Page 62

When being a smartass with teachers didn't work, he took to nipping pens, and jotters, and math sets from Kainye's locker, then volunteering to look for the same things he'd stolen.

He couldn't tell how this would make anyone laugh, but Kainye's reluctant acknowledgement of his detective skills got him higher than anything he'd experienced.

“Why do you want to be friends so badly with Richie Rich?” Bobby, his best friend, asked when he forwent his lunch for a week, just to get the desk directly behind Kainye.

He shrugged. “Dunno. He just seems kinda…sad. Being alone all the time.”

When his classroom antics didn't work, Timi began looking out for him outside class.

They weren't in the same hostel, so he had only prep and mealtimes.

In the dining hall, he made sure Bobby, a permanent table head, gave Timi's fish tail to Kainye whenever he was lucky to get.

Then, he would wave at him, and Kainye would stare at him and continue eating.

During Prep, he would drag some of the boys close, discussing animatedly about Black American pop culture, or any of the novels he was currently reading.

When it still didn't work, he delved into academics.

Showcasing his vast knowledge rather loudly about Unicellular organisms and invertebrates, or the ingenuity behind Haikus.

After a term went by without much progress, he began to despair he may have to leave the new boy alone.

One evening, Kainye, strangely, didn't show up for Prep, and Timi went looking. He eventually found him huddled on the gnarly roots of the huge orange tree behind the sickbay. Crying. And Timi felt his heart break for the first time.

Kainye didn't chase him away. They sat in silence till Kainye said quietly. “I'm not a baby.”

His defiance fell flat though, as it was followed by a loud, rather babyish sniff.

Timi struggled not to smile. “I know.”

“Grownups cry all the time.”

“They do. Yes.”

Kainye raised blood-shot eyes, and Timi's chest felt like it had been dealt a physical blow. “When last did you cry?”

Timi blinked. “Uh…last week Friday.”

“Why? ”

“Will you tell me why you cried too?”

“Maybe. If you tell me.”

Timi cocked his head. “Shouldn't the first crier be the first to tell?”

Kainye frowned. “You cried first.”

Shit. True. “Okay, what if you've cried before that Friday, won't it make you the first?” he reasoned.

“What if you've cried before I cried that cry?”

Timi smiled. “Eish, so stubborn. Let's try it this way, then. All babies cry at birth, right?”

Kainye eyed him dubiously. “I guess.”

“So, whoever was born first cried first, and should go first.”

Kainye ruminated on the compromise, then spoke with the air of a judge. “Deal.”

Timi exhaled. “January 8th, 1994.”

And Kainye smiled. A flash of startling white incisors. “You're going first.”

It took Timi an embarrassingly long moment to croak out, “Why?”

“November 23rd, 1994.”

Timi swallowed. “Fine. But don't you dare laugh.”

“Okay.”

“I, uh, stubbed my small toe against the iron ring in the basketball court.”

Kainye covered his mouth with a palm, eyes turned crescent. “You cried because of that?”

Timi mustered a scowl, despite the sharp thrill coursing through him at the sight. “That shit is the painfullest thing ever!”

Kainye dropped his hand. “Are you sure? My grandma just died. She was my best friend.”

Okay, damn. What was a toe wound compared to death?

In the quietness that followed, Timi blurted, “I can be your best friend if you want. Not like I'm trying to replace her or anything, I'm just saying…if ever you feel like crying, I'll be your shield.”

“Okay,” Kainye said.

Timi's head whipped up. “Okay? ”

“Just don't steal my stuff again. And I don't like fish.”

Timi's mouth ached from how wide he was grinning. “Deal.”

“Okay.”

“I'm sorry about your grandma.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Timi didn't plan on falling in love. But what could he do when the boy behind the aloof mask began emerging?

The orange tree became their spot. It was, at first, a secluded place Kainye could mourn his grandma and recount his time with her.

Then, it became a place where Timi acted out funny scenes from his pile of novels, in a bid to get Kainye to smile more.

One night, Kainye finally blessed him with a full belly laugh as Timi acted out his favourite scene in his latest, The Great Santini.

“I should read it,” Kainye said.

“But you're not much of a reader.”

“Sounds mad. And we can compare our favourite scenes.”

Timi felt himself floating. “Cool.”

After the Easter break, Kainye returned with six novels, and Timi brought him a wristband he'd won in a street dance competition.

“Sorry,” he said, embarrassed. “I'll buy you a Patek and take you on a ride with my Aston Martin very soon.”

Kainye kept on staring at the band. “Thank you. I like this one too.”

Under their orange tree, on the thick vinyl mat Nurse Mercy had graciously let them use, they talked about everything teenage boys could talk about.

Except family. Kainye claimed once he could die and his father would only know about it three years later.

And Timi told him if he wanted to witness WW3, his parents should be locked in a room for fifteen minutes.

“Who would win?” Kainye asked, wide-eyed.

“We'll be glad to recover any body part of my father.”

Bobby didn't understand why Timi had stopped hanging out with him after class. When he accused Kainye of stealing his best friend, Timi laughed in his face and told him to stop being an idiot .

He had to admit though, he was fast losing interest in anything that didn't have Kainye in it.

And ever since they'd taken to lying in each other's laps or holding hands, while reading their books or just talking, Timi's heart had continued to swell.

Every night when he returned to his hostel, there was always something new about Kainye to write in his journal.

And when he tried not to, his head and heart swelled so much, he thought they would burst.

Two nights before visiting day, about eight months after knowing Kainye, they lay on their mat facing each other.

“Who's coming for you?” Timi asked.

A shadow crossed Kainye's face. “Used to be my grandma in my former school. Now, I don't know. Maybe my mum or my aunt and uncle. How about you?”

“Hopefully my Pa.”

“If it's Adolphina, I should come with you.”

Timi chuckled and released their hands to run a finger along Kainye's jaw. “Like my bodyguard?”

It took Kainye not answering to realise his thumb was moving back and forth on Kainye's lower lip. He froze. It had been so natural to touch him, like an extension of his own body reflexes. Kainye's eyes were wide on his face, and it seemed like he'd stopped breathing.

Timi dropped his finger but boldly shifted closer. “You know what might intimidate her though?” he asked.

Kainye's lashes fluttered, and a warm exhale stole out of his mouth and nose, enveloping Timi in a minty mist. “What?”

“Your beauty.”

Kainye's eyes opened wide. They glowed in the moonlight. “I'm a boy, I can't be beautiful.”

Timi scoffed softly. “You're beautiful, Kainye.” The truth, too heavy to bear in silence anymore. “The most beautiful person in the universe.”

Kainye's lashes trembled shut. “That's stupid, Eyitomi,” he whispered. “You haven't seen a lot of people.”

“I don't have to see anyone to know you'll beat them all.”

“So silly. ”

Timi stared at Kainye's face. Perfect features.

Angelic in its serenity. Lashes spread across his cheekbones like those bamboo hand fans Lara loved making.

His gut tightened and a faint buzz in his head drowned the chirps of crickets surrounding them, till Kainye's fractured breathing was all he heard.

His tongue formed the words, before his brain discouraged him for probably the hundredth time since he realised he wanted it.

“Kainye, what will you do if I kiss you?”

Kainye's eyes blinked open, his pupils seemed bottomless. “Isn't that weird?” he whispered. “You're a boy like me.”

Timi also thought his desires were strange.

A boy could only like a girl that way. If a boy liked a boy, it meant they were friends.

He liked Bobby and some other of his class/hostel mates, but his heart never felt so soft and fluttery when he looked at them.

He never wanted to hug them or hold their hands.

He wasn't particularly interested in listening to them talk about their grandma.

He certainly wasn't willing to forgo his meat during lunch because they couldn't get some, or sneak into the kitchens to borrow some refrigerated oranges to lessen the impact of pepper they couldn't handle.

What he felt for Kainye went far down his stomach. And sometimes the feeling was like sparks of electricity, turning his skin to a livewire of need.

He didn't want to be just friends. He wanted them to be everything to each other. He wanted them to be in love.

He loved him.

The realisation washed over him like a hot shower on a cold night. Soothing in its heat, while leaving an aftermath of shivers. Kainye continued gazing at him with those soft, questioning eyes, oblivious to the major shift his world had just experienced.

“I don't know,” Timi replied honestly. “Do you feel like kissing me too?”

Kainye licked his lips, then slowly nodded.

The gnawing ache in his stomach made him nearly sick. “Then, maybe it's okay,” he whispered, before closing the gap between their faces, tentatively placing his lips against Kainye's trembling ones .

It was a whisper, a phantom of a touch that disappeared as soon as air touched his lips. His heart galloped in his chest, as he held himself steady, eyes closed. Waiting.