Coming out of the room and standing by the doorway, Audrey asked “why does the room smell like sex?” and they all collapsed in fits of giggles.
TY’s face clouded for a moment and then taking it in her stride, she just came up with a witty remark. “Hmm. . . Audrey! Are you sure you haven’t gone in there to be touching yourself?”
“Good recovery” Chris thought to himself still lying on the couch and still pretending to be in a drunken slumber. He kept listening to them giggle uncontrollably and laugh loudly until the number of people still awake began to dwindle. He was beginning to feel increasingly tired, then he started to doze off and then he eventually slept off.
He woke up with a start. The light from the sun was hitting him from the wrong side. He looked around feeling disoriented and for a couple of seconds, pretty confused. That was when he remembered everything: the drive to the island, the time killing he had done in that cozy little bar, the drive to the hotel the girls were staying, the small talk at the door, the introductions, the heart-to-heart, the sex, and most importantly, TY.
He turned on the sofa to find TY sitting on the opposite armchair looking at him.
“Good morning.” Chris muttered.
“Morning.” TY replied in her singsong voice.
“What were you trying to do? Will me awake?” Chris said and smiled.
“Woke up not too long ago myself. Wanted to see if you had woken up. You looked so . . . so . . .” TY started to say fumbling for an appropriate word, “so . . . cute. Yes cute is the word. You looked so cute when you were sleeping.”
“Oh really?” Chris said mordantly whilst shooting his left eye brow up.
“Yes. Really.” TY said giving him the side-eye.
Trying to move away from the topic Chris said “I’d like my keys back now please. I’m no longer a threat on the road.”
“Oh. That’s true.” TY said and went into the inner room to go find the key.
Then she came back dangling his key between her fingers. Chris reached for it and then she pulled away out of his reach, daring him to come closer.
“Please give me the key. I need to go brush my teeth especially now that my mouth feels like a rat crawled in there and died.” Chris said.
TY laughed at the analogy.
“And besides, I need a shower and I need to catch some decent sleep on an actual bed.”
“All right. All right.” TY said tossing him the key.
“What about your friends?” Chris asked.
“What about them?” TY replied.
“Audrey in particular seemed to be onto us last night.”
“Don’t worry about them. They were all high off the bat last night. You should’ve seen what they were doing last night when they were supposedly sleeping.”
“Oh really? That’s great then. So tell me real quick, are we going to talk about last night or what?”
“There isn’t a lot to talk about. You’re obviously still in love with your girlfriend. Because let’s face it, she’s not an ex just yet.”
“Nevertheless, we need to talk.”
“We are not talking. At least not for now. Besides, I’m too much jelly for you at the moment anyways.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Go and sort your girl problems. Call me then.”
“Okay. When they wake up, tell your friends goodbye for me.” Chris said.
Leaving the suite and taking the elevator to the ground floor, the events of the previous night kept replaying in his mind. He kept seeing two images and those two images seemed burned to his memory. The vision from heaven that TY was when he knocked at the door of the suite was the first one. The second one was her face when he was inside her.
Getting to where his car was parked, he pulled out his phone and placed a call. Leaning against the car, he listened as the phone at the other end of the line rang off the hook. The first time, the person at the other end didn’t pick up. He tried again. The person didn’t pick up. The third time, right when he was about to give up, the line crackled to life.
“Hello! Who are you and what do you want?” A voice asked.
“Hello ma’am. Please can I speak to Lola?” Chris said racking his brain as to who might be using answering Lola’s cell.
“Who are you to her?” The voice asked again.
“I’m her friend from school and I haven’t heard from her in a while so I thought I should call her.” Chris said finally realizing who it might be. Lola had once told him that her mother was a strict disciplinarian that didn’t suffer fools and took no forms of rubbish. She had also told him that her mother didn’t believe in a girl having a boyfriend until she was ready to get married. And since an undergraduate isn’t ready to get married based on the fact that the undergraduate isn’t self-sufficient yet and definitely not ready for marriage, ipso facto he/she isn’t ready for a relationship. As his brain was processing all of this, he wondered why it could be her mother with the phone.
“Are you her classmate?” The voice asked.
“Yes ma’am” Chris lied.
“Okay. She’s here.”
“Okay ma’am. Can I please speak to her?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible at the moment. How do you know her again?”
“She’s my friend and classmate ma” Chris said.
“Okay. Okay. It is impossible to speak to her right now. She’s asleep.”
“All right ma. I will call again later.”
“When she wakes up, who do I say called her?”
“Tell her Chris ma. Thank you.”
“Okay. Goodbye.”
Dropping the call. His mind began to race. Why was she in a place where it was possibly her mother that had to pick her call for her? Trying to deduce what the problem or the situation was was yielding no results. He decided he needed to get the answers for himself. Getting into the car, he started on the drive towards the mainland. Sweet thoughts of TY started crowding the space in his mind but the nagging feeling about Lola was getting him apprehensive.
Racing towards the mainland, his mind was wandering between TY and Lola. He didn’t know what to think about. The delicious night with and sights of TY or the dread and trepidation he was increasingly feeling about Lola. He kept juggling between the two extremes and turning off the radio to keep his concentration on the road seeing that the battle in his head was doing a lot to counter the balance inside his mind.
Getting to the school gate, Chris blared the horn at the driver in front of him that seemed to be more interested with idle chitchat with the gatemen than concentrating on the road in front of him and moving it along as soon as he could.
As soon as he got enough space, he nosed in front of the other driver, glanced at the other driver and muttered profanity as he sped off towards Lola’s hall. Soon as he got to Lola’s hall he quickly scanned the area looking for where to park. Finding a spot, he eased the car into the space and parked.
Getting out of the car, he started to walk briskly towards the entrance of the hall. As he got close to the entrance, out came Camille looking flustered and distressed.
“Have you seen Lola?” Chris asked putting aside their differences for the moment.
“That’s the person I came to see. She isn’t here though.” Camille replied.
“Where then is she? I called her this morning and I think it was her mother that picked it up. What’s happening?”
“I don’t have all the details, but the long and short of it all is she fainted this morning.” Camille said without ceremony.
“Wait. What?” Chris asked bewildered.
“She fainted Chris. She fainted and it’s all my fault.” Camille said with her eyes misting over.
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