Enoch.              
       
                     "I swear she has the hots for me."
                         Elijah wasn't always this full of himself. In fact, the Elijah they all knew well was like a chihuahua. Hiding his tail between his legs and face in a hoodie.
                          People called him a coward.  Enoch called him sensible.
Elijah however chose to believe in the people anyways.
                          "Eli, you called her Skinnine, why would she ever be attracted to you?"
                          "Hey, what if she secretly likes it when I call her that, uh-huh?" The idiot smirked, wiggling his brows.
                           Enoch raised his in response. "She ran out of the cafeteria crying and has avoided us for three weeks. Not a sign of "secretly liking it"
                           "Well, I'll prove it. We're going to her class right?"
                            "Right" He mumbled as they stepped aside for a few juniors to pass. One looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't place his face.
                           "Good. If she tries to avoid me or refuses to look at me, then I am prolifically right"
             Jesus!
                             "Elijah, there's nothing like prolifically right" He laughed. Eli's ways of creating words had never ceased to amaze him.
                               "No one cares dude." Eli shrugged nonchalantly, his eyes trained on some girl from their class.
                               Enoch's chest tightened then. His hands closed in a tight fist. He detested times when he felt like this. When he got jealous of his friends. Eli could be freaking carefree and he couldn't. He couldn't stare at girls without a collapse in his system. His brain would take in the wrong signals and erupt the things he wished would stay buried.  His head began to hurt as he tried to stay focused. Eli had been saying something.
                         "You okay? Enoch? Hey!"
                         "Yeah. Yeah, I am. What-"
   
                          "We're here. She's alone in class."
                           Enoch winced.
                         Eli's like this. He's always like this.
                            Gulping down the torrid thoughts, he entered the classroom instead, with Elijah in tow.
                            Tokunbo reminded him so much of her. They weren't alike physically, she had darker features and more flesh. But she liked solitude too. Doesn't let anyone in easily.
                          Maybe that's why you're so bent on dragging her to lunch with you.
                            "What's up Skinnine?" Elijah's loud mouth could; would; never learn to control itself.
                           He gave him a jab on the stomach and flashed Tokunbo a smile.
"Sup, Toks."
                             Perhaps she was attracted to Eli after all. Either that or she was just really surprised to see them because her eyes became as large as saucers and she literally flew out of her seat, got slammed against another one and a few terrible attempts to stand up later, she was sprawled on the floor with him and Eli laughing their asses off.
                            "Shut up and help me up! Nincompoops" she glared weakly which seemed to crack them up more.
                            "Nah. The floor suits you more. You should wear it more often." Eli joked amidst hiccups and they burst into laughter again.
                                God, I haven't had a good laugh in like years.
                                 By the time they were done laughing, she was on her feet with a book in her hand.
                              "What are you going to do with that-ow!"
                              "That's what you get for laughing at me!" she screamed in his face.
                               Enoch winced slightly before chuckling at the look on her face. "Oh please. Put yourself in our shoes, you'll see how hilarious you looked." He defended grinning.
                               She rolled her eyes, lowering the book, her brows furrowed. "What do you guys want?"
                       Straight, direct. Just like her.
                         Enoch groaned inwardly. He needed to stop thinking about her. She probably was somewhere else, plotting something else. Using him...
                Not now Enoch. Not now.
                              "Lunch" He grinned widely tugging at her bookless hand.
                              "Last time I checked the food is at the cafeteria, not with me."
                              Ooo, spunk.
                              "Exactly. Why aren't you there?"
                                 "I could ask you the same thing." she shot back.
                               "I came to get you. See? I have an excuse. What's yours?"
                                Her eyes flickered to Elijah and it dawned on him.
                              "What? Why are you both looking at me?" Eli asked when Enoch turned to face him suddenly.
                               "Apologize." He ordered grabbing his ear.
                                "Ow ow ow ow, not the ear Nochie, not the ear, fudge! Abeg," he whined.
                                 "Say sorry." Enoch pressed harder grinning wolfishly at Tokunbo.
                                "I swear to God, I will kill you when we leave this place." Eli groaned.
                                He barked a laugh then pressed harder. "Don't make this hard for yourself. Tell Tokunbo you're sorry." He glanced at Tokunbo and she stood squarely before them, arms folded, chin raised as she waited.
                             Definitely not what I expected.
                       "I'm.... Sowie skinnine." Eli moaned in pain.
 
                         "Wrong."
                          "Enoch, I swear..."
                             "Say it properly and I'll let you go."
                              He cursed under his breath before gritting out an apology.
Enoch let him go then and was ready for his shove... Only it didn't come.
                            "I'll get you later." Eli spat pointing a finger at him.
                              "Why not now? Afraid I'll chop your ear off this time?"
                              "Nah. I have somewhere to be."
                           That's new.
                           "Where?"
                            He shrugged in response, gave Enoch's shoulder a venomous pat and winked at Tokunbo.
"See y'all later." He walked out of the class with their eyes trained on his back.
***
                               "I can't believe we missed the whole lunch." Enoch groaned as he heaved himself out of the trap door and turned to help Tokunbo out of it too.
                               "I can't believe you made me go down there." she hissed as he pulled her out.
                               "You really should eat more. You weigh about a stack of three biology textbooks."
                             "If only you knew," she murmured rather dejectedly making him frown. "Ugh, now there's dust all over me."
                              He chuckled at her brown face. "You look cute. Now you're actually wearing the floor. And it's totally your colour."
                                 "Oh shut up." she wheezed, hitting his arm and maybe because she was all bones, he felt it. "Can we just go?"
                                 "Yeah. We have to come back."
                              "We?" her eyes wide.
                               We had to come back.
                                "Yes, we. You and I. Two people. Humans. Homo circumference-"
                                " It's Homo Sapiens." she corrected.
                               "I don't care. I hate Biology anyways."
                              "We... We shouldn't tell the others?" her voice was small. Weak.  It made him feel like a bad person. A very bad person. "They're your friends right?"
                                Enoch sighed, squatting so he could face her. She was pretty tall so he didn't have to bend much as he held her shoulders.
                              "Look at me" he urged.
                                 She did.  And he had to look overhead so I wouldn't be tempted to kiss her or anything.
                               "We can't tell anyone about this. Not one word, okay?" He whispered slowly and she closed her eyes.
                                "Okay."
                               "Good."
                              "Well, look who it is" A strongly familiar voice interrupted them and like always, every fibre in him weakened.
                               "Demi." He managed to gasp, jumping away from Tokunbo as she burned.
                              "Hello, Nochie. Guess who's back?"