"You at it again. Someone's at the door."

There's a knock on the door and Lisa checks it up.

"Is Toriah in?" A voice that seems really familiar. Wonder whom it is. Before I can ask, Lisa interrupts.

"Toriah, someone's here to see you."

Before I can ask who it was, Ian enters. I hurriedly leave whatever am doing and stand up.

"Hey. I brought your notepad." Ian says as he hands me the notepad.

"Thanks." I get the note pad from him. Now there's silence and its awkward.

"Won't you escort me?" Ian points out as he looks at me.

I look at Lisa who nodes in agreement and I walk Ian out. Am wearing my gray utopia and a T-shirt. Not really pleasant but am not going far.

"I won't get too far; I'll just leave you at the door." I break the silence as we're walking in the corridors, almost at the door. For some reason, I don't feel comfortable.

"So, they told you?" Ian stops shot, pins me to the wall and looks into my eyes and I figure out he's talking about the party. I don't know what I should say to him, but my heart's racing.

"I should've guessed." Ian frees me and walks away.

Instead of feeling relieved, I start to feel guilty for the unapologetic treatment I gave him. Since the party, I started to ignore him and I just really cut him off.

After a minute of ignoring Ian, I decided it was high time I do him justice. Classes are over and Ian's about to leave the room.

"Can I talk to you?" I stand in his way.

"For goodness's sake, Toriah. I don't wanna talk about it." Ian's voice is tensed, annoyed and sad.

Ian already sounds irritated. One mistake and he's leaving.

"I know that's why I want to make it right." I insist, looking into his eyes.

Ian looks in my eyes and sighs.

"Place?" Ian finally agrees.

Ian and I silently walk to the stands. We both sit quietly for some time.

"Somebody told me you were kinda lunatic." I say while crushing a leaf.

"And you believed it?" Ian scoffs.

"Just the way you look and…I don't know." I respond, feeling offended.

"How do I look."

I swear, every time Ian stares at me; I get butterflies.

"No offense but pseudo vamp." I finally admit, knowing Ian won't take it lightly.

"Correct."

"Huh?"

To my surprise, Ian agrees to it and he isn't even mad at me.

"There are a lot of spirits in this campus so that's why I dress like this just so they can think am one of them, but am cool with it. Despite that, black is my favorite color."

"What?" I can't believe what am hearing right now.

Who likes black, anyway.

"Everyone has likes and dislikes." Ian responds, almost sounding polite.

"So, we cool?" I give out a sigh and finally ask.

"We cool."

I can finally smile. Am glad Ian and I are getting along. I honestly thought he'd never talk to me again but here we are.

"You're not going for basketball?" Ian asks upon checking his time.

"I quitted. I was scared of you." I sadly admit, looking down.

"You're scared of everything. Once you hear that your roommates are lunatic then you'll start sleeping outside." Ian jokes. Well, I don't really take it lightly so I decide to ask.

"Are they really lunatic?" I curiously ask.

"Of course not. I was just saying."

"To be honest I've never really played basketball." There goes nothing.

"I'll teach you."

Ian's such a sweet soul. I like the fact that he doesn't underrate people and that he's always ready to help.

There's a visiting day coming up and for some reason, am not excited about it. My roommates are at it again.

"You do know that there's a VD tomorrow, right?" Samya asks as she's applying some makeup.

"Yeah." I'm not sure whether am happy or sad about this event.

"Who's coming?" The excitement on Lisa's face as she asks.

"Noone. "I respond, sounding not so bothered.

"You didn't tell them?" Samya seems all shocked.

"I did. My grandma is in Lilongwe and she'll be busy. She sent money, though."

"And your aunt?" Samya seems genuinely concerned and I like that.

"There's Nomi's birthday. She's turning one so she can't possibly come."

"None of your relatives are coming?" Lisa jumps in.

"I guess."

I can never explain my story without my roommates feeling pity for me. Honestly, it has also made me feel sorry for myself and I wanna drop a tear. I figure out that it isn't worth it so I just put myself to bed. It is now morning and the first thing I realize is my roommates getting ready to meet their rents. Looks like their parents are already here. As soon as they both leave, I take a shower.

"Toriah, hey."

I turn around and find that Lauren's here. I smile.At least someone was thinking about me.

"What's up, Lauren?" I calmly ask.

"Have you already met your family?"

"No. No one's coming, actually." I say as I put on some mascara.

"Wait really? Anyway, my parents wanna meet you."

"No. I'm tired." I politely decline the invitation thinking of how awkward that will be.

"Come on, it's just my dad. He just wants to meet you; it won't take long." Lauren inists.

"Fine." I finally give in.

Lauren wasn't buying the excuses so we went to meet her dad. By his appearance he looked cool and drove the latest Benz.

 "Dad, this is Toriah."

"Hello." I politely say.

"Hi. How are you?" Lauren's dad is really welcoming. He seems pleased to see me.

"Am fine, thanks. How are you?" I kindly respond, also looking at his ride.

"I'm doing great, thank you."

"She's my desk mate." Lauren finally says.

"Oh, I see."

"I like your ride." I finally complement, looking at the amazing car before me.

"It's a pleasure. I bought it in the UK. Where are your parents?"

"They're not coming."

"I hope you're not worried. Ey, guess what? The next time they're coming, they'll get you your favorite mac and cheese, if at all it's your favorite."

"Dad stop. You are not being funny." Lauren finally says, sounding kind of embarrassed.

Lauren and I stare and bursts out. Her dad's kinda funny but I don't feel that comfortable intervening a dad-daughter moment.

"Am not worried." I finally say to Lauren's dad.

"That's more like a good girl." He smiles.

"I'll leave now."

"So soon, where are you heading to?"

"You can join us for lunch." Lauren adds looking so desperate.

"I'm going to study."

"That's really good. Am telling you again, next time your parents will be here."

This just made me emotional. I no longer know what I want. I walk to my room and make myself comfortable on a desk. As I try to study, I receive a message that my cousins are here. I know my day's about to get better. Rahi and Salma are basically some of the best people in my life. These two literally make me forget about my problems. We basically talk about all I've missed while here and then I campus view them. These two leave and we finally can share some VD experience until Ian texts.

"Guys, I'll be right back?" I say as I impatiently slide into my shoes.

"Where you going?" Samya asks as she's munching on some snacks.

"I'll be back."

I jump into my pajamas and hurriedly walk out. We start to stroll around the campus.

"I never saw you this whole day. Your mom came?" I look at Ian who seems least bothered about the day.

"I don't tell them about VD." Ian admits.

"Why?" I am curious to know more about Ian.

"Am better off without them." Ian looks away and gives out a sigh.

"You think so?" I ask.

"It's not easy for a guy like me. Why did you leave your old school?"

"I honestly don't think its necessary for you to know." Every time I hear this question, I lose my mind.

"Okay. I'd not like to invade your privacy either."

I like how Ian respects boundaries but I start to feel bad about it so I explain what happened in details.

"And she thought I wasn't working hard enough."

"Your aunt is just bound not to trust you." Ian comments.

"Why would you say that?! Am a changed person."

"You're a monster."

"Fine."

So, no matter how much I explain the story am always going to be the villain.

"I don't care." I shrug.

"I like your guts. I don't know where I stand with you and what I mean to you. All I know is that every time am with you, I want to be with you."

"Really?"

"That's what I wish I could tell my dad."

I feel really stupid thinking that Ian was trying to shoot his shot at me. Everything is about his dad.

"I feel you."

"Whenever around, I feel at ease."

"Your dad?"

"No." We both laugh.

"Sup, Toriah. I just saw your cousins. Why didn't you tell me you have a cute cousin?" Cuthbert with flirting.

"She's not your size, Cuth and she's already taken."

"I was just saying. Anyway, tell her she's cute."

"Toriah, you coming?" Lauren asks as she walks off to the court and I follow her.

Lauren's telling me about a tournament which we'll have with Claire Charter International. I've googled about this school and it's totally one of the best when it comes to basketball.

"Come on, Toriah. It's just one game and they're just peanuts. All of you are actually worried about this?" Lauren's sounding so confident as though we really stand a chance.

"We won't be that prepared. Besides, we might not even make it." Am really trying to reason with her.

"It's literally playing world cup in Malawi."

The girls agree with me.

"Guys, what do you think this is? This is Saint Louis, we're all very ready. You get that and we aint losing this either." I must say, Lauren is really good at motivations.

So, balls on. Am at the stands, and all I can think of is how embarrassing it will be for us to lose at our place. This feeling sucks. At least Ian and his team can handle this.

"Ey." Ian sits next to me.

"Hie." I know I don't sound okay.

Ian looks at me in an observatory manner and joins me.

"You, okay?"

"I'm just a little nervous with all this bonanza stuff."

"You don't trust yourself?" Thought you were Beyonce."

"You're right, I can pull it on. Why should I be scared of them, anyway."

The people are here. The girls and I welcome the guys and our guys welcome their girls. My team goes first and come victorious. As soon as our game ends, Dylan; a guy from Claire I campus viewed comes by. He is the captain at his school. I must admit, he really does have the reeze.

"Congrats for the win." Dylan says, smiling.

"Thanks."

"I doubt if your boys will survive, though."

"They will. I bet they'll win. You don't believe it?"

"Since you say so. Let's forget all this for a while. When will you come to my school? My school has visited you and your school has to visit us back."

"I guess next time. "

"I expect you to be there. Particularly you."

"Fine."

"You're the greatest thing that has happened to me today."

I must say this guy's really charming. He's got all a girl looks for. He has the looks, body and cash. To me, he'll always be my second option.

"Am headed to the washroom and I'll see you in the next game. Best of luck." This guy can literally speak for the whole day so I decide to go freshen up.