Nigerian Girl

CHAPTER THIRTY: 'You people'

I had spent the rest of my time in Chidindu's room talking about books with him. Eventually, it started getting dark outside so mom called us out to take us home.

On the way home, I checked my phone to see if I’d received any messages from Kolade.

There were none.

I guess he was still angry with me. I tried to compose a text to send to him right there in the car but none of them felt right.

By the time we had reached our house, I had already saved at least 5 messages as drafts.

I ended up deleting them and deciding to just leave it and prepare for bed first so that sending the message would be the last thing I would do for the night.

After showering, I climbed into my bed in my red plaid pyjamas and brought out my phone to give Kolade’s message another try.

‘Hi, Kolade…’

I stopped typing to think about what to write next.

‘I’m sorry about what I said…please let's talk.’

Before I could delete this one like the other ones I clicked send and waited to see if I’d get a reply.

Now that I had sent it I wondered if it sounded too desperate, maybe I should have edited it a little.

5 minutes passed and still no reply from him. I sank I into my bed and pulled my blanket over my body.

I continued staring at the screen hoping for those three dots that showed someone on the other end was typing to show but it never did.

Eventually, my eyelids started feeling heavy until they eventually shut and I drifted into sleep.

******

“Zaram?” someone called.

I didn’t move.

Why was this person disturbing my sleep?

“Zaram.” The person called again.

This time whoever it was had started shaking me. I sighed in annoyance and finally opened my eyes. Nenye was sitting beside me. she was already wearing her Sunday dress.

“What?” I said as I sat up and started rubbing my eyes.

“Why are you still sleeping?”  she asked.

“Why are you already dressed?” I asked.

She lifted one eyebrow at me.

“Today’s Sunday, we’re supposed to be going to this place that we go to every Sunday to worship God.”

“But isn’t it a bit too early to be going to this said place,” I asked.

“It’s almost 8 o'clock.” She said still watching me.

I sighed tiredly and tried to turn on my phone to confirm the time.

The screen remained black. My battery must have died during the night.

“What’s up with you? You slept with that thing in a death grip.” Nenye said again looking at my phone then at me with a frown on her face.

“I was waiting for someone’s text.”

I stood up and went to my bathroom to grab my toothbrush

“And who’s this someone?” Her voice sounded from inside the room.

I didn’t say anything. I just kept staring at my toothbrush in my hand. Nenye suddenly appeared at the door of the bathroom

“Who was it?” she asked again.