Serendipity [BoyxBoy]

Chapter One

Nosa was running, although he wasn't exactly sure why.

Somewhere along the way, his brain had let go of the reason why he was out in the cold night air, running through the darkness, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Nothing about this moment seemed right. He was running for God's sake, of course that wasn't right. He was the most unathletic person he knew-- the way his heart was racing as if to say 'stop or I will' was a clear reminder of that. His muscles were aching, his sweat soaked shirt stuck to his body uncomfortably and, for some strange reason, he smelled like his uncles whenever their favourite football team had a match.

Nosa searched through his recent memories and drew up blank. There must have been an explanation for this but whatever it was swum through his head, just out of reach and shrouded in a mist too thick to get through. Scenes slipped through his fingers; bright lights. Music that thumped through his bones. A faceless boy calling his name. But remembering hurt. Thinking hurt. So he gave up and let his mind wander.

He saw the sleeping face of his little sister Ehi. He had put her to bed. He remembered telling his elder sister to piss off right before he left home because 'goodnight' wasn't something they told each other. He remembered laying in bed, tapping away at his phone- texting someone. The faint orange glow from his Whatsapp background, an anime character on his keyboard. One that someone important to him liked.

What character? Which person?

Nosa slowed to a jog, then to a stop. He shut his mouth mostly because his throat was dry and he had no breath left in his lungs.

Then he just stood there.

▪️▪️▪️

Nosa didn't hate a lot of people, even when he had good reason to. Neither did he hate a lot of things. Hating something required thinking about it, giving it enough attention for you to constantly look out for it. Not liking something required strength and patience-- the energy to take another route because you knew someone you didn't like passed through one. The patience to carefully tell a waiter that you didn’t like onions. Seeing something or someone that makes your blood boil was stress and Nosa couldn’t bother himself with that. He was always tired and frail enough, mostly skin and bones by his mother's standards.

"Don't I feed you?" She would shout, grabbing at his hand. "Osanogbua, God, My son is a skeleton!"

Personally, he thought he was fine. 6'1 and slender, not skeletal like his mum thought. He ate just enough for his family to not worry about his health but not enough to make him lift weights like the other guys in his class. Whatever rest he got was useless in the face of mountains of school work.

He didn't have energy to spare for hating people or things. Even when he had good reason to. 

But Nosa hated the boy walking beside him now. The one who's wore a short-sleeved shirt that showed off his flawless ebony skin when Nosa's light brown skin was covered in cuts and scars, the one who had a perfect set of straight, white teeth while he had a huge gap between his two front teeth. With his expensively cut hair and easy-going smile, Nosa hated him. 

"All four of them are really big now," The boy said excitedly. 

Nosa grunted, a sound that wasn't exactly a response but did show he was listening. It was just past eleven in the morning and school won’t let out till 2:30. He bit down a curse. What he wouldn’t give to get out of school. What he wouldn’t give to get out of this moment. Irekanmi was a talker, he’d noticed. One of those people who didn’t mind sharing facts about themselves and getting to know others. They were the easy, outgoing ones—future social captains, the ones whose pictures would be pasted above ‘Most Friendly Senior’ when they received their yearbooks.