THE BOYS AROUND US.

Chapter 2 There goes.

MORNING,ANATOMY CLASS

"Everyone handle your dissection kit and your mouse carefully. An instructor will be around to show you how to immobilize your mouse in order to begin your dissection." The lab attendant instructed.

Keffy and Bliss were working on the same table while Jonah was seated at a table opposite from theirs towards the end of the room.

Rex and Morse are law students who were introduced to Keffy and Bliss through Jonah whose secondary school classmates they were in Lagos.

"I hate dissection." Keffy said in disgust.

"Dissection my dear is surgery." Bliss declared.

"I know, but on a mouse? Eww."

"There's something wrong with all you rich kids but today, make it work."

"But..."

"No buts...time to work." Bliss interrupted,holding her hand up.

EVENING, BASEMENT

"Uhm. Babe should we do night class in basement or Jonahs side?" Bliss asked Keffy.

"Let's leave Jonah alone for now so he doesn't get tired of us."

"Abi?" Keffy and Bliss walked into basement, took their seats and began reading.

"Shh!" Keffy heard someone whisper and a hand fell over her eyes. "Guess." The familiar but yet unrecognizable voice said.

"Morse." She exclaimed.

"Nope." Bliss called out happily; obviously enjoying the game.

"Jonah." Keffy said feeling accomplished.

"Aaaaah." Rex exclaimed and they started laughing.

"So I'm the last person you consider, huh?" Rex said and walked to the seat in front of Bliss and keffys, dusted the chair before sitting.

"Oh, you."

"Hey, keffy."

" Hey, Rex."

"Where's Jonah?"

"He went home; he said he was feeling sleepy."

"Oh ok... "

"What of Morse?"

" I don't know still flirting with some girls back at the faculty, I believe." Rex said and flashed a dazzling smile at Keffy.

"Oh ok then. Morse is such a ladies man."

" That's the life my dear." Rex replied dreamily.

" Whatever."

" Yeah, so Rex Valentine's day is in like, seven days from now... Who's your val?" Bliss asked hopefully.

"Oh, no! I'm not a Valentine's guy." Rex said obviously not interested.

" Oh really? Does every guy just say that to get away from buying their girl a present or is it really the truth. Because every guy I know says that." Bliss inquired.

"Firstly I don't have a girl, secondly we boys don't lie." Rex said twitching his fingers dramatically as he said the word 'girl'.

"Whoa. Now that should be like on the cover of a Vogue magazine or something, like; we boys don't lie." Keffy said copying Rex's gesture as she illustrated with her fingers to emphasize on the quote.

"Thank you." Rex mocked at Keffy which earned him one of her smiles; where she opened her mouth wide with her teeth jammed shut which only ever lasted for like a second. " Pretty." Rex whispered under his breath.

" Keffy are you going with anyone?" Bliss asked.

"To where?"

" I don't know? have fun maybe."

" No I'm not."

" Maybe you and Rex should hang out sometime." Bliss suggested.

" Why because you are goiong with someone?"Keffy asked

"Now just why on Earth would you suggest such a horrible thing?" Rex said at the same time so that Bliss could hardly make out any words.

"No I'm not hanging out with anyone, maybe Morse and Jonah though, but well the both of you are always arguing so maybe you guys could use the time to smoothen out some kinks."

"Thanks but no thanks." They chorused again before Keffy turned to face Rex.

"Dude you should be jumping at such an opportunity." Keffy declared matter-of-factly.

" To hang out more than an hour with you? Tsk, no... No thank you, I'll pass."

" You only know the sun when it starts to snow."

" Hard pass darling, I'll take my chances."

"Look I'm not asking you to ask me out I'm simply saying you should feel privileged to have such an opportunity." Keffy blurted out. Bliss and Rex remained quiet making her embarrassed. " It's okay I was kidding anyways."

" About what?" Rex asked.

" Everything." Keffy replied.

" So that means you are asking me to ask you out, huh?" Rex said drawled taunting Keffy.

"Not about that part. No I wasn't kidding."

"But you said everything?" Rex complained.

" Suit yourself Rex."

" I always do."

"You know I feel guys should be privileged to hang around girls." Keffy began.

"Oh my God! Ladies, you guys came from men, our ribs, okay? A guys allowed to have five women, a lady's only allowed one man. Have some respect sheesh."

"Now that's just the most amount of sexist s**t I've ever heard."

Bliss just stared at the both of them for the time being. Everyone knew Rex had gender equality issues, not that Keffy was completely sane regarding the issue either but right now it was more obvious that she was joking than Rex was. Which was going to be a problem because Keffy was a semi-feminist; as she stands for the fact that women and men are equal but women and men are not the same. In the sense that women are weaker and shouldn't be handled by a male; on the other hand of which a man can hardly be handled by a woman even if she wanted to.

" You started it." Rex said, sticking out his tongue at her.

" No I didn't." Keffy replied angrily.

"Yes, you did."

" There goes." Bliss cut in; irritated.

" Look dude, you guys come from between our legs causing us much shitty pain which means you should slave-labour before you get any lady. Have some reverence, geez." Keffy said mimicking Rex's tone.

"The only reason you guys feel the pain is because royalty is excluded from harsh reality. We are not allowed to feel such pain. Okay?" Rex spat out going fully into annoy-keffy-mode.

" You know Rex you just disgust me." Keffy shook her head " classy caveman." She muttered under her breath.

"Hmm?" Bliss inquired carefully with her ears perked up for information.

"Hmm?" Keffy repeated feigning innocence.

"Who's a classy caveman?" Bliss asked nicely.

" No one." Keffy replied a little too fast.

" Really? So..."

"Just forget about it."

"It's me she's talking about. She just can't resist all this beauty." Rex cut in.

" No it's not." Keffy snapped as her cheeks turned pink with embarrassment.

" It is too."

" It's not."

"Yeah, by the way... Rex said you were angel pretty yesterday, you know? When you fell asleep. Bliss cut in.

"It wasn't Keffy I was talking about." Rex said avoiding keffys eyes who obviously found this very interesting.

"Oh, ok...who then?" Bliss asked with feigned thoughtfulness.

" Nothing...no one..." Rex stuttered and had both ladies raising their brows and smirking. " Look I was just thinking okay?"

"Mind telling us of whom?" Keffy pushed.

" It doesn't matter."

" Please indulge us." Keffy taunted resting her chin on her palm as she stared eagerly at Rex.

"No." Rex said flatly.

"Fine we'll let it slide, this time." Bliss said; resigned.

" Bliss there's so much work we need to catch up on." Keffy said.

"Yeah. Sorry, Rex time to read."

"Okay, I'll just chat then."

Keffy brought out her textbooks that she wanted to read along side her blue framed lens; after which she and Bliss settled to read.

Till about seven pm the table was very quiet as Keffy and Bliss read while Rex fiddled with his phone. Rex stopped fiddling with his phone and lifted his head, staring at Keffy he realised that he never took note of the fact that she needed glasses that read. But they sure were pretty. He swiped his phone, looking for the camera icon till he found it; forgetting to put off the flash Rex tapped on the 'snap' button. Bright light spilled out of the phone lens and had both Keffy and Bliss lifting their heads.

" What are you doing?" Keffy asked annoyed to have been pulled out of her concentration.

"Oh... It's uhm dark... Yeah it's dark I just wanted to see if you could actually see what you were reading." He replied confused and embarrassed.

" Then why?..." Bliss was cut off when her phone rang. "Hello." After speaking for a while with whoever was on the other side of the phone she dropped it and started packing up her books and other things.

" Where are you going?" Keffy asked.

" Home." Bliss replied sullenly.

" Why?" Keffy demanded.

" My Aunty's sick so my uncle wants me home."

" So you are going to leave me with this sexist villain?" Keffy complained pointing at Rex.

"You mean sexy villain don't you?" Rex teased.

" No. I do not." Keffy snapped.

" I think you can handle him." Bliss said after looking from Rex to her best friend to Rex again.

" No, don't go." Keffy pushed out her bottom lip pleadingly.

" I have to, sorry darling. And you Rex don't be an unnecessary asshole." Bliss ordered as if that's would do anything.

"I can't help it." Rex replied.

" Try, bye then." Bliss said and gave a small wave before walking away.

"Yeah, bye." They both chorused.

"Are you done reading?" Rex asked Keffy.

" Don't talk to me." Keffy ordered.

" Okay, so are you done reading,then?" Rex said ignoring her.

" I have a dictionary at home that I can borrow you if you need it."

" No, I do not thank you."

" I'm not done reading."

" Okay, I'll wait." Keffy gave him a suspicious look then continued reading. About an hour later Rex started getting restive.

"Keffy." He said. " It's after eight."

"So?" She mummered without lifting her gaze from the book.

" It's late, let's go."

"Who's us?"

"Oh, please not now, just pack up and let's go."

" Hmm. Okay one more minute please."

" Fine. Give me your bag then." Rex demanded.

" What? You're distracting me. What?" Keffy scowled deeply at her book as she fought to regain her concentration.

"Your bag please."

" Here." Keffy said and passed him the large pretty blue handbag.

" Your bag's pretty." Rex said while packing her books.

No reply.

" I guess you are too deep in study to respond to compliments, then."

No reply.

"Keffy!"

" Oh, my God Rex! If you're gonna keep distracting me you might as well leave." Keffy yelled, frowning deeply.

"Sorry, its too late. We are leaving." Rex said matter-of-factly.

"Just so you know I didn't come here with you." Keffy said rebelliously.

Rex dropped the bag on the table and walked behind Keffy. He slid his arms under her armpits and pulled her up. Then gave her a cool stare when she whirled around and glared in his face.

"What?" Keffy demanded, fuming at the rudeness of the interruption.

"Do you always wear clothes that match with your bags?"

" What?" Keffy repeated confused.

She wore a skin tight black denim trouser and a light blue cardigan with glistening stones used to draw out the shape of a heart as a design. The cardigan was very furry and made it comfortable to just hold her; it felt like cuddling a cat.{meow!}.

Rex forgot that he was still holding her so he didn't notice when his hand slipped to her waist or when hers was pressed up firmly against his chest for balance. She wore a light blue face cap,the same shade as her bag and cardigan; on the hair fixings she had done earlier that weekend. Then to blend the colours a bit, Keffy had put on camo- green sneakers. " No. I do not." Keffy said after she pushed away from Rex's hold.

"You have nice fashion sense." Rex said; his eyes beaming with some unreadable emotion.

"Thank you. Now can I read?"

"No it's late, we need to leave.

"Whatever." Keffy picked the books she had been reading and shoved them into her bag.

Rex strolled out of basement ahead of her, and they both began walking towards the main gate so Keffy could take a bus.

"Do you like Morse?" Rex asked before rethinking what he had said. " Err...no, that's a stupid question...uhm I was kidding.

Keffy chuckled a bit before staring up at him.

"Ugh...well I don't know. Why do you ask?" Keffy sighed. "Okay let me guess, Morse is into Bliss and you want to know if I'll be hurt? If that's it,no, I won't be hurt." Keffy said confidently.

"That's not it."

" Then?"

"Nothing...it's just not it."

"Oh...are you into Bliss?"

"Huh, ha! Oh, well I wish." Keffys expression dropped. " Why do you ask?"

"Ugh...nothing, don't worry about it."

" What of Jonah?"

" No. Just stop asking questions, please."

By now they had gotten to the main road, stopping a bus she gave her direction to the driver. Keffy climbed in, forgetting to wave back at Rex. She plugged her ears with loud music and shut her eyes for a moment.

MORNING.

Six days to valentine??

"Bliss, I am feeling slightly Ill do you mind sneaking my name into attendance? I need to get some rest." Keffy asked Bliss as they stood outside class.

"So you are going home?"

" Please, I have to."

"Uhm...aaah...ugh! Okay then, but get well soon."

"Sure, thanks."

" Yeah and today we are doing night class at Rexs house in case you feel better you could come join us later." Bliss informed Keffy.

"Hmm. Oh, no I don't think I'll feel better. I won't."

"Is that a curse or a diagnosis?" Bliss inquired.

" None. I simply understand my body. Bye!" Keffy said, waving before she ran off.

EVENING.

Rex's house.

"Welcome" Rex said when Bliss, Jonah and Morse walked in then he opened the door wider and peered outside.

" Who are you looking for?" Bliss asked tapping Rex on the shoulder.

"Oh...who? Where's Keffy?"

"She's feeling Ill so she went home."

" Oh! Okay... Uhm, is she? Nevermind settle down.

Everyone seemed exhausted so they read for four hours, shared a late dinner before taking turns having their bath in the guest bathrooms. When Rex was sure everyone was asleep he dialled keffys number and called.

NIGHT.

KEFFYS HOUSE.

The walls of keffys room were done in a light shade of blue with butterflies that glowed in the dark; arranged in a heart shaped pattern on the one with the largest bare surface.

At the center of the butterfly design was a framed picture of Keffy in a jean jumpsuit, posing with her hands akimbo and a smug smile on her face. Keffy jogged into her room from the kitchen when she heard her phone ring.

Oh, no! It was Rex. No way I'm picking this, Keffy thought. Just no way. Err... Well I actually told Bliss I was sick so hopefully he'll think I was asleep. But it just might be fun to pick up, we'll have a late night conversation where we talk about nothing in particular, precisely because we don't have much to talk about that doesn't end in an argument, but still just pouring out out heart's to one another... Snap out of it Keffy, its not gonna happen. He likes Bliss; her subconscious stated clearly just as the call ended. Phew! What a disaster that would have been. Keffy thought sadly.

NIGHT.

REX' HOUSE.

Why isn't she picking up? Maybe she's asleep or maybe she doesn't want to talk to me, or again; maybe she's asleep. I guess I shouldn't disturb her then. Rex thought, ended the call and went to sleep.

MORNING.

FIVE DAYS TO VALENTINE.

Bliss left very early, so she could get home and change. Jonah and Morse simply had thier bath and picked out thier selection from Rex's clothes, promising to return it the next day, not that Rex cared what they did with the clothes so much. Except that the shirt Jonah took was kind of like a favorite of his so he did have vested interest in the safety of it's return. With that they left Rex at home and went to school.

Rex and Bliss walked into each other on their way to school, where they wanted to take a bus.

" Oh, my God! You leave around here?" Rex asked amused.

" Uhmhmm. Like six houses down from here." Bliss said pointing in the left direction.

"Mmm. Nice I guess we can do our night reading at your house tonight." Rex suggested.

"Naah. Not a good idea."

"So have you spoken to Keffy?"Rex asked; trying his hardest not to sound over interested.

"Yes, she's okay now. She should be back in school by tomorrow."

"Nice."Rex said lightly.

"Yeah. So they are actually showing this nice movie in film house on Valentine's day." Bliss said eagerly.

"Mmm, you're going?" Rex asked absentmindedly, not observing that it was more like an invitation than a statement.

"I don't know yet, but maybe... Are you?"

" Voen, voen ,voen... Naah I'd rather sit at home and watch Netflix." Rex muttered thoughtfully.

( Voen: a movie cinema in Benin city.)

" Dude it could be fun."

"What could be fun?" Rex asked as he frowned slightly with confusion.

" Voen."

"But how could it be fun for me when I'm not even going?" Rex asked sincerely confused.

"Why are you not going? It's not like you have anything better doing."

"Err... Wait, is Keffy going?"

"Okay then if Keffy is coming would you come?"

Rex laughed.

" Why are you laughing?" Bliss asked beginning to lose her cool.

"Nothing, sorry... It's just that the amount of come in that statement is testy. Cool." He added and erupted into another bout of laughter.

"If Keffy went would you go?" Bliss rephrased.

" Yeah."

" Mmm."

" Look she's not the cause she's just the catalyst." Rex said beaming proudly at himself until Bliss spoke.

" In what way?" Bliss asked confused.

" I don't know, chemistry isn't exactly my forte."

"So why then are you using chemistry related terms?"

" Because it makes me sound like a Jack of all fields." He continued beaming proudly.

" Oh, sweet Jesus! You do know that's not the saying, right?" Bliss complained.

" It's not?" Rex asked; confusion etched into his face.

" Oh, God! Rex you do need help."

The bus conductor called out their destination,they both payed and alighted the bus.