𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐:)
𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊'𝒎 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍!

UCHE'S POV

Walking back home is fast and easy now that I've walked Dede to her house, I jog lightly as I walk. I usually don't stay out this late but right now I'm in a hurry to get home just in case Kelechi is till home alone considering today is a Saturday, 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 might still be at the salon attending to her customers. (Mother)

As soon as I walk in to the compound I see 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 and Kelechi standing outside, I can tell that 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 just arrived home now because I see Kelechi carrying two plastic bags inside and 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 still has her handbag in her hands. I rush towards her to help with her bag and the rest of the plastic bags

"𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝒎" (welcome mom) I greet her before collecting her bag and the things she came with

"𝒅𝒂𝒂𝒍𝒖" (thank you) we both walk inside, I drop her bag and the plastic bags to lock the door, after I lock the door I turn to find mom examining me from head to toe

"Where did you go to looking fine like this" she said I laughed lightly at her before picking up her things

"I just went out with a friend" she nods at me before walking into her room. I drop her bag on the couch before taking the rest of the things to the kitchen to help her prepare dinner.

"Kelechi 𝒃𝒊𝒂 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒓𝒊 𝒈𝒊" (come and take your food) 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 calls from the kitchen. 𝑴𝒂𝒎𝒂 and I made dinner together after settling on 𝒋𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒇 rice for dinner.

"𝒏𝒘𝒂 𝒎 look at your own food here" (my child)

"Okay thank you" I pack the rest of the utensils we used to cook to clean them up, I clean the gas cooker and kitchen table also. After I'm done with that I take my food and join them at the dinning table. Kelechi is almost done with his food and 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 just started eating.

"Will your friend from America come to our house again?" Kelechi asks, I look at him for a while wondering who he's talking to and what's he's talking about

"It's you Uche" he says as if he read my mind

I smile at him "eat your food"

Mom looks at the both of us confused "which friend? 𝒌𝒆𝒅𝒖 𝒊𝒉𝒆 𝒐 𝒏𝒂 - 𝒆𝒌𝒘𝒖?" (what is he talking about?)

I finished chewing the food in my mouth before talking

"My friend came visiting today" I reply her, her facial expression told me she was confused

"Which of your friend stayed in America before?" She asks

"Pa Chinedu's grand daughter Amanda the one that just came back from America with her mom"

"Oh okay, you people are now friends? 𝒐 𝒅𝒊 𝒎𝒎𝒂" (that's good)

We eat the rest of our dinner in silence, after dinner Kelechi packs our empty plates to the kitchen to wash them. Mom and Kelechi move to her room after saying their good nights and I remain in the sitting room. I turn the Tv on to find something to watch. I remove my phone from my pocket to check what the time is: 9:30pm, I want to text Dede now but I wonder if she's asleep already, I open my inbox and search for her name, I'll text her anyways

𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒊 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒅𝒆

I tap send and drop my phone by my side, if she doesn't reply me then she's probably asleep already

15 minutes later I hear my phone beep, I was already dozing off. I remove my phone from the side of the chair, I have a new message and it's from her

𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒅, 𝒊 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐𝒐. 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑼𝒄𝒉𝒆

I smile to myself as I walk to my bedroom

. . . .

Sundays are really not my best days, apart from Church there's usually nothing much to do on Sundays. I woke up by 5:30am to get ready for church today I'll be attending the 7:am mass. We usually attend the 10am mass but today I want to come back home early and rest for the whole day. I get up to boil water on the gas for my bath, mom and Kelechi are still asleep. After I take my bath I dress up, I don't even make breakfast I'll do that when I return. When I get to the sitting room I find Kelechi in the sitting room and he is watching his early morning cartoons. He greets me and doesn't even ask if I'm going to church or not.

"I'm going to church come and lock the door" he nods his head at me and gets up, he locks the door immediately I leave, I shake my head and laugh at how fast he locked the door today.

It takes me 20 minutes to get to church with a tricycle, if I walked 30 minutes. The church is awfully too full for an early morning mass, I find a seat and sit down.

One thing I like about St Philips Church is how fast the service ends, immediately the service is over I walk home straight. When I get home I see mom and Kelechi outside, mom is trying to lock the door and Kelechi is holding her bible, they're about to leave for church

"Mommy see brother Uche!" Kelechi literally screams, she looks up and sighs in relief

"What's wrong?" I ask her immediately I get to them

"I've been trying to lock the door but it's not cooperating" I take the key from her

"We'll get going now since you're home, take a look at it maybe you can fix it later?" I nod at her before entering inside the house

"How was service 𝒏𝒘𝒂 𝒎" she asks as she walks out of the compound with Kelechi

"It was okay" I slightly yell

Inside the house smells like beef stew, mom must have cooked something. I remove my phone from my pocket to check what the time is : 10:00 am. It's still a bit early, I move to the kitchen to get something to eat. I find the pot of fresh stew on the gas cooker still very hot, on the other side of the cooker is our red food flask, I open it and inside it there's boiled rice. I smile to myself, I go inside to change my clothes before I proceed to eat.

After I finish eating my breakfast/lunch, I bring out my tools to start my work on the door. Turns out there's really nothing significant wrong with the door, the lock was only jammed. I unscrew the knots holding the door handle together and start working on the lock, the lock needs to be changed but I fix it for the meantime before we get another lock. I pack my tools after I'm done with my work and lock the door. One thing I'm grateful to my Dad for is the skills he taught me, I'm able to do everything I'm doing today because of him. I pick up the picture frame of my dad that Kelechi had shown Dede from the side table, I miss him a lot If he was here today our lives would have been so much easier and better, mom wouldn't be working 12 hours a day, Kelechi would have been in a better school and me, I would have been in a private university heck I would have even been schooling abroad. I smile at the picture and take it with me, Life always has a completely different plan of it's own.

❀❀❀

𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈
𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈

I hear my phone ringing, I reach for it in my pocket but I can't find it. I get up immediately and yawn by mistake, I must have slept off because the TV is still on. I search for my phone, where the hell did I drop it? I switch off the TV and move to my room, I find my phone on my bed along with the clothes I wore to church. I must have dropped it there when I was changing. I have one new message notification

Dede
𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚?

I sit down on my bed before responding to her, i decide to just call her instead of texting her back because she might take ages to reply me back and I don't want that. She doesn't answer on the first ring, I dial her number again

"Hello?" She replies with a sleepy voice

"Hey did I wake you up?" I ask her almost feeling guilty

"No actually, I was about to sleep though" I laugh lightly at her

"No you're not, I'm actually not busy today if you want to hang out" I ask her silently praying she agrees because apart from the fact that I'm bored as hell, I very much enjoy her company and being around her, I hear movements from the other side of the phone and a short pause

"Yes I want to" she replies in her usual chirpy voice that I've grown to like

"Okay I'll come meet you in your house in 30 minutes"

"Okay" and she ends the call

I drop my phone on the bed and move towards my wardrobe to find something to wear, I find my black T-shirt and my faded black jeans and quickly put them on. I choose my black running shoes because I know we're going to walk today and I don't want to get my feet dusty. I clean up my room a little bit before I leave the house, I lock the door and quickly text mom to tell her where she can find the key to the house.

It takes me exactly 35 minutes to get to Dede's house and the time I get to the front of her compound I'm panting slightly. I walk into the compound and I find 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 sitting on the bench outside, she has a newspaper in front of her and she has her glasses are on. She doesn't notice me coming in at all

"𝒖𝒃𝒐𝒄𝒉𝒊 𝒐𝒎𝒂 𝒎𝒂" (good day ma)

She looks up at me and smiles

"𝒅𝒂𝒂𝒍𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒅𝒖 𝒌𝒂 𝒊 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒆?" (Thank you, how are you?)

"I'm very okay thank you ma" i say prostrating low to show respect

"Are you looking for anybody?" She asks since today is a Sunday I'll not be working today

"I'm here to see Dede ma" she smiles at me and nods her head

"Amanda 𝒃𝒊𝒂 𝒏'𝒆𝒛𝒊!!" (come outside)  𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 shouts from outside, I wait 5 more minutes before Dede comes outside.

  "Ma?" She smiles immediately she sees me and waves at me, She's wearing a yellow gown with flower prints and she finished her look with a simple brown slippers. She always looks beautiful even without trying, I wonder if she added a little effort to her looks today but I can tell she didn't, she's effortlessly beautiful. I quietly smile at myself, where is all this coming from?. She doesn't notice me staring at all because her back is facing me as she stands in front of her grandmother.

  "Uche says he's here to see you 𝒏𝒘𝒂 𝒎" 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 tells her, she turns to face me

   "I'll be right outside, I'll get my stuffs" I nod my head at her

  "Sit down and wait for her Uche" 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 taps on the bench she's sitting on and I join her. 10 minutes later Dede walks out with her usual Jacket and a small bag that she hangs across her shoulders. We say goodbye to 𝒎𝒂𝒎𝒂 and we both walk outside the compound

"You look beautiful today" I compliment her, she smiles slightly at me

  "Thank you, so do you" I laugh at her

  "You think I'm beautiful? 𝒂𝒉 𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒉" I continue laughing

  "You don't think you are?" She asks me, I stop walking to look at her very well

  "Isn't the right word handsome?" She laughs at me this time

   "Well yeah but I can also call you beautiful too"  I wait for her to continue because there's definitely going to be more

  "When I say beautiful it doesn't necessarily mean facially, I could mean you being you is beautiful like your personality and the way you are" I notice a smile creeping in on her face and I smile too

   "Well thank you Dede I think so about you too"

  "You think?" She asks me and I burst out laughing

  "Typical Dede, I knew you were going to say that" she rolls her eyes at me, she does that a lot anytime she's around me and maybe I should be worried about that but I know it's just for fun

  "Did you go to church today?" I ask changing the topic, she shakes her head indicating a no

  "Why?" She shrugs before answering

  "Well when I lived abroad my relationship with God wasn't really the best or really strong but I did go to church. It's just difficult here because everyone goes to a Catholic Church and I'm not about that"  I nod my head, I totally understand her and her choices and I know I have no right to judge her or pretend to be a better Christian than her

  "How about you?" She asked me

  "I did, attended the early morning mass 𝒔𝒆𝒇 so I can have the whole day to myself"

  "How many masses are there even?" She asked while laughing

  "4 I guess but there are a lot 𝒔𝒉𝒂" she continues laughing

  "Can we go back to the recreational park we went to yesterday?" She asked me after we settled down from laughing

  "Supposed recreational park you mean? But sure we can" she smiles at me again, I love the way her smile lightens up her entire face. A real genuine smile does that. While we were walking a young girl hawking walks towards us with her tray of goods on her head

  "Do you want some?" I ask Dede

  "Some of what?"

"𝒂𝒌𝒊 𝒏𝒂 𝒖𝒌𝒘𝒂" from her facial expression I can tell she doesn't know what that is

  "Wait I'll stop her"  the hawker had already walked a small distance away from us, I had to slightly yell at her to get her attention. She starts walking towards our direction once I got her attention

  "𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒉𝒊𝒆 𝒐𝒎𝒂" (good afternoon) I help her bring down her tray on her head

  "How much are you selling them?" I ask her

  "This one 150  this one 200" she replies pointing to the snacks tied in a white leather bag

  "Give me this one two" I point the 200 Naira snack pack

  "Okay" she removes another black nylon leather from her small bag and puts our snacks in it. I remove one 1000 Naira note from my wallet to pay her

  "I'll pay for it don't worry" Dede said immediately I remove my money fro my wallet

  "No I'll pay it, it's my treat remember?" but she shakes her head indicating a no, she's so stubborn

  "But I have 500 Naira and you're giving her 1000 Naira, it will be more easier to get change"

  "I'll pay for it Dede, don't worry now" she sighs and puts her money back in her bag. I give my money to the hawker and she hesitates before collecting

  "𝒊 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊 𝒈𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒐, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔" I ignore her and wait for her to give me my change, she delays for a few seconds before giving me my change (I'm not sure I'll have your change, what's this?)

  "𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘" I hear her grumble but I pretend to not hear anything (you have finished all my change now)

   "Thank you" I tell her but she ignores me, I grab Dede's hand and we leave her there

   "She's so pissed at you did you see the way she was looking at you?" Dede says as soon as we're away from the hawker girl

  "I know, they're all like that, they say don't have the change you need but when you persist the change suddenly comes out from nowhere" She starts laughing and i join her

Dede insists we get to our destination first before we start eating and I agree with her I mean it's not like I could disagree with her considering how stubborn she is

We get there in 10 minutes, the bench is slightly dusty and I'm happy I came with my handkerchief

  "I'll have to come back here so I can clean and tidy this place up maybe next week" I tell her after I clean the bench

  "Maybe I'll come with you, to keep you company" I smile at her

  "Sure you won't be bored?" I tease her, she throws a small stone at me

"I take that as a no then, it's a date then"

she rolls her eyes at me

"Call it whatever you want"

  I smile at her

  "So do you want to try it now?" I ask her raising the snacks I bought earlier up, she nods her head at me. I open up the leather bag and remove the coconut first, I break a small piece of it and remove the breadfruit seeds and pour some of it into her hands

  "You'll eat them together" she starts eating them and almost moans before she quickly covers her mouth with her hand

  "It's okay no need to feel embarrassed"

  "It's so freaking good! I had no idea it would taste this amazing" I smile

  "I had the same reaction to the first time I had it" I give her my own portion after she finished hers, I guess I've found someone who likes 𝒂𝒌𝒊 𝒏𝒂 𝒖𝒌𝒘𝒂 more than me. After she's done she removes a small water bottle from her bag and takes a few sips of water she offers me some but I decline, I can't drink from her water bottle

  "You've made any friends here apart from Chioma and I?" I ask her after a few moments of silence had passed

  "Not really, I've never been the social type you know" I'm surprised about that actually

  "Why though?"

  "I think I've always been like that you know, my Dad was my best friend and I think when he died I didn't really understand the fact that I wasn't going to see him again" she pauses for a while

  "I couldn't even make friends abroad it was hard for me to open up unless I trust them, I had a few friends though and I'm grateful for them but back here in Nigeria it feels like I'm starting all over again and mentally I'm not prepared for that"

I wonder if she fully trusts me, somehow I want her to completely trust me and be really comfortable with me. I feel like slowly we're there.

  "I get you though, I was kinda the same way when I lost my dad too. He was my best friend we literally did everything and anything together. Most kids are always scared of their fathers and stuff like that but my dad was very different and when he died I didn't only loose my father I lost my best friend too" I fight back the tears swelling up in my eyes

  "When my mom said we had to move I was beyond pissed because it felt like I was leaving everything that was my dad and I didn't want that because at that time I felt leaving our old house meant I was forgetting him and I became a very angry child but I had to learn that my dad will always be alive in my heart and that is enough for me" I wipe away the little tears that had formed in my eyes hoping Dede didn't see me at all, she has been silent ever since I started talking

  "I'm sorry you had to go through all that, I was angry for a while too you know. I was bullied a lot" she blurted the last part like she didn't want to say it at all

  "You were?" I ask her genuinely surprised, she always seemed like a tough girl

  "Yeah, I changed schools a lot the first year we moved abroad because of that. It didn't stop there though even through high school cause I was different"

  "What do you mean different?" I ask her

  "I wasn't social and I didn't have a lot of friends you know all the sad stuff" she chuckles a little

I want to hug her and tell her she doesn't need all that - 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑼𝒄𝒉𝒆

   "But I'm okay now I mean I've grown a lot and I've realized so many things so I'm not really that bothered about those stuffs anymore" I look at her and her expression tells me differently but I choose to not talk about it

  "It's already past 5 we should start going now" I tell her after I checked what time it was on my wrist watch

  "Uche is it just me or does time move faster when we're spending time together like this" she said laughing a little but she's right though I enjoyed every bit of our time together and truthfully time really goes fast anytime I'm with her

  "Aww someone wants to spend more time with me how cute" I put my hand on my chest for more drama

  "Don't flatter yourself Uche" and she rolls her eyes again

I walk her to her house first even after pleading with me to let her go on her own like I would even let that. We walk mostly in silence, not an  awkward silence but a peaceful one. It takes us 20 minutes to get to her house

"I'll see you another time Uche" she said a few moments after we got to her compound

  "Yeah me too" she waits for a few seconds before walking into her house.

  "For goodness sake's I should have hugged her or something" I slam my palm on my forehead , why didn't I just hug her

  "𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆 𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒎𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒂" I said to myself as I walked out of her compound ( Uche you're a fool)
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*Hey guys I'm sorry this chapter turned out to be so long, it wasn't supposed be I be this long but Amanda and Uche have a mind of their own lol
*Please vote vote vote it's every important
*Over 300 reads too amazingggggg thank you guys so much

            Xoxo