~Alya
I kept glaring at the box on my laps. As I had expected, another piece of overly priced jewelry as a birthday gift from 'mother dearest'.
I vaguely recounted giving the last two hundred thousand dollars diamond bracelet I got to some little child begging on the street. Hopefully, she would know the worth of it.
At least I loved rings so I was so keeping this. I would have preferred diamond though. Silver was just not my thing.
"Chizitaram!"
I snapped back to reality as I stared at my Mathematics teacher. He glared at me from the front of the class.
"Would you like to share with us the cause of your distraction?"
I shook my head and he returned to teaching. My eyes involuntarily darted to Ifeanyi's chair for the umpteenth time today.
He was not there. I sighed and looked back at my book. I had skipped school for two days now because I was avoiding him and now what did I expect to happen?
I really didn't know why but I actually wanted to see him and then the universe had to bring me back to reality, he wasn't in school.
****
So far, my birthday had been as I expected, boring as fuck. I had to admit that I did love Kylie and Chinano's surprise but I just wasn't feeling the vibes of this birthday party.
I found myself glancing at the door every now and then waiting for someone to walk in.
Ifeanyi?
I wasn't ready to accept it as the truth yet. I also partly wanted to see Ami Tara but that wasn't happening anyway.
I heard footsteps from behind and I turned around expecting to see... Oh! Just Chiamaka. I immediately tried to mask my disappointment with a smile when I was greeted by her cheerful voice.
"Birthday blessings dear", she said.
"Thanks. I hope you didn't forget my birthday gift?"
"I didn't. I'm saving it for later"
I only nodded; my eyes still on the door.
"Have you taken any pictures?" She asked.
"Huh?" I said absent-minded.
"Pictures. Did you take any pictures?" She asked again.
"No. Not a fan of pictures." I stared at the door.
"You're not a fan of anything. Girl it's your birthday! Give me your phone"
"For?"
"C'mon gimme your phone!" She said stretching forth an arm. Not ready to get into an argument, I unlocked my phone.
I removed all the security features, a decision I was later to regret, and handed her over the phone.
"Much better", she said triumphantly. "Now smile"
I managed to curve the corner of my lip as she took a picture. Just then, Chinano together with a few of my classmates walked up to me.
"Happy birthday Alya", Alice said with a smile. I smiled back. She was a nice girl. Too bad she was in Art class, I would have loved to know her better.
"Thanks".
"Happy birthday Als", Jessica said and I cast her a look. She could just call me Alya, it was that simple. So what the hell was Als?
From the day I walked in on her taking part in that rap competition, I knew she was a mad woman.
"Thank you", I said, restraining myself from correcting her.
"I have a question if you don't mind. Why did you wear black of all colors? You mourning?"
"No. I just like the color. It makes sense", I said with a plastic smile trying my best not to comment on her pink dress. I utterly despised that color.
"Well... It's just off you know. Something like pink would have..."
I was suddenly roughly... pushed? And the next thing, someone's palm connected with my cheek. I held my cheek in both surprise and because it stung.
Before I recovered from the shock enough to realize it was Chiamaka that had slapped me, Chinano slapped Chiamaka.
Between the both, I was more shocked by the latter. The Chinano I knew slapped someone?
On a norms, she should have been the one preaching to me about vengeance and how it's wrong to slap Chiamaka back and now...?
"Are you crazy?!" Chiamaka, who recovered from her own slap much quicker than I did, asked Chinano.
I noticed that the background music had paused and I could feel all eyes inside that place on us.
Great! Drama on my birthday. I would have been very okay with seating in an empty room staring at the ceiling.
"You are the crazy one. Like fuck what were you thinking. How could you just walk up to someone and give her a slap on her birthday? Shows pretty well that you reason from your ass", Chinano responded and my jaw almost dropped to the floor.
Did this girl just use swear words? Hold on! Wasn't I supposed to be the one even exchanging words or even blows with Chiamaka?
"She deserved way more than that. That whore stole my boyfriend!" Chiamaka screamed and my head started spinning. She just called me a whore!
I stole which boyfriend? The one that said he dumped her or another one? Did he actually dump her? If he didn't, that actually makes me the villian.
"Please, the Alya I know isn't even interested in guys. Why would she then be interested in your so-called boyfriend? She rejected a model, an actual somebody. What makes you think she would go after your nobody of a boyfriend?"
Chiamaka raised her hand to hit Chinano but Jessica pushed her back before she could.
"Piss off would you? Why are you trying to ruin your own best friend's birthday party?" Jessica asked glaring at Chiamaka.
"Shut up. You..."
"Security!" Kylie called from where she was seated and before the blink of an eye, women dressed in black came in. Thank God they weren't men.
"Show her the way out. I am sick of her trash", Kylie said yawning dramatically. I watched as they dragged Chiamaka out.
She kept screaming and trashing about in their hands and I felt sorry for her.
"Fuck you Alya! Deranged slut!" Chiamaka yelled as she was being dragged out.
"You need help bitch", Kylie yelled out as they dragged her through the door. I stood at a spot feeling sorry for her when I was suddenly pulled by the arm and up to my room.
"What was all that about?" Chinano asked after she had closed my door.
"I never knew you could be that fierce", I said laughing.
"What's so funny? Why didn't you say anything to Chiamaka? I never liked her but I didn't know she was this terrible. Last I remembered, she was just an infamous blabbermouth"
"Woah. Calm down would you?" I said seating on my bed and wondering how I was still this calm. "And please, when did I reject a model?"
She ignored my last question.
"Calm down?! How are you even so chill about this? Did you actually do what she said you did..."
"What!? No way. You think I would do that?"
"No. I just wanted to get a reaction out of you. Your calmness was scaring me... So what was she talking about?"
"I am not very sure... I have a hint but I am kinda still confused", I said.
"My phone!" I suddenly remembered that I handed my phone to Chiamaka.
"Oh My God!" I exclaimed.
"What is it?"
"My phone... I gave it to Chiamaka before she went all psycho on me", I said exiting the room and running down the stairs as quickly as I could. I was panting by the time I got downstairs. Would it have killed my mother to get a normal sized house?
I quickly scanned around the now empty sitting room looking for my phone.
"What are you looking for?" Kylie who was eating grapes on a couch asked.
"My phone", I said and only got an 'oh'. She didn't even bother to help me find it.
I finally spotted it on the ground and I hurried over to it. I frowned on getting to it. It wasn't my phone. It looked like it had been purchased recently.
I clicked on the main button and it lit up displaying a picture of Chiamaka. The back was shattered but the screen remained unaffected.
A few feet away from it, I found my phone but surprisingly, when I picked it, it didn't have a single crack, not even a scratch on the screen.
I also noticed a golden bracelet with the letter 'K' engraved on it, seating next to the phone. I picked up the bracelet and examined it. The lock was broken.
It seemed like the last person who had the phone on them was the owner of the bracelet.
And I couldn't just shake off the feeling that the phone was purposely kept on the floor and not just dropped out of anger.
"Found it yet?" I heard Kylie ask.
"Yeah. I found this bracelet as well. Is it yours?"
"Nope. I hate bracelets"
"Is there anything in this world you don't hate?" I asked amused.
She shrugged. "I don't hate your mom or my mom. And I don't think I actually hate you."
"Whatever. I also found Chiamaka's phone. I should return it to her."
"Are you crazy? It's clear you have a death wish. Give it to me, I'll toss it outside. If it's important to her, she would come looking for it and find it there", Kylie said.
"You can't just toss out her phone. What if it gets stolen?"
"Nobody lives around here. You won't find a house in miles. This whole place is your mom's property so it doesn't matter if I toss it out. Besides, nobody would want to steal that scarp. How much does it even cost? Barely a hundred thousand"
"But..."
"Okay. I'll give it to the guards to toss it on her face if she comes back for it. Are you happy now?"
I nodded and handed her the phone. I returned to my room thinking about what happened at the party, the bracelet and mostly Ifeanyi.