3. Friendship Vows

Two days later

Jessie

The morning was unusually cold, a sign that harmattan was already here. I tightened my hold on the cardigan I was putting on, trying to keep warm. My stomach grumbled loudly and I turned sharply to take a look at my environment. I was the only one on this path which meant no one heard the embarrassing sound.

After I had managed to coerce Somto into giving me an explanation for Chisom's reaction, we had snuggled under the sheets, all thoughts of class flying out the window.

Okpa di oku. Buy your okpa here, hot okpa.

The aroma of hot okpa wafted into my nostrils, soothing my raging stomach and I whispered a prayer of gratitude under my breath. These okpa sellers didn't know it but they were the saving grace of a lot of students. A bottle of Coke plus hot okpa would last you for most of the day.

Bargaining with the seller didn't take long and soon enough, I was walking off to my departmental building with a plastic bottle of coke in hand and nylon of okpa.

I reached the last floor and a petite figure in a black knee-length body con gown caught my attention. Her complexion was a big giveaway; she was yellow like pawpaw.

"Chisom." She froze for less than a second then her steps quickened.

Her earpiece was plugged in and her head bobbed up and down, all of which I was certain was an act to make me believe she didn't hear me. I wasn't fooled one bit.

I jogged the short distance between us to catch up with her. The hunger made me dizzy, forcing my breaths to come out in short rasps. I walked beside her in silence, trying to gather my thoughts.

She paid me no attention even with the number of times I noisily cleared my throat and it took a great deal of effort on my part to restrain myself from smacking her forehead. She was stressing a hungry child.

I nudged her on the shoulder and she finally passed a look my way. I would have rolled my eyes but I took a step ahead of her, successfully blocking her path. She responded with a glare then proceeded to slowly remove her earpiece.

"Hi?" I spoke first, unsure how this conversation was supposed to play out.

"Hi." She tried to sidestep me and I stretched my hands out on each side, preventing any movement from her. She could have gotten away if she wanted to but she didn't, only offered me an eye roll.

"I wasn't in class yesterday," I started, no idea what I meant to achieve by saying that.

"I know that." Her voice was cold, taking me aback. This was not my Toyin tomato.

We only started speaking and as much as I knew it was too early to feel some type of way, her nonchalance hurt me more than I cared to admit. I wanted her friendship.

"What went wrong?" I asked, a part of me half expecting her to ignore me.

"Somto." 

The iciness in her tone made me wince and I stared with wide eyes as she pushed past me to stroll into the class. 

But. But. He said that they were--was she...?

I discarded that thought immediately, my feet already walking the rest of the distance to the class which was almost filled. All the seats were taken except for the one next to her. Without a single thought, I plopped myself into the seat; I was here to stay.

"That seat is reserved for Ik." Her face was set straight but her harsh words were directed at me. She was stone cold.

I didn't know she had it in her to be this mean but I was stubborner than she could ever be. I called out to Ik who was distributing handouts to a group of students, he would have to find a new seat.

"Please, can I sit here?" I asked him sweetly with all smiles, giving him the puppy-eyed looked with my cute, big eyes.

He narrowed his gaze at me, his eyes darting from me to the whole class before he finally nodded. I returned his generous gesture with a smile which soon disappeared at Chisom's glower.

"He's not who you think he is anymore." 

I didn't have to say his name out loud because she knew and from the look of things, she didn't like that I was talking about him. Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink, she squeezed the earpiece in her hands so bad that even when I pulled it from her grip she didn't notice.

"I understand that you two had a rocky past but he's a changed guy now," I continued when she said nothing. This was not how I'd hoped to start this new friendship.

"He hurt me." The hate was evident in her voice but I didn't flinch, he already told me everything. He was sorry about it too.

"I know and he's sorry." I reached out for her hands and when she didn't stop me I squeezed it gently. "Please forgive him."

She remained quiet and I added, "even if it's for my sake, inugo? I'll give you okpa."

Okpa was bae, I liked it. No, I loved it. She had better liked it too, it was the food of great mathematicians. I looked at Chisom, she wasn't laughing. No worries, I would try again. After all, we had about three months before the end of the semester.

"Why were you not in school?" Chisom asked; it was a change of topic I welcomed even if we still had unanswered questions.

"I was sick," I lied. 

She didn't need to know just yet that I was with Somto or her mood would move from fifty to zero. And I wanted to eat the okpa before it got cold: I was starving.

"I'm sorry, I should have come to check on you. I was just so upset," she replied.

"It's fine, I'm okay now," I added hurriedly, her show of concern was making me feel even more guilty than I did for lying.

Chisom dipped her hand into her handbag and brought out an android phone for me to save my number. While doing that, her phone pinged with a text and I gave it back. She was quiet for a few minutes and then her face lit up in a small smile.

She showed the content of the message to me and I laughed at the silliness of it. The look in her eyes showed that she wanted us to try it and since I was hoping to get in her good graces, I grudgingly agreed.

She cleared her throat and I rolled my eyes; drama queen. "Just repeat after me."

"I, Chisom of Mathematics department," she started.

"I, Chisom of Mathematics department," I repeated her words verbatim.

"If I slap you, is that your name?" Her voice was raised in a disapproving tone, a contradiction to the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. We were getting there.

I stuck my tongue out at her, laughing at the comical expression on her face.

She cleared her throat, all traces of laughter gone and we started again, this time I used my name and repeated after her.

"I, Jessie of ... promise that we will always be friends ... stand by each other in health, wealth, times of enjoyment and distress." She put her right hand on her chest and I did the same. "So help us, God, Amen."

My favourite part of whatever we just did now was the enjoyment bit, it was necessary and I was still hungry. Once I got started on the okpa, I would be fully on board with our new friendship.

"Are we now married?" I jokingly asked; the speech was like that of a wedding.

Her eyes widened a bit and she shook her head. "I like man biko," I had an idea who the 'man' was but I didn't ask. She continued, "by the power vested in me, I-"

"Which power? Who dash you power?"

She shushed me and we sealed the vow of friendship by linking our pinky fingers together and pressing our thumbs against each other. I laughed; she was so serious you would think we were getting free food.

"As I was saying before somebody rudely interrupted me," I rolled my eyes and Chisom continued, "by the power vested in me, I now declare us friends."

My stomach must have sensed the truce because it chose this moment to growl again. I grinned bashfully when she raised an eyebrow at me, my fingers were already reaching for my long-ignored okpa.

The first slice of okpa was already in my mouth when the lecturer walked in. He looked so young, handsome and muscular; a big change from all those old, potbellied lectures I met in my A'level classes.

He went straight to the board and wrote Mth 215, Linear Algebra, ignoring all the greetings from the student. I watched the muscles threaten to bulge out of his tight shirt, sucking on my lower lip.

It was official, I loved Mathematics department. As I munched noiselessly on the okpa, I knew I would be feeding two of my senses: my eyes and my mouth.

Okpa = An Igbo delicacy.

Inugo = You hear/okay.