~Kunmi~
I was in the sitting room, my eyes fixed on the TV that was tuned to a fashion channel where the models were walking a runaway in nothing but rags and I was also listening to a voice note Aminah sent but I could hardly make out what she was saying, partly because of the noises my brother and his friend, papa was making as they played their video game and the occasional laughter from the dining room where mom and Mayowa were getting the face made up in preparation for Mom friend's birthday party.
"Yooooooooo. I've killed you."
My brother suddenly shouted, shocking me out of my reverie.
"Are you alright? Why did you scream like that?"
Mayowa shouted back and I almost winced. Can't these people just talk normally?
"Oya, you and Papa should go and continue playing your game outside and you should act like civilized boys that you are."
I watched as the two of them stood up begrudgingly from where they sat and my brother muttered something that sounded like civilized ko, civilized ni before the two of them walked outside and less than 2 minutes after they left, we started hearing their loud shouts again.
"Mom, don't you think he spends too much time playing video games? He's fast becoming addicted to it and I don't think that's good for him."
"Just leave him, Mayowa. He's still young. He'll change once he becomes older."
"But mom, he's already........."
"Oya, gbenu dake, ko Dami loan. It's almost 3 pm and we were supposed to have gotten to the party before 1. What are you doing? Is it not just to rub powder?"
Mayowa burst into laughter, the rich melodious laughter that was peculiar to her.
"Iya Mayowa, I'm almost done. It's just to get this contour right."
Mom dragged a hiss and I almost smiled to myself. It was always easier to get sidelined whenever Mayowa was home. They were always talking together, staying together that most times, I'd think that they must have forgotten that I existed.
I don't mind because it has always been like that.
"Baby Kunmi, how do I look?"
I looked up with a frown on my face. Why would mom add a baby to my name? And when did she even get to my front?
"You look good."
I replied to her and I gave her a thumbs up which made her smile.
"Oya, Mayowa, let's go oo. Ojo ti lo oo."
"Yes Ma, I'm done now."
"Obi. Kunmi, take care of your brother oo. Don't allow him to wander off."
"Alright, Ma."
The sound of Mayowa's heel made me turn in her direction as she walked to the front door. She was dressed in a blue body con gown that hugged her curves, highlighting her very flat tummy and prominent hips. I instantly felt envious, wondering what it'd be like to walk around in a body like hers.
I stood up, ready to go and listen to music in the safe corners of my darkroom when I heard a surprisingly familiar voice. It sounded so much like Sophia's but I instantly dismissed it. Why would I even hear Sophia's voice in the first place?
"Adam, how're you?"
I stopped and I heard Adam reply in words I couldn't hear.
"And you look familiar? Have we met before?"
That was Mayowa's voice and I frowned, still trying to wrap my head around what was going on there.
"Probably not but I get that a lot so I guessed it's just my......"
"Oh my God! Are you Sophia Williams?"
Mayowa shrieked and I dragged a low hiss at how animated her voice sounded.
"I guess I am."
Sophia replied with a little tease and laughter in her voice and I found myself smiling. Mayowa said some other things I couldn't hear and then, I heard mom tell Adam and Sophia that I was inside and then, opening and closing of doors, then footsteps as the two visitors finally entered the living room.
Which brings me to that question again? What are they doing here?
"Kunmi!!"
Sophia almost shrieked when she saw me and she walked closer to where I stood awkwardly because I still couldn't believe that they were actually in our sitting room. She hugged me, pressing her small frame into my body.
"Who'd have thought we were going to see each other before resumption? How're you? Hope you're fine?"
Ehn?
"I'm fine."
I replied her, my voice coming out more like a croak. Sophia was inside our house was one thing, she was hugging me was another thing and she was smiling and asking me if I was fine was another thing entirely.
I concluded that I don't understand this Sophia. I don't think anybody understands her because she must be bipolar. Yeah, that must be the word for her.
She pulled away from me and she allowed her eyes to roam the entire length of our sitting room.
"You have a very nice house."
"My parent's house but still, thank you."
She chuckled and muttered something that sounded like you're not serious before she sat down beside Adam who was looking at her as if she had grown two heads.
Well, if I wasn't sure of one thing, I was sure of the fact that Sophia wasn't to be trusted and that I should never let my guard down around her, especially when I know that she doesn't like Aminah and that she was probably planning something bad for her.
"Adam, how're you? Hope you're better now?"
I asked surprising myself and surprising him too because his eyes instantly left the TV to look at him, eyebrows raised quizzically as if he couldn't believe I just asked that. I almost instantly regretted asking but the Adam we ate dinner with three nights ago wasn't the Adams I knew and I was worried about him. I'd spend only God knows how many hours worrying about what could have happened to him.
"I mean, Papa said you weren't feeling fine and....."
"I'm fine now. It was just....."
"He was just being dramatic. Don't mind him."
Sophia butted in, almost absentmindedly because her eyes were fixed on the TV, on the skinny models walking the runway in clothes that most African mothers would probably burn or use as rags. I rolled my eyes, wondering why anyone would be interested in watching this supposed fashion show. I don't see anything fashionable about the clothes and even the people in the clothes.
"Are you seriously watching that, Sophia?"
Adams asked her and once again, I wasn't the only one who thinks this thing doesn't make any sense.
"Of course."
"Of course? There's nothing to watch there."
"And you think it's football that there's something to watch there?"
"I'll leave that argument for Kunle."
"Shiro."
I chuckled at their cute bickering. Maybe it'd be good for everyone if Sophia likes Adam and not Kunle.
Right?
I frowned at the thought, wondering why it wasn't sitting down well with me.
"Ehn ehn."
Sophia said suddenly, jerking me out of my reverie and I turned to look at her with a frown on my face only to discover that Adams was staring at me, almost intently that I had to swallow an invisible lump and to look away.
"That reminds me, there's a bonfire night in two days."
Yeah, I knew about that. Why she was telling me was what I don't understand. The bonfire started a long time ago and Mayowa had always attended it. That was how she always spend her crossover night.
"I'm inviting the both of you. It's always fun, you'll enjoy it."
"Count me out."
Adam replied in an overly bored tone at the same time I said;
"I don't think I'd be able to attend."
"I'd be here by 10 pm to drag the both of you."
I said nothing in reply to that, partly because I knew I was impossible to be dragged anywhere and partly because I was still surprised that Sophia was sitting in our sitting room as if this wasn't her first time being here and she was talking to me as if we were long time friends.
I knew there was more to all these niceties but still, a part of me couldn't help but wonder if she was being her.
I doubted that but still, maybe she's just a harmless girl who's just hurt because the guy she likes, like another girl.
"What should I offer...."
"We'll just be on our way now. We just decided to say hi. We were going somewhere else."
She said with a note of finality and she stood up. I expected her to start walking towards the door but she remained on her foot, eyes fixed on something behind me. I followed her eyes to see that she was staring at the piano.
My piano.
The expression on her face was torn between nostalgia and pain and I frowned.
"Do you play the piano?"
I found myself asking when I probably should have just kept quiet.
"No, my sister likes to play it."
Her voice was almost solemn and I frowned again, wondering if it was a bad thing that her sister likes to play.
"We should go."
Adam said, cutting through my thoughts and I watched as he nudged Sophia towards the direction of the door.
Sophia said nothing again, even as I walked them to the gate. The 50 shades quiet Sophia was back.
**********
Sophia did not need to show up two days later to drag me to the bonfire. Mom insisted that I follow Mayowa who was going with Charles and who was also going with Adam.
I was almost blown over when we got to the stadium where the bonfire was supposed to take place to meet a very large expanse of land with hundreds of people, teenagers mostly, talking animatedly and shouting over loud music blaring from invisible stereos amidst the sound of bangers, cuddled bodies and even the smell of weed. I hugged myself, feeling incredibly cold even in the baggy sweatshirt that I wore.
When Sophia said bonfire, I was expecting a bonfire, not a carnival, and not something as huge as this.
"You look like you weren't expecting something like this?"
Someone said behind me and I turned to look at the person which turned out to be Adam. I'd momentarily forgotten that we came here together and that Mayowa and Charles had excused themselves immediately we got here. We were standing just like almost 90% of the rest of the population but unlike the 90%, we don't seem to fit in.
Well, I don't seem to fit in.
"Yes, I thought the bonfire was going to be like normal bonfires with chairs......."
"With chairs arranged in circles around the fire, right?"
He said with some sort of crackle in his voice that me the impression he was teasing me.
"Yes. Isn't that how bonfires are supposed to be like?"
He burst into laughter.
He did burst into laughter, throwing his head back, grabbing his stomach and I could almost hear his ribs cracking. He was laughing, like really laughing.
"God! Kunmi, you're so funny."
He said in between laughter and I almost frowned, wondering what could have been so funny.
"Most bonfires ain't like that, especially with large gatherings like this."
"Well, they shouldn't have called this a bonfire then. A carnival would have been better."
He chuckled, almost silently to himself.
"There must be an actual bonfire somewhere in the front but it's impossible to get there with this large population."
"Exactly, where do all these people come from?"
I asked, turning around to see that the garden was almost full now and we still have more than 30 minutes before midnight which means many people might still turn up. We heard a shooting sound just as the sky erupted into a million colors and lights, coloring the whole atmosphere and making everything brighter than usual.
"We can go and sit somewhere. There must be canopies and joints somewhere around."
He stated, distracting me from watching the fireworks that had almost disappeared and I agreed without a second thought. My feet were starting to kill me and I couldn't even imagine standing for the next 30 minutes.
We ended up walking around for about 10 minutes before we found umbrella-shaped canopies beside a Suya spot and by then, the people in the garden had almost doubled and that was when I gave up. Ever since Mayowa started coming to this bonfire three years ago, I'd always thought it was just a small event and besides, weren't we all supposed to be spending our crossover night in churches and mosques?
The DJ answered that question in my mind by choosing that time to play soapy by Naira Marley and the crowd erupted into shouts and screams again. I cringed inwardly. That song has to be one of the most useless songs in the history of mankind.
And the dance? Let's not even go there
Some other teenagers were sitting under the canopy too. Some were smoking openly, cigarettes, shisha, and even weed.
What if the police decide to raid this place?
I tensed at that thought just as different scenarios started playing out in front of me; the police showing us in various vans, people running healthier skelter, the police arresting most of us. Dad showed up angrily the next morning in the police station to bail us. I shuddered at that thought.
You're not exactly alright.
My subconscious mocked and I could picture her shaking her head at me.
"Looks like you zoned out again?"
Adam asked, jolting me out of my reverie. He was looking at me quizzically as he chewed on something which I later realized to be Suya. I did not even know when he bought that.
"Yeah, I just had the most bizarre thought."
"Tell me about it."
He said, leaning his elbow on the table and propping his head up with it, his whole attention was focused on me, eyes lit and twinkling with so much vibrancy and liveliness that it was so easy to get lost in them. His eyes now were different from his eyes seven nights ago when he looked like life had been sucked out of him and like he'd been carrying the weight of the world.
"I'm waiting."
He repeated, his attention still solely focused on me as if I was about to tell him something very important. I shrugged and swallowed an invisible lump.
"I just thought of the police showing up to raid this place and arresting all of us. The notion of staying in a police cell is frightening."
He chuckled before he removed his head from his hand and he took another bit of Suya.
"You and your thoughts ehn. That would be scary but it basically can't happen. They're always aware of events like this."
Yeah. Probably but I still couldn't shake off the sense of foreboding.
"So, how do you always spend your crossover nights?"
He asked, cutting through my thoughts and turning my lips to a side, repeating the question in my head.
How do I always spend my crossover nights?
"At home, most of the time. I'd do the countdown with my family except for Mayowa of course, she was never home on nights like that."
He nodded slowly, his brows furrowed in concentration and I watched as an awkward silence was starting to take over the once energetic mood.
"How do you spend your crossover nights?"
I asked and he did not answer immediately. He only stared straight ahead, his jaws almost clenched.
Was that a somewhat personal question?
"You shouldn't answer if you don't want....."
"Of course, I'd want to. It's just a harmless question."
He interrupted me with a small smile, overriding the previous forlorn look on his face that I thought I had imagined it but I knew better and besides, tonight wasn't the first night I'd notice something like that about......
"My mom is a prayer warrior so we always pray into the new year....."
He interrupted my thoughts and I half expected him to go on because that sounded very much like an incomplete sentence to me.
"AND THE COUNTDOWN IS GOING TO START NOW!"
THE MC's voice boomed loudly over the microphone, echoing loudly throughout the whole stadium. The whole stadium became eerily quiet and I was sure that if a pin should drop, we'd hear the sound.
"Now, repeat after me."
The MC shouted again. Yes, he shouted even though he was using a microphone.
"10"
The whole stadium repeated after him and I double tapped the screen of my phone to see that the time was 11:59.
"2"
"2"
"1"
"1"
"And it's a happy new year!"
The MC shouted again, followed by shooting sounds and bangers and fireworks and the whole stadium erupted into shouts and screams of the happy new year. I turned back because we were sitting with our backs to where the main program was taking place. People were hugging each other and shouting animatedly and it brought a smile to my face. I started to turn back again when my eyes met Adams who was staring at me in Adams' way, eyes boring into mine. His onyx-colored eyes blaring with so much intensity had always bothered me, his way of looking at someone with his eyes telling you I know so much about you or I'd know much about you and I seriously doubted if he knew about that.
I never knew eyes could speak.
"Happy new year!"
He said with a smile on his face and something fluttered at the pit of my stomach. Something warm.
At that moment, I realized that ever since we got here, I'd talked, like really talked most times without thinking twice. I hadn't paused to weigh my words or to look for better choices of words like I'd have done on a normal day.
I'd just talked without restraints and restrictions.
And I did not know even notice that until now.
He was still looking at him with a smile on his face and it all seemed surreal, almost like a fairy tale but the problem with most fairy tales was that the end when the night was over.
"Guys, here you are! I've been looking for you guys since eternity."
And there it was!
We both looked in the direction of the voice which was unmistakably Sophia's and she was walking towards us with a huge smile on her face. She was dressed in a black shirt dress that stopped inches above her knees and I wondered if this harmattan cold wasn't getting to her.
"Happy new year."
She said once she got to us and she hugged Adams before sitting down right beside him, completely ignoring me.
"Happy new year. How did you even find us?"
"Oh, You both said you weren't going to come and you even left me behind. Adam, is this how it is?"
She asked lightly and she started eating the suya without any invitation. She was always carefree, just like Aminah and I wonder how they could be that comfortable with people.
"So, did you guys enjoy the countdown? Why was I even asking? You must have enjoyed it, judging from the huge smiles you guys had plastered on your faces when I got here."
I chuckled, Sophia was that kind of person who'd ask a question and then answer it herself and that was yet, another thing she has in common with Aminah.
And I wasn't sure if I enjoyed the bonfire or carnival but I did enjoy the evening.
And the company.
Especially the company.
And I don't know if I was supposed to enjoy a boy's company this much.
I don't understand what's delaying this ship like this. Ehn? It's like I'd have to scream at them to row it here faster. Mehn, I can't wait 💃 💃 💃 💃 You people should start thinking of ship names oo
How do y'all spend your crossover night? I hope it's not in clubs sha 😂😂 just joking though.
Kunmi seems to be getting more and more comfortable with Adam but then, she feels like she shouldn't be enjoying a boy's presence that much. Hmm? I might have to slap her to reset her thinking faculty.
And I think we have to give it up for Sophia and her timing. She always chooses the perfect time to show up.
So, in the last chapter, I asked a question about Adam's mother and what you think about her as a whole, I got satisfying answers but I also got some that bothered me. I'm not going to say much because I don't want to end up spoiling the story but I just want you guys to know that it's always easier to point fingers, that it's always easier to say we'd do this, we'd do that if we were in particular situations but it's never easy to do those things.
See you before Friday, hopefully, and don't give up on me, I'm almost back to updating twice weekly.
Ciao ❤️❤️♥️♥️♥️💓😍😍😍