We had gone half way into midnight, when I pulled my phone out to call Akunna for the third time, since he went to the bathroom.
It was getting late, and I really needed to go back to the hall to get some shut-eye before the competition. It was the final leg of all swim events, and I couldn't let something as flimsy as lack of sleep, stand in my way of winning this thing.
I held the phone to my ear, eagerly waiting for Akunna to pick up, but once again, the call went straight to voicemail.
"Ah shit," I grumbled, pushing myself up to go look for him. I didn't know where exactly the bathrooms were, so I allowed my instincts to guide me as a loitered around.
Wandering into a corridor, I spotted the stick figures representing male and female on two separate doors. My legs carried me over to the male one.
"Yo, Akunna!" I barged in, immediately regretting the action because I'd just walked in on two guys kissing passionately against the bathroom wall.
"Whoa! Umm...s-sorry." Grabbing the door handle, I quickly shut it, face burning in the heat of embarrassment.
I sucked in a breath and moved away from the door, ready to go search somewhere else, when the harsh sounds of an argument reached my ears.
My subconscious ordered me to ignore, and continue my merry hunt for Akunna. But the voices echoing out into the corridor, sounded really familiar. So familiar, that I couldn't stop myself from drawing closer to the specific door. Thankfully, it was slightly open. All I did was to push it a bit, widening the triangular scope.
"No!" Princess' voice seeped out. "We still have to tell him. We can't keep this thin-chkk."
Ethan entered the picture, grabbing Princess' neck and pinning her to the wall. "No one is telling anyone anything! Do you understand?"
She thrashed under his grip, clearly struggling to breathe, but Ethan wouldn't stop. My anger flared up when he pressed even harder.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I stormed in.
"A-Akwasi?" Startled, he finally released Princess, and she collapsed on the ground, coughing and wheezing like an asthmatic patient.
I dropped to her side, helping her to sit up. "Breathe, Princess, breathe." Her wig was now a tumbleweed mess on her head and her make-up was all smudged. "Breathe."
She sucked in huge bouts of air. Once she'd gained full control of her respiratory organs, I stood up, facing Ethan with a prominent frown.
He got the message quickly, and jumped into defence. "Look, it's not what you think, ok. This was just a small misunderstanding."
"Oh a misunderstanding?" I queried in a heavy tone of sarcasm. "And you were trying to do what? Solve it by attempting to kill her?"
Ethan's eyebrows pulled together, indicating a strong dislike for the way I was speaking to him.
I, on the other hand, didn't give a fuck. He might have Princess wrapped around his little finger, but that did not give him the right to maltreat her.
"Hey!" Nana Kwame stumbled in. "I heard shouting. Is everything ok?"
"Yeah," Ethan mumbled, "Everything is fine." Shooting me a glare, he sidestepped his friend and walked out of the room.
Nana Kwame dashed over to Princess' side, assisting her onto on her feet.
"Th-hanks, Akwasi," she managed to croak.
"Don't mention it. Just promise me that you'll take care of yourself, ok. Don't allow Ethan to be treating you like that."
She wouldn't even look me in the eye as she nodded. Hooking one of Princess' arms over his shoulder, Nana Kwame walked her out of the room, and I followed, shutting the door behind me.
Sighing, I dug out my phone to check the time. Fifteen minutes to 1 am and I still hadn't found Akunna. He also hadn't returned any of my phone calls, that alone unleashed a ball of worry inside me.
I trudged back to the party, extra determined to find my roommate. Amongst the mass of guys hounding the foosball table, my eyes soon landed on Deon's familiar thatch of curly brown hair, and I quickly moved in his direction. "Yo, Deon! Deon!"
"Oh hey bro," he turned with an elated smile, "Enjoying the party?"
"No!" the word shot out like lightning. "I can't find Akunna. He told me he was going to the bathroom like an hour ago and I haven't seen him since then. Plus he's not answering any of my calls and I'm getting super worried cuz it's late and-"
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down, ok." Deon held my shoulders. "It's is a party, I'm sure he's holed up somewhere with a girl, and he lost track of time. So don't worry, we'll find him. We just have to look hard." His green eyes darted across the room before returning to my face. "You know what? You check the bathrooms here on the ground floor, I'll check the ones upstairs with the bedrooms. We'll text each other the moment we find him, then we'll meet up at the car and leave, ok?"
"Ok." I nodded and we both branched off in different directions.
I weaved past people, keeping an eye out for my roommate's lemon green hoodie. But all the lemon-greens I saw did not belong to Akunna. My search led me half way to the entrance. On the left, was an archway that opened up to another corridor. The bathrooms were at the far end, and in the next minute, I was in front of it, ready to push.
But before I couldn't even touch the wooden barrier, it flung open, and a guy stumbled out, eyes wide with fear.
"Hey, what's-what's wrong?"
"I-I-I-I swear," he stammered. "I only wwanted to he-help him, but when-when I turned him over...." His face was glazed with nothing but absolute terror, preventing him from finishing his sentence.
To save him the trouble, I pushed door open and my heart nearly jumped out of my ribcage. "Akunna!"
My roommate was sprawled on the floor, eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling with a mass of whitish foam, pouring out of his mouth.
"No, no, no, no, Akunna." I knelt down beside him, grabbing fistfuls of his lemon-green hoodie to give   him a little shake, which didn't help because his body was as stiff as a rock. "Akunna, wake up! Please, wake up!" My mind was all mush, frantically searching for a way to handle this.
"Ambulance!" I roared. "Call an ambulance!"
The guy I met earlier was still trembling, but he managed to pull out his phone, tapping away on the screen.
A huge lump formed in my throat as I shook my roommate again. "Akunna, please! Don't do this... wake up, I beg you!"