Manuella

9|Facing My Fears

The time went by quite quickly and before I could try to make sense of all that had been happening to me over the past few days,  I entered a world where all that didn't matter. And the next time I opened my eyes, my phone's alarm was the reason. Just then all my problems came flooding in my mind once again reminding me of the fact that I didn't have the perfect life people thought I had. Plus, Emmanuel was getting quite irresistible and the fact that he was coming over gave me the jitters. Damn! I really liked him.

A short prayer calmed my nerves. I woke Mabena up and we cleaned up and grabbed breakfast at about half past 8. 

"Mabena, erm some of my friends are coming over today."

"You mean Audrey and co.?"

"Yeah", I replied, my voice the perfect definition of a nervous teenager.

"But why are you sounding so edgy?", Mabena enquired.

"Erm I don't know but I'm fine and I'll get over it, don't worry."

All she did was sigh.

At about noon, the doorbell rang. And I knew the people but I checked the CCTV anyway. And just as my instincts said, Audrey, Jason and he were behind the door.

"Mabena, can you open the gate for them? I'll be in my room."

"Sure."

When I went to my room I arranged the place a bit and got chairs for the three of them while I made myself comfortable on the bed. Just when they entered, I noticed Emmanuel was looking really good in  a casual t-shirt and jeans and sneakers which looked so much like the Skechers Go-Walk I saw in the mall some time ago.

Then he looked at me and............

"Hey Manu!", Audrey exclaimed noticing I seemed to have started a staring game with him.

The thing was that I was really beautiful and classy, like literally everything a boy would want, body, money, character................. But  why was I falling so hard for him? A million-dollar question! 

I had already, the day before, told Audrey what to say when she comes over with my friends. I asked her to narrate my whole kidnap saga and the purpose of the meeting.

"So basically we are meeting because we're her closest friends and the most capable people to help her make sense out this whole situation",  Audrey said with full confidence like the skilled orator she seemed to be.

Within a few minutes Audrey explained the whole situation to them and we decided to go through the house to see if we might find anything suspicious because it looked like my parents were hididng a lot from me, a whole lot.

After about half an hour, we found nothing and were dead-tired. We paused to grab snacks in the kitchen. Guess what happened, he touched my hand. We were standing beside eachother when he did it. I felt this sudden surge of adrenalin flood my veins, my breathing was long and deep, and my heart racing. All of sudden and quite suspiciously they all left the kitchen one by one.

Within three minutes, we were alone and the feeling was intense. He still kept his hold on my hands which were becoming clammy now. Just when I began to think of something to say, he broke the silence.

"Manu", he managed to say.

"Yeeessss", I responded softly trying not to spoil the magic of the moment.

"I don't think I can keep this any longer. Manu, I really like you", proceeded from his lips which I kept staring at.

I was totally confused. And quite annoyingly, my tongue decided to fail at this crucial moment too.

Those ten seconds when we were both silent were the longest ten seconds of my life. Suddenly I got the courage to speak.

"Kofi", addressing him by his Ghanaian name, "to be honest I'm obs you so much, I guess if not more. I was planning to tell you today but you had the same plans and executed them earlier", I said with a shy grin on my face.

He pulled out  his phone and his airpods. He asked me to place one in my ear and he did same. After a few seconds, the tune I was hearing was definitely that of 'Stay' by Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI. He removed the other airpod from his ear and placed it in my other ear, paused the song before the actual lyrics started playing and said, " I mean every one of those lyrics".

The two minutes and twenty-one seconds the song lasted was a whole memory. Just when I thought he was done, he started playing Justin Bieber's Intentions. 

"What a cute way to tell a girl you like her", I said to myself, a mischievious smile playing at the corners of my lips.

In a few seconds, Audrey bumped into the room looking excited.

"Manu, we found a bunch of keys hidden in a very weird place. We were wondering if there were any places we've not had access to."

The only place that came to my mind was our basement. Our house was really American style because I rarely heard of houses in Ghana with basements.

We were trying to open it with the keys till it was left with the last one. I placed it in, turned it and yes , it opened. We were hit with hot stale air when we entered. I saw a lot of boxes and while searching, I saw some papers. I examined them and what I saw nearly killed me. In summary, I was a twin. As the truth dawned on me, suddenly everything went black.