Chapter 6: Screwing up again

"Are you going somewhere?" Chidindu asked.

"Not that it's any of your business but I'm going out with Nenye."

"What about me?" I added.

"Um... Zaram there's been a few changes in our original plan," Nenye said.

"What changes?" I frowned at her. The look on her face was very suspicious.

"We've decided that you're going to stay here while we go to the get-together."

"Nenye," I said cautiously and looked at Vicky who gave me a fake smile.

This was unbelievable. They were planning on leaving me after I practically got dragged to this place.

"Listen we're saving you from all the boredom you were bound to face, it's not like you know anyone that's going to be there."

"But I know you guys."

"I'm not going to babysit you just because you know me," Vicky put in and I scowled at her.

"What if mom finds out," I said to Nenye. 

"She won't find out unless someone tells her so you better keep your mouth shut," She drew the last words out at me like I was a toddler.

I looked at her in wonder. Was she really fine with lying to our mother so freely?

"Nenye-" I tried to protest but she cut me short and said.

"Chizaram just stay here, you can watch TV when you're bored and when you're hungry he can whip out something for you."

"Actually I can't cook," Chidindu interjected.

"Even better she can teach you how to cook, my sister is a very good cook you know," Nenye said to him and flagged Vicky, both of them started to take their leave.

"Bye children, have fun," Vicky called out in a cloying voice. Nenye blew me a kiss and shut the door behind them leaving us alone.

Great. Just great.

The whole room became really awkward. He had just caught me eavesdropping on him and his dad and now he was stuck with me for who knows how long.

I decided to clear the air first by apologizing to him.

"I'm sorry for listening in on your... conversation with you dad, I didn't mean to," I stated sheepishly and looked away.

"It's cool, even though Chinua Achebe said that, 'One of the truest tests for integrity is it's blunt refusal to be compromised.'"

"Oh," I said and nodded at him.

Did this boy just quote Chinua Achebe for me?

"How does integrity fit in?" I asked.

"If you look at it from my angle it should mean that I shouldn't let myself be compromised."

"By your father or anyone," I finished for him.

"Yes, exactly," He said. He looked genuinely surprised that I had agreed with him.

I gave him a sympathetic look. Most parents force their children to become what they deem as respectable and profitable. What they don't know is that the world is changing, what may have seemed lucrative in the past can not remain the same forever.

"Well, sometimes when things are falling apart they may actually be falling in place," I said, quoting the only line I knew from Chinua Achebe. My dad used to say it a lot especially whenever something bad was taking place at the time.

He gaped at me after hearing me say the quote then a slight smile started to form on his face. That's when I knew that I had hit gold.

After our little conversation, he put on the television for me and disappeared to his room. I was alone again in the living room watching a really boring gameshow.

My phone started to vibrate, I knew that it was Kolade but I didn't want to answer him knowing that he was only going to continue teasing me about Chidindu.

The thing continued vibrating in my hand so dropped it on the centre table in front me. It continued vibrating and almost fell off the table.

"What is it Kolade?" I said to myself and picked up the thing to read the load of messages that I had received. Two were from Kolade, five from CJ and the rest were from my mum alongside 7 missed calls from her.

Crap.

I first read CJ's messages.

"Zaram mom said that you and Nenye went to a get-together, what's that about?" 3:45 pm

"Why is Nenye not picking her calls?" 4:00 pm

"Dad's back, you guys better get home before the time for your curfew." 4:30 pm

"Zaram! Why are you two not back yet???" 5:00 pm

"Chizaram!! You and Nenye should come home now! Mom and dad are flipping out, why is Nenye still not picking her calls??!!" 5:30 pm

After reading CJ's messages, I was afraid of reading mom's and even calling back. How was I going to explain to her that Nenye had gone out without me? That was just going to put us in trouble and she was going to blame me without a doubt.

I tried calling Nenye's number but it kept saying that it was switched off. After trying her number for like 2 minutes, I decided to ask Chidindu if he had Vicky's number. The girl bluntly refused to give me her number because she said that I didn't need it. Which was true, it's not like both of us were the best of friends.

I walked to the room that I had seen the framed picture in and knocked on the door.

Nothing.

I couldn't hear any sound from the other side. I knocked again and the door began to unlock, like literally unlock. For reasons I couldn't begin to understand, the boy had locked himself inside his room.

The door opened and he stepped out, his curly hair was a mess like he had been lying down.

"Hey sorry for disturbing you, but do you have Vicky's number?" I asked.

"Yes, why?" He asked while rubbing his eyes.

"I need to tell Nenye to come back but her number isn't going, it's kind of urgent," I said trying to sound calm.

All that I could think of was the amount of trouble that was awaiting me and Nenye at home.

He went inside to get his phone and I looked inside to see a book on his bed. He must've been reading, the cover was the same book that Nenye had in her room. I think the name was Purple Hibiscus.

He handed the phone to me and I copied the number to my phone.

"Thanks," I said and turned to go.

I called the number but no one answered. At least it was ringing unlike Nenye's own that wasn't. I tried it again but to no avail. Then she called back.

"Hello, who's this?" Nenye said from the other end. The background was noisy. The sound of people shouting coupled with the sound of very loud music made her voice almost inaudible.

The sound started fading as I guessed she moved to a quieter place.

"Nenye?" 

"Zaram? How did you get Vicky's number." She asked.

"That doesn't matter right now, why the hell are you not back yet it's past our curfew?!"

"Um... we're doing something."

"What something? Is that something worth getting us in trouble with mom and dad?"

"Did they call you?!! What did they say?"

"I don't know, I missed mom's calls but CJ said that they're angry by the way why is your number not going through?"

"My phone died and I've not been able to charge it," I could hear the alarm in her voice. That's good at least I was not the only one that was agitated.

"How many times has mom told you to always charge your phone before you leave the house," I sighed and said again.

"You guys should just get back soon, I've not told Mom and Dad anything but I will if they call again."

"Zaram!!" She exclaimed over the phone.

"What! You know I hate lying to them."

All through the conversation, I could hear the sound of someone's senseless laughter over the phone. From how loud it was, one could only guess that the person must've been close to her. Even though the person's speech was unintelligible, there was something about the voice of that person. It sounded so familiar. That's when it struck me, Vicky!

"Nenye is that Vicky? Is she drunk?!"

She cut the call.

I stared in shock at the phone in my hand. I couldn't believe it. Vicky was drunk, what kind of a get together did they go to?

I could feel that someone was watching me so I looked up to find Chidindu leaning on the wall across the room with his arms folded.

"She's drunk huh?" He asked quietly.

I nodded at him, still in shock.

He went to the couch and sat down. I joined him and dropped my phone on the table in front of us.

"Does this happen very often," I asked.

"What? Her going out and coming back either drunk or high or both, yes it does," He finished dryly.

"What does her mother have to say about it."

"She definitely will when she finds out, she's just too busy to notice that her daughter is probably an alcoholic and a drug addict."

My phone vibrated again. I was almost too afraid to pick it up. It could've been either mom or dad but I hoped that it was CJ.

I picked it up and it was a message from CJ.

"It's official, both of you are in deep trouble, you might as well stay where you are as long as you can because once you get back home..."

I decided to stop reading that part. I scrolled down and read the most recent text.

"But you should really come back soon, mom and dad might be angry but they're still worried..."

I stopped reading and dropped the phone on its screen. Reading the text was only going to make me even more anxious.

"I'm going to kill Nenye for this," I said under my breath.

I was in trouble because of her and I didn't even do anything. I didn't even want to go anywhere in the first place.

As if on cue, the door opened and Nenye walked in with an intoxicated Vicky in her arms.

She didn't say anything, she just took Vicky up to her room.

I sighed and looked at the time on my phone

6:30 pm

It was way past our curfew.

After sometime Nenye came down to the living room.

"Let's go," She said.

I stood up to go, happy that I was finally going home but at the same time dreading the punishment that we were going to receive.

I didn't say a word to Nenye throughout the ride home. She had screwed up and she knew it. I was sure that she knew that I was not happy with the fact that she had managed to get me in trouble with her.

The driver dropped us at our house and drove away. CJ came out of the house.

"Finally!" He said as we entered the house.

Our parents were already waiting for us in the living room. Mom was pacing around the room and dad sat quietly on the sofa with his arms folded.

Immediately we walked into the house, they started bombarding us with questions. I resisted the urge to start spilling everything to them. 

Even though it wasn't really my fault that we broke curfew, I wasn't going to just throw Nenye under the bus like that.

After they finished their scolding, dad banned both of us from going out for a month.

Nenye tried to protest but didn't, as for me, I didn't really have anything to protest about. It's not like I had anywhere to go to so it was fine by me. I went up to my room to take a shower and went straight to bed.