° ° ° ° °
AIDAN:
° ° ° ° °
7:42 PM
I could see that displayed clearly on the home screen of my phone. I was forty-two minutes late to Amorette's party and I was still yet to arrive at the venue which was, apparently, at Amorette's home.
Sitting on the other seat at the front of the car, I stared at the passing environment through the tinted window.
I watched the grasses, bushes, trees and animals. The trees and bushes swaying from side to side, following the directions of the wind. The small and tall grasses following suit, and the animals, dogs mostly, howling at the sound of the wind.
To me, all that held a kind of peace and serenity.
I felt a smile creep up my face.
I craved that. The feeling of inner peace and serenity.
My eyes trailed down my body and rested on my wrist, covered up by the white long sleeve turtleneck I had on.
I had cut myself again and I needed to long sleeve to hide that.
A frown marred the little smile on my face.
When guilt still ate me up, I could never experience that feeling of serenity.
I moved away from the tinted-glass window and rested my head on the head of the car seat.
Eventually, I dozed off.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
This was a first, attending Amorette's party.
I never imagined I would actually do this, never ever because her and Mandel were the two people I disliked in the school.
People were trooping into the venue with wide smiles and laughter, I guess they decided to give her a second chance.
Getting to the entrance of the party, I found Amorette standing there. She beamed widely, handing me what looked like a thank you card.
"Glad you made it." She chirped. "Really glad."
"Yeah." I replied. "Me too."
Saying that, I walked passed her and into the venue.
I looked around the place, searching for a seat to sit on. There were lots of tables and chairs, covered in clothes and nicely decorated, most of which were already taken.
8:25 PM
That was the time at the moment.
I took an empty seat, and looked around for anyone I might know, Samuel perhaps but all I saw were strange and familiar faces I wasn't close to.
About ten minutes later, someone took the stage and called for people's attention. I looked up from the paper I was reading on the table and to my suprise, it was Daniella.
Technically, the place she stood wasn't a stage, it was just a free space for entertainment.
"Hey everyone, I'm your co-host, Daniella and this party officially starts now. Sorry it hasn't been much fun since, couldn't make it on time. But now that I'm here, this party's gonna move from dry to lit." She smiled.
Her words were followed by applauses and loud whistling, and when it had died down, she spoke up again.
"So, we're going to start this party with a dance performance to Electricity by Pheelz done by Ayomide, Samuel and Obinna. Please give a round of applause to them." She said, and that was followed by another round of applause and loud whistling.
Briefly, the three boys that were being called came up on stage but only Ayomide was grinning at everyone, the others had a bit of a nervous look on.
The song, Electricity began to play and Samuel came in front, starting the performance of with a butterfly legwork as Ayomide and Obinna cheered him on, then, he moved on to another dance step with Ayomide and Obinna following suit.
They swung their arms passed each other, their knees bent slightly as they moved their bodies left and right slowly.
After a few more dance moves by Samuel, Ayomide came up in front and I swear, his grin was so contagious because soon, I was smiling at them too.
"Hey."
I tore my eyes away from the dance performance, to the person that had called.
"Your party's been good so far." I told her.
"Yeah, thanks." She smiled, and a hand nudged her in the rib.
That's when I noticed the two girls standing beside her. One of them had on a black short dress that made her light complexion stand out, the other, the one with the honey brown skin, wore a pink crop top with a hoodie and really short Jean shorts, and the both of them had similar features with Amorette.
"Oh, Aidan meet my cousins; Diana.." She said, moving her hands to the light skinned girl, "And Kamsi." She said, gesturing at the honey brown skinned one.
"Cousins, meet Aidan." She told them, pointing at me.
I wore a small smile and waved at them, with my head resting on the fist of my other hand. "Hey."
And as I said that, my eyes moved to the sides of Amorette and her cousins, and behind them.
The two girls took the empty seats beside me which I had saved for Samuel and the rest, but I guess I was too distracted to tell them that.
"Where's Otamayomi?" I asked, Suprising myself.
"She's inside. You wanna come see her?" She replied and I shook my head.
She smiled again and walked away.
"So, tell us about yourself, Aidan." The one Amorette had introduced as Diana said.
I raised a brow and smiled a bit. "Myself?"
"Yeah. You know, you're hot." She said, batting her false lashes slowly and biting her lower lips.
That act of hers disgusted me.
I tilted my head and leaned backwards. "If you think I am, you should take a look at my friend, Ayomide."
Just then, I heard a booming sound coming from the stage area and when I turned my head to that direction, I saw Ayomide holding what looked like a little canon and placing it near his abdomen as he blasted confetti out of it repeatedly.
What I saw next confused me, people were running and moving to random places as Ayomide continued to blast confetti out of the little canon, but they weren't running because they were scared, they were just moving about frantically.. for fun.
Ayomide had that big grin on his face and the people who weren't moving about frantically were laughing and hailing the three guys.
Suddenly, he stopped and dropped the canon, then bowed and walked away from the stage area. He looked as if he had just had the time of his life.
Leave it to Ayo to make everything fun.
"People sure are crazy, even the guy on the stage." Diana had said, and I averted my gaze back to them. I raised a brow again.
"Yeah, like, who does that? He just ruined the whole dance performance." Kamsi decided to chip in. "Good thing we're not like them."
She made an attempt to place her hand on mine but I moved it away quickly.
"Bro."
I turned my head to see Ayo jogging towards my table.
"Your performance was lit." I smiled, as if I had been able to watch the whole thing.
"Thanks. It felt good, I hadn't done that in a while." He said and when he had gotten close enough, he did a handshake with me.
He turned to the girls sitting with me, Diana and Kamsi, and they looked quiet embarrassed.
"Ladies." Ayo smiled, taking their hands in his one at a time and kissing it. Then, he winked at them.
He grabbed a chair and sat by me but I stood up. "Where's Samuel? Wasn't he with you at the stage just now?"
"Yeah, said he was going inside." Ayo replied and I groaned.
"You let him? You know he's gonna get wasted again." I said.
Ayo shrugged. "His life."
"Hope you enjoy your time with Ayo, here." I told the two girls before walking away.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Immediately I stepped foot into the house, my ears were filled with hysterical scream and high pitched yells.
A girl in her early twenties wearing a blingy red Gucci off-shoulder gown, gold pencil mouth heels and gold round-framed glasses without the glass walked passed me.
My brows furrowed watching her walk out of the building. She looked really familiar.
I shrugged, shoving my hands in my trouser pocket and walked further into the house.
Girls were still screaming, guys had dreamy looks. Their screams were so loud I could hear them clearly even with the loud music booming through speakers, and it wasn't until I had met Samuel that I knew the reason for that.
"Dude, you sick or something? You're telling me you don't know that girl?" Samuel yelled over the music, staring at me like I had spoken gibberish.
I nodded.
He reached for his phone on the table he placed it on and began to tap and scroll. Then, he turned it over and shoved it in my face.
I moved my head away from the screen and squinted my eyes until I could see the screen properly.
"Isn't she that social media influencer girl?" I yelled back and Samuel nodded. "What's her name, Kayla?"
Samuel face palmed himself and put his phone back in his pocket. "She's Quinn Walker bro, that's the girl that walked passed you."
My brows shut up at his words. "Whoa! What's she doing here, then?"
"She Amorette's sister, I was so shocked when I found out." Samuel yelled.
"Amorette must be happy then, having a celebrity for a sister." I told him and he nodded.
Immediately, Amorette marched passed us and out of the building too. She looked mad compared to how happy she seemed at the beginning of the party.
"Talk of the devil, and the devil appears." He exclaimed. I shrugged.
I felt a vibration in one of my trouser pockets and I brought my phone out.
A glance at the caller and I had become pissed, I swiped the ringing icon down to cut the call and put it back in my pocket.
"Your old man's calling again? That's... Good."
I rolled my eyes and sat on a sofa at the end of the room. "Whatever."
Samuel narrowed his brows at me and looked down at my trouser pockets. "I thought you want him to call?"
I didn't say anything, rather I focused my gaze on the paintings on the walls of Amorette's house.
Girlfriend by Ruger began to play.
The phone began to buzz in my trouser pocket again and I brought it out. It was my dad again.
"He just acts like I'm not important to him, like I'm some toy that he can toss and play with whenever he wants to. Just calls when he feels like it." I said, and I felt anger crawl back into me.
I hate that man!
The phone buzzed again. "Yeah but he's still your dad, if you don't pick up now, you might not have the chance to speak to him for another three months or year."
I looked back at the phone screen, the word 'Dad' displayed boldly on the screen.
I swiped up and placed the phone on my ear. I stood up, smiled at Samuel and walked to the back of the building, the most quiet place so far.
"Hey dad... " I muttered. I paused, contemplating on what to say next. "Good evening."
"Son, Aidan? That's you right?"
I rolled my eyes and scowled. "Of course it's me, Dad. I don't sound like one of those show hosts, do I?"
I was mad at him, really mad and it sickened me to think that I had decided to speak to the one person that made me feel neglected and of no importance.
But still, I missed him.
The line was silent for a moment and I didn't bother to say anything else.
"You're mad at me, Son?" I heard him say.
"Of course I'm mad at you, Dad and stop calling me Son cos you sure don't treat me like one!"
He sighed.
"I'm sorry, Son. I've told you already, I'm busy with work, It's for your own good. It's because of all my hardwork that you go to a good school, wear good clothes and eat good food."
"You're just saying that to make you feel better about yourself." I said through gritted teeth.
"Aidan, you know I'm not the reason you're lonely, your mother and sister would've been with you but you... "
Those words felt like knives piercing into my heart again and again and again, just like how it always felt when dad would blame me for their death.
"Why did you call?" I asked running my hand through my hair and trying to make my voice as calm as possible.
"You're coming to the states next week Wednesday."
My narrowed at his statement. "What do you mean I'm coming to the states next week Wednesday?"
"Exactly what you heard, Son. You can't object it. I've booked your flight and bought your tickets. Good bye."
"But I'm —"
He hung up.
I ran my hands through my hair roughly and picked up a stone. "I have school on Wednesday! Dang it!!" And I threw the stone as far as I could.
I shoved my hands in my pocket and walked angrily towards the building.
I needed to calm down, and the only place I could think of was the balcony of the building.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
I ran a hand through my hair for the umpteenth time as I ascended the last staircase, and just then, someone fell on me. A girl.
I was quick to catch her before she could fall down the stairs.
"Stranger, you're so handsome." The girl said, caressing my cheeks slowly but I moved my head away. The lights every where was dimly lit so I could hardly make out her face.
But I did.
"Otamayomi?"
She wore a lopsided smile and reached for my cheek again, slowly, her eyes looking rather heavy. "Aidan? Geez, your eyes are pretty."
And she said so as if she were in a daze.
I brought her up to her feet slowly but when I had let go completely, she fell back and I had to catch her again.
"Why's there a star on your head?"
I held her up, my hands placed on the sides of her arms. "Where are your friends, where's Mandel and Amorette?"
"Who needs them. I'm having the time of my life!" She said, throwing her hands lazily into the air.
I tried to walk her down the stairs but she refused to move.
"Otamayomi." I groaned. "You're drunk, I'm trying to help you."
She squinted her heavy eyes and stuck her tongue out at me. "Didn't ask for it, music boy." Then, she bit me and ran away.
"Freedom!!" She yelled as she ran down the hallway.
I hissed and glanced at the place she had bit me. "God! Otamayomi!" On saying that, I ran after her.
Eventually, I had caught up to her, and seeing as she had refused to let me take her down the stairs, I took her to the balcony instead.
So now, we were both leaning on the railing, staring into the nights sky but I had a hand wrapped around her hand just in case she decides to jump down the balcony.
"There are soo many stars out there. I can count 'em. One, two, three, four..." She said, pointing at each star she saw.
And I smiled, watching her trying to count stars.
"Stars are so pretty. You know that right, Aidan?" She asked smiling as she stared into space.
"Yeah." I replied lowly. "Even the ones that shine the least."
She turned to me and squinted her eyes, tilting her head slowly and putting on a cute pout.
"Why's that?"
I smiled and looked back at the nights sky. "To me, what makes a star beautiful is it's light. Sure, the one that shines brightest is the most beautiful but that doesn't mean that the others aren't pretty too, they still got light, it just isn't as bright as the brightest."
She nodded and then, she frowned.
"It's beauty doesn't last long because when it's day time, all the pretty stars disappear and the hot sun comes out."
I shrugged. "Well, I believe that the stars don't just disappear when it's day time. They only become less visible to the human eye and their beauty becomes less visible too."
I averted my gaze to Otamayomi to listen to her reply but instead, I saw her quietly watching the nights sky with her hands still placed on the railings and I saw it. The tears drops that rolled down her cheek.
I frowned. "What's wrong?"
She looked at me and frowned deeply. "Joel." She said, pointing into space as more tears ran down her eyes. "He's a jerk!"
I wasn't sure what she was talking about but I decided to remain silent.
"He told me I would shine as bright as the brightest stars and that people would see that the more they got to know me but I guess my light became less visible to him when my true self became clearer, my feeble, freaky self and he ran away." She scoffed as another tear rolled down her cheek. "Look where listening to him got me."
She sat on the floor of the balcony, hugging her knees to her chest and looking away from me. "Funny how I kept believing in the promises he made to me." She muttered to herself but then, she looked up at me.
"Aidan." She called, her heavy eyes blinking slowly at me in the dim light.
"Yeah?"
"You know, it's not nice when people make you believe things they know aren't true." She said lowly and slowly.
I didn't say anything, instead I observed her.
She sat there, in the middle of the balcony hugging her knees to her chest, sniffing and blinking lazily at me with expectant eyes.
Looking at her, I could only reason one thing.
Whoever this Joel was, he had really broken her.
I sat in front of her, cross-legged and tilted my head. "Is this Joel guy the reason you feel bad simply because you have a health condition that not only you experience? You shouldn't."
"It's easy for you to say. You don't feel it! You don't know what it feels like to be intentionally angered by your mates just because they know that it'll trigger an attack! You don't know what it feels like to have people endlessly laugh into your face while you suffocate and call for help!! You don't know what it feels like to be treated like an outcast and to be neglected by people you call friends simply because you have a health condition and you definitely don't know what it feels like to have the one person you love do every one of those things to you!!! So stop telling me to stop feeling bad because you can't relate with my situation because it hurts really really bad! It hu—"
Tears were gushing out of her eyes and streaming down her cheeks everytime she raised her voice to make a point, and when she had gotten to her last statement, she coughed and then she began to gasp.
That's when I stood up and moved closer to her in a hurry.
"My in..." She managed to say but gasped for air again.
I put my hands into her trouser pockets and found the inhaler in one of them, quickly I helped her use it.
When she had calmed down, I moved the inhaler away from her face and back into her pocket. She hugged her knees again.
"I'm...a freak."
She laid down on the bare floor and took off her shoes, smiling with her eyes shut.
"I don't want to keep this as a burden anymore, Aidan. I want to tell you about me, about Joel and everything but I'm afraid you'd stop talking to me, I'm afraid you'd toy with me and leave me like Joel did." She said.
I didn't speak.
"I like your company. I really do like to hang out with you but I've just been scared, that you'd leave me like the rest. I got jealous when I saw you performing with Mandel in music class."
Silence.
I crept towards her slowly and laid down on the floor beside her.
I knew she was being honest and I smiled, the alcohol had started acting up on her.
"I like your company too, Otamayomi, and I'd love to see you play an instrument one day because you have such a lovely voice, I can't even explain." I said calmly. "I've seen you cry and have panic attacks but yet you still see me lying down next to you. You know why? 'Cos you're such an amazing person, your health condition can't even kill that."
I continued. "Joel was right about you shining as bright as the brightest star."
She scoffed.
"He just failed to realize that."
I turned to face her and suprisingly, she had her body turned to me.
"What happened, Otamayomi. What did Joel do?" I whispered, suddenly feeling my heart being heavy with sadness for her.
She took in a long deep breath with her eyes shut and let it out, then, opened it again.
"It started when I joined music class." She sighed. "I didn't know anything about music except singing but I was eager to learn. Joel agreed to teach me and he did so at every free time he got. We became good friends and I got better at music fast. Then, he'd praise me and make thousand promises, talking about how I'd do great when I become a pro like him. I would believe him."
She paused.
"Sometimes, he'd see me get emotional over the songs I would sing or play to and he would talk about how vulnerable I was to music. It really affected me because I grew feelings for him and I liked him a lot. I hated it when I got panic attacks and he would see me in a terrible state, I hated it when his friends would bully me because I got panic attacks over 'every little emotion' and he would side them but he would still encourage me to be serious with music and stop acting like a crybaby at it. It broke me to pieces that my health condition was making the person I loved to dislike me and I wanted to prove it to him that I wasn't all the things he thought I was."
She paused again and she took in a sharp breath, her eyes slowly became teary and her lips quivered, trying to hold in a wail.
"No, you don't have to. Please." I said calmly, placing a hand delicately on her arm.
"I want to." She inhaled again. "I wanted to prove him wrong and make him like me. So, one day I asked him to meet me under the staircase at lunch break and I knew the cleaners were cleaning the place up because it hadn't been clean about a year. It was really dusty."
"Of course, I had an attack right there. My chest started to burn, my lungs began to clog up and right then, I was in serious need of oxygen. I was suffocating, God!" She exclaimed, choking on her tears.
"But still, I refused to use my inhaler, I refused the help of the cleaners and passerbys. I created a scene and students had crowded me, trying to help. And then, I saw Joel, watching me with this smile on his face and right then, during my suffocation, I felt accepted. I felt weak all of a sudden and I could see myself falling down. The problem got serious and I was at the bridge of loosing consciousness. I wanted to use my inhaler but I had left it with Joel and I begged and pleaded for his help. He ignored me, tossed the inhaler and walked away like nothing happened." She sobbed.
"I had almost died because of the little stunt I pulled and when I had become conscious again, everyone I could think of, even the people I hardly knew from school came to visit me, my friends came to see me, kids brought me gifts and well wishes, others wrote cards to me but I didn't get anything from Joel, I didn't even see him. He had been ignoring me ever since."
Her lips quivered and she tried holding back the tears that were already gushing out, hugging her body with her arms.
"Like I said Otamayomi, you're an amazing person. You're a lover of music, a gifted singer, you're a girl that doesn't need anyone to fight your battles cos you already got it under control. You're independent, truly awesome. Only Joel failed to see that."
She broke into tears and shook her head. I moved closer to her and wrapped my arms around her, moving my hand up and down her back soothingly as she cried against my chest.
"You're awesome, Otamayomi." I whispered. "Don't forget that."
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
I walked quickly towards the entrance of the building with Otamayomi carried carefully on my arms. She had fallen asleep when she stopped crying.
Ifeoluwa was waiting for me in their car and I was moving as quickly as possible.
I was halfway through the compound when Mandel ran passed me, screaming and yelling for help.
"He's there! He's there! Leave me alone! I'm done!!" Was what she kept saying as she moved around the place.
People had began to gather round her, trying to stop her from running about the place and trying to find the person she was running away from.
"Someone! Anyone! Help me, please!" She sobbed, screaming again and running around. My brows furrowed, wondering why she acted that way.
Amorette marched up to her angrily and when she had gotten close enough to Mandel, she landed a big hurtful slap on her cheeks.
"Mandel, what is wrong with you?! I said I didn't want to associate with you anymore, it doesn't give you enough reason to want to ruin my party and cause a scene. You've already made Tammy drunk, and now this?! What do you intend to gain from all this?!"
Her words were followed by murmuring and whispers.
I looked down at the sleeping Otamayomi on my arms.
Mandel had drunk her. Otamayomi didn't need backstabbers for friends.
I glared at Mandel once more and made my way to their car. I dropped Otamayomi in it gently, glanced at her cute sleeping self and walked away.
-------------------------------------------------------
I did it guys!! I wrote this chapter. Yay!!
I'm too tired to say much cos I spent almost my entire day writing this chapter.
First time I've written up to 4,400+ words. Hope you're happy😊
Let me know what you think about this chapter in the comments okay?
Bye,
Benzita13 ❤️