Chapter 4 Mikel

He couldn't get the girl out of his head, he wondered what she use for her lips to make it so blue? Maybe she's a make-up artist, but then he remembered the look on her face and shudders, and what is wrong with his new roommate – he'd been acting wired since the encounter with the girl. He wondered what her name was.

"Ah, you must be thinking of our lecture today?" Posi asked with a teasing smile, Mike scowled. He knew they didn't hear a word that was spoken. It seems someone's back to his cheerfulness.

"What's the deal with that girl?" He asked. " Do you know her? You don't seem to like her.

Immediately his expression change, from open to closed. He struggled.

"I don't know her."

Mikel recognize a lie when he saw one, but he let it go partly because he's tired and besides, he doesn't want to find out if she's an ex. The rest of the journey home passes in silence.

*****

"Stop! " Posi said, his voice hard enough to stop Mikel from taking the steps that lead up to their room one-room apartment. Mikel froze. looked at him and for the first time of meeting him, he felt unease in the presence of his roommate because his face is utterly hard, devoid of any emotions.

"I'll go up first." It was a command, given, and expected to be obeyed. Mikel wanted to argue but one look from Posi he reluctantly stay put. He watched him move up hardly making any sound, that moment it stuck Mikel how dangerous he looked. Mikel took two steps, to get a better look at him but the moment he saw the door he was up the rest of the way because the door had been destroyed, the wood burned to ash. The apartment had been ripped apart, the book half burn, the bed had been burnt to ash.

"How?... What?" He didn't know what to say, this has not happened before, he's only ever seen it in the movies. Fire. The room smelled like fire, who would come to his room to set it on fire. If you want to rob, why would you need to touch it too? He looked at Posi, who was rigid and motionless, looking as if he'd bust into the fire himself.

Suddenly, Mikel got angry, who are you to set his room on fire? His pictures and books. And the books his father gave him!

He stood there blood pounding in his head, it looks as if his veins are made of naked wire and then touched with lightning. Outside, the black Cloud turns cloudy and thunder roar so loud it fills the house, the window rattled and lightning struck close to the house.

"Stop! Control it!" Posi shouted, but his words are sounding as if from far away. Control it? Control what? It looks as if his head would bust but suddenly something hit him hard on the head and he blacked out.

When he woke up, he was lying in a White room, which surprised him since he didn't remember when and how he got there, he made to sit up but the pain that exploded in his head made him lie down quickly. He scanned the room, small but tidy, the paint on the walls may at one time be cool blue but now it's faded blue. He was about to sit up and demand what happened and where he was when the door opened and a woman wearing the blue and white of the school nurse enter.

" Ah, so you've woken up, that's good." She moved to his bed, checking his temperature with her hand, what she saw must be good because she smiled at him, she looked at him for a moment and said. " Your mama called, said not to give you any drips or injection, you were said to have many side effects to new drugs." She scowled at him. " Thank your luck you didn't pass out for long or I would have had to inject you anyway.

He turns a puzzled look her way, his mother? Bad side effects of injection and drips? He can't remember ever being sick, how can his mother know he had side effects for injection? He wished his mother care enough to know.

He opened his mouth to ask when his mother called when the door open and Posi came in, he'd change his cloth to a type of black fatigue fitted from head to toe. It looked as if something has been ripped off from the right pocket side.

"Mikel! You're awake. You gave me a scare"

The nurse turns her scowl on him.

"Will you stop shouting? This is a clinic.

He gave her a cheerful smile, with his hair short military hair and dark dusty skin, he cut a very handsome figure. She shakes her head at him, muttering as she went to the door. She can not fully hide the smile that tugs at the corner of her mouth.

Mikel gave him a look, which he returned with a wide smile, hovering above him like a mother hen.

" Why do you always smile?" He asked, but even as he asked he remembers that it's not always that he smile, he hadn't smile when they found out someone had scorched their room.

"What else is there to do? Sulking or being sad solves nothing." He said the smile he gave him this time is less cheerful as if he'd try being sad and it didn't work.

"What of being more.." He searched for the world. "Reserved?"

"Is that what you are? Reserved?" He gave him a thoughtful look, then he smiled, more wildly than before. "I don't know, I thought you are trying for.." He pretends to search for the world. " Sulkly."

Mikel shot him a scowl. Posi's phone rang, stopping any come back he may have. He looked at the phone, the smile slipping from his face.

"I have to take this, coming." He went out. Mikel wondered who's calling him and why he didn't want to take it here. Maybe it's a woman? His mother perhaps or maybe it's his girlfriend. Thinking of their girlfriend made him remember the girl with blue lips. Is she a student there? Maybe she's even in his year class!

The opened door stop his thoughts, Posi entered, looking irritated and annoyed.

"When will I be discharged?" He asked, he want to go back to his apartment, then remembered that they don't have an apartment again. Posi must have caught the train of his thought because he lose a long breath.

"We will rent a hotel for tonight and look for a better option tomorrow."

"Do you know what happened today? And what is it about my mother calling?" He asked. Posi gave him a long look, his face full of concern and worry.

"What about your sleep now and talk tomorrow?"

He wanted to argue and let them talk about what happened earlier today, but the truth is he didn't want to talk about it, at least not yet.