Purple Bougainvillea

Eighteen

Kelly knocked on the door and Aunt Joke opened. She smiled at him and asked him to come in. It was a whole day after he and Jumoke snuck out to the club, he hadn't heard from her since and he was a bit worried.
"Where's Jumoke? Is she okay?" he asked and Aunt Joke nodded at him.
"She's fine, she's just been sulking around because I grounded her"
Kelly smiled, he knew why she was grounded, it was because she snuck out with him. Aunt Joke led him to the backyard we're Jumoke sat reading a book. Jumoke saw the both of them and turned away, they were the cause of her recent frustration.
"Boo!" Kelly shouted at her, trying to get her to look up at him, but she didn't. Instead she used the book to cover up her face so that she could block him out of her view. Like lightening, Kelly did the unexpected, he snatched the book off both her hands and ran away with it. Jumoke sat in shock for several minutes before her brain registered the fact that her book was gone. Then she chased after him. He had been hanging around her until she started chasing him, then he picked up the pace and ran around the huge backyard, frustrating her further.
"Just give me back my book" she pleaded and he shook his head indicating a "no"
"I don't like being ignored"
"I wasn't ignoring you" she mumbled and he shot her a look that meant that he didn't believe what she just said.
"Okay fine, what if I was ignoring you? It's all your fault that I'm grounded. I was telling you that night that we should leave earlier. But no, you wanted to stay behind and dance to random songs we can still get off the internet" she retorted
"Is it my fault that I wanted my last night at the club to last longer?"
She hissed, ignoring his question.
"Just hand me my book, you can go on and spend as much time as you want in the club, I don't care" she said, stretching out her right hand to collect it. He smiled and stared at her, she looked like a child as she pouted her lips and looked away.
"I'm sorry Aunt Joke grounded you" he apologized, knowing that she'd definitely forgive him if she did.
"But it isn't my fault that you suck at sneaking, you were probably making too much noise while you walked"
She glared at him and he started laughing.
"I was really considering your apology until the last sentence, I'm not forgiving you again" she said, walking away from him. He dragged her back to himself and hugged her, threatening to not let her go until she wasn't angry with him anymore.
"You wouldn't dare" she opposed
"Okay" he replied and held her there for several minutes.
"Fine Fine, I've forgiven you. Leave me alone"
"You don't sound like you have" he said still holding onto her "If you had, you'd have hugged me back".
She groaned and stomped before hugging him back. She did miss him, she wouldn't lie. She and Aunt Joke had talked the next morning after the club night, she had grounded her indefinitely. She clearly communicated her disappointment and kept asking where she had snuck out to. But Jumoke being the secretive person that she was, didn't think there was any need to tell her, so she ended up getting additional chores to her punishment.
"I'll talk to Aunt Joke and ask her to give you permission to help me complete the last urgent thing on my list" Kelly said "I need to visit all the Shoprites in Lagos now that I can"
"If she'd listen to you, I'll go. It'll be fun anyway, I love fun" Jumoke said, a smirk resting on her face. He rolled his eyes and stood up leaving for the sitting room to tell Aunt Joke about their plans.
When he got there he sat beside her and talked to her like he talks to his mom, like a friend. He'd known Aunt Joke for a while, she wasn't harsh at all, as long as you explained things properly to her. She hated surprises, she hated unruly behavior too, like the typical Nigerian parent, but one that listens.
"You guys can go, she's officially ungrounded" Aunt Joke said when he was done
"You guys can go wherever you want too, just make sure you stay safe and come back on time. I don't want your mom to die of an heart attack"
"Thank you ma" he said, standing up. She just nodded and relaxed back into the long couch to continue watching the movie she had been seeing before he came.
"Dress up, we're leaving" Kelly said to her as soon as he saw her again. She rolled her eyes and walked away, dressing up in a navy blue top and and black jeans. It was still morning, they hoped to come home before nightfall. They both said goodbye to Aunt Joke before walking away to the nearest Taxi park to enter a Taxi that'll take them straight to Shoprite Adeniran.
.....
They spent the whole of that day jumping from one vehicle to another. Each vehicle took them to their destination which was always a Shoprite or somewhere close to it so that they'd trek the remaining distance. They moved from Shoprite Adeniran to Shoprite Park Lane and from there they moved to other Shoprites around Lagos. In every Shoprite that they arrived at, they scouted for every type of chocolate they could find. It was something on Kelly's list, he wanted to eat all the chocolate he could find. They shopped for other things too, snacks and all that, cereals, even colourful pens and stick it notes, but the chocolates came first. They moved around, jumping several buses and even bikes. Kelly hated bikes, but they had to jump some at several times so they can beat the traffic and move faster since they had limited time.
The last one they visited was the one not too far from their houses, Maryland Shoprite. After they were done there, they just jumped a bike to Jumoke's house. It was evening already, almost night. The sky was slowly fading into darkness and the moon was threatening to come out.
They walked into Jumoke's house and dropped the gifts they had gotten for Aunt Joke and Vera. Vera wasn't home, Aunt Joke promised to keep hers for her, even though it was Golden Morn and she loved it more than anyone Jumoke had seen.
They both sauntered into Jumoke's room and fell down on the bed, the were very tired. All the movements had started to take a toll on them. They poured out all the chocolates in the bags which each of them were carrying, it was a lot. They covered Jumoke's medium sized bed when they were done pouring them out, Jumoke wondered silently how Kelly would eat all these.
But he did eat all of them, each bar at a time as she hailed him. He kept eating till they both slept off on her bed, facing different directions.