Chapter 2: Screwing up

The next day was Sunday, service in our church lasted for 2 hours. After church mom and dad decided to take everyone to Genesis cinema to watch a movie.

Nenye didn't seem very excited about it. She was oddly quiet; she didn't even have anything to say when a woman with a ridiculously large hat sat in front of us during the church service.

I knew it had something to do with what happened last night but It's not like I could ask her what was wrong. She wasn't going to tell me and I definitely was not going to tell her that I had spied on her.

Our car was a sienna, mom and dad were in the passenger and driver's seats respectively, aunty Regina, her husband and Felicia were in the middle seats while I was at the back with Nenye, CJ and Chidera. I was in the middle of Nenye and Chidera. Nenye was busy listening to music with her headphones. CJ and Chidera were having an animated conversation about something very irrelevant.

I looked around not knowing what to do with myself. I started humming Ed Sheeran's hearts don't break around here.

"Ugh, could you please stop," Nenye moaned in annoyance.

"That song is just depressing."

"It's not depressing it's beautiful and I thought you were listening to music?"

"Well I wasn't," she said and closed her eyes. I decided to screw it and just ask her, what's the worst that could happen?

"Hey is everything alright?"

She looked at me and I held my breath expecting the worst to actually happen but she surprised me. She didn't tell me to mind my business. She just sighed and said.

"No. everything's not okay, I screwed up bad."

"What did you do?" I asked again.

The car stopped and I realized that we had reached our destination. She got out of the car before she could say anything else.

The movie that we were seeing was a Nigerian movie. It wasn't bad, it was actually a comedy and it was really funny. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it. I had some popcorn and a bottle of Pepsi with me. I was busy stuffing my mouth with the popcorn when Felicia asked if she could have some and I gave her, the girl put her hand inside and brought out a handful. I looked inside to see that I was almost out of popcorn.

"Zaram let's go to the restroom," Nenye whispered.

"Why?" I replied and she gave me a look. I handed the remaining popcorn and Pepsi to Felicia and told mom that we were going to the restroom and stood up and followed her. Luckily the restroom was empty. She brought out her cellphone and dropped her purse on the sink.

"Look at this." she showed me her phone screen. On it was a text from Vicky her best friend and classmate. It read.

"Can I come over later Nathan just dumped me."

"They were dating?" I had no idea.

"Yes they were and the stupid boy just broke her heart," she said.

"Okay? So..." I asked.

"It's all my fault. You know how yesterday Nathan came over... don't play dumb, CJ said he saw you peeping from my bedroom window." She folded her arms.

"Oh." crap!

"Both of them had been having...problems, they've been off and on for some time now, and they even broke up on graduation day and I tried to cheer him up, but... I ended up kissing him."

At first, I didn't know what to say, I was still processing the whole thing in my head. Did she just say that she kissed him?

"Oh my God Zaram say something!" she said anxiously.

"Why did you kiss him; do you like him? Or did he kiss you?"

"Kissing is kissing Zaram it doesn't matter who initiates it, the point is that we kissed and no I do not like him, he's not even my type."

"Then why did you kiss him?!"

"We had a moment," her reply sounded more like a question.

"You're right you did screw up bad." I shrugged and she sighed and said,

"I thought telling people your problems is supposed to make you feel better, why do I still feel like crap." I shrugged at her question.

"What are you going to tell Vicky when she comes over," I asked.

"I don't know but she's going to hate me if I tell her the truth." she picked up her purse and gestured for me to follow her.

I guess we were done with sharing secrets in the bathroom. We got back to our seats but the movie was almost over.

"Where'd you guys go to, you missed half the movie," Chidera asked.

Nenye just gave her a "mind your business" look. In order words, she fake smiled and looked away ending the conversation. Chidera decided to just drop it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the movie we went straight home, mom and aunty Regina dished out the traditional Sunday meal rice and stew. After lunch, everyone gathered in the living room to watch TV. Nenye stood up to go to her room.

"Chinny why don't you stay and watch this movie with us," aunty Regina suggested.

"No thanks aunty, I've had enough of movies for one day," She said.

"Kedu ihe I na eme n'ime ulo gi nwata a?" mom asked in Igbo. Meaning "What are you doing in your room this child.''

"Nothing I'm just tired and besides Vicky said she wants to come over," she said as she went up the stairs to her room.

Everyone watched her go upstairs. Dad sighed and said in Igbo. "Umu nke ugbua." Meaning "Children of nowadays."

By 3 o'clock Nenye came downstairs to let Vicky inside the house. She was one of Nenye's few close friends, she had a lot of friends but only a few of them knew her as Vicky did. The first time they met was when they both entered secondary school for the first time.

At first, the two girls didn't like each other, they even became rivals but in JSS3 (freshman year) they just became friends and joined forces to become the two most popular girls in our school. They then started to have frequent sleepovers at each other's houses.

Mom wasn't really a fan of Vicky's she used to be sceptical about their friendship. She was afraid that Vicky was going to corrupt her not so innocent little girl, but she has learnt the hard way that forcing children to stay away from someone just makes them want to be friends even more.

Vicky wasn't really a bad person; she was just a bit misguided. Her mom was a popular fashion designer and her dad left her mom for a woman in Italy.

With her mom always being too busy to watch her little girl, she was raised by their housekeeper.

She had the freedom to do whatever she wanted and she always liked to say that she didn't need a boy in her life. I guess Nathan changed her mind that is until he broke her heart.

The girl was standing in our doorway holding a phone in her hand. She had at least three piercings on both of her ears. She was wearing a pink hoodie and black leggings.

"Vicky how are you?" my mom asked as her and Nenye passed the living room.

"I'm fine ma," she said, I could see that she was forcing herself to smile.

"How is your mother? Is she back from Ghana?" my mom asked again.

"No but she'll be coming back next week," she said as she went with Nenye to her bedroom.

"I don't like that girl; doesn't she know how to greet her elders?" aunty Regina complained after they left the room.

Mom just smiled and said nothing. I stayed downstairs for some time but I was beginning to lose interest in the movie.

I decided to go upstairs and see if Vicky and Nenye would let me join them. I stood up to go to Nenye's bedroom, standing in front of the door I could hear Vicky's voice.

I knocked once, then twice. She stopped talking and Nenye said something that I couldn't hear. She then shouted from inside.

"What?"

"It's Zaram can I come in."

I could hear shuffling of feet from the other side of the door, it suddenly opened and Nenye stepped out and immediately shut it behind her.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered.

"I wanted to see how you guys were doing in there," I whispered back.

"We're fine," she said and opened the door to go back inside.

"Wait! have you told her about... you know...?" I stopped talking knowing that the door was still open.

She shut the door again and glared at me.

"No I haven't, do you honestly think if I have she would still be here?"

I shrugged at her question. She just looked at me and asked.

"Zaram why are you here?"

"For moral support?" I said, not even sure myself.

"I can't let you in if that's what you want, Vicky's not in a good place right now, she doesn't want anyone to see her like that," She said.

"I understand; I hope she doesn't get too angry when you tell her about the kiss," I said.

"Me too," She said and went back inside.

I stood there for some seconds before I decided to walk to my room. My laptop is on my desk where I left it last night. I put it on to continue the Facebook bio I was editing.

"Hi my name is Zaram and I'm from Nigeria. I love reading, eating and watching TV. I am 15 years old and I believe that family is the most important thing in a person's life."

I clicked save.