Missing Pieces
By Nnagoziem Udensi and Ekene Mgbechikwelu
The shrill tone of Keisha’s tik tok woke Christabel from a very deep slumber…5.00am…Instinctively she slipped a hand under her pillow to snooze the alarm but her phone wasn’t in its usual place…She quickly sat up and looked around what seem to be a very strange room trying to remember how she got there…Her alarm started off again,this time she was able to locate it immediately and turn it off…Remembering last night’s events was easier than she thought…She had been bored as usual on Friday so she had decided to have a night out much to the chagrin of her roommate and best friend Mirabel …One could simply describe her as a slut with just a word..She prefers to call herself open-minded…She pressed a hand to her head as blood came rushing in,she felt the beginnings of what will be a terrible headache…staring at the stranger lying beside her for a few seconds she stood up and went into the bathroom…she doesn’t even remember his name…Quickly taking a bath,she dressed up and prepared to leave the room,the figure lying on the bed didn’t even stir…which was good because she hated the morning-after awkwardness..yes we had sex..end of discussion…no need for extra courtesy..some people just don’t understand that…only 30 percent of guys she had sex with understood that…respect…one guy she has sex with actually went to the extent of asking for a second date,as if they actually went on a first.
Stepping out of the hotel,she strolled slowly down the road with the intention of hailing a cab in the expressway..as she walked she noticed a few early morning joggers (exercise was the last thing in the world anybody could get her to do)… fortunately she saw a cab drop someone just few blocks from her and she called him…settling at the backseat she sighed and for the first time since she woke up picked up her phone …exactly what she was afraid of…16 missed calls…3 missed calls from her mother,1 missed call from her course rep and 12 missed calls from Christopher,her boyfriend…yes she had one..a serious one at that,She wasn’t surprised that she didn’t get a call from Mira,considering she knew exactly where she would be…putting her phone back in her carry-on bag she made a mental note to return the calls much later,all she just needed to do was rest during the long drive back to the campus…She felt so weak…
20mins later she knocked on the door of her room and hurried in when the door opened, she had received an earlier message from her course rep about an impromptu lecture that was fixed by 7am, lectures on Saturday,who does that?...ignoring the disgusted look her friend Mira shot her she went to her wardrobe to pick out a perfect ‘Iamtiredandnotinthemoodforlecturestoday’s cloth and proceeded to wear it…
‘Chris came looking for you’..so the quiet judgmental mouse finally decided to talk…she smilled
‘so we are talking now’…Mira gave her a long hiss that would put any snake to shame and when back to bed…she laughed…such a strange creature she thought while applying quite a layer of make-up to covers up the bags under her eyes…They had met within their first two weeks of entering the university, though in different faculties, they had been inseparable, though people often wondered how on earth they stayed friends as they were the exact opposite of each other…where Christabel was a wayward extrovert, Mirabel was much more reserved, always keeping to herself…they were from different tribes too, Mirabel was a Yoruba while Christabel was an Igbo girl…
‘Babe please I have to go,some idiot fixed lectures on Saturday…’…She got no reply,not that she was expecting some…
Mirabel sighed as her friend left the room, sometimes she wondered to herself how she got to love her so much, she was an awesome person really, a perfect friend but she had a terrible lifestyle, of course after hearing her story and her reasons she understood, but still sometimes she wished her friend was entirely different..she had everything, she was beautiful, came from a wealthy family, has a boyfriend who adores her, and a very high CGPA,her studies was something she doesn’t play with…Mira sighed again…Christabel was one of the very few people she met that she really love and trust…being an only girl,just like her,they both took to each other…she also liked to believe that she was the only person Christabel listens to though in truth Christabel listens to nobody but herself. The previous day she had tried every possible means, like she always does to convince her not to go out but as usual it yielded no results…The smooth tone of her phone broke her line of thoughts, glancing at the phone to check the caller identity she went cold and warm at the same time…Christabel was not the only one guilty of being too available for guys though in her own case it was just that one, and it would be a secret she would never tell anyone…not even Christabel. With shaky hands she picked the call…
‘Hello….’
3hours later Christabel was knocking hard on a door, her day has not been going quite as well as she had hoped, first she was having a killer headache then the lecturer from hell decided to extend his God’s given awful time to 3hours including a pop quiz due to the fact few people actually showed up for his lectures…she had received two very annoying sms from her boyfriend during the quiz she was unprepared for and it also didn’t help that she hadn’t had anything to eat since the previous night. She raised her hand to knock on the door again and as if on cue it opened immediately, without waiting for an invitation and totally ignoring the angry look on Christopher’s face she pushed past him and went into the room going straight to his kitchen to look for something to eat, due the fact she spends most of her nights in his room there was always food in the kitchen, cooking was a hobby of hers, putting the leftover rice on fire to warm it up she entered the room and slumped on the bed, she was bone tired and trying hard not to pass out…
Christopher stared at her for a full minute trying hard not to lose his temper, having not heard from her for almost a day he was in a very foul mood and she wasn’t helping matters, he had noticed the book she clutched in her hand and assumed she was just coming from class but it still didn’t explain why she hadn’t been taking her calls the previous night….as if knowing he was not in any way ready to even acknowledge her presence she spoke…
‘Mira said you came looking for me yesterday…I couldn’t make it to your house last night, I went into town’….Unbelievable Chris thought, no apologies…they had been dating for almost a year now but he still hadn’t gotten used to that rotten attitude,everybody keeps wondering why he keeps her around…facing her, still looking at her, she was tired he could see that, she had miniature bags under her eyes, her skin was slightly flushed probably from the sun and he could see a vein ticking at her temple but she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever been with, he sighed, she was his weakness, he knows, she knows too…
‘Your food is burning’…was all he could muster,before he turned back to his laptop pretending to be engrossed in what he was doing…
Mira knocked on his door,smilling widely when he opened the door…’Hi!...I brought food…’…he stared at her for some time and motioned her in…when she entered he shut the door and took what she had on her hand and kept them on the table… she frowned a little, this was always the routine, she comes in and they start immediately, no discussions or foreplay, just sex, then after which he asks for food, always the same routine..she could even swear that he doesn’t even know her full name…she had tried for the past 3 months to make him at least like her but he seemed not interested, well she was quite willing to take what she was given…
‘Do you have your undies on?’…he asked his hands already on his belt…
‘You said not to…’…
‘Good’…his mouth closed over hers…
...to be continued!
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