Saint Patrick's College

Chapter Twelve

"So, what do we do?" Adaeze pulled away from him. She twisted her wristwatch around her wrist. Why would they impound the car? Didn't he have the complete paperwork? She wanted to ask a million questions, but she settled on the one.

Femi didn't look up from his phone. He tried calling. He waited for it to ring then pocketed the phone when no one answered. He let out a string of curses beneath his breath.

"Relax now, we can just take Uber back."

"Do you know how unsafe that is?" Femi asked. "Let's even play into this scenario of yours. What if we don't get a tinted car? What if the driver winds down when we get to the school gate? Eh, what will we do then, Chinasa?"

The girl couldn't answer.

Adaeze had used Uber and Bolt a few times, it wasn't as dangerous as he made it out to be, but she could understand talking from his background. She didn't know much about him, but she knew enough. She knew what he told her. She knew that he came from wealth, the kind of family that was known everywhere; his mother was a beauty queen in her day and grew up to own her own cosmetics line and his father was one of the biggest sports commentator's in the country. She could understand his need to be safe.

She tried to come up with some way they could get the car back. What if they went to the Road Safety office to beg? Didn't these kids have money, couldn't they pay their way out of every problem? She kept drawing a blank. Plus, if they were to go to the Road Safety office, they would miss curfew and have to spend the night out of school. She did not want to do that. How would she explain coming back in the morning? Everyone would know she left school.

No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. She should have listened to her instincts, she should have never trusted Femi. She was going to get expelled and it was going to be her own fault, again! Why did things like this always happen to her? She was a good kid, she could cross her heart, but bad things always seemed to happen to her, not her siblings, not her friends, just her.

"Guy, stop being such a pussy, let's take Uber, I can't be out past curfew you know I already have two strikes." Michael said.

"We might be lucky to get a tinted car, you wouldn't know until you try." Zainab said.

With nothing better to do, she started to pray in her mind. She promised God that if he got her out of this situation, she would never follow Femi anywhere again no matter how tempting.

That's when a miracle happened.

Femi's phone buzzed again. Another text.

He let out a sigh of relief.

Ayodele got the car back.

She didn't know when or how, but fueled by nothing but relief, she pulled Femi into a tight hug and held him as if he were her lifeline. He held her back just as tightly, giving little care to the fact that his friends were all watching him.

She wasn't going to get expelled!

She pulled away and glanced at her watch. They had half an hour to make it back to campus before curfew. They were going to make it.

"Let's start going so we can catch up with him when he gets to the parking lot."

Femi's lips curled up in a slight smile. "Relax, he's still far, but he'll be here soon."

Still far? How far?

Adaeze's anxiety was back. For her prayer to be answered she needed Ayodele to already be at the parking lot.

As if reading the look on her face, Femi said; "Don't worry, he'll be here."

She chose to believe him.