"Mornings are so stupid and worthless and so-"

"-Guy, shut up and dress up fast. " Nonso was quick to interrupt Segun as he stroked his left shoe with the liquid shoe polish in his hand.

"I swear, so stupid and worthless. I'm definitely not a morning person." Rooney chipped in agreement.

"Guy, at least your own still dey let you baff early, you even con dey dress up quick quick, unlike that fool called Segun." Kenneth replied with a smirk directed at Segun.

Segun put his wide-end comb into his hair and brushed upwards as he spoke. "Guy, that one no concern me, me sef I never bathe? I don baff already na Dominique una suppose to dey query and hin own no be morning matter, na phone matter. Dey press hin phone dey press sense commot for hin brain. "

"Guy, na your paleh dey don press sense commot for him brain. Bastard. " Dominique fired back and tucked his phone underneath his blue bedsheets before placing his army style duvet above it and dropping his pillow on it.

"Guy Segun, abeg dress fast. Na you we dey wait for since." Arthur said while combing down the hair outline on the sides of his face, then the faint moustache on the top of his lips.

Segun picked up his black belt, "Make una stop to dey yarn me that nonsense, I don wear school uniform finish no be just belt person dey wear wey una just dey query me since!"

"Shut up e. Belt without shoe, socks or even sense." Kenelum mocked.

"Your father yansh." Segun mumbled and pushed the iron into one of the holes in his belt.

"Na watin your maleh dey lick now." Kenelum scowled and Rooney scowled too.

Why did Kenelum have to have such a vivid imagination?

And did his friends always insult themselves like this?

Strong, offensive, rude comments were the order of the day and yet none of them ever got offended by it.

Sweet.

"Guy what are you talking? You don see when him mama dey lick your paleh yansh? "And that was it.

A question in pigin should've never held any importance to the five boys in the same room with Rooney, if it hadn't come from him.

"Maaad oh! Guy, you con dey yarn in pigin again? Finally oh." Segun exclaimed

Arthur smirked and stared at his friend. "Finally, the Americanism don commot for your body."

"I swear. Guy, na because of you we dey yarn for English all this time make you fit understand us small small!" Nonso said and chuckled.

Rooney looked round the room and slowly felt the air leave the room and the decibels of their voices decrease.

The temperature in there was suddenly dropping and it felt like he could hear his heartbeat as a revelation hit him.

One that shouldn't have even hit him.

Rooney stood up quickly and voiced out. "You're all mad fuckers."

He walked out the door angrily, his mood swings were getting out of hand now but he deserved to be angry.

They were talking to him like he were some foreigner, like he was a new kid and even Arthur joined in.

The Americanism... The guts.

Arthur.. The wrong guy he ever trusted, he could see it now.

The new kid with the plan to replace the most popular boy in his grade.

To climb the school hierarchy while masquerading as his friend.

To replace him and the new kid was yelling his name.

Rooney turned to glare at Arthur, who shouted:

"Dude, you no dey hear?! Where are you going to? We always go to the cafeteria in the morning together, remember?"

Remember??

Remember???

Remember????

Arthur's words echoed in Rooney's ears and his back muscles clenched.

Rooney heaved, took three steps forward and shoved Arthur.

"Do I remember? I remember clearly, guess who started the fucking rule? I did. I did, I fucking did!

Back in 7th grade, I didn't give a fuck if I was always getting to the cafe late because of those fools because they were my friends...

My fucking friends, and now they're all yours. You took my friends, you took my first girlfriend, the love of my life, my everything. Now you're trying to take my life. "

An unexpected outburst, Arthur definitely didn't see that coming.

Doubled his confusion.

"I know you fucked Elizzy, I know you fucked her more than once in Ghana and I know she thinks you guys have something going on, so please what gives you the audacity to speak on the 'love of your life' your everything and you're fucking the girl who hurt her best friend. Asshole. " Arthur stated calmly, he was still yet to understand why Rooney who claimed to love Munachi could do that.

Could he not stay without sex?

Sex wasn't that important and he'd learned so himself.

He hadn't had sex in months and he was happily dating Munachi.

Rooney froze.

He was fucking the girl who hurt her best friend and he knew just how close Silvana and Munachi were.

But then he wondered why Arthur should give a damn.

"Nonso didn't hurt her best friend huh? It's the poor girl who just spread her legs for him that everyone crucifies, mind you that she also still doesn't know till now that Silvana and Nonso were already fucking so in all of this isn't she just a victim here?" Rooney did not believe a word he said, he did not see Elizzy as a victim but it was all she echoed everytime they were together talking.

How she liked Nonso and could not stand him being sex less for almost two years. How she did it from the goodness of her heart.

He didn't believe she was some poor helpless girl in the situation like she so badly wanted him to believe, he instead believed she wanted to sleep with Nonso solely because the great Silvana was his girlfriend-he was beginning to realize she liked coveting everything, popularity, boys, status, relevance, he was beginning to realize she was obsessed with fucking women over... and only women she admired.

Women on a pedestal, she wanted to knock them off and bask in their sunlight.

Every single word she's said about Silvana did not align with what she said about her reasons for sleeping with Nonso, even the things she said carelessly about Chiamaka. She wanted to live the lives of the people she admired.

Rooney sighed deeply, "Well and so what? So what if I'm fucking her? I don't owe Silvana some unbound loyalty just because she's friends with Munachi and we both know she minds her business and Elizzy is not her business.

Don't come here and act all up and holy with me like you're too big for sex now because if Muna lets you fuck her you'll probably still be in between her thick thighs right now? Wouldn't you? " He was taunting him, teasing him and playing his cards right. But what he didn't know was that Arthur could play too.

"What if she already has? What if.. I took her virginity in her home in Lagos, on her bed after eating her out and making her cum? Making her call out my fucking name and not yours.

What if she'd held my neck so tightly with her arm and begged me to go easy on her? What if with every deep thrust I'd made her switch from cries to moans? You know what they say about women on birth control, why the fuck do you think she's thick now? So Rooney Edwin Chizutere, riddle me this: What if I'm the first man who's been in her?"

In a twinkle of an eye, Rooney had lost. He knew it was some trick, a sick plot to get him to throw the first punch outside their dormitory door, he knew Munachi couldn't have had sex with him, he couldn't even picture it, he never let things go further than dry humping because he didn't want to turn her into another Chiamaka-he was afraid of turning out her light and his brothers words repeated in his ears everytime he was alone and unsupervised with her, even they knew that he ruined girls and he was afraid of tainting her, he knew he was the only reason why they hadn't explored their relationship sexually, he knew she was very curious and eager to try anything new but still no way his Munachi would give him her virginity even if she was the most curious girl in the world, Arthur wouldn't have done that to her. Arthur shouldn't have done that to her.

He knew how vulnerable she could get if she got sexual, he didn't want that for her. He didn't want her tasting from the forbidden tree and if Arthur had somehow given her a fruit out of that tree, if Arthur had somehow removed the purity on his Munachi he was going to leave him bleeding!

So, he'd failed and everything he believed he knew about Munachi vanished into thin air. His trust in Munachi this time was far less than his slowly accumulated hatred for Arthur. They needed this, pretending to be best friends wasn't going to solve anything. Arthur needed to know just how much he was hurting...

And no one else would understand that other than Arthur himself.

••

"Are you both mad? Just look at your uniforms." Dominique admonished the two teenage boys who were heavily panting.

"Why una two go even fight?" Kenelum asked, his right palm shaking besides his right ear.

Segun shrugged and replied. "Guy, me self I don't know. Best friends no dey fight."

"Isn't it obvious already?" Rooney snarled and wiped the blood off his lips.

Arthur rolled his eyes and patted the painful bump on his cheek. "We're not fucking best friends."

"Never was, because best friends don't break the bro code." Rooney hissed.

Arthur was finally fed up. "Bro code? Bro fucking code? Dude, you're the one breaking every fucking one of them. I've loved Munachi since the first day I saw her dancing in that auditorium and you know i-"

"-You were insulting her." Rooney eagerly corrected.

"Exactly why you should've known it was fucking serious. I admit, I fucked up. I shouldn't have avoided her and I know it now and I regret being that stupid every single fucking day. It's a regret I'd live with for the rest of my life. But when you two started dating what the fuck did I do then?

Like, I already knew I really liked her already, hell I might have even loved her! But what did I do? I backed off, okay! I backed the fuck off.

If you're going around holding in so much hatred for me over me dating her I'd like to remind you that you were fucking gone already! I never flirted or acted stupid around her for one second while you were still here.

No one expected you to come back and we fuck as hell still don't know why you're back because you don't fucking talk about it, you don't do nothing but wheeze throughout the night while you're asleep scaring us all to death because you are asthmatic and we can't know if you're having an attack or just a nightmare, but still we welcomed you because we fucking missed you. But how do you act? You're acting like some possessed dick head. A lunatic, a mad fool, a young child with insecurities. You're acting like who you're not."

But Arthur wasn't done yet. "If it's because you think I betrayed your trust, if you think we all did." his voice cracked and for the first time in a long time he could feel tears well up in his eyes.

Rooney was hurting him. The fight, his face.

He was hurting all over. Physically and Emotionally.

Rooney had hurt him.

"Ask yourself why you feel so entitled then remind your stupid spoilt ass that no one did. I fucking love you, we fucking love you. You're not like a brother to me, you're my fucking brother Rooney! All of you are, I don't have any siblings on Earth. I don't have anyone except you guys so please just fucking stop already. " Arthur heaved out and wiped the tears that had fallen on his cheeks.

"I didn't fuck Munachi, I haven't, we're more of friends than lovers so if it's that fact that's annoying you because maybe you can't stand the thought of us getting intimate then know that we've never gone past third base and I don't owe you an apology for that, she's my girlfriend. I don't know why you fucking didn't go past first base with her but our relationship is not a replication of your relationship and she's older now and we're both very attracted to each other but, the funny thing is we won't still fuck because everyone here knows she's not like that. She's saving her self for marriage, she's not like that. "

"Neither was Silvana." Rooney muttered loudly and hissed, he was irritated at the thought of his Munachi and his best friend in third base, irritated at the audacity to try to ruin her, so irritated that the declaration of love that had warmed his heart and made him smile was instantly gone at the mention of that.

Why I didn't go past first base with her?

Because I ruin women, I ruin women.

If I put my penis in women, they immediately corrupt internally, they self destruct, they become addicted and they'd do anything to stay with me.

Chiamaka, Tiana and now Elizzy was signing up to be destroyed.

Nonso turned to look at Rooney and rolled his eyes.

Out of everything Arthur said, that was the only thing he responded to.

It was like this prick head wasn't even listening to a word Arthur was saying.

"Meaning? Dude, no one's told you I've fucked her." Nonso said to Rooney and eyed him slowly.

"And no one needs to. The entire school might think she's still a virgin and have no idea about the bet but I fucking do. Silvana also wasn't the type of woman to have premarital sex but hey, you guys have probably done every position in the world like horny rats. " Rooney said, he wiped the dust off his shirt and unbuttoned his school shirt.

"Shut the fuck up. " Nonso scowled at him and Rooney chuckled.

"I'm also not blind, I can see you've ruined Silvana. Sex ruins women-"

"Watin that one con mean now? Jesus Christ!" Arthur exclaimed. He was sounding like a Kenelum reincarnate.

Sex ruins women. Kenelum 2.0

"You asked why I didn't go past first base with Munachi, didn't you? Well I'd fucking tell you Dike. You have no idea just how different Chiamaka was until I had sex with her, you've not seen the extreme changes women go through in just this Emerald Academy after we have sex and the unfortunate thing is they think they've been touched by Jesus Christ himself and it's very ironic because I'm nothing but Satan!"

Kenelum hummed in agreement. He could remember how different Chiamaka was.

He found her annoying and hyper pink with her pink-everything aesthetic.

Dominique nodded at Rooney's words. "He has a point man. You saw the Chiamaka that punished her classmates and the Chiamaka who giggled when Femi slapped his his own classmate because of her in the cafeteria but you never saw the Chiamaka of 7th grade. "

"Amaka was so different back then. " Kenneth sighed.

"She was a cute angel, very nice and respectful. She was also shy and I remember I used to have a real crush on her. She was so beautiful and so pure. " Segun added.

Rooney frowned.

He'd never voiced this out to anyone before, not even Munachi. He never voiced out how now when he looks at Chiamaka and see Tiana he feels intense anger because of how similar they are and then intense guilt because he put her on that path.

"There's no way Chiamaka was ever nice. " Arthur scoffed.

"Guy. " Nonso sighed and continued. "She actually was, it's impossible to imagine but it's true. Chiamaka was once respectful to... me too. And everything he's saying about girls treating him like he's Jesus is also true. Women mark territory for both of you like mad, but I think that's where he's making a mistake internalizing blame like that. "

Nonso walked closer to Rooney and rubbed his shoulder. "See guy, I know we don't see eye to eye but sex does not ruin women and I beg you in the name of God and I'm pleading now because you would be the one fucking begging me next time. Don't you ever in your entire life again, say Silvana is ruined. " He glared at him, stared straight into his eyes and warned him.

Rooney nodded because in that moment he was proud of Nonso and he finally returned the respect.

Nonso gave a tight smile and stepped back. "She is not, us having crazy sex everywhere did not ruin her. If she was even ruined it'd be because I cheated but I'm committed to building that part of her block by block until she forgets it ever happened. So I'd tell you this and you better listen to me carefully. "

Arthur smirked at the scene in front of him.

Strange things happened in Emerald Academy. Munachi and Kenelum becoming friends.

Nonso and Rooney seeing eye to eye.

Strange things indeed.

"Well fucking go on. " Rooney sighed at Nonso after five seconds had past without him saying a word.

He needed to hear everything Nonso had to say, because he felt each word resonate with him.

It was like a redemption being offered to him so he could finally break out of the jail he'd put himself in for three years.

"Sex does not ruin women. These women worship you because of well... you know, your brothers. " Nonso cautiously said the last two words slowly and Rooney smiled much to everyone's shock.

The day before he returned back to Nigeria, the twins locked him up in his room and they talked...

"Guy are you even the same Rooney anymore?!" Segun exclaimed.

Rooney turned his face to roll his eyes at him. Then returned his gaze back to Nonso, he needed him to finish speaking.

"They worship you because Darren and Darrel were the D² and you were their younger brother and I know you already knew that but when you rejected them or did not want to give commitment, you broke a wiring in them. That's what ruins women, when their object of worship does not want them in the same way, they go haywire. I'd tell you what ruined Chiamaka even though it's a bit tricky for me because she's the only one who did not worship you or your brothers so I don't even know what made her so attached to you.

I don't know what purpose you served to her, but I'd try to tell you what fucked her up and it's the same thing, you were on this pedestal to her but you couldn't give her loyalty so you started kissing other girls, sneaking into the toilets and having sex with other girls while she wasn't and she's already marked territory on you.

It's the same pattern with everyone you think you've ruined. The sex didn't ruin them, it's the unrequited attachment they had to you. " Nonso finished and Rooney felt himself stagger backwards.

Wow.

Fuck.

Wow.

"Munachi's attachment to me was returned, you think she would have been okay? Her purity would have remained the same??" He needed more elaboration, he need to hear more. He needed more.

Nonso laughed. "Of course man. Silvana is still the same blabbermouth as she was in 7th grade. Even when we fuck, she's like 'Yes that spot' or like 'A bit upward, no no, wait oh God yes, just keep going at it', she's a really verbal pillow princess. " Rooney frowned at the mental picture Nonso just painted and stepped back.

And he's still the same Nonso from 7th grade isn't he.

He was impressed with Nonso's words. Rooney felt like he'd underestimated him his entire life.

Arthur felt conflicted at Rooney's question, but he sighed and remembered the reason he stopped pining after Munachi in SS1 was because he wasn't even sure he could stay faithful in a relationship.

Every man with their own internal battle.

Rooney reached a hand out and rubbed Nonso's shoulder, "You're... right. I guess I'm sorry for calling Silvana ruined and you're right. I internalized blame a lot.

I took ownership of how Chiamaka turned out after sleeping with me and decided I'd never do that to Munachi, it's crazy to just realize that it would have never happened either ways... because sex... sex does not ruin women. "

"You weren't even the one who put her on that path... " I did. Kenneth said and looked away.

"You're now a walking time bomb you bastard." Dominique inputted with a hiss.

"It'll be hard dealing with you." Kenneth scowled.

Kenelum took a deep breath in and spoke. "But as far as you no go dey punch everybody wey you see. Like Arthur did years ago. We fit manage you like that."

"But guy, calm the fuck down. You're not the Rooney we used to know, you're acting like a drug addict on rehab. Someone who's easily triggered." Segun's comment was harmless but the voices in Rooney's head were quickly activated.

"This blue pill is bound to make you feel like you're in heaven."

"See how his face just changed?"Nonso asked his friends.

His facial expression proved what Dominique had said to them in Rooney's absence to be true.

Arthur nodded. "Guy, Dummy you were right. He's gotten mixed with some negative people in California."

He removed his shirt and rubbed in his oil perfume again before grabbing a new shirt behind the circle they've formed.

"Dude, spill we've been waiting weeks to know the full story, we already have our assumptions. Just spill." Kenneth told Rooney who was arranging the tie on his chest.

He wasn't ready to spill anything, but he knew he was cornered. He could lie and get away with it, but his new past was weighing him down and this set of people-Arthur included especially with everything that'd just happened-were the only people who weren't family that he could trust.

Trust blindly.

"What do you want to hear? We have less than thirty minutes before we actually have to leave the hostel, thirty minutes is not enough time to come clean." Rooney frowned and folded the collar on his clean shirt.

Arthur watched his best friend and wondered if they'd just had their first fight because of a woman or because of the bottled secrets Rooney was yet to tell.

And in that second it made sense now, absolute sense... He could see his friends holding him back as he punched the fourth person in four days, he saw Rooney and Munachi holding hands in front of his mom, he remembered the gift his mom had given Munachi while he stood there completely frozen and he wondered if she still had hers, if Rooney ever got his.

And at once he felt like an outsider, he could see it now. It wasn't Munachi and Arthur, it was Munachi and Rooney, Rooney and Munachi and Arthur. Arthur and his friends.

Maybe it wasn't ever meant to be Arthur and Munachi, maybe fate just had to let him know by bringing back Rooney. Her official mate.

Everything he felt in that moment told him to end his relationship with Munachi.

Yet, there was no way he could do that... Munachi would be devastated, she won't even want a break up.

But, there was a way he could do it.

He could act like a total jerk and she'll have no other choice than to end things with him herself.

He'd seen his friends do a thousand times, it always worked. But then, that was because they were tired of their relationships.

And already had a girl on the side they liked. He wasn't tired and he couldn't imagine himself liking any other girl other than her.

But he had to do it. This relationship was already unhealthy... Unhealthy but not for the couple but for Rooney.

"Arthur... I love you too, all of you by the way and I hope what I'm about to say doesn't change how you view me. " Rooney declared his feelings and his friends mockingly cooed at him.

"Listen guys... " Arthur cleared his throat when they all stopped and Rooney was glad for the distraction, at least he had time to phrase his words properly and explain how he'd spent time in jail.

"I don't want to do this... Munachi probably wouldn't want it either." Rooney's eyes were on Arthur the second he mentioned her name.

"But I'm breaking up with Muna. If that's what would make this prick head feel better then I would." Arthur snarled, then frowned and put his head against the door of his closet.

"Guy shut up abeg. You do no such. Forget Rooney, don't give the nigga what he wants." Nonso was the voice of reasoning Arthur needed to hear.

Rooney felt confused. What game was Arthur playing? And why?

Dominique said, "Yes, guy. You deserve to be happy with he-"

"How guy? How can I be happy with her when it's clearly killing Rooney? How? Things have become awkward between us. We've lost our vibes. I love her but I'm not sure dating her is the right thing at the moment. This fool clearly needs emotional support with the shit he got himself into abroad and as much as it'll kill me I have to do it-"

"Shut up. Arthur shut the fuck up. All the times I complain have you ever heard me say you should end things with her? No, it'll leave her feeling gutted, worst it'll leave you feeling gutted. I'm a fool, a prick and a stupid bastard I accept. Don't end things with her because of me, but I want you to take a fucking break. You two, two weeks, temporarily end it. I'm not going to pretend and not say it, but I'm human and I got my own shit. Instead of breaking up with her, suggest a break.. Two weeks." Rooney reasoned and his friends stared with gaping mouths.

"Guy you have made audacity oh" Nonso snickered.

"Don't agree to that bullshit. Women don't like that break shit. " Dominique advised but it was too late.

"Fine. But after two weeks you'll have no rights to complain if we get back together stronger." Arthur agreed and Rooney nodded.

Two weeks. Two weeks.

He could survive.

Rooney was ready to talk now. Ready to explain, ready to start healing... Relying on Elizzy to release some frustration and play pretend was just going to ruin him in the long run, he needed to heal so he can be made whole again.

"In California, I had an encounter with the devil itself and her name was Tiana, bitch was the worst person I'd ever met in my entire life. She fucked me up and I have only myself to blame. I didn't know it then but she was a junkie who cleaned up well. "

Arthur scratched the back of his head and listened with rapt attention.

"She wasn't also a junkie, she was a trigger-happy junkie popping her pills everywhere into my system without consent and I didn't realize it on time because afterwards I always blacked out and my memory was gone but eventually it started adding up. I always forgot the night before anytime Tiana was present in a hangout. I didn't even know what she was putting in my drinks, I don't know the type of things I was consuming and she didn't tell me. She just casually put drugs in everything so I'd 'fuck her better' and I never remembered what I did. Eventually I figured it all out and had a talk with her. I warned her to not be dumb around me and she started crying and going on about how her stepfather did it to her. I even offered to pay for her rehab and mine too because I was having withdrawal symptoms so bad.

She was making me a junkie too and I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to explain to mom. I decided to just lock up, after all I've handled it right? So I didn't say anything, which was the first biggest mistake I made.

One day though I woke up in some racist poor boy's home with no memory of the last night, I woke up next to a naked Tiana and I was already drunk beforehand so I didn't notice she had a pill on her tongue when she kissed me. She'd drugged me again. Mistake number two I made was continuing to hang with her because I thought she'd really stop. I don't even remember that night, I still don't remember anything but it's what led to my eventual downfall. Everything that happened that night. "

"Guy, lock the door.. Even if Jide wan break down the metal door, make he break am. No one's leaving till he's done talking." Dominique commanded and Segun stood up after nodding.

He turned the key twice in the hole, then returned to sit on his bunk bed.

Now, they were all ready.

Ready to be one again.

••••|