The Death of Vivek Oji - Akwaeke Emezi Page 0,22

our neighbor’s generator. My eyes adjusted slowly, and I could see how the moonlight was coloring the inside of my room.

“So why did you lie?” asked Vivek, his voice close to my ear.

“About what?”

“The girl in Nsukka. There’s no girl in Nsukka.”

I scoffed. “Who told you?”

“Nobody had to tell me anything. You’re a very bad liar.”

I turned my head to look at him and his eyes were bright in the dark. “Mind your business, bhai.”

His teeth gleamed in his smile. “The part I don’t understand is why you’re lying to them in the first place. You know your mother won’t let it go until she’s planning your wedding to this imaginary girl.”

I looked back at the ceiling. “She’s not imaginary,” I said. I was already building her up. Her name would be Amaka. She’d be a nurse, or maybe a teacher.

“When you’re hiding something,” he said, “don’t cover it up with something weak, something that can be blown away easily. You need to protect your secrets better.”

I propped myself up on my elbows. “Bros, I’m seriously tired of hearing this nonsense. What secrets?”

“Maybe it’s not a woman you’re seeing in Nsukka,” he said. “One of my friends at boarding school used to lie like you. He even had one of his classmates’ sisters pretend to be his girlfriend.” Vivek turned his head to me. “Do you have a backup girlfriend?”

I stared at him through the gray light.

“That’s fine if you don’t,” he continued. “I’m just saying you need a better story.”

“Wait.” I felt as if my head was stuffed with surprise. “If it’s not a woman, who else would I be seeing in Nsukka?”

Vivek looked at me, and there was a pause before I realized what he meant. I sat up, furious. “Are you mad? What’s wrong with you?!”

I saw alarm flit through his eyes; he hadn’t expected this anger from me.

“Ah, no vex,” he said, sitting up and reaching for my arm.

I pulled away and jumped off the bed. “Don’t touch me. You think I’m like your friends? Or like you? Is that why you decided to start looking like a woman, ehn? Because you’ve been knacking men? Biko, I’m not like you—forget that one, now-now!” I slapped the palms of my hands against each other, as if dusting off the contagion of his thoughts.

Vivek looked up at me, his back hunched and his legs lean and straight on the bedsheets. His hair had come loose from the bun and it spilled down his shoulders. “So you think I look like a woman?”

My chest was thudding. “What?”

“Is that why you avoided me all day? Because I resemble woman to you?” He laughed and pushed his hair back, off his chest. “You dey see breast?”

I shook my head. My stomach was knotted and painful. “You are really not okay. They should actually be praying for you.”

“All of this because I said maybe you have a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend? It’s not that serious.”

“You think that’s normal? You think you sef, that you’re normal? None of this is normal, Vivek! What kind of people have you been around?”

“Why are you so afraid? Because something is different from what you know?” My cousin folded his arms and leaned his back against the headboard of the bed. “I’m disappointed, bhai. I didn’t think you’d be one of these closed-minded people. Leave that for your mother.”

“Fuck you,” I said, and grabbed my pillow off the bed.

He laughed again. “Oh, you’re going to sleep in the parlor? Let your mumsy find you there in the morning, then you can tell her why you didn’t sleep in your room. Or I can tell her for you if you like.”

I wanted to hit him. I felt like we were thirteen again, the way he was worming his way under my skin and making me want to itch it off. “I’m not one of those,” I told him.

“One of what?” Vivek put up his hands. “Actually, never mind. I don’t even care. I’m going to sleep. Do what you like.” He lay back down, turning away from me.

I stood in the dark, holding my pillow and slowly feeling like an idiot. Finally I threw it back on the bed and lay down with my back to him. What a bastard. I lay there with the anger simmering in me for a long time before I fell asleep.

At some point in the night, NEPA came back and the ceiling fan whirred on. I stirred and woke up. I