Serendipity [BoyxBoy]

Chapter Fourteen

MJ leaned back into Ada, sighing contentedly as she began to play with his hair.

It was mid-afternoon and they were both alone in the hotel suite reserved for the band. With every member of Jorəʊmi at the concert venue and Jamee outside doing God knew what, MJ wanted to soak up the alone time with Ada.

He liked when she held him like this. It made him feel safe, stable. Like he finally had solid ground to stand on.

"Do you have any idea where Jamee is?" She whispered into his ear.

He’d have preferred a sexier question, something along the lines of ‘May I kiss your face?’ They’d ease into that eventually.

"Outside." He replied. "Don't worry."

"I wasn't worried."

"You're always worried." Ada didn't say anything to that. He could practically feel the cogs in her brain working at double time, working up more ways to keep him, Jamee and Simi happy and healthy. He loved that she was always looking out for them but still, she deserved a break.

"We'll be fine, you know?" MJ said, his voice reassuring. "All four of us."

"Three."

His mind went blank for a second. "What?"

"We're three now, MJ." Ada whispered sadly into his ear. "Simi is gone."

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks to the rib cage. They were three now. Him, Jamee and Ada. Simi’s body was rotting in some grave he didn’t have the guts to visit and he had forgotten.

Bile rose up in his throat.

God, he had forgotten that his best friend was—

“Oh,” he uttered.

Ada pressed her lips into the side of his skull. Maybe she thought he wouldn’t feel the tears sliding down her cheeks.

They sat in silence for a long while. 

"C'mon." Ada said, standing up. "Let's go watch the band sound check."

▪️▪️▪️

Nosa hated to admit it but school was better with Irekan there. It didn’t matter that they didn’t get to see each other during class periods—Nosa was an arts student while Irekan was in sciences, they had completely different classes—they walked to school together, hung out during lunch time and went back home together. And that was enough for Nosa.

He no longer got that feeling of dread when he woke up for school and, whenever Irekan  showed up at his place while he was eating breakfast, an involuntary smile appeared on his face. Irekan got along well with Egho and Ehi already practically adored him. And he got to stare at Irekan’s face in the milky morning light. That alone made him just as happy as a sweet cup of tea would.

A lot of people still found it strange that clean cut Irekan wanted to hang around weird Nosa from primary school so they got a lot of curious stares and, while Nosa attempted to hide himself in plain sight, Irekan seemed like he couldn't be bothered by all the attention they were getting. 

"Irekan! Good to see you again!" Agoz said cheerily when he walked into Nosa’s class after school on Friday afternoon. 

"Hey Agoz," he replied politely then motioned to Nosa with his head as if to say 'oya, come let's be going.' 

Nosa began to pack up his books. 

"I'm throwing a party at this event center tomorrow," Agoz began, smiling coyly at Irekan. “Like, my uncle is the owner so he’s letting me use it because he forgot my birthday…”