Fever

When Azuka pulled his penis out of Rolayo, she felt a simultaneous drain of energy from her body. It felt like she had lost pints of blood in a few seconds. Her  eyes fell shut with the new lightness in her head.

Gasping, Rolayo shifted so that Azuka was back inside her. Blood came back to her head, she felt steadier than a few seconds before. Confused, she wrapped her legs around Azuka and crossed them behind him so he couldn’t disentangle himself.

Azuka laughed, assuming she wanted to go again. “Rols, I don tire. Abeg ehn?”

Rolayo didn’t answer. She was afraid of what had just happened to her. She opened her eyes to stare at the shape of the damp on her ceiling. It had felt like dying.

“Rolayo?” Azuka lifted himself again, trying to extricate himself. Rolayo put both hands behind Azuka and pressed his torso to hers. He collapsed back and she shifted to accommodate his weight without releasing him.

“Zuk… Zuk, please just wait a minute ehn,” Rolayo buried her nose into the point where the muscles of his back tapered into neck. She inhaled the sweat on his skin that smelled like her.

“What’s going on, Rols? I have class at 3. I need to shower. Rolayo?”

When she could hold him no longer, Azuka pulled out and stood up and went to shower. Rolayo felt cold after he left the bed. She asked him to turn off the AC. He eyed her and obeyed before he disappeared into the bathroom.

Rolayo’s eyes started to tear up and she squeezed them shut. She rolled to her side and pulled her knees up to her chest. Her hands pulled her knees tighter to herself. She was still cold.

Azuka came out of the bathroom and asked Rolayo if she wasn’t hot. She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. She felt like her head had been stuck in a pot of honey – like her saliva had been replaced with glue so that her jaws wouldn’t open for her to scream.

Assuming she had fallen asleep, Azuka wore his clothes in silence and left.

Rolayo tried to open her eyes to call out to him but the ceiling had become the floor and the brown damp stain was now an ocean spreading towards the bed. Her eyes rolled back. She lay there for years, a tremor running through her naked body every five minutes. Her pillow grew wet with the tears that seeped out of her eyes. But she wasn’t crying. Rolayo tried to shake her head, to dispel the cloak of viscosity that had layered over her brain. But all she heard was a muffled swishing sound like water had found its way inside her head.

#

When Azuka came back, Rolayo was covered in sweat. He flipped the switch for the light but turned it back off quickly when her body jerked in reaction. He crawled into bed and placed his hand on her forehead.

“I don’t understand, you don’t have a temperature. Do you feel ill? Hey, are you awake?”

Rolayo reached a cold palm out to touch Azuka’s forearm and another shiver shook her. “Take your clothes off,” she whispered.

“What?” Azuka asked, half laughter, half incredulity.

“Zuk, please.”

Silently, he obeyed her. The buckle of his belt jangled in the silence of the room accompanied by the silent whoosh of his trousers dropping to the ground. His t-shirt followed.

Rolayo let out a long hiss-breath as Azuka’s body slid against her still-naked one.

“Did you even get out of bed at all?” He asked but Rolayo was concentrating on her own body. Her shivers had stopped. Warmth had started to return to her body. With her returning strength, she moved to straddle him. She shifted and using her hands as guidance, she took all of Azuka back into her.

Rolayo’s body stabilized. She rolled her head on her neck. Left, right. Back, front. Neither of them moved.

When Rolayo felt like herself again, she opened her eyes to look at Azuka who was staring at her with something akin fear.

But it was Rolayo that spoke first. “What have you done to me, Azuka?”

Azuka frowned and shook his head. “Huh?”

He was starting to move beneath her but she slapped his shoulder and lowered her head so that he froze mid-stroke. “What have you done, Azuka? Why am I in sweats when our bodies are not touching?”

There was silence then: “Oh shit.” His eyes widened under her unwavering gaze.

“Just tell me,” Rolayo said. Her nails dug into his arm.

“Oh God. Oh God.”

“Oh God, Zuk. What have you done?”

“It was a joke!”

“What was?”

“I was complaining to Kayode about how… nonchalant you were about us. We’ve discussed this, Rols… How you like to do every other thing on your own-”

“…and?”

“Well, I might have said ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if she literally couldn’t live without me?’”

“Oh God.” Rolayo closed her eyes, leaned forward so their foreheads were meshed against each other.

“And Kayode said: Well, let’s see if that can’t be done. But I swear we were only joking! I didn’t think he could really do shit. All those his spirit spirit yarns is bants, I swear!”

Rolayo shook her head, against his. “I’ve told you a million fucking times that that guy is fucking diabolical! Both of you are fools together.”

“Oh God!”

“You better reach around me to get your phone. We’re stuck until he undoes this shit.”

 

 

(Published for Eddy)