Hearts Entangled

The first thing that hit her when her eyes snapped open from sleep, was the cold. Jinna sat up, her palms rubbing softly against her skin in a faint attempt to keep warm.

Her joints felt balmy and stiff at the same time.

She still had her singlet and short on, instead of her night wear, which only meant that she had fallen asleep listening to her roommates gist, while it rained heavily outside. She had slept through the whole night scantily dressed and uncovered, now her shoulder blades ached as a result.

Stiffening her hold on the bunk edge, she jumped down lightly.

Her bunkmate, Fikemi snored lightly in disheveled hair. Her body curled up in a slight ball, which was her signature sleeping posture, that seemed more fetal than sleep-like, as if she hadn't yet left the womb and clearly had no plans of making any womb escape. Just curling up. The posture that earned her the nick name " posh baby", because she was fashion posh and slept like a baby.

The room was very quiet except for the occasional " drip! drip!", Sound of rain drops hitting metal outside. Then the rare, in- between sounds of creaking bunks.

Everyone else was asleep, still dwelling in one of their best feelings of sleeping through a rainy morning, knowing they really had nothing of much importance to do. Most of them, had no lectures. Friday mornings were secretly termed the beginning of campus weekend because most lecturers never showed up on those days and even if they did, most of the students damned their lectures until Monday morning. As for her, a seven o'clock lecture awaited her attendance. One she couldn't afford to miss. Not that she could even miss any lecture.

Shell sponsored her scholarship and they could withdraw, if she proved unserious in anyway. Loosing such a wonderful previledge to study in such an expensive state school was something she could never afford. She had a goal to help her family and losing the scholarship was not going to help matters in anyway and that was one of the things she never wanted to think about.

The corridor was empty when she came out. Totally devoid of people and dirty. Very dirty.

Dark brown muddy water formed puddles in the small crater- like pot holes, that seemed to riddle the whole corridor length. Cartons of beverages , even wet tissue and used pads lay strewn across like some one had emptied a whole dust bin on the corridor. Not just emptied but had evenly distributed the dirty contents across the whole passage length of the corridor. The eyesore she subjected her poor eyes to every morning in the girls hostel, made recently even worse by the wet sand coated foot prints on the floor. She felt her skin crawl .

On a second thought she decided to bathe in the corridor, since no one was awake yet and the fact that the bathroom was already messed up.

Bathing in the corridor was totally normal, since the bathrooms went to hell every morning. Girls even walked naked to their rooms without towels and if they wanted, they walked around the hostel like that, in their nude.

" Good morning, hair twin", a sharp pitched voice cut her off from her reverie.

She looked up . It was who she thought it was . Fikemi her bunkmate, she was standing above her in the corridor slab with her bucket of water beside her. Her eyes bored through jinna's body, the way men looked at her lustfully. In a way that felt like they were stripping her of her clothes. She felt a little uneasy, though it was Fikemi and the glaring fact that she was totally harmless.

" Kemi", Jinna replied with a mustered smile hoping that Fikemi would look away or do something else but she still stood there by looking with het soap dish in hand.

" What!", Jinna tried again. This time she felt more uncomfortable.

" Aren't you washing your hair?.", Fikemi asked , ignoring her question.

" No, I'll do that at home", she replied.

" You're going home!", Fikemi croaked, looking a little surprised. She totally didn't expect it.

" Yes I am", Jinna replied.

" Why?.", She asked " We still have a lot of food stuffs and mum sent me money",

" I know Kemi, I just want to see my parents. It's been long". She replied." Almost two months", she added.

" Oh", Fikemi fell silent. She watched Jinna scoop more water on her body.

" So when will you come back?, She asked thoughtfully.

" Maybe Monday morning, my first lecturer will be by 9am. I'll leave the house before six, so I can meet up",

" That's too long ", she stated. She looked disturbed. " I'll miss you then", she added.

Jinna smiled inwardly.

" I'm suprised you will",

" Why?, Is there anything wrong with missing you?.

" So you'll stay back", Jinna replied ignoring her question. It was more of a reply than a question.

Fikemi had stopped going for weekends at home since the first semester of her third year. Jinna didn't expect a reply either because they both knew why and they feared talking about it. Jinna feared talking about it. Fikemi hated talking about it. But either ways they never brought it up. It was like one of their unspoken rules.

Surprisingly she replied any ways . It was a single short phrase.

" No",

Jinna knew she had struck a cord. Fikemi's cord and she knew better than to press on.

" I'll be at the room ", Jinna informed her after she had tied her towel. Fikemi's face was already lathered with soap but she still spoke.

" You won't wait for me?",

" No Kemi, it's too cold out here",

" Ok", she replied.

Jinna walked carefully in the corridor, so her slipper wouldn't have to slap mud water on her legs. Mud water from the dirty corridor itched on contact with the skin if it were not washed out immediately. Jinna preferred to wash with dettol when it happened. Fikemi's dettol was on almost at it's last millimeter and had to be used only in emergencies until they got another one. Using it on leg washing would be a stupid waste.

Fikemi had probably been thrown off balance with her proposed visit and even more upset with the fact that she couldn't also go home too like her on random weekends. Ever since she returned for the first semester of their second year. She had become more mutable. Fikemi was never like that and Jinna hated to see her develop such moods. The moods that usually came with children from broken homes. She hated that Fikemi was going through that. She didn't want her to go through anything at all. No child deserved to go through that, especially Fikemi.

Fikemi had been the one friend she had bonded most with even though she had arrived later than most people she met earlier. Fikemi had come two weeks after she had met Adesua and Ngozika. The first two friends she had made when she first came to the hostel.

Fikemi had come two weeks after she came. A little shorter, cute ,sweet with an almost identical thick hair like her. The reason why she called her" Hair twin", sometimes and the so called reason why Fikemi had talked to her first and they had bonded easily and she was caring too.

They benefitted mutually from each other too. Ranging from the fact that they had pooled their foodstuffs and everything together to their shared sisterhood. Fikemi easily opened up to her. She told her about the little conflicts her parents had seemed to always have before she even came from to the university. The trust issues that existed in her first semester of her fresher year and then, the eventual divorce that came before school opened for her second year. The reason she now disliked being at home.

Fikemi's home was broken. Her father took her brother and her mother took her. Being at home was horrible because of her mother's wealthy boyfriend's that had started to stay the night after the big break with her father. She couldn't believe that their family could go broken. That she would never really spend time with her father, her little brother or her mother again. That her mother could want another man apart from her father. That her father could want another woman apart from her mother . Those line of thoughts seemed to disrupt her whenever they crossed her head.

Apart from that, when she was not in one of her dark moods, she was much more better. Fikemi was fun, caring,happy and naughty. Even more funny with her inability to cook and her unreasonable fear of heights.

Fikemi had flaws too and they all revolved around Jinna in such a way that she barely noticed being used to Fikemi. Taking everything she did as cute but then to Adesua and everyone else they were flaws.

The fact that she stuck to Jinna a lot, called her hair twin and even baby talked to her most of the time when she was in her playful mood , even when Jinna told her to stop she would continue so that Jinna could get mad at her but it didn't always work Jinna secretly enjoyed being baby talked to. Most times, Jinna woke up to see Fikemi snoring lightly beside her. Defying her so-called fear of heights.

Adesua had once suspected that Fikemi's fear of heights was fake but Jinna knew it wasn't. She had seen the way Fikemi shuddered when they climbed the stairs. The way her grip tightened in her hands when they stood near the balconies in school. The way she struggled to keep calm within her self.

The door of room stood ajar, the early morning silence had long been replaced by the noise of endless chatter. Of bees buzzing at the same time, of everyone talking at the same time about different things in their corners. Many live theaters going on at the same time.

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