A Promise to Aabidah (#1 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

          "IT'S GOING TO START GETTING real busy from now on with the wedding just a week away." Nooriya ranted as she flopped down on Basmah's bed.

It was past four and the girls who had been working from the break of dawn were just taking their break from helping Noor's mother and aunty prepare for Noor's cousin sister's wedding.

"I wish I had a job like Aabidah, then I wouldn't have to do all these. I didn't wrap up my exams to come help choose someone's bridal anko or whatever." Noor continued to rant.

"Aren't you like really close to Sadiyah?" Basmah asked as she stripped out of the strapless body hugging gown she had been wearing underneath an after-dress.

"It's the fatigue talking. No one is more excited about this wedding. She has been talking about it for ages." Fatiha commented as she shut the door behind her.

Noor groaned. "So?"

"So, what's the problem? Shouldn't you be happy for her?"

"Ya Allah, Bas!" Noor cried. "I am happy for her, I just don't feel comfortable staying more than ten minutes in that house now that Yaya AbdulWahid is back. Why does every damn meeting have to take place there?" She buried her face into one of the soft throw pillows on the bed, her voice muffled as she wailed.

Basmah exchanged looks with Fatiha who was still leaning by the door. The plumpy one raised her hands, palms up and open, then with pursed lips, shrugged.

"I just want this wedding to be over with. I'm so drained and it's not even my brother's wedding."

Basmah scoffed, recalling her own work load from the past few weeks. "Tell me about it. I'm so glad work starts in a few days."

Noor groaned. "Lucky you."

Both Fatiha and Basmah laughed at her predicament.

"It will be well," Fatiha announced as she too dropped her weight onto the king-sized bed.

Noor glanced up at her friend, her lips thinned out but her expression spoke a lot.

Fatiha laughed at the look on her friend's face. "Don't stare at me that way when you know it's true. It will be well for you guys, not just for me. With the sort of woman I have as a mother, I'm about to get even more pressured about this marriage talk and I don't want to stress Faisal into thinking about it. He has a lot on his plate right now."

Noor scoffed with an eye roll. Basmah snorted. "Nawa for una wey dey love o. I go love too o." She mocked her friend while pretending to swoon over an imaginary guy. "If you like don't wear your tight pants and go and ask him before someone else does. Which one is he has a lot on his plate? I bet you there's another woman on that plate. Men are something else, you won't know until they decide to become animals."

"Faisal's not like that," Fatiha defended with a bite.

"No one said he was like that," Noor rushed in with a nervous laugh. "And are we still talking about Fatiha's boo or someone else? Also, why do you sound like you have first hand experience with these sorts of men, Bas?" She asked. 

Basmah froze at the sudden enquiry. It took Noor two trial in reaching her by calling out her name.

Brought back down to her current reality, Basmah pasted on a nonchalant expression. She rolled her eyes heavenward then stood in front of the girls, her hands placed firmly on her waist as she prepped herself to give the girls another lecture on why it was better to live alone than to live with the other gender. As she opened her mouth to begin, a rap sounded on her door before it was unceremoniously kicked open.