That Incident

TWENTY TWO

  
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𝘋𝘜𝘔𝘗 𝘋𝘌𝘍𝘐𝘕𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕 𝘖𝘍 𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘠

A party is pretty much where people gather to dance, scream out, let go of their frustration and drink. My maybe dump definition of a party. I wish I could just let go of the frustration, bitterness and pain built up in me. Maybe give more room for dopamine.

The house was bubbling with people. Davie was doing whatever disc jockeys...umm DJs do. Wizkid's 2 sugar featuring Ayra Starr was playing. I watched Alisha dance endlessly in the room and leaving on few occasions to greet people.

Few friends at school came over to Alisha's room to say hi. Friends like Bisola. I wouldn't count her as a friend though. The twins, Linda and Lily. They were both dressed in matching gowns and white ribbons tied to their 4c afro hair. They gave off this soft femininity and an I'm Proud To Be Black energy. It was great to see black girls embrace their natural hair. Free of peroxide, unpermed and not chemically straightened. Just the hair. Tight coils. Wearing it Afro like the civil right activist Angela Davis.

I so much wanted my hair back. To be able to have it in plaits, cornrows or afro. How I missed the Saturday mornings where I would sit in a corner of the sitting room while my mother moisturized my jet black hair with unrefined shea butter that had a beautiful nutty, smokey scent while we watched probably an unrealistic and over-the-top storylined soap opera on the television.

"Is that Aubree?" Bisola asked staring at me in disbelief. I was seated on Alisha's bed with my legs crossed. I wonder why she found it hard believing it was me. Okay. Maybe I looked different. Maybe because I was wearing a wig that had bangs. And maybe the little clean girl makeup I had on my face. I've been wanting to try it out a lot.

Try out new things, Aubree in Mrs Ujam's voice.

Just a little tint of concealer just at corners of my eye, a little brush of brown matte, mascara coated eye lashes, a perfectly shaped brows, well lined lips and lip gloss finishing. Other than that I looked normal. Maybe I thought I did.

I was dressed in a causal oversized graphic tee over my mom's khaki colored cargo pants. We wore the same size.They stared at me like I was a bit overdressed.

"You look good, Aubree. Don't you think, Lily?" Linda asked Lily who was engrossed in her phone.

"Yesss. Pretty." Lily replied barely looking up from her phone.

"E come be like say you dress pass the celebrant." Bisola said in pidgin. She always made a stupid comment. I tried hard to restrain myself from talking back to her.

"Aubree, are you okay with this?" Alisha asked with concern written all over her face when they had left the room. I nodded trying to tell myself I was probably okay with this. The party, the wig Alisha made me wear and the nasty comment Bisola made.

"I'm fine. It's your birthday, Alisha. Let's go out there and celebrate. I'll help Omiran organise things and make sure people don't try to leave the sitting room and wander elsewhere." I said hugging her.

It was Alisha's birthday. Her birthday. So I had to be cheerful as possible even though it felt like I was melting like a piece of candle already as I stepped out of the room.

I stood stiffly in a corner watching people dance to the music. It felt weird watching people make wiggling movements to music. Some were not even dancing to the beat of the music. Alisha was greeting friends. Some were seated on the couch talking and laughing. Davie with a toothy smile, sipping from his red paper cup from time to time as he scratched at the vinyl record back and forth. A dump definition of party.

Everyone was smiling. How easy was that to smile.

"Aubree, help me bring in the cakes from the catering vans outside. We will follow the back door." Omiran said tapping me slightly on the shoulder.

"Okay." I said following Omiran who took the lead. Shoving our way through the crowd of dancing people. There were so many people and I couldn't help but wonder how Alisha knew them. Strange faces. Lots of strange faces except someone who had beaming smile on his face. Dressed in his usual varsity jacket but a new one. One I had not see him in. He looked dashingly handsome.

He was talking with Tunde who was wearing a suit. A suit! I repeat a suit! Maybe his mother made him wear this one too. I couldn't wait to talk about his suit with Alisha. How she would think that it was such a ridiculous thing to do and she would probably say he looked like a wannabe formal white man.

"Aubree." He called out loudly waving his hands.

"Hey." I said, "I'll be right back. I want to bring in the cakes."

"I'll help you." He offered.

"What about Tunde? You can't leave him here." I said.

"I'm actually looking for the celebrant. I want to see her and wish her happy birthday." Tunde said waving the wrapped up box he held in his right hand.

"She's at the little cocktail stand near the dining." I wasn't even sure.

"Oh...there's a cocktail stand."

"Yes....strictly eighteen and above." I said.

Tunde was just about to talk about something else when Triton dragged me away waving at Tunde. It was so funny to see because he clearly understood that the boy was quite a talker and wanted to get away from him. Omiran was surprisingly waiting for me to be done with my convo.

We followed her quietly to the back door which was in the kitchen. The kitchen which was spick and span earlier was almost a chaos.

There were people partying outside too. My eyes met with Fred who Melissa was clinging to like a sloth and all dressed like an electro pop baddie. Like the ones I had seen on Instagram. They seemed to have dark shadowy aesthetics hovering around them. She was wearing an extremely black body hugging sleeve gown. Her faux loc hair cascaded her black. Nose ring and couple of other rings on her manicured fingers. She looked so different.

She frowned when she noticed I was the one Fred had his gaze at. They were both leaning on a black SUV. The guy in the driver's seat looked quite familiar and he was nodding away to the Migos' Motorsport blaring out of the car.

"Who are these people? Nawa oo. If Auntie was here now, all this nonsense won't be happening." Omiran hissed as we walked past them. I actually wondered what Alisha's mother would have done if she was around. Probably shoo them all away or give them a hearty speech of the need of being on the right path. Like the ones she gave to her children.

As we carried the cakes back from the van of busy catering staffs, I pretended not to notice the way Triton looked at me, almost tripping over the pavement to the back door. I was worried he will get the cake mashed up if he wasn't careful.

"I will go and supervise. These people might steal something and no one would know." Omiran said when we dropped the cakes carefully on the counter in the kitchen.

"Aubree can we talk somewhere a little less noisy?" Triton said. That sounded almost impossible. Every corner of the house was noisy.

They were just so many people. I could only think of one place that we could talk which was the wide terrace.

I wondered what we would talk about. I didn't know if I had this feeling of excitement. A feeling that was always there when he was with me.