Serendipity [BoyxBoy]

Chapter Eleven

Eghosa was kissing a girl and she felt bad.

It wasn't so much the action of kissing a girl that made her feel bad, she was just fine with kissing girls, really fine with it to be honest. It was that she was kissing a girl while her brother was off at some party that made her feel bad. 

Nosa had never been good in social situations, Egho knew this. Nosa functioned on two spectrums; awkward mess or ghost, there was no in between. She could never really tell what he was thinking—she didn’t know how to relate with him and it only got worst the older he got.

Still, she was his older sister and if she couldn’t protect him, who would? She’d already failed once when he’d had a rough time at school and had endured bullying she only ever heard snippets about. The school didn’t do anything about it, until they finally did, and even though there wasn’t much she could do from Our Lady’s, the guilt plagued her. He had been terrified to go to school during that period and he never spoke about it— Nosa never spoke about it. Having to watch that from the sidelines killed her. She'd vowed to be a better sister. She should have offered to go with him but she was kissing a girl.

And she believed that Nosa had Irekan so he would be just fine.

"What are you thinking about?" The girl whispered against her lips.

It was a move that sent a shiver running down Egho's spine. Christ! How could the Sisters at Our Lady's call this sin when it felt like anything but? 

"Nothing."

The girl grinned, "Good."

Then she went in for another scorching kiss that ended all conversation and thought. 

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After that Tuesday afternoon, Nosa wasn't sure Irekan still wanted him to come over on Saturday.

He didn't know what exactly had made Irekan freak out but he felt bad about it, after all, it was his fault. It had to be. What else could have chased Irekan off? He probably bored him so much that the guy just had to escape. Or he went too far with the Wande Coal thing. And the location? A river!? He might as well have just claimed all of the Edo Juju stereotypes.

He should have thought of somewhere better for them to go. They didn't live in an interesting neighborhood, he wasn't an outgoing guy and Benin wasn't that fun to begin with but he could have tried. Stupid him had to think about the river.

But where else was he supposed to take Irekan?

The closest cinema was miles away from his house, even his favorite yogurt place took time to get to on his bicycle. He didn't know any place where teenagers just hung out and he didn’t think to ask Egho for recommendations. The river was one place Nosa went to a lot when he was younger but didn't anymore. He and Egho used to go there to skip stones until they decided playing in the water was more fun than playing out of it, then they would walk back home completely drenched but with smiles on their faces. He was taught how to swim by the kids who lived in the small fishing community along the river, he had caught a bad cold once from it such that he'd had to stay off school for a few days, he had lots of fun back then. The river held a special place in his heart yet he’d stopped going and he couldn't even remember why.

On Saturday by 8am, Nosa stood up, got dressed and left his house without talking to anyone. The walk to the field was longer this time, or maybe that was just because he walked slowly, head down and shuffling his feet. He didn’t want to think of the possibility of Irekan not being there, of not going back to his house and watching anime while Uvo snoozed in the space between them. He didn’t want to even consider the possibility that he’d be back in bed playing mobile games until it was time for lunch.