Rarer Than Gems

Chapter 1- Jealous much?

'YO DAMI!!!!', said 20 year old Nkenna Chukwudinma.
'GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE NOW!!'.

Nkenna Chukwudinma was a light-skinned, bubbly, Optimistic, young, Nigerian girl.

'Chill girl, let me pay for the snacks first', said her best friend, Alejandro Ramirez.

Alejandro Ramirez was a tall, sporty, adorable, smart, Mexican guy.

Nkenna and Alejandro have been best friends since they were thirteen and sometimes seem more like siblings than besties. She fondly called him "Dami" which is how she shortened his first name- Damián; she wanted to give his name a sort of Nigerian flavour. They were about to watch a movie at Brickwall cinemas.

'Dami,meet Carl and Jacob. I literally just met them but they are watching the same movie as us', said Nkenna.

'Okay, cool', he said reluctantly.

He didn't feel the need to reply them after Carl and Jacob told him hello so he walked ahead of them, straight into the cinema hall; which Nkenna found quite strange- he's usually more receptive to people.
The movie started. It was an action-thriller and the cinema hall was half full.

'Let's seat over here'; Carl said, referring to the group.' We'll get a good view and escape all the noise.'

'Nah, I'm good at the back', said Alejandro.

'Seriously Dami, don't be a douche.'

'Alright, I'm coming.'

There was a lot of chitter-chatter and laughter within the group as the movie went on but Alejandro left himself totally out of the conversation. Jacob attempted to break his silence.

'So Alejandro, are you and Nkenna dating?'

'Oh', a glitter of joy came over Alejandro's face. 'You see...'

'HA HA HA HA!!!'; Nkenna burst out into laughter, cutting short Alejandro's reply.' NO, NO, NO, we're not dating , we're definitely not dating', Nkenna said as she wiped tears from her eyes. Alejandro sunk deep into his chair as his faced turned a deep red. 'Dude lol, We're practically siblings! That would be so wrong.'

For the rest of the movie everyone was almost totally silent with a few words and comments here and there then after the movie, they all went to the food court for lunch.

'I love this food court so much. Me and Dami come here all the time,right Dami?'; Nkenna said, as they sat down.

'Yeah, whatever', he said with a sigh and a face filled with mixed emotions- kind of like he was about to cry.

They went to get some food then settled back down to eat.

'Hey guys, check out the news broadcast', Carl said .

Joy and excitement fill the atmosphere as preparations for Prince Antoine of France's 21st birthday ball celebration are coming along perfectly. It is said that it's going to be the biggest and greatest party of the year............

'Blah, blah, blah, who cares!?! There's nothing else special about him other than the fact that he's from a rich,royal family or else, he would be nothing. I'm sure he must be some stuck-up, selfish, proud, obnoxious.......'; said Alejandro, in an obviously angry and enbittered tone.

'Woah,woah,woah, hold up. You don't even know this guy then how sure can you be that he's all those nasty things you just mentioned?', Nkenna said.

'Whatever, it's not like I care anyways.'

Nkenna got really bothered by her best friend's strange and erratic behaviour and decided to end the meeting before he does anything worse.

'Okay guys, we better be going now because it's getting pretty late but you guys are so much fun and I had such a blast.'

'Same here, can I get your number?', Jacob said.

'Oh sure, definitely.'

She gave him her phone number then hugged both Carl and Jacob and walked them to the exit, then walked back to the food court where Alejandro was busy sulking.

'Dami, what's been up with you today? You've been acting strange.'

'Nothing, it's just that..............you know what, forget about it.' Alejandro said as he put his hand over his eyes; trying to cover up the tears welling in his eyes.'

'I don't like seeing you like this Dami, not one bit. You know you can tell me anything, right?', Nkenna said.

'Yeah I do and trust me, I'm okay. I just need to go home and lie down a bit.'

'Okay.' She said, as they started walking towards the exit then suddenly, she saw a familiar face.

'VERONICA!!!'