LIFE AFTER DEATH.

NOT SO FRIENDS

I don’t get complimented a lot, so I lacked a reply to him, ‘’how much is a plate?’’ I asked instead.

Scott raised his brows, he expected something else, ‘’are you kidding? This is a date, I’m paying.’’

The hair at the back of my neck stood, and my senses tingled, ‘’a date?’’ my voice was thin.

‘’I didn’t use the right words earlier,’’ he smiled and cleared his throat, ‘’can I take you out to eat brunch?’’

‘’’it’s too late, we’re already here.’’ The local girl was full of smiles, it was very unusual.

‘’so, that was your sister on the phone…’’ He turned away, now signalling one of the waiters.

‘’yeah,’’ I hoped he didn’t ask any more questions.

‘’what is banga soup?’’ The dimension of his tone when he pronounced made me laugh, ‘’what?’’ he reached, wanting to know why I laughed.

‘’you sounded weird.’’ I looked at him.

‘’are you gonna tell me or what?’’ His smile was contagious.

‘’palm fronds, also used to make palm oil.’’

His look folded, ‘’yeah,’’

He made the right decision to wave that discussion away, it would have turned into an agricultural class. I lowkey thought he would prolong the discussion about my phone call, but thank goodness he didn’t. The waiter came and Scott for a ‘double single’. I didn’t understand until I saw it. It was a single plate, loaded with enough wings for two people.

The wings were the most beautiful I’ve seen. Red, emitted smoke, slippery-looking and had scotch bonnet peppers, mixed with several spices plastered around the body.

‘’this is delicious,’’ I caught with a tissue, some juice dripping from the side of my lips.

‘’told you,’’ He also ate.

As the eating continued, I wished for a discussion to spiral from his end, that would keep our company flowing. If it were up to me to sustain the flow, it would die tragically.

‘’so,’’ Thank God, Scott was saying something, ‘’why did you decide not to leave with me… to the bay?’’

I was stuck, ‘’I… I don’t know,’’

He arched his brows and peered at me, ‘’you sounded like you knew what you wanted when I initially asked you, what changed?’’

He must have seen my inability to provide a reply, ‘’this is about Gustavo,’’ he shook his head, ‘’he told you anything?’’

Maybe now I could get to the root of the matter, ‘’I asked, but he wouldn’t say.’’ I rotated to him even more, ‘’what happened?’’

Scott dropped a bone inside the large tray in front of us, ‘’He lost the post of captain to me, not that he was a contender in the first place.’’

Now, we were getting somewhere, ‘’he doesn’t play.’’

‘’he did, last year. We were buddies.’’

‘’so, what happened?’’ I was genuinely concerned.

‘’he started a fight with me and the coach kicked him out. This happened last year.’’

‘’that’s it? Why didn’t he tell me? I was beginning to think it was something serious.’’

‘’believe me, it is.’’ His phone rang, I caught the name Jojo in all caps written on it before he turned it off, ignoring her. ‘’sports can get you into a really good college and if you play well, a scholarship.’’

He was right, things worked differently in America, ‘’now I understand.’’

The call got me shortly placing things in order, Jojo was the jealous ex character, who was willing to destroy any opponent, which in this case is me. By the look of things, Scott had been ignoring her calls, making things worse. I thought of the fact that I had to deal with her jealous phase in school tomorrow. What a tough ordeal.

‘’what do you do for fun?’’ He asked.

I had to think of something, my fun activities would surely make Scott puke if I told him. Frieda was right, I had to step out of my cave and experience what she believed was ‘real fun’. I didn’t have a real fun activity, so I might as well lie.

‘’skating,’’

He looked shocked, ‘’you skate?’’

‘’I… I do.’’ I didn’t, I’ve never even held a skateboard in my entire life.

‘’that’s cool’’ Scott brazed.

‘’you skate too?’’ My wish was that he would say no, to put an end to this skating thing I started.

‘’only the best in town,’’ he answered proudly, ‘’you want more wings?’’

I was filled, ‘’no, I’m good.’’

‘’there’s a skating hangout happening at retro park, can I take you? Wanna see what you’re made of.’’

Another date? I was bubbling inside me, but the thing was, I wasn’t a skater. Maybe I should have said no, to save my face.

‘’of course,’’ I released under my heavy breath.

‘’promise not to stand me up at the last minute?’’ He asked.

I smiled, ‘’I promise.’’

The call came in again, it was Jojo. I saw the surface of anger shown in Scott’s face as his brows were fiercely raised. The way he dropped the phone back sealed the deal; he was sick of her.

I released a deep sigh, ‘’Jojo… ‘’ I hesitated, judging his reactions before I furthered.

Scott exhaled gave me the connection I needed, ‘’ask, I know you want to.’’ His tone had portrayed an epitome of frustration.

‘’what’s her deal? She told me to stay away from you.’’

‘’Jojo is…’’ he drew closer to me, my chest dropped, I still hadn’t gotten used to him being in my space. ‘’how do I place this?’’

‘’is this because you guys dated? Maybe she wants you back.’’

He scoffed, almost in a mocking way, ‘’we didn’t date. We just had an entanglement, that’s all, nothing serious.’’

I didn’t want him to know the source of my information, ‘’I heard the whole school knew about your relationship with her.’’

‘’what the f**k,’’ he was smiling and shaking his head, ‘’Peyton, there was no relationship, much less anything public.’’

‘’so, it was private?’’ things weren’t matching up.

‘’very private and short, had s*x with her just once, I swear.’’

I pushed upwards, ‘’so nobody knew about it?’’ I needed to clarify.

‘’certainly not the whole school, just a few very close friends.’’

Both stories didn’t match, but obviously, Scott’s story seemed like it was accurate to me, since it was his personal experience. Why was Curly’s story totally different? Why did he lie?