That Incident

TEN

❦

𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘚𝘚 𝘙𝘖𝘔𝘈𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘊

The doorbell rang waking me up from my exquisite sleep as I'll like to call it. Last night was more like the cry of freedom and pain. The hollow dark night of cuddles and whispers of consolation.

She slept like a baby, her head nestled on my shoulders that ached after. I stayed up tidying her things up. Her old journals, snack wraps and tissue littered around. I read some of the content of her journals before sleeping off.

About her youthful days and love story with dad. How they met when she had returned from Britain after studying and  how my grandparents and her siblings did not want her getting involved with my father because he wasn't an upperclass like them. How they were against the marriage and how her father didn't give his blessings and attend their wedding.

How she was so contented with everything he provided. How she put food on the table when he had no job.

The doorbell rang again. And this time without a pause.

Ugh! I lazily made my way downstairs, not caring how my face always looked in the morning.

It was probably the driver that probably wanted to report to duty. My mum probably wanted him to get somethings from her firm. I cared less cause he had seen me a lot of times in the morning: bared face and braless.

"Sir Levis..." I said when I pushed open the door letting in the cold breeze rush at my face. There was no old Sir Levi standing at the door. It was Alisha and the whole class of Ss3 of Pamvielle standing outside with beaming smiles.

Exaggerating though, it was only Tunde and Triton.

"Hey, love bud!" Alisha said with a silly smile. I stared at her in disbelief. Could she be less dramatic in life?

She didn't even call me on the phone and she showed up with two boys from our class staring at me. And of all people, Triton. And as early as it was.

"Come in." I said trying so hard to hide my shock. Then, it seemed like something snapped in my head. I found myself scurrying like a lunatic up the stairs feeling embarrassed of how I looked.

I was sure streaks of saliva were dried up on my face and eye gunks or dried rheum built up at the corner of my eyes. My sleeping shorts were so worn out with tiny holes at the side.

  "Alisha....that girl..." I mumbled to myself stamping my feet at the pathway connecting the rooms when my mum stepped out her room clad in a neatly tailored red dress flowing with red bottoms shoes.

Just last night, she looked like a total mess and chaos mixed together. Her red lipstick smeared across her upper lips. Her hair had been a pure description of a bird nest. She was looking stunning beyond description. She was just giving the Marilyn Monroe type of vibes. Extravagantly dressed for a wedding though and that too, her ex husband's wedding.

"Where are you going to?" I asked knowing fully well about her plans to go to my dad's wedding.

"My ex husband's wedding. What would I be if I don't attend or support my ex sweetheart?" She smiled. I knew it was so fake.

She loved him so much. He was so much more than her ex sweetheart.

"Mum, I don't think you are physically and mentally fit to go there. You are just hurting yourself."

She chuckled.

"Am I? Aubree, you have got it all wrong. I'm perfectly fine. Is it because of last night? I swear I didn't want you to see me that way. I was going through a phase."

I was so unconvinced. I knew there was more to her quirky behaviour.

"Take care of yourself. Your friends are around so be sure to be nice to them.  No grumpy behaviour. I cooked Jellof rice yesterday. I know they would love it. No one hates my cooking even your father knows that Nana can never cook for him like I do." She said walking away.

I stared at my mum. She was in a poor mental state and was trying so hard to feign happiness.

"Umm...Aubree, I just met your mum downstairs. She is looking really beautiful. Do you know who she might be..."Alisha said barging into my room while I brushed and tried hard to do the lord of the dance pose. Pretty hard yoga pose.

Great multitasking.

"My dad's wedding." I said giving up on the pose and going to the bathroom to gargle before I could go ahead to scold her.

"Wow. She sure looks stunning hot like chilli. She looks like she going with such more flames."

"Alisha! Where are the two boys you brought to my house?" I asked from the bathroom as I turned on the faucet.

"Tunde and Triton? They are in the sitting room watching Everybody Hates Chris and eating. Your mum told us to serve ourselves so I pretty much know where everything is in your house so i reheated the rice from the ...." She went on to babble unnecessary information.

"Why are they here? With you? And you didn't call me to warn me that some guys from our class are coming to my house especially Triton. It's eleven o'clock for goodness sake. They saw me in my worn out sleeping shorts and braless. I was caught unfresh!"

"Hellooo! I called you a million times and your number wasn't available..." She picked up my phone from the bedside desk.

"Seee, it's even on airplane mode." She said waving my phone at me.

I had completely forgotten that I put it on airplane mode cause I didn't want any calls from anyone today talk more of seeing anyone's face. I had been doing that a lot since the incident.

"I thought it would be cool if we did the group project together cause Tunde was suggesting we do ours at his house. Well, I don't want to have his mother monitoring everything so I thought we could do it at your house so I invited Triton. He was like you guys have not talked about the assignment at all and that it seems like you hate him..."

"Yes, I hate him." I bluntly cut in.

She stared at me in awe. A broad smile flashing on her face.

"Or you love-hate him. It's a rare feeling but I understand, sis."

"Where do you get these idea from? Triton is too full of himself and he feels that all girls drool over him."

She gave a gurgle of laughter.

I stared at her unbelievably. What was even funny about what I had just said? My best friend was a completely different person. A loony one.

"Basically, all girls are. You should see how many female fans he has on Instagram and Twitter including Snapchat and TikTok. Do you have idea how many likes he get just by posting just his chunk of leg after a football match. Nothing lesser than 1k likes, my sista."

"Seems like someone has been stalking him?" I said pulling off my top with minding she was looking at my exposed breasts. She had seen me a couple of times naked and same with me. I had seen her buck naked a couple of times too.

Unlike me, she had a way curvy beautiful body unlike mine laced with stretch marks.

"Of course, that boy eats my data. I love his write ups. He's a hopeless romantic even though I didn't know boys could be hopeless romantics—what size of bra do you wear now?"

"32A I guess. I don't know." I said lost in thought.

Hopeless romantic? Boys could be hopeless romantics too?