บท 80: Eighty
The moment I hugged him, I felt the tenseness of his arms muscles reduce. His breaths became shaky, I could hear them because his nose pressed against the nape of my neck when I hugged him.
"It's okay," I told him and heard his breathing casually return to normal."It'll be over soon; Nathan's case. It won't take them long to see that you didn't do it. We'll be fine."
***
A week later.
At school.
Uche hasn't been regular at school; he was always having an interrogation session with the police or something else. It was hard to reach him because of that. He rarely got a chance to use his phone so I had to wait till late night, when he would have a chance to be online to talk to him.
No one knew we were dating yet. Thankfully, the police and my principal had decided to keep the investigation away from school so everyone just thought he was sick.The only ones who knew about the case was Nick, and Kim, and their other friends.
Nick hasn't said a word to me since his mum told him about the case involving me and Uche because she wanted him to give Uche some space for the meantime.
He also has been avoiding Uche when Uche came to school. It felt very weird, but I guess they would sort it out after the case was done.
I took my books from my locker and was heading to class with Casey when Kim stopped us.
"Hey," he smiled but I wasn't in the mood to return a fake smile."Come on, smile a little." He chuckled.
"You know the situation with..." Casey paused and looked around before whispering the rest of her sentence."With Uche. And you want her to smile?"
"He'll be fine. It's Uche after all." Kim laughed. If there was one person that hasn't been moody since Uche got involved with the police, it's Kim. I honestly think it madme Kim happy.
I hissed and was about to walk away when he held my hand to stop me. I glared at him and he immediately let go.
"I wanted to invite you to my party. It's this Friday. Time's 8pm till dawn. My parents are out of town." He told me with his annoying smile still plastered on his lips.
"An I invited too?"" Casey got excited.
"You can only come if Julie's coming." Kim winked at me before walking away.
"You can only come if Julie's coming," Casey mimicked his voice."Asshole," She cursed."Who wants to go to your stupid party anyway." She muttereed but stopped."Julie, are you going?"
"No." I just said and continued walking.
I found it hard to believe that Kim was throwing a party amidst what was going on with his friends. He knew well that Uche and Nick were in a bad place, and Uche was still in his case and yet, he was throwing a party.
***
Friday,10:19pm.
I opened my eyes and picked up my phone from the edge of the bed to see the time. It wasn't midnight yet. I sighed and closed my eyes to go back to sleep but realized I didn't feel sleepy anymore after turning and tossing in bed.
I decided to go online and watch some videos till it was midnight then I could talk to Uche. My notifications started coming in. I drew down the notification bar to clear it but I saw some messages from Uche so I opened the app immediately.
Me:[U Online?]
Uche:[typing...]
I smiled to myself as I stared at my phone waiting for his reply. He typed for a while then stopped. I panicked at the thought of him going offline but I saw that typing again and felt at ease.
Uche:[I miss u]
I stared at the text. Was that all he had been typing?
Me:[Any luck with the case?] I decided to ask but a different topic dropped from his end. He replied my question before I could read his previous message.
Uche:[U going to Kim's party?]
[They're not telling me anything about. it's progress. I don't wanna talk about it tonight.]
Me:[He told u about it?] I rolled my eyes when I got reminded of Kim's party.
Uche:[He asked if I could come.]
[U wanna go?]
Me:[I don't like parties] I typed genuinely.
[Would hv gone if you could go with me tho] I decided to add.
Uche:[Let's go then] My phone vibrated when he message came in after a short time.
Me:[What?]
Uche:[Let's go.]
[Ur aunt home?]
Me: [yh, she is]
[Re u allowed to party?]
Uche: [Open your curtains] He typed last and went offline.
I immediately pulled the curtains up and opened the window, he was waiting at his with a smile. I've missed that smile.
"Fuck them, Julie. I'll do what I wanna do. This might be the only time your aunt won't be able to keep you from seeing me." He whispered.
I smiled. It felt good to hear his voice not sad like when I would call him on other days. He seemed enthusiastic to have fun tonight.
"My aunt," I realized and stopped smiling."She's around. And Nick too. I think he might be hearing us right now since his room is not too far off."
"Nah. Nick's already at the party. And don't worry about your aunt, she's a deep sleeper. Just quietly make it out the door, eye won't hear."
"You sure?" I bit my lips, a little unsure if to carry on with going to the party or convince him to change his mind about going.
He chuckled,"She sleeps with earbuds. How do you think Nick made it to the party. Come on. I wanna hug you do bad. And kiss you too." He eyes smiled convincingly.
"I'll go change," I said and was about to turn around but stopped."What about you? How're you getting out, through the door too? Is your around?"
"He's being around since the investigation started so I'll use the window." He winked but I worriedly poked my head out of my window and looked down at the height. It wasn't too high but one could break a leg if they were to fall from where I was looking from.
"It's high," I blinked and looked back at him to know what he would say next.
"There's a ladder a little above the fence. I don't plan to jump down, I'll climb down." He chuckled as he cleared my fear.
"But the ladder is not so close to you, Uche."
"Don't worry, it's not my first going out the window."
I stood in front of my wardrobe and only then did I realize I didn't have a party outfit. I've never been to one. Never been invited, never wanted to be invited. Shit.
I finally made a decision to wear a baggy trouser and a crop top. I hope I didn't look too different from other people when I got there.
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