Friendzone HQ #5 By @Tomilola_coco

Hey guys, it has come to my notice that some Bloggers take my work without permission and post without due credit to me (the author) and the original site (360nobs). A certain blogger did this with Sugar Daddy Chronicles and was not even sober even after I found out he did. This is not fair to any Writer who works their asses off to write and no, I do not like it at all. So please if you see my work outside this blog, abeg holla. I am working on my personal blog and until then, my work is not allowed to be shared outside 360nobs. If anything changes, I would let you know. Thanks so much.

 

***

The Bucknors were that happy go lucky type of family. With them, everything was always easy, life was never really taken hard and the world was filled with people who were all one big family.

Oyin had always found their company particularly exciting and ever since she first met them, on a stormy night years before when she had no option but to wait out the rain in their residence, she had felt like one of them.

They had offered her a steaming cup of green tea that smelt and tasted of mint and had handed her a huge blanket made with fur that kept her warm while they shared silly jokes and teased her and Segun.

It did not matter that they had both revealed their relationship was purely platonic, his Parents had still teased them, calling them “husband and wife”.

Oyin particularly liked Chief Mrs Bucknor, she was a slim, elegant woman with streaks of grey hair which was always styled into a short bob. Her eyes were warm and her skin color shone bright whenever there was perfect lighting. Old photos of her hanging on the wall in the sitting room showed she was extremely beautiful as a young woman, her cheekbones high like a runway model’s and her slim figure reminiscent of the one on screen goddesses and socialites.

Her genes had been dominant in all of her kids and one could see a part of her in all six of them. Segun had her eyes and smiled like her.

So when she pushed him off her that night after he had almost succeeded in getting into her pants, she had somehow found comfort in the large family gathered around the large table which housed two huge bowls of fried chicken, three large bowls of jollof rice, a tray of dodo, and a bowl of peppered gizzard.

The aroma of the delicious food spread out on the table, ready for consumption immediately erased the awkwardness that had followed the kiss she shared with her best friend.

What was wrong with her? In fact what was wrong with both of them? What they did was not right at all and there was no way to make it seem okay.

She ignored the stares he sent her way from across the table where he was sitting, sandwiched between his immediate elder sister and his eldest sister.

She had chosen a table far away from him on purpose, choosing to gather her thoughts while being as far as she could be from him.

Immediately they had stepped out of the bedroom, she had hurriedly picked a seat near his mother at the end of the table. He knew what she was doing and she could see it from the look in his eyes.

He had been mildly annoyed when she pulled a fast one on him but she could also see the mischievous smile that followed, and knowing him well, she knew he had plans for that night.

His mother was passing her the bowl of chicken now, which she passed on, waiting for the peppered gizzard to reach her.

She had never been a fan of chicken; roasted, fried, boiled or grilled, it had never been something she hungered for.

And even though she would pick Turkey over Chicken any day, she also had a huge love for gizzard and liver.

She carefully placed some in her plate, near the rice on the plate in front of her.

“Segun how far with your job? Has Uncle Teddy hooked you up with his people?”

Uncle Teddy was their mother’s only younger brother and his network rivaled any telecommunication line; he knew people at the top level of almost every industry in the country and most of Segun’s sisters had gotten links from him in their different fields.

Segun was not a fan of his though, of course he loved his Uncle, he just was not a fan of the way he acquired his vast wealth and how he wanted to be the one who hooked everyone up with their dream jobs.

He had a way of hinting it anywhere they went to and Segun seemed to be the only one who felt uncomfortable with it.

Once, he had boasted in a gathering, a glass of expensive wine in hand, how he had landed Segun’s eldest sister the job which now paid the bills in her house.

Segun had thought it was out of place, especially since his eldest sister had attended the same gathering with her husband who was earning lower than her.

And since then, he had vowed to work his ass off to own whatever would be his. No Uncle Teddy, no connections he would have to be grateful for forever.

“I have an interview tomorrow” he replied, positioning his cutlery, ready to cut his chicken into pieces.

“He got it for you?”

He shook his head, slicing the chicken with his knife and guiding the chunk he cut into his mouth with his fork.

“Nope”

He was not looking at his elder sister but he could sense the shock on her face. “Why? He would literally get you the job in two seconds, you know?”

“And then share it on CNN right after. No abeg” He replied and heard a chuckle from his immediate elder sister, Remi.

“Oh so you noticed that thing too? He does you a favor and then expects you to be grateful for the rest of your life.” Remi scoffed, she was clearly not a fan of Uncle Teddy. Actually, Remi was not a fan of anyone that was not her or the reigning man in her life.

Oyin had found her the most hostile and the most complicated of the Bucknors. With a first class degree in Engineering in a school in America and a curvy body that could make Amber Rose look unappealing, Remi Bucknor was both beauty and brains.

Her closet was also one that could cause a beauty queen to be envious and she was the most intelligent feminist Oyin had ever come across.

“Remi, the fact that you don’t like Uncle Teddy does not mean he is not a nice person. He got us all our jobs” Lade the oldest was saying now

Remi rolled her eyes in response, her hand on the perspiring glass of water in front of her, “Yeah and then boasted about it at different times. Miss me with that one please.”

“If he wants to get on the roof tops and scream, I don’t think that’s a problem. He helped is all that matters” Kemi the second sister replied.

Remi shrugged, “Say whatever you want but that was why I ensured he had nothing to do with securing my job at my firm. I did not want any of that I got my niece a fancy job rubbish he tends to do”

“Don’t be rude now, Remilekun” Doctor Bucknor said to his youngest daughter, a stern look in his eyes.

“Sorry Dad” Remi said and fully concentrated on her food.

Oyin knew it was probably all she would say all evening, Remi was like that. Oyin wished she knew her more, that she knew what ran through her head and how she could pull off being Remi Bucknor.

“Oyin how is it going at the Hospital? I heard the Hospital fired some medical members of staff recently? What is with that?” Doctor Bucknor was facing her now, the stern look on his face replaced with a warm smile.

Oyin smiled, hurriedly chewing the gizzard and rice in her mouth and swallowing it so she could answer the patriarch of the Bucknor household, “Yes sir. Some of the senior medical staffs were committing fraud at the Hospital”

Chief Mrs Bucknor’s brows creased in a frown, “Fraud? Now that is one ridiculous behavior”

Oyin nodded, she hated to talk in large gatherings but these two adorable people made it extremely easy for her “A lot of the books had been doctored and the Chief Medical Officer found out after months of unexplainable missing funds”

“Oh dear, they must have forgotten they were doctoring the wrong things” Chief Mrs Bucknor said and her husband laughed. Oyin loved how they laughed at each other’s jokes and the looks they exchanged when they thought nobody else was looking.

Her phone suddenly buzzed and she looked at it only to find out it was Segun. He was telling her he wanted to kiss her badly.

Her throat ran dry, he was teasing her and trying to ensure the short time they spent together stayed in her memory.

She was not sure how she felt about that.

“So Oyin are you and Segun official now?” Banke the third sister asked, a dimpled smile on her face.

“No” Oyin hurriedly replied, “We are just friends”

Kofo the fourth Bucknor sister chuckled, “That was what Banke and her husband were saying that year till she shocked us all with a little baby bump growing inside of her”

The whole table burst into laughter, “I would prefer you do it the right way though” Segun’s mother was saying now, “Both of you should not surprise us with pregnancy or anything of the sort. Surprise us with an engagement ring and a wedding date please”

Oyin’s phone buzzed again and this time Segun sent, Let me surprise you with a kiss tonight

She ignored the message like she had ignored the first and busied herself with her delicious food, she made a mental note to ask Segun’s mother what she put in her jollof rice that made it taste so good and so different.

Her phone buzzed again and she ignored it, she was tired of reading Segun’s silly messages and so she was just going to concentrate on her dinner and take care of her appetite.

“Meanwhile, I have extra tickets for the Dare Art Alade concert coming up in two weeks, Segun would you like to take Oyin?” Lade asked and she heard Segun reply with an enthusiastic yes.

Lade was junior partner at a big Public Relations firm, one of the biggest in Lagos and definitely one of the biggest in Nigeria.

They managed the accounts of some of the biggest companies in the country and had famously run the campaign of the newly elected president in the country.

Lade always had VVIP tickets to every major event in the country and before Segun traveled out of the country, they had gone for a few events together.

Her phone buzzed again and she ignored it, she was done being distracted by him.

***

Oyin in a bid to spend less time with Segun after dinner, joined Lade, Remi and Remi’s boyfriend Peter in the second sitting room to play scrabble after dinner.

The sitting room was smaller than the first one, the tiles were black and it had a fleecy black and white rug in the center. Oyin liked to dig her toes into the rug anytime she came to visit Segun and they sat in the sitting room.

It had a plasma hanging on the wall and just like the main sitting room, there was a portrait of Segun’s parents hanging on the wall.

That night, the room smelt of vanilla and a stronger fragrance she could barely place.

She sat on the rug, near Remi’s boyfriend who sat near Remi and who in turn sat near Lade.

They were all gathered around the board as they carefully arranged their tiles where only they could see.

Remi was still barely speaking but Oyin noticed she giggled at her boyfriend Peter and they even whispered into each other’s ears at a time.

Oyin suddenly longed for someone she could do that too, someone she could be friends with. For some reason, she wondered if Segun wanted to be that person or the person who just had free access to her privates whenever he wanted.

Her phone rang now, interrupting her thoughts and causing her to fish for it in the pocket of her denim dress.

It was Kolapo.

She excused herself and moved away from her Scrabble group.

“God where are you? I have been sending you messages for over an hour!” He sounded slightly worried and she could also sense a hint of annoyance in his voice.

She knew that feeling, the feeling you felt when someone you cared about suddenly went off the radar.

Then, you got disappointed, then angry, then worried, then desperate. And sometimes, one feeling did not leave before the other took its place.

It was something she had constantly felt with her ex, she knew it too well.

“I’m so sorry, KP. I thought it was Segun sending me messages” She had honestly ignored the messages because she thought it was still Segun sending her messages from across the table.

“Of course” Kolapo responded and for a few seconds, she honestly thought he had gotten off the line. He then added, “Please does the date still stand? Or you’re with Segun again?”

She hated to tell him that she was but she could not lie, “Yes. I was hoping to pass time here before you finished with surgery”

“na wa o” he replied and the irritation in his voice was very clear this time. “Okay then, good night”

But he did not get off the phone, he stood there while she waited, leaning on the wall, wondering if she was supposed to say anything to him.

Segun appeared then, his digital tab in his hand, looking something out of a picture.

When did she suddenly begin to see he was handsome? When did he suddenly become appealing to her? And when did she suddenly begin to imagine his mouth crushing hers, ignoring boundaries and invading hers?

Warning bells suddenly began to ring, she had to stop it and be the sensible one out of the two of them.

He was horny, that was all there was to his sudden want for her. But she was not going to let him use her body to quench his thirst.

As he approached her, she hurriedly said to Kolapo, “Okay let me make it up to you Kolapo. I would come over to the Hospital now and we can go to yours together.”

Segun frowned, stopping spaces away from her.

She could not fight the urge to smile, neither did she bother to fight it.

Kolapo said from the other end of the line, “I would like that. See you soon.”

She ended the call.

“You’re seriously leaving” Segun said as she walked past him, down the stairs leading to the exit.

She nodded.

“Oyin, seriously?”

Again, she nodded.

“So that kiss meant nothing abi?”

“Nope” she responded, refusing to stop for a second.

“You’re lying to yourself and you know it”

“Good night!” She shouted as he disappeared out of her view.

But as she made it to her car outside, she knew she was deceiving herself. That kiss meant something.

In fact, that kiss meant a whole lot of things.

But damn her if she admitted it to herself, let alone Segun.