Chapter 14: Chapter 14

I was so excited about turning 15 that I slept so little on Friday. I didn't sleep early as I waited till 12.00am on Saturday morning so I could know who wished me first and probably post my picture since we are now in the digital world.

The clock struck 12 as I posted a picture of myself on my whatsapp status. I started receiving birthday messages from unknown people on Facebook and as I was basking in happiness with a large smile on my face, I received two text messages that arrived precisely at the same time. I opened my message and smiled as I saw it was a message from Adrian and Faith, my two best friends.

"Being friends with you is amazing and you have become a little sister over the years. So, it will be a crime to forget your birthday. You are a beautiful person, in and out. You never fail to put a smile on my face and remember to care for me like a mother hen that you are. I pray that God's favour finds you and you grow in happiness, peace, and love. Enjoy your day.

I love you little Sis, will call you in the morning." Adrain's message brought a smile to my face as I screenshot it, proceeding to Faith's own.

"Firstly, I would love to say I am sorry and I would also like to say thank you. Friends are common but friends like sisters aren't, you have been nothing but... "I stopped as mom came into my room.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.” My mom sang as she walked into my room. I smiled as she got closer and sat on my bed as, she began to pray for me.

“Happy birthday my dear. I pray that as you grow older, you increase in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. I pray that Allah's Rahman finds you and that you will prosper and be successful..." She went on praying, as I chant “Amin.” after her.

"Thank you very much, ma." I said, as she smiled at me, wished me goodnight and walked back into her room. I continued reading Faith’s message.

“… a blessing to me. You have done nothing but act like a sister to me since we have met, even when I am being a brat. You are special to me and I will always be grateful that I met you. I pray that God grants you mercy, love and happiness Inshallah (lol, I hope I got the spelling.) I will never not love you.” A big smile graced my face as I finished reading.

I moved to my Whatsapp status where I noticed that some people have posted my pictures including my sisters, Goriola, Faith, Kemi, Bode and even Tayo with a love and kiss emoji caption. I blushed as I took screen grabs of the images with their beautiful captions and them all a thank you message.

My Facebook app was loading when my screen started flashing from an incoming call. I smiled as I picked up the call.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you Itan, happy birthday to you. " Sister ife sang from the other side.

"Thank you." I said laughing, her voice was terrible.

"I pray that Allah's favour finds you, make you happy and provide you with everything you want. You will never be a source of disappointment to yourself, your family or even the nation inshallah. I wish you increase in knowledge, wisdom, and happiness. May you reach a greater height and be everything you ever dreamed to be." She prayed, and I said “Amen.”

"So, what are you doing today.” She asked.

"Nothing much, just stay at home but, some of my friends are coming over. Mum said she will cook for us." I said

“Alright, that is cool then. Have fun okay, I love you. " She said

"I love you too, bye." I said and she ended the call.

I checked my WhatsApp again and met some messages from sister Temi, some of my classmates who had checked my status and other acquaintance’s. I sent a quick thank you text to Faith and Adrian for their messages and by 1:34 am, I was already dozing off.

"How many of your friends are coming?" Mum asked later in the morning from the kitchen where she was busy frying meat.

"10." I said, even though I wasn't expecting up to that.

"Okay, you guys should behave yourself ooh. I trust Kemi though." She said, muttering the last part to herself as she packed her own rice and fried meat in a cooler. She dished out all the delicacies she made into a cooler before she left the kitchen to prepare for shop.

She left home around 9:30 am and by 10.30 am, I was dressed in a black knee-length off shoulder gown which was fitted to every inch of my skin. I paired it up with my white sneakers and packed my hair making it look presentable. I did a light makeup which in return, lit up my face.

“Normally, I wouldn’t wear a cloth like this.” I thought as I looked down at the clothe. I don’t like fitted clothes but I wore it because it was new and I didn’t have anything else to wear. Sister Ife had bought it for me as a present the last time she returned from school.”

I ended up taking some selfies as I waited for my friends. I posted some on WhatsApp and Instagram.

Faith and Kemi arrived first around 11:30 am, both of them had a wrapped gift in hand and Faith jumped on me as I opened the door.

"Happy birthday, bestie." She screamed prolonging the word "bestie." as Kemi wished me a happy birthday and we sat down and watched an Indian movie on Dstv while talking. Goriola finally arrived around 1.00pm with a shopping bag in hand and a shoprite nylon in another.

"Happy birthday, babygirl." She screeched as I ushered her in, playing the host. Kemi changed the channel to Hip TV and we started dancing and moving to Davido's "Wonder woman."

It was around two when the two male besties finally showed up. Tayo looked like he had just been dropped from a modelling set as my mouth got dry and words got stuck in my throat.

"Tayo. " I finally managed to say, blushing, I thanked my stars and was happy that I had at least made an effort so I didn’t look so bad, one could even say that I was looking pretty. As I invited him, Bode and two girls they came along with in, I wonder how he could manage to look so handsome and still be so humble at the same time.

We walked to the parlour as the dancing trio sat down.

"Happy birthday Enitan." Tayo said as I fell in love with my name over again because of his voice.

"Happy birthday smallie." Bode said as I thanked them.

"Happy birthday." The girls said as I looked at them and smiled. I thanked them as I wonder who they were.

"So, you are Itan. I am Feyishara and she is Boluwatife." The girl putting on a short pink ball gown said.

"Ooh, nice to meet you. I don't recognise you guys. Are you perhaps our school mate?" I asked, smiling.

"Ooh no, I am Bode's sister. You can call me Tife." Boluwatife said, introducing herself while I smiled at her although something bothered me.

"Are you Bode's younger or elder sister." I blurted out, confused. She looked too matured to be younger than Bode and too young to be above 14.

"Ooh actually, I am adopted so we are kind of agemate. So, we call ourselves twin." She said, smiling softly while I nodded at her.

"Okay, so who is hungry?" I asked.

"Thank God, I thought you would never ask. I came here for jollof rice ooh." Tayo said, dramatically and I hit him on the head.

"Ouch, that’s molestation. I am filling a complaint." He held his head as if he was in pain but he could not fool me because he wasn’t even holding where I had hit me. I ignored him and stood up, laughing as I walked into the kitchen with Kemi who helped me in serving the dishes.

I got soft drinks from the refrigerator and headed back to the sitting room as, Goriola handed me the store nylon with her earlier.

"I got wine." She said as I looked at the wine, hoping it will be non-alcoholic.

"Don't worry, it's not alcoholic." She said as if she read my mind.

"Thanks then." I said, skipping back to the kitchen to get glass cups for the drinks. Everyone was having fun amidst themselves as I came back to the sitting room with the glass cups. Some were eating, talking, taking pictures and a music was playing on the TV making the scene perfect until Nepa decide to ruin things by taking the light.

Everyone complimented the cooking and I played music from my phone. No one could ruin my day, not even nigerian electricity. It was around 4:30pm when Faith screamed.

"It’s time!!!" She said, hitting her cup with a spoon. I shook my head at her drama as Goriola stood up and passed me a shopping bag, she stood up to hug me and wished me a happy birthday again.

I opened the shopping bag and brought out a beautiful black knee length ball gown. It was designed with embroidery that looked like it was carefully done with every step in mind.

"Wow!!" I said. I wasn't expecting something as beautiful and costly as a gown.

"Do you like it?" She asked me.

"Are you kidding me, I love it." I said, standing up to hug her as I thanked her.

"Well, I didn't know what to buy so I just picked that up at my mom's clothing store." She said. I thanked her again, wrapping up the gift before carefully dropping it on the chair. Faith stood up next and passed me her wrapped gift, everyone watched me as I unwrapped it.

Faith’s gift was a feminine gift bag and inside the packaged brand bag, there was a perfume, powder, feminine wash, scrub, exfoliating face wash, face mask and roll on.

"Thanks love." I said.

“At least no you would take extra care of your face.” She teased as she stood up to hug me. Kemi was next so, she passed me her gift.

I opened it and laughed as I saw what was in it, three pure bliss biscuit with a N2000 recharge card tapped to it.

"Well, I didn't know what to buy." She shrugged her shoulders as I shook my head at her. Surprisingly, I loved her gift. At least, I won’t have to buy data the next month.

"I love it, thanks." I said, giving her a hug.

"You just got me my next subscription." I added, smiling at her.

"I am glad you love it." She said

"Hmm, we didn't really know what to get you so we got you this.” Tife said speaking handing me a big box. It looked like a shoe box but it contained something different, it was a sweeter version of Faith’s gift. I gasped as I opened it, inside the box were chocolates, biscuits, yoghurt, chips, sweet and basically any other type of junks you could think of.

"Wow… Thanks, this is a sweet heaven. " I said.

“You see. I told you she will like it.” Feyishara said to Tife, a big happy smile on her face.

"Would this be a wrong time to say I didn't get you anything." Tayo said, shrugging as everyone screamed "What?!!" I kept mute though, I felt disappointed but I didn’t want it to seem like I was expecting something so I said, “It's no big deal.”

“Are you kidding me?” Faith said sarcastically, looking at me like I have gone mad.

"Just kidding!!! What type of person goes to a birthday, eat their food and doesn’t give the celebrant a gift?” He asked, as if it was unheard of but I was less concerned, I just felt relieved. “I hope you love the gift." He added, standing up as he brought out a wrapped gift from his pocket.

I unwrapped the gift, bringing out the box inside it as he watched me. Inside the box sat a plain white leather wristwatch, it was so beautiful that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

"It's so beautiful." I said, looking up at him as I heard everyone in the room coo.

"I am glad you love it." He said, throwing me a breathtaking smile as he removed it from the box and wore it for me.

"Thank you so much." I said hugging him. I blushed as I let him go.

"I got you something very little compared to this grand gift, I am sorry.” Bode said, passing me a wrapped gift.

"I am sure I will love it." I said, unwrapping the gift which contained two books, a harlequin novel and a book on history.

"Awwn finally, a novel. Thank you so much, I appreciate it." I said as he laughed at my enthusiasm. The party ended sooner than later as we took pictures and danced a bit more.

Goriola left with the boys while Kemi and Faith stayed behind to help me clean up but, of course my bestie didn’t. She was too busy catching up with social media, posting pictures and videos but, she also helped me send the pictures she took on her phone to mine.

I and Kemi managed pretty well and soon; the whole house was clean again. There wasn’t a trace we had a party except for the gifts gathered on the couch and Faith presence came to good use as she helped me carry the gifts to my bed in my room before leaving.

I collapsed on the sofa as I got back from seeing Faith and Kemi off. I started posting the nice pictures on my social media pages as I scrolled through it. I ended up choosing a favorite which I ensured I did not post.

The picture was taken by Faith when Tayo wanted to wear the wristwatch on my wrist. I may have been reading more to it but, with the subtle look on my face and the way he was crouched; making it look like he was kneeling. I felt like the picture looked like he was proposing and I blushed. I was getting ahead of myself again.

Adrain called later that night and I made a thank you broadcast message on whatsapp. I sent it to everyone who remembered it was my day and by the time mom got back, I was too exhausted to tell her how the day went.

I was sitting with mom on the next day; Sunday. We were watching a local movie on the local Tv station when we heard a knock on the door.

Dad wasn't home, he had gone to a community meeting and we had just finished eating breakfast.

"Good morning." I said, opening the door. I was faced by a woman and three children, the smallest one was on her back, strapped with a faded green Ankara while the other two girls stood beside her. One looked older, around twenty and the second looked my age if not younger. As I stared at them, I realized there was something so striking about them but, I couldn't place it.

"Good morning, is this Mr Hassan's house." The older woman asked.

"Yes, who are you." I asked

"I am hi..." She stuttered as the oldest child stopped her, looked me over and said the words that would keep echoing in my ears even after a week.

"She is his wife and I am his first daughter. Who are you?" She asked, cocky. She chewed a gum in her mouth as I stared at her and realized what I had been trying to place and I yelled, "Mum!!" as she rushed to the door. The girl looked like my father, that was what I had been trying to place. I shook my head, scolding myself for thinking such outrageous thoughts.

"Yes. Enitan, what is it?" She asked urgently as I pointed to the woman and her children.

Mom spoke to them for a while and I saw mom freeze slightly but recovered soon enough as she nodded and invited them in. I saw a lone tear drop from her face as she quickly wiped it off and dialled my dad's number. That confirmed what I had thought, I wasn’t overthinking after all, it was actually true.

The Sunday vibe we had earlier was ruined and I was certainly sure my mom wasn't concentrating on the movie anymore as I threw the woman a glace every minute, wondering what my dad saw in her because she looked local and her eldest daughter kept on chewing a gum rashly.

"Are you like the maid or something? Where is my Father?" She asked, rudely. Breaking my thought as I stared at her mom bleached skin.

"Hey, listen up. The only reason my mom invited you in was to be polite so you won't speak to us like that, do you understand?" I said, firmly even though I was feeling anything but firm at the moment. All I felt was a huge urge to defend my mum. The girl shrugs as I felt a huge need to escape into my room but, I didn't. I needed to stay with mom.

Dad arrived an hour later and as he got in, we all looked up at him.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, looking at the lady as the girl jumped up and ran to him. He looked surprised and I wondered what my mom must have told him to get him home so soon. I had thought she told him about the unexpected visitor but apparently, I was wrong.

"Daddy!" She screamed.