By the time we had made it back, it was fifteen minutes past midnight with half of campus sinking into a peaceful slumber.
"Thank you so much for this, Akwasi." Princess turned to me once we'd reached the entrance of her hall. "I really appreciate it. You're the only person who's managed to get me out of my room since..." remorse touched her features.
"Hey, hey, don't think about it ok." I set a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Everything that happened with Boris that night was an accident. You were just a victim of circumstances; it wasn't your fault. Very soon, Ethan will get over it and everything will be back to normal, you'll see. Just continue being yourself and do what makes you happy."
Nodding, her lips slowly crawled into a grateful smile. "Thanks. You're a good friend."
"As always." I shrugged, feeling a bit bashful. "Hope that smile means I'll see you at practice tomorrow?"
"Definitely." A solid nod came with the reply.
"Great." My grin expanded. "Well...umm goodnight."
"Night." Princess stepped back, climbing up the stairs to the tinted glass doors. Casting me one last smile and a wave, she slipped past the boundaries and I heaved out a sigh.
"Long night," I mumbled, digging into my pocket for my phone. Whilst my WhatsApp messages took their time popping up, my legs began their regular trek back to my hall of residence. Glancing down at my screen, I noticed Akunna's name at the top of the list and I quickly tapped his chat.
Hey man!
Where are u?
Deon's here and he brought a box of instant noodles. Check it outð
Two pics and a fifteen second video followed the message, the first one being a medium sized box of Indomie instant noodles. The second picture showed a steamy pot of bright yellow noodles topped with onion rings, fat sausage links and sliced boiled eggs.
My stomach rumbled at the sight and I chastised myself for craving food at this time of the night, when I'd already had a tall glass of fruity milkshake with incredibly tart bread. I seriously needed to watch my diet if I wanted to maintain my spot in the regional line up.
But the video that played after the picture assured me that I wouldn't have to worry about my diet, because Akunna and Deon noisily slurped all the noodles straight from the pot.
"Ah, what are they doing?" I came to a halt, gaping at my phone in amusement. Akunna purposely brought the device to his mouth as he sucked in a long curly strip.
"Mmm, you're definitely missing out buddy," he managed to say before biting into a sausage link and making loud chewing sounds. Deon joined in, stuffing his face with the eggs.
"Dummies." I shook my head with a laugh. By this time, I was pretty sure they had both passed out on the floor beside the noodle pot, snoring their hearts away.
"Akwasi!"
My attention veered in the direction of the call, to find Princess jogging towards me. "Hey." I moved closer, pushing my phone into my back pocket. "Did you forget something with me or..."
"Oh no, no, I didn't," Princess said through a few pants. "I was just climbing up the stairs to my room when I spotted this." She held out a familiar red flyer.
"Oh yeah, the Twilight Valentine dance. It's on Monday, right?"
"Yeah," Princess nodded. "And I was wondering... if umm...if you had a date."
Awkward pause.
"Uhh..." I lifted a hand to scratch my head. "At the moment no, but I-"
"Oh please, come with me to the dance," she begged. "Everyone in Penfield is going to be there and I don't want to go alone."
"Uuhh..." my feet shuffled backwards, anxiety wafting in my system. "I... don't think that's a good idea, Princess."
"Oh Akwasi," she whined.
"No, no think about it. Everyone in Penfield is going to be there and this includes Ethan. I don't want him thinking that we're-"
"We're not going us a couple," she pressed on, "just as friends, please. Ethan will definitely be there with a girl on his arm and I just...I don't want to appear there without anyone."
"I... I dunno, Princess," a rugged breath seeped past my nostrils as I took another step away from her but she closed it in a second.
"Pleeease Akwasi." Her warm hands encased mine. "I really need you to do me this favour," she paused. "Earlier, you said I should be myself and do what makes me happy. Well, having you come with me to the dance will make me happy."
Oh no no, my subconscious chimed, she's using your words against you. Bro, you have to shut this down now. Just say no.
My eyes met hers, drowning in their honesty and fragility. She was desperate for this. Saying no would break her. It would push her back into the horrid state I had found her in. But this time, I would be the cause, not Ethan. I would be the one to blame for picking her up and dropping her again, and because I couldn't let that happen, a soft, reluctant "ok" left my mouth and a high pitch squeal soon followed.
"Eee! Thank you so much, Akwasi!" She let go of my hands to wrap me in a tight hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"Ok ok," I chuckled lightly, trying to wiggle my way out of her grasp. "That's enough. I feel like I'm going to burst any moment from now."
"Oh sorry." She pulled back, grinning like she'd just made it to heaven. "But seriously, you have no idea how happy you've made me, I'm beyond grateful. Thank you!" She squeezed me in another quick hug then took off the way she came. "See you at practice tomorrow!"
"Sure." I waved back.
Well, so much for asking Shola to the dance! my subconscious snapped in a malicious tone. I hope Akunna murders you when he finds out that you broke your promise.
Oh crap, I thought, running a hand through my hair. I completely forgot about that promise I'd made to Akunna to ask Shola out to the dance. Now that it was too late to change anything, there was only one thing I could do.
"Keep it all to yourself," I murmured under my breath as I continued my trek back to the hall. "Don't mention anything about the dance to Akunna."
Tsk, this is not going to end well, my subconscious remarked.
¤¤¤¤¤
The following day
"Aren't you leaving, Akwasi?" Chad asked whilst slipping on his backpack. "It's almost 8pm."
"Uh no not yet. I want to try and finish this section of the base before I go." Putting the screwdriver down, I brushed away a few sweat beads that had found their way onto my forehead. "Our group is far behind, Shola and Deladem's groups are almost done."
"Well, we would be too, if Felix hadn't fried the traction motor." Chad rolled his eyes.
"The motor was an old thing, bro. It was bound to get faulty at some point. But hey, at least we managed to get a new one." I gave the metallic device a gentle pat. "And it's ten times better. It even has its own wiring ports."
"Oh then fixing the wires should be super easy." He drew closer.
"Yeah, my plan is to get it done before leaving."
"Oh ok, then I'm gonna leave my keys behind so you can lock up when you're done."
"Yeah sure."
He dumped them on the lab table beside the robotic base. "See you tomorrow, bro."
"See ya."
Once the lab doors clapped shut, I was left alone. We'd just ended our engineering club meeting a couple of minutes ago, but I decided to stay behind and catch up on the work since I missed yesterday's meeting.
So far, our recycling robot project was turning out great. The electronics and welding teams had already merged their respective parts, completing the first section of the robot. Things were a little bit slow for my group since one of our motors got burnt during a testing session yesterday. But now that we had a replacement, all I had to do was connect it to the motherboard and put in some petty finishing touches.
Shola's blueprints lay in front of me as a guideline. We had missed her at the meeting and I found myself wondering why, until the lab doors creak open. My eyebrows flew up. Speak of the devil.
"Hi, Akwasi. Good evening." Shola's sweet, accentuated voice sent my heart into a frenzy.
"Evening. I... I was just thinking about you," I said in a tone that I hoped didn't sound shaky. "How was your day?"
She blew out a puff of air. "Fairly good, but tiring." She slumped onto the closest lab stool. "You know the Science Fair we're getting ready for?"
"Yeah?"
"Dr. Kankam told me today that it's going to be held here, in Penfield."
"Oh really, that's awesome." I set my tools down. "Where in Penfield exactly?"
"Not sure yet. Dr. Kankam put me on the planning committee today and we're currently still on the hunt for a venue. I initially wanted us to book the Unity Auditorium cuz it's the largest one on campus, but it seems the SRC beat us to it."
"Oh, maybe you can use Auditorium 900," I suggested. "It's not as big as Unity, but I'm sure it's still manageable. The theatre students had a comedy show there yesterday and despite the crowd, there were enough empty seats to spare."
"Hmm, that's not a bad idea," she mumbled, pushing her glasses up. "I'll set a reminder to check that place out tomorrow. Thanks, Akwasi."
"Always happy to help."
The smile she sent me in return was enough to make me melt into a puddle of bright pink love-smitten goop, but before any of that could happen, I quuckly busied myself with the traction motor in front of me.
For a while, all that could be heard were the tiny shuffles and clinks from my movements and the rapid taps from Shola's phone. But it soon came to an end when my female companion spoke up.
"Akwasi, please don't tell me you're working on the robot's base alone. It's supposed to be a group work."
"Oh don't worry about it," I replied, pushing in the last wire. "My group members did majority of the work; I'm just taking care of some finishing touches. Since we aren't meeting on Monday, I want to complete this, so we can move to the next level when we come back."
"Oh yeah Monday," she murmured then drifted off into silence.
Finishing the work on the motherboard, I sat up straight, content with everything I'd done. The next time we meet, we'll attach the base and have a fully assembled robot, ready for testing and evaluation.
"Akwasi."
"Yeah?"
"There's...there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
My gaze flew up, catching the apprehensive look on Shola's face. "Is everything ok?" I'd never seen her this anxious before, meaning that whatever she was about to say was something that I'd been on her mind for a while now.
"Yeah, everything is fine, it's just umm..." she fiddled with her thumbs then slowly pushed herself off the lab stool. "I know that...most people consider it inappropriate for a girl to do the asking, but um..."
I felt my stomach clench, realising what was coming.
Shola settled on the lab stool beside me, clasping her hands. "Akwasi... I was wondering if you'd like to attend the Twilight Valentine dance with me, as your date."
At this point, my heart was racing.
"You don't have to do the whole pick me up in a fancy car thing," she chuckled. "We can just meet there, at the dance venue and... have a great time," she grinned. "So... what do you say?"
Yes Akwasi, my subconscious snorted. What do you say?
"Uuh." I scratched the back of my head. Was it possible for a heart to explode from anxiety? Because it felt as if mine was minutes away from blowing up. And Shola's would soon follow, but with a different cause of explosion.
"Akwasi?" A warm hand touched my shoulder. "Are you-"
"I can't take you to the dance, Shola." The sentence felt like sandpaper on my tongue. "I... I already have a date."
An awkward pause joined us. I subtly stole a glance at her, feeling a fissure split through my heart at the expression of disappointment, settling into her features.
"Oh." Her hand left my shoulder. "I guess...I guess I should've expected that," she managed a giggle that sounded so different from her usual one.
"But we can still hang out," I spoke up, desperate to salvage a bit of what I'd broken. "We can meet up after the dance for some smoothies, I know a great place."
"Thanks but...I don't think that's going to sit well with your date."
"Oh Princess won't care at all, she and I ar-"
"Wait, did you just say Princess?" Shola's eyebrows dipped low and I cursed myself for allowing that slip up. "You're attending the dance with Ethan's ex-girlfriend?"
"Only as friends," I added up. "At first I didn't want to, but she kept on begging me and I... I couldn't say no."
"Oh ok." She folded in her lips then brought them out. "Well umm, I guess I should get going then."
Before Shola could slide off the stool, I grabbed her hand. "I'm truly sorry about this."
"It's fine, Akwasi, don't worry about it." She gave me a genuine smile this time. "Hope you have a good time at the dance."
With a gentle squeeze, she pulled away and exited the room, leaving me to my raging thoughts.
Way to go, genius, my subconscious snickered.
*****