Melancholy...

Chapter 12

It's been a week already since the whole Crystal thing started. The first two days of her punishment involved me going to the school to convince the headmistress not to tell my mother about what had happened. The woman was very difficult to convince, because she knew my mother personally and insisted that it was good if she(my mother) knew about Crystal's behaviour. I had to plead with her not to tell my mother, because she was sick at the moment and she didn't have to stress herself. She finally agreed on the term that she will tell my mother when she felt better.

Today was Saturday,which of course meant I had to go to the bastard's. But there was something special about today. It was my birthday. I had wished so much that it would fall on a day that I didn't have to go to the bastard's, but I knew that it was impossible to change the day. I therefore decided to put aside negativity and celebrate the day in tranquility.

When I was younger, my birthday was my favourite day of the whole year. I was ravished with gifts and sweet words from my parents. If it fell on a school day,I would take a big cake to school along with many treats to share with my mates. If it fell on a weekend, I'd hold a huge party, which would probably be the biggest anyone had held in the whole school that year. I liked to compete with others when it came to wealth. I didn't care what my parents had to go through, all I cared about was that I was always on top.

In the past few years however, I barely celebrated my birthday. It usually consisted of my mother and siblings wishing me and that was it. The day would go on like any normal day. But today, something in me wanted to celebrate this day. I didn't know why, but I just wanted to.

These were the thoughts that went through my head as I got ready for work. I smeared the Shea butter on my smooth dark skin, making sure to evenly distribute it. The harmattan was close, and so the weather was dry and dusty and this usually led to people's skin cracking and looking crusty. I was an exception, as when Grandma was alive, she thought me that I had to rub a generous amount of Shea butter on my skin immediately after I left the shower. That was the secret to glowing skin in the harmattan season.

After I got my skin to look like I wanted it to,I wore my undergarments and looked through my small suitcase for some clothes to wear. The clothes I had now contradicted perfectly with the ones I had back then which were fashionable and trendy.

Nothing seemed to catch my eye as I looked through the suitcase, but after looking more, I finally decided on a red dress which showed a little cleavage. It hugged my figure in the right places and brought out my curves. It did not hug my stomach like most body cons did, which meant I could breath freely without feeling like my stomach was bulging out. It also complimented my dark skin very well and popped out my melanin. I put on a gold coloured necklace and a bracelet to match my outfit. This was different from my everyday outfit(which usually consisted of a blouse and a skirt or sweatpants) but I liked it.

Satisfied with my look,I took the small piece of glass on the table which served as a mirror and looked through it. I passed my hands through my neatly done cornrows and I smiled in awe. Yesterday, my mother and I had conrowed my natural hair and it looked better than I expected. We had even gone the extra mile to put some beads in it to make it look more classy.

I rubbed some Shea butter on my full lips and smacked it loudly. Then, I took the baby powder and smeared just a little on my cheek. It brought out my sharp jawline out and made my face look perfectly symmetrical.

"You are beautiful." I said to the girl in the mirror with a bright smile. With a final glance, I placed the mirror down and decided to wear my black slippers with gold embeddings to complete the look. I locked the door,placed the key under the small vase on the veranda and began the journey to the bastard's.

Somewhere in my heart,I felt like something bad was going to happen. I just didn't feel right. But I decided to put all negativity aside and go through the day happily. I just had to finish early and leave the place. Easy right?
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Q and A for this chapter.
Q: What is your shortest chapter so far?
A: Chapter nine.

Hey loves,thank you for sticking around. Please like,comment and share. Swipe to the next chapter yall!

Xoxo,
Arianna.