Friendzone HQ #8 By @Tomilola_coco

Hi guys, yesterday a few people pointed out their displeasure at me disappearing for a week and not apologizing, i’m sorry about that. I was in a scriptwriting workshop for a week and I could literally do nothing else. And cos the same people asked for episodes everyday I have decided to do that. I hope I’m forgiven now lol. Wanted to start yesterday but Lagos traffic had me for the most useful part of the day. So here is Friendzone HQ episode 8.

…

“When your bae has a bae”

The words were followed by a weak chuckle and an eventual grin he was certain made him look like a moron.

But he had to try, he could not stand there and watch Segun wrap his arms around his woman and kiss her like she was his exclusively.

The two turned towards him, Oyin startled and then, embarrassed. Segun on the other hand unperturbed, a sly smile on his face.

Kolapo was aware what Segun’s smile meant and even though he had not been expecting him to smile that way, rubbing his actions in his face, he had been somewhat expecting almost anything from him.

And so, because he knew Segun could never have imagined what was coming next, he pulled Oyin to his side, placed a kiss on her head, the tip of her nose and finished off with a slight kiss on her lips.

Then he placed a hand on her shoulder as if to claim ownership for life.

“What are you doing?” Oyin asked, a look of irritation on her face.

Kolapo was startled, she looked annoyed with him and the stunt he just pulled and by the time she stepped out of his grip, shoving him away and walking away, he knew he had overdone it.

It was Segun’s turn to chuckle, the mockery on his face more evident than Kolapo could ever have imagined.

“Have a nice day, Kolapo” Segun said with a mock salute and strode out of the Hospital.

It took him a few seconds to realize he was being watched by quite a number of people in the Hospital reception, some of them with puzzling gazes.

In a quick bid to be rid of his audience, he took giant steps out of the reception and went in search of Oyin.

***

“You don’t understand, that is Segun’s style. That is not you and that should never be you even when you are trying to make Segun look stupid!” Her obvious attempt to keep her temper under control were failing and he knew it was only a matter of time before she lost it and started shouting the words.

He had never seen her that way and he was at a loss for words as a lack of what to do, so he just stood there, watching and hoping the moment would pass. That she would see that he was helpless when she lost her cool, that when her temper flared, threatening to engulf them like wildfire in a forest during harmattan season he was like a child with a cup of water.

And what could a cup of water, however cold it was, do to a forest engulfed by fire?

“What is wrong with you people sef? Do you both think I’m a toy you can toss between each other in the ultimate battle of who’s got the bigger ego? I can’t even deal” she was trying to get past him now and he knew he should stop her but again, he did not know if that would be enough.

So he just stood there and watched her storm off. When she had gone and the silence in the waiting room was all he had, he tried to run the events of the past few minutes in his head.

Maybe she was right, he should have been himself and not Segun.

But honestly, who could blame him? He could not have watched someone else take what he knew he really wanted.

However now that everything had gone down south, he was going to stop trying so hard. If she was going to be his, he would have to let her make that choice herself.

***

Oyin was not sure where she was headed after she burst out of the Hospital and made for the gate but she knew she had been humiliated by Segun and Kolapo’s display and wanted to be as far away from them as she could.

She’d enjoyed Segun’s kiss; his mouth invading hers like he owned it but at the same time gently pulling her in like he wanted her to remember every second of it later.

And he had succeeded, because there she was, trying to bury the emotions the kiss was threatening to evoke under the anger she felt towards the two men.

A vehicle sped by, reminding her that she had made it to the gate on foot and that she had no idea what she was doing.

She decided to turn back and go in search of Kolapo, maybe they could see his grandmother soon and she could return to Lagos and lock herself in her house, away from the madness and from the two men who thought they could kiss her whenever they wanted.

Her phone invaded her thoughts and she soon found out the caller was Adaeze. Relieved to be speaking to someone other than Kolapo and Segun, she picked the call.

“Ada, wassup now”

“Oyin. How are you?”

“I’m okay o. You?”

“I’m okay. Please have you been talking to Segun about us?”

Oyin frowned, she hadn’t. But she also knew Ada enough to know that question was not just coming from nowhere.

“No. wassup?” she asked

“Well, he’s been really mushy and extra nice these days and I was thinking maybe you have been talking to him. Or maybe it was just the sex from that night after we left yours”

The emotion she felt she could not name, like a wave, it threw her back, causing her to look around for any form of support she could find.

They had sex?

Yet, there he was trying to seduce her and screw her brains out?

What the actual fuck?

“Maybe he just realized you are both meant to be after all.” She managed to say, at the same time still trying to understand the motive behind Segun’s actions.

She did not even know him anymore, before then he used to be her best friend, at the moment, he was just some guy who did things her best friend wouldn’t.

Had he been fucked up while he was away? Did something happen to him that changed him into this new guy?

She knew her questions could not be answered in her head but at the same time, she knew they were never going to be uttered by her mouth.

She was never going to ask him and give him the opportunity to bail himself out. And she was done with that friendship.

“Maybe.” She heard Ada say, “We have a date tomorrow or maybe it is just a hangout who knows, I can only wait to find out”

“Yes you can” Oyin replied and then quickly added, “I have to go”.

***

Kolapo had tried every trick in the book to make things right since they blew up in his face earlier but it felt like the more he tried, the more she drew farther from him.

She was sitting in front of the little fire he had made in his grandmother’s backyard, wrapped in the oldest blanket in the house, her legs curled under her as she gazed into the flames burning brightly.

He had been teaching her how to roast corn and so far, the only response he had gotten from her had been, “wow”.

She had been amazed at how fast corn could cook while she held the cob above the fire gently and how sweet it could taste too. The strands of her hair carelessly littered her face but it did not take from the beauty that she was as she sat on his grandmother’s oldest mat, her feet in the old woman’s oversized slippers.

He could watch her that way forever, lost in her world and forgetting the world around. He could give his everything, just to watch her lips give way into a smile the way it did the first time she successfully roasted corn by herself. He could trade his ability to sleep for endless nights of insomnia just so he did not miss one second of the gift that was gazing at her.

“Wow, I so cannot believe this though!” she said in excitement and looked at him, her eyes revealing the joy she felt at what she as doing. “I know people roast corn all the time but this way is so different and I so prefer it” she chuckled and returned to removing the cob around the corn.

When it burned her delicate fingers, she dropped it but not before his hands grabbed them and helped her get the corn ready for consumption.

“Thank you” she said with a smile.

He nodded in response.

“I’m sorry for what happened earlier” she added, “I shouldn’t have gone off at you that way”

“No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have put up that unnecessary display”

The silence that followed made him wonder if his words were taken seriously but the action that followed was definitely what made him speechless.

Leaning closer, one hand providing support for her body as she leaned towards him, the other gently pulling his face closer to hers, she drew in his lips and kissed him.

And in that moment, he realized that if he had prior doubts to the direction his feelings for her were headed, he was now made certain of how strongly he would feel for her for a long time to come.