6. Hilltop

Chisom

Dear Bubbles,

"What are you writing like that with so much seriousness, eh, Chisom?"

Jumping up in fright from the bed, I turned in the direction the high pitched, accusatory voice came from. "You scared me." 

My hand hurriedly pushed the diary under my pillow. "When did you come in?"

Jennifer, one of my roommates was standing in front of her bed, hands akimbo as she stared at me with suspicion written all over her face. If I wasn't used to her by now, I would have assumed I did something wrong with the frown etched on her lips.

"A while ago." 

Her shoes came off, followed by the beautiful blue off-shoulder gown she wore to church. I was the only one who didn't attend any of the Sunday morning services and I had no intention of attending evening mass either. My spiritual life was dormant. It was hard to keep faith when only a series of bad things always happened to me.

Having three roommates made it difficult to get any privacy or time alone with my diary but whenever I got the chance, which wasn't as much as I would have loved, I made sure to update Bubbles with what was going on in my life. It always helped.

Sometimes, I wanted to share more, almost everything with Greg, to hear someone else tell me that everything would be alright. Though I knew he would never judge me, it was hard to voice out certain things. 

With Bubbles, I could write whatever I wanted without worries, even burn down some pages like Agatha advised. I would never burn any part of Bubbles, she has been with me through everything and when I neglected her to come back later, she let me write on the remaining pages like I never once stopped. She never judged me.

"Welcome." Her eyebrow rose at my delayed greeting, eyes darted between the pillow and the pen in my hands. She said nothing, going on to sit on her bed.

My eyes strayed to my phone on the bed and I picked it up, half hoping to see new messages but there was none. Greg was not returning my calls or messages and I was starting to freak out. Have I lost my friend?

There was one thing I could do but I was afraid. I could not go out alone, even to the back of my hostel to get Mallam Adamu's mishai, what we liked to call bread and egg. I have these thoughts that he would return and when he does, I would not be able to fight back like I did the last time. 

On Friday, I had waited for Ik to finish up his project which took two hours so he could walk me back to the hostel. I kissed my teeth in frustration, picked up my phone to call Jessie; I needed her location.

She picked on the second ring. Excitement bubbled in her voice, causing a smile to light up my face. She was just too vibrant and I loved her energy. If we ever had a girl gang, I would happily nominate her to be our leader, she was smart and capable.

"Babe! How are you?" I greeted first, I didn't want to ask where she was immediately.

"I'm fine. I have not seen you in like ages, what's good?" I could imagine her rolling that her big eyes while saying this.

She was only exaggerating, what she meant was have you even left your room since Friday? Since the semesters started, tons of party had been fixed most of which their gate fee was zero nairas for the ladies.

Jessie wanted both of us to be in attendance but I refused to go with her for fear that her boyfriend might be there, neither could I tell her that it was my reason for missing the party. I already promised her that that chapter of my life with him was over. 

So, she had succumbed to calling me antisocial, even teasing me in hopes that I would agree to attend the party scheduled for this week's Saturday. No way, she went to all of the parties with her boyfriend.

"Well ... that's why I'm even calling," it was not the complete truth but she didn't have to know that, "where are you?"

"My room but I'm about to go out, hilltop precisely." She sounded flustered and by the thumping sounds I heard from the other end of the phone, I assumed she just finished lacing her converse sneakers. 

Jessie was such a big fan of them and also had them in different colours. Polos, jeans and sneakers were her usual style of dressing except for Mondays and Tuesdays when she tried to look corporate because those lecturers for those days were stricter.

Hilltop?

My heart leapt for joy at her last statement, that was the same place Greg stayed. For once, everything was working in my favour.

"Hilltop?" I asked again to be sure and she muttered a small yes. I smiled. "Nice, really nice, I even have someone I need to check on. We could go together?"

"Yes!" She replied with what I translated to be a sigh of relief; I smiled again. "Meet me at Marlima, I hate going there alone." 

Jennifer raised her eyes from the laptop she was seeing a movie on, making me flinch at the directness of her stare. Her condescending gaze travelled over the length of my body and I shrunk internally at the judgement in her eyes.

She was a member of the Lord Chosen Ministry and they were a big advocate of no boyfriend, no girlfriend. They also didn't encourage University dating because they believed it could lead to sin, to fornication. 

Hilltop was a popular off-campus site where students lived, it was also home to most of the schools' bad boys and cultists. From my many conversations with my other roommates, she knew Greg stayed there and she must have jumped to conclusions that were not fit for her standard of life.

Retrieving the diary from its location under the pillow, I made a show of dropping it on my book rack, enjoying the way her eyes followed my every move before dropping it inside my wardrobe.

* * *

"Diobi Chisom Alexandra!"

I snapped my head in the direction of the voice only to see an excited Jessie waving at me. She was dressed in the same attire as I was - black jeans and a polo shirt, the only difference was in the numerous cuts in my jeans and the colours of our polos.

"I think my mind sent yours a message so you will wear what I am wearing," she told me once she got closer to me, placing a kiss on my cheek. Jessie was very touchy.

"Let's just go," I replied with an arm around her shoulders, shaking my head slightly.

It was easy to confuse our friendship for something more romantic with our open affection for each other but that didn't stop us from showing it. Well, I would never have started it if not for Jessie, she said to always show that you cared. Plus, it felt good to have a close friend that was female.

We were walking in comfortable silence but Jessie kept clearing her throat. I figured she wanted to say something that I didn't like and was thinking of a way to bring it up.

"Yadilichi Jessie Somadina! Say it." When she still didn't talk, I continued, "you know? I prefer the name Soma to Jessie. It's so sweet on the tongue, like okpa."

"Me too but it's tiring to keep correcting people when they pronounce it wrongly."

"So ..." Her reluctance to speak about what was bothering her was beginning to grate on my nerves. I was the stiff, uptight friend.

"So ... Today marks our ... our three months’ anniversary and I know you don't want to hear anything about him but ... I got him a gift." She released a breath and without waiting for me to speak, "I want another person's opinion, someone close to me. I got him tickets to PhynoFest but I'm worried he won't like it, he doesn't enjoy travelling much," she finished off with a loud sigh.

"Enugu is just 30 minutes away, I'm sure he won't mind. Besides, who wouldn't want to see the Almighty Phyno? He should be thankful he has a girlfriend like you."

"You think so?"

I nodded my response. Wanting to be the good friend, I kept quiet as the conversation progressed to how they met at the bus park to how both of their mothers knew each other to how Somto's mother had gone ahead to introduce him to her, telling both of them to keep in touch. They had hit it off from there and the rest was history.

"You are the best and I love you," Jessie said after what felt like ages of unending admiration for her boyfriend; the first statement without Somto's name.

Somto was a leech, a parasite, the kind of guy that you would date and by the time you two broke up, you would be too emotionally drained to date any other person. Jessie promised that he had changed, that he only had bad beginnings. 

I knew better but she wouldn't listen and I didn't want to be tagged as the jealous ex-girlfriend. As we stood at Hilltop gate, smiling at each other, I could only hope he wouldn't hurt her as he did me. 

Jessie wrapped me in a hug which I hesitantly reciprocated and with a final exchange of goodbyes, she headed off in the opposite direction.

"I love you too," I whispered to her retreating back, thankful to be left alone.

* * *

Trying to gather confidence I stood in front of Greg's door, willing my hands to start the knocking process. Then I knocked.

"Come in," a strange voice ushered me in

Forcing down the panic at hearing feminine laughter, I pushed the door open. The sight in front of me caused me to halt in my tracks. My eyes opened and closed, my chest rose before I reminded myself to start reciting the numbers backwards.

A girl was seated on the tiled floor with a gamepad while Greg sat on the edge of his bed, both of them playing PES 2016. Her back was turned to me so, I couldn't identify her; I didn't wish to. Why was she here?

Anger which slowly turned into sadness coursed through me. He was sharing our special game with another female and here I was, thinking I was special to him. That he could see me as more than a friend. 

Did he already move on that quickly?

They were so focused on their game, their hands moving rapidly on the pads, forgetting that they had invited someone in. I felt the dying fire of my anger being rekindled and I let out an irritating cough sound that was sure to annoy both of them.

Greg was the first to turn in my direction, he didn't look surprised to see me and it made me sadder. The girl turned next and when our eyes landed on each other, we screamed our names at the same time.

"Chisom!"

"Sophia!"