Ep 15 - A Bit Off

Black or Blue

NILTON

I looked at the watch on my left hand and frowned. It was 8:07 pm, and she wasn’t here yet. Strange. She hadn’t come to the hub yesterday, but I wasn’t expecting her to since she had texted me around 3:00 pm to say: Mandy has kidnapped me. I’ll come in tomorrow.

I had replied: Shout for help at the red light.

We had exchanged a few laughing emojis, and that was the last time we communicated.

But it was ‘tomorrow’, and she wasn’t at the hub yet. I had fully noticed at 5 pm, which was when she would usually already be here, settled in and working. I told myself it was the weather. Then at 5:30 pm, I told myself she’d overslept. But by 6 pm, I’d stopped telling myself anything and was just watching the door while pretending to read a paragraph I had now read eight times.

I called her at 6:10 pm and at 7:00 pm, but the line rang out both times. WhatsApp also showed her number offline. I sent her an SMS asking if all was well, but she didn’t reply.

I went back to my chapter and told myself to relax.

At 8:25, I packed up my things and set off for my room. The ride back toward my flat took me past the library car park, down the long path behind the science block and then left at the junction by the student union. Left was my flat. I took the left, cycled for about forty seconds and then stopped. Sitting there in the cold with one foot on the ground, I thought about Ibinabo again and became worried by her unresponsiveness, so I turned around.

Her building was a twelve-minute detour. I locked my bike at the rack outside and went in through the main entrance and straight to her door. I had just raised my hand to knock when the door opened and Ibinabo, in her pyjamas and with a trash bag in her hand, emerged from the room.

“JESUS!” she shouted and shut the door. Yikes. I smiled. At least she was fine, even though I realised I had given her a scare.

The door opened again, this time she didn’t have the trash bag in her hand, but her eyes still carried fear. Maybe even more intensely this time. Strange.

“Hey. Sorry for being a creep. I literally just got here and was about to knock.”

She didn’t respond, nor did she let me in. She just stood there with her hand on her heart and her eyes wide with fear.

“Are you good?”, I asked, now worried.

“I didn’t know you were there,” she said simply, and I nodded. Fair.

“I’m sorry, I only just got here.”, I repeated.

“Okay?” she asked as though asking me to get on with why I was in front of her door.

I shifted my weight to my other leg and frowned.

“Came to check that you’re okay. I’ve been calling. You didn’t come in today.”

I paused. “Are you okay?”

She held the door slightly angled in front of her, one hand on the frame.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I just had a slow day.”

The response was short and came a beat later than it should have. She was watching me carefully. Assessing me.

“Can I come in?” I said.

A pause. “Sure.”

She stepped back, and I went in.

The room smelled of coffee. A mug sat on the small table by the sofa with about an inch of liquid in it. The curtains were closed shut and her lights were off, making the room slightly dark. Her desk had her laptop on it, open but before I could look, she quickly shut the screen and then opened the windows. Then she stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed loosely in front of her.

“Have you eaten today?” I said.

She looked at the floor for a moment. “No.”

“When did you last eat a proper meal?”, I allowed my eyes to roam to the trash bag of popcorn and chocolates.

“I’m fine, Nilton.”

“Okay, do you want to go and get something together?”

“I’m okay. Really.”

She said it with such firmness that I took a step back and looked at her. Something was definitely off today.

“I can go,” I said. “If this is a bad time. I just wanted to check.”

She nodded. “I know. Thank you for checking.”

I felt a distance between us like a presence in the room. She was probably going through something.

I made to leave, but I paused at the door. At the very least, this was my friend.

“You’re acting a bit off,” I said, keeping my voice even.

Her eyes darted behind me, back to my face and then to the floor.

“I’m fine,” she said again.

“Ibinabo—”

“What made you come today specifically?” she said.

I blinked. “What?”

“Why did you come today?”

The question was so strange that I squinted visibly.

“I was worried about you. That’s all.” I said slowly, now feeling very silly standing there in her room. I had the immediate sense that whatever was wrong with her had something to do with me and that my presence was making her feel uncomfortable.

But I wasn’t going to make the mistake again of assuming that this was related to Mandy and their hangout last night.

“Right,” she said sarcastically as though I was lying. “You came all the way here just for that.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I did. You know what? I think I’ll leave but you know that you can tell me if something’s wrong, yeah?”

She looked me dead in the eyes and shrugged, “Nothing is wrong. Why would you think anything is wrong?”

I forced a smile and replied, “I’ll leave you to it then.” And then let myself out.

In the corridor, I stood for a moment with my hand in my pocket, confused. The fluorescent strip above me hummed. Somewhere down the hall, a door opened and closed, and footsteps moved away.

I went down the stairs and out into the cold.

I thought, on the way to my bike: What on earth just happened?

IBINABO

I watched him from the window as he crossed the car park. Moving in his usual unhurried pace, he got to his bike and took a moment with the lock, his breath clouding slightly in the January cold.

I stood there until he turned the corner and disappeared. Then I let the curtain drop and went and sat on the edge of the bed. The room was very quiet. It had been all day. I needed the quiet to think, so I didn’t go to my classes, nor did I open the curtains.

I was now in full paranoia mode.

I lay down on my back as my stomach growled and looked at the ceiling, thinking about Nilton’s face when he said I’ll leave you to it. He looked (or was acting?) hurt. He’d also seemed genuinely worried about me.

I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and wished to disappear from all my problems. But the ceiling was still there when I removed them. The room was still dim. The quiet was still loud.

Tell me everything, Nilton had said that crossover night, in the alcove in church. And I had. Foolishly. Now it had come to bite me.

As I was still thinking about everything, my phone buzzed on the bed beside me. I grabbed it with force and unlocked it.

SMS from Unknown number.

My hands went cold.

I opened it.

You didn’t leave your flat today.

That’s not like you.

I hope you didn’t upset your friend.

Or should we call him your boyfriend?

Anyway, we’ll call you this night by 11:45pm. Make sure you answer.

Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.

I read it twice and didn’t realise when I started visibly shaking. Whoever this was had watched Nilton leave. They had known he was here. Which meant they were watching from outside, right now, close enough to see my door, or they had known in advance that he was coming. OR it was just Nilton.

I put my shaking hand over my mouth. At this point, I didn’t care so much about the identity of the stalker, I was full on scared now. I just wanted to be safe. I jumped from my bed and locked my door, shut my curtains extra tight, holding it with a clothes peg and sat at the edge of my bed.

In that moment, I felt so alone. I couldn’t call Mandy or Nilton because they were top on my suspect list. I thought about calling 999, but it just didn’t seem like I’d get any solution from them. Thought of calling Binta, but I had burned that bridge. There was only one person left I could call.

I picked up my phone and dialled my mother.

---

I even though she wanted to call God! Lol.

See you tomorrow at 5:00pm!