Chapter Five

                                    

                                          
"I'm so mad at you. In fact,don't speak to me. Imagine,you've been back for almost two weeks and I had no idea. Wow!wow!wow! You deserve a medal. Like seriously? I'm your cousin. No scratch that,I'm YOUR best friend. Ya Allah." 
                          
Ummi put her hand over her face and rolled her eyes dramatically as she marched off into the living room kinda pissed off with Zainab and Sa'adah my two other cousins who both gave me apologetic looks trolling behind her. I just shrugged. I knew how ummi could be.
                          
Me and Ummi go way back. Now that I think of it,I've been a bad friend. I should've called her the moment I arrived but I wanted some alone time to myself before I made my presence known to people. 
                          
Ummi,Zainab and Sa'adah were sisters and daughters of my Uncle Aliyu who is Baba's younger brother. They were a simple family of six,with Uncle Aliyu and his wife Aunt Hanifah who might I add,wasn't really friendly torwards me nor any of my siblings. It's like she had some kind of beef with mama when she was still alive and even though mama was no more,she still had that cold attitude torwards us. For goodness sake,what kind of person holds grudges on a late person. Let me not even start on how she warns her children not to associate with us but that didn't work,we kids wouldn't be dragged into adults beef. But well there was a single person who heeded his mother's words..Salman. The oldest of them all,my archenemy and crush from those days but I'm over him now. It's safe to say that well he hated me or rather my guts and the feeling was totally mutual except for the fact that I fell hopelessly for him a long time ago.
                          
When we were kids,I kept a diary where I wrote everything from my feelings to him and all. His name was all over the book with hearts. Then one faithful day,uptill today I've got no idea how he had gotten his hands on the book but I caught him reading the book out loud to some other male cousins of mine during a family reunion and they were all laughing. The most embarrassing moment of my life. I remember running back to my room and locking it,crying my heart out. From then on,I wiped the tears and moved on,a searing hatred built in my heart. Anything I had found cute about him before became irritating or so annoying...
                          
"Ya Salman,are you staying or coming back to get us?" I heard Zainab ask.
                          
Turning my head, I came face to face with him. I tried to keep my face neutral but my face clearly looked shocked. His height was the first thing I noticed. He'd gotten so tall. Broad shoulders,the nicely trimmed beard,the scent of Arabian perfume clouding my thoughts. Overall,he'd gotten more handsome. He was putting on shades and he put them down to stare at me. His stare was unnerving. I held his gaze and I internally smirked when he had that shocked look on his face,the kind that I had,he couldn't believe I was the one. 
                          
He was about to speak when I turned and left him standing there mouth agape. I walked to the sitting room where Ummi was still ranting to herself. She was a great talkative and I couldn't keep up with what she was saying.
                          
"I'm sorry,okay." I said cutting her off. I didn't hear half of what she was saying.
                          
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever it's fine. And oh where's that your French boyfriend. What was his name,Lucas? Logan? Are you still together?" 
                          
It was my turn to roll my eyes. "His name is Louis. And to answer your question, we're still together."
                          
Just then I inhaled that Arabian perfume again. And before I could turn,he was there with Zainab behind him. He sat down on the chair opposite mine,brought out his phone and ignored us. Well,two could play this game.
                          
"God,I don't know what you see in this guy. You should dump him. You're in Nigeria babe,they're so many hot arewa guys." Ummi said.
                          
"Exactly,I could you link you up with some but please get rid of that French bloke." Sa'adah added.