LAWRENCE GAZES at the retreating figure of his brother unable to decide whether to run after him and pump sense into him logically or whether to punch him until he eventually inhales sense.
He cannot yet decide which one will be the more effective option but he still does not go for either. Instead, he remains rooted on the spot, watching without blinking as his brother stops beside her.
He can only see her back. She's leaning forward, writing something in a book. When his brother speaks, she freezes but then relaxes, shutting the book she was writing on with extreme force.
Lawrence watches, holding his breath as his brother walks around from behind the girl to her direct line of sight.
If Lawrence thought the girl froze when his brother spoke, then it's nothing compared to how she goes completely still when his brother walks into her line of sight.
Lawrence groans audibly, causing a few heads to turn to him but he doesn't care. All he wishes is that his brother will have enough sense to abort this incredulous mission.
This was an extremely bad idea. They should have stuck to the original plan; acting like she doesn't exist and try not to cross paths—atleast that one was working wonders.
But then again, Lawrence can't help but chuckle a little at how clueless the girl is to her sorrounding. A dozen times, they have come as close to crossing paths as a pin hole, yet she never, not even once, paid a second glance to him.
They have been in the same class for weeks now— ever since he and Col did the inter-university transfer from NU—Nairobi University.
Lawrence watches as his brother continues to speak to an unresponsive girl. Lawrence doesn't know much about the history Col has with this girl but judging by the little information Col gave him, then he knows for sure that the girl must be angry at Col's audacity, let alone the fact that he spoke to her.
He doesn't even know why he's supporting this insanity except that he always does what his brother asks. Lawrence could have said no to his brother—but there's a soft spot in his heart that causes him to give in more times than he'd like. Eventually, he always, always gives in—as he did this morning when his brother asked him to wear similar outfits yet again—despite having already laid down the outfits he would wear.
Col did explain why he needed Lawrence to wear similar outfits as him—albeit vaguely —but every morning, he always finds himself laying down a different outfit, silently hoping that Col let him off this look-alike leash just once. Afterall, it doesn't hurt to hope.
Lawrence should have known. He should have known this was the reason Col insisted so much to wear similar outfits and tie up his locs. But he can barely see any solution presented by this similar-outfit fiasco except that they now look like the same person.
A girl joins Col and the former girl down at the outdoor study area. The latter girl speaks to his brother in what6seems like a polite manner and Lawrence watches as his brother flashes her a smile. Col hesitantly glances at the former girl —who looks as if she's exerting every bit of self control —and then he walks away.
Col disappears out of sight and then the latter girl starts talking to the former and Lawrence decides to take that as his cue to leave.
He discreetly walks to FAAS, knowing that his brother must have disappeared either to the library or the Mess.
He walks through the hallways and then climbs up the stairs up to the third floor, walking to the lecture hall where his last lecture was supposed to be held but canceled and which will be made up for early the next morning. When Lawrence finds the lecture hall empty, he exhales, tension leaving his body in that single breath. He does not have the mental energy needed to deal with his brother right now. All he needs is silence in a Collins free zone.
He does not hate his brother. He loves him—after all, Col is family. Nonetheless, Col can be suffocating if lived with for a long time—and that's saying something seeing as they've lived together all their lives. Sometimes, he needs a rest from all the twin drama.
"Lord, please help me," Lawrence finds himself murmuring in an exhausted tone.
A few moments of silence is what he gets before the door flies open and by the looks of the throng of students that enters, a lecture must be about to start. Reluctantly, he picks up his stuff and leaves the room. He descends the stairs quickly, making sure not to bump into someone ascending them and a few moments later, he's standing outside the towering building.
He glances around the area outside the faculty, feeling a little bit tired to go looking for an empty hall. Deciding to go home, he let's his gaze sweep the campus one last time and almost like a sixth sense, it finds the area which Collins had earlier gone to speak to... What was her name?
Lawrence has heard it severally from their almost-there-interactions but he just can't remember it.
Hale? No, it's not.
Well, he decides, she'll just be Afro girl for now.
He watches as the figures of the two girls stand from the jade green table and turn to leave. The latter one says something to Afro girl and Afro girl nods. Lawrence goes to turn around but a moment's hesitancy causes him to catch Afro girl's gaze. For a heartbeat, they stare at each other but the girl breaks the gaze sharply and turns around without looking back.
Lawrence sighs wearily, bothered by her reaction but slowly, he realizes that she must have thought he is Collins.
Lawrence has never, not even once before, wished so much to look like anyone but his identical twin brother.
☏︎☏︎
It's the following morning at six thirty and Lawrence is standing outside the towering building where his lectures will be held, staring up at it. He should have caught a few more minutes of sleep really because it's impossibly early for a lecture. Lawrence contemplates his options for a moment and left with no choice, he walks through the glass doors and starts his ascend to the third floor.
Immediately after he sits on his usual spot at the back of the class, his phone starts to vibrate in his pocket. He unburies it and glances down at the screen. A text message from Collins causes him to frown. The guy doesn't have a class today until later in the day but shockingly, he's on the campus grounds.
Col.
Come over to the students' hall please. Urgent.
Lawrence leaves the class with his belongings too incase someone occupies that seat while he's gone and his belongings are thrashed all over. He then he walks from the building in the direction of the students' hall.
At this time of the morning, there's only small chatter from students who prefer morning hours to work. Some hold their steaming drinks, in the hope that they'll warm them in this cold weather while others write away, trying to finish assignments. Some are typing away at their laptops while others are listening to what is playing on the television.
Lawrence spots Collins with no difficulty and walks over to him.
"Why the hell, Col, would you call me from class? I have a lecture I need to pay attention to as of now," Lawrence says indignantly after pulling a chair from the table Collins is seated at in the student's hall and theb sitting down on it.
"God, Law, would you quit being a drama queen just this once?" Collins asks as he leans back lazily into his seat. "You like this place just as much as I do. And that's nada!"
"Just because I hate the place doesn't mean that I won't take my education here seriously." Lawrence answers with a defiant shrug.
Collins waves him off lazily. He leans forward and lowers his voice as if what he's about to tell Lawrence is something top secret that the few cliques of students around needn't hear.
"I've made a decision," Collins finally announces.
"Shocker!" Lawrence groans. Since they moved here, Collins has been making a lot of decisions, which he barely acts upon.
Mostly, they range between talking to their parents about going back to their former school, sometimes they are just about clearing all their savings and running back to Nairobi. Lawrence is tired of hearing different versions of how Collins has finally decided to move from this place and each decision or plan is always more unlikely than the last.
Collins gives his brother a flat look and Lawrence shrugs back innocently.
"Actually, concerning moving back, I've made a different decision." Collins says
"I'm really anticipating hearing it, Col." Lawrence mutters sarcastically.
"I have decided to stay," Collins declares proudly.
Lawrence eyes him wearily but doesn't say anything. He just stares at the toothy grin his brother is flashing him. He thinks he has a pretty good idea of what this is about and Lawrence can't help but wonder if his brother really is going insane.
Lawrence hopes that —
Hope! That's the Afro girl's name!
Hope, as he now recalls her name to be from the few times he's heard it being called around in class, doesn't seem like the forgive and forget type of person. She is nice, true but she mostly just keeps to herself, in her own little world and speaking to no one. Also, she seems like someone who would throw anyone who crosses her boundaries into the Chamber of Secrets.
"If that's all, then I'll go back to my lecture," Lawrence says, his hand stretching towards his bag which is on the floor next to him.
"About that," Collins says, "I was wondering if you'd let me take your class."
"No, absolutely not!" Lawrence replies without missing a beat. "You and I both know how much you loath business and you are not going to take any notes or pay the least attention and that will be a major setback."
"I'll borrow the notes for you from someone, don't worry. I just want to try and talk to her." Collins shrugs as if that's supposed to be explanation enough.
"Just this once and never again." Lawrence sighs and Collins grins triumphantly.
"As you say," Collins says extending his hand for Lawrence's bag.
Lawrence clutches the bag tight. "You promise you won't ask again?"
"Seriously?" Collins asks, the urge to roll his eyes becoming harder to resist by the minute. Lawrence archs an eyebrow and Collins sighs. "Yeah sure, I promise."
Lawrence then hands him the bag and leans back on his seat. He might as well go buy a coffee, if only to chase away the cold that's gnawing at his bones, since he has no lecture to attend until later.
"What's her name by the way? You must have heard it." Collins suddenly asks.
Lawrence stares up at Col, who's standing beside him and who does not even need to practice his act of pretense based on the many occasions they have pretended to be each other since childhood.
He recalls fondly how it irritates his little sister Loice when they do that because unlike their mother, she hasn't mastered the art of telling them apart. Lawrence does not even know how their mother does that.
"I don't know, I never paid much attention." He shrugs nonchalantly hoping his twin won't tell he's lying.
"Weird," Collins shrugs with a frown. "I'll just ask around."
As Lawrence watches the retreating figure of his twin, he realizes that he cannot figure out why he withheld Hope's name from Collins.
He just knows that having been dragged to play a part in his brother's insanity, all he can do, as a token of goodwill, is to withhold that information, no matter how tiny.
It's a small gesture but it's weight is in its price; his loyalty to his brother.
𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺𓂺
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