That Incident

TWENTY-ONE

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𝘎𝘙𝘖𝘞𝘕-𝘐𝘚𝘏

"Do you think I look good, Mr Armstrong?" Alisha asked turning around in circles. Her little layered gown swaying around. She looked gorgeous with the dress and the makeover done by the makeup artist paid by her mum. The makeover made her look grownish and older than sixteen. The clothes, the party....the Ayomides sure knew how to spend money. They were almost rich as my grandparents.

According to Alisha, her parents had been saving for this. They wanted to make it a memorable birthday for her. I had a bad feeling about this party. I wanted to just go home. The party reminded of the party Fred's friends had invited me to.

Memories of the party that haunted me like the creepy, ruthless masked Michael Myers in the 1978 horror movie Halloween. Cold blooded memories. My mum had called to check up on me like countless times after dropping me off at Alisha's house, to know if I was okay with being at the party. The worried look she had as her left hand with squeezed my hand in a comforting manner.

"Georgous Alisha." I said biting at my toothbrush. I was still wearing my pyjamas with no plans on hurrying up and getting ready. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Hurry up and get dressed." Alisha repeated for like the second time when Omiran shoved her way into the littered room without knocking on the door.

Alisha's cousin was completely mannerless only because Alisha's mum put her in charge of everything while she was away.

"The caterers are here already. I wonder how Auntie would waste so much money when we can cook these ourselves. I did catering work when I was in Ghana." She said frowning as she kicked off the rainbow coloured stuffed toys on the floor.

I couldn't understand why Alisha's room seemed like a lair of stuffed toys and they all were rainbow coloured.

"Why is there so many of toys in your room and they are rainbow coloured? Are you gay?" Bisola asked. That was one question that Alisha hated being asked for her large collection of stuffed rainbow colored toys. It's how the rainbow color was now associated with one's sexuality.

The stuffed toys were the gifts her father got for her when she was quite little and there were like fourteen of them. Made of animals especially big fuzzy bears.

"Aubree, can you get me a glass of water." Alisha said ignoring her cousin as she helped the makeup artist pack her stuff while the plump lady excused herself to use the toilet.

"Oh...okay." Nervousness crept into my body almost immediately. I couldn't help it.

Would Alisha understand? I thought as i walked my way to the kitchen. There he was leaning against the counter busy with his phone. He was only wearing a boxer short which was so common with boys when they stay at home. My cousin Tolu was an example when he came to stay in our house for the break before he got admission into university.

I contemplated if I could say hi or hey. I could just pretend that i didn't see him at all. I could just act like I didn't notice he looked a lot more mature. The tiny hairs sprouting on his fair skinned chest, the little pimples scattered on his face and little tuft of hair shooting out his jaw. The muscular body.

He was grownish.

I decided I wasn't going to say anything and quickly do whatever I wanted to do and leave. I tried to recall where the glass cups were kept. It wasn't in the kitchen racks. It should be in the cupboards just above. I tried to reach my hands to the cupboard and just remembered Alisha always had to use a side stool to reach it.

I had asked Alisha why the cupboards were put so high like there were Goliaths living in their house when obviously that was kind of far from reality. Alisha didn't have height, her mum, he dad.... It turned out that they were that way cause Alisha and her sibling were quite destructive when they were little so everything valuable and probably dangerous were kept out of their reach.

"Hey. Can I help you with that?" Davie asked just as I stretched standing on my toes.

I hesitated for a second.

"Um...yes please.I want to get a glass cup." I replied backing off as he effortlessly helped me. He was so much taller then I was. I caught a whiff of his sport deodorant as he reached out for the cup and handed it over to me like it was no big deal.

Of course it was no big deal.

"Thank you." I said going ahead to rinse the cup in the sink and fetch tap water for the thirsty Alisha. I felt his eyes watching me as I did.

"You're welcome. What's that your name again? Lotty" He asked.

I almost let out a laughter. He remembered the name Alisha used to call me when we newly became friends.

"Lotachi or people call me Aubree." I replied without looking at him as I turned on the faucet again. This was like the third time I was rinsing the cup. The poor cup would probably be screaming if it were human.

"Ohh yes. How could I forget? My mother made me tutor you guys when I obviously didn't want to. Why did you cut that your long hair? I could remember the length. Alisha envied it a lot and would ask my mum to get useless hair products just to get a hair like yours."

I thought of what to say. I couldn't tell him the real reason why I cut my hair. I hadn't told anyone about it. And I wasn't ready to disclose cause I felt it was a stupid reason. A reason people would surely question.

"It's okay if you don't want to say the reason. I think you look cool without it too just like you always looked when you had hair. You rock." He said when he noticed I looked uncomfortable being asked the question. I tried not to let it show but my face traded me off. He could understand me without even saying a thing.

"What do you think about playing this song today at the party? You know this amapiano song right?"

I had no idea what amapiano was.

I shook my head.

"You can't be serious?! This is like currently the number one hit song in Africa as a whole. Do you know Uncle Waffles or DJ Maphorisa." He said in alarm. He looked at me unbelievably.

"No I don't. I mostly listen to indie pop." I said

Davie stared at me like I was completely crazy. From the look he gave me he was completely clueless on what indie pop was. How could I tell him I was disconnected from whatever trending Nigerian song. This was something that only Triton surprisingly understood.

I did like some artist like Asa, The Cavemen and Ayra Starr. Yes...I liked Ayra cause of her powerful voice, relatable lyrics and Alisha was always singing her Bloody Samaritan.

The doorbell rang continuously. I guess it was the guests. It was already five o' clock. I had to get out of my pjs.

"Maybe we'll see each other's playlist later. I think my friends are here to help me set up my stuff."

"Stuff?"

"DJ set." He said furrowing his brows like that was what I should know.

Maybe I should know that though.

AUTHOR'S NOTE ✨🧚🏽‍♀️
It's been quite a while...huh? Sorry about that. Making it up to y'all.