CHAPTER SEVEN: ị na-asụ Igbo?

                                    

                                          

After the whole get together incident I refused to talk to Nenye because I was angry with her. Even when we went to church I didn't say a word to her. CJ noticed it but as expected Nenye didn't, maybe she did but she acted like she didn't show me that what I was doing was stupid.
                          
"What's wrong? Are both of you fighting or something?" He asked during praise and worship. The voice of the chorister singing filled the church, he had to shout so that I could hear him.
                          
I just shook my head and said, "No."
                          
It's not like I was lying, Nenye and I weren't really fighting. I mean you can't fight someone when the person does not even acknowledge that both of you are fighting. If I actually fought her then that will just be me attacking her, making me look like the bad person.
                          
After praise and worship, it was time for testimonies. I was sitting beside CJ while Nenye sat somewhere in front of us. I could see her hair tie from where I was. Her head looked like it was facing down. I could only guess that she was on her phone.
                          
"Typical," I thought and shook my head again.
                          
I brought out my phone to check the time, it felt like we had been here way more than two hours.
                          
9:09 am, it read.
                          
51 minutes to go. I looked up to see someone walk up to where Nenye was and sit beside her. A girl in a long yellow dress. I'd never seen those two talking before, what could they have been talking about?
                          
The girl whispered something to her ear and she turned around briefly. At first, I thought she was looking at me but then I turned to see if anyone recognizable was behind.
                          
I scanned the crowd briefly. Different faces crossing my line of view. Then it landed on two familiar faces, people that I never in a million years would have expected to be here in this particular church. I mean what were the odds?
                          
Chidindu sat at the back seat with Vicky beside him. She had on a pair of shades. Which if you asked me about it I'd say that it was very odd. I never would have thought Vicky to be part of those people who wore shades indoors. Nenye always criticized anyone she caught in the act and called it tacky.
                          
Their parents were somewhere in front of them. Vicky's mother whom I was even more surprised to see was sitting with her new husband. Both of them were wearing matching Ankara.
                          
They looked like a happy couple. Vicky's mother was practically glowing beside him. Her smile was content like she had everything she'd always wanted in him.
                          
I had never met Vicky's father, but whenever Vicky mentioned him, it was always when she was giving examples of men who were and I quote "scum". This word was used very often by both her and Nenye. Mostly on Vicky's father, because of how he left her and her mother. 
                          
Like one day he was there and the next he was gone without a trace. It was only after months that her mother tracked him down and found out he had started a new life in Italy with another woman.
                          
I looked away before they could catch me staring at them. Looking back at Nenye who was still talking to the girl in the yellow dress, I wondered what those two were still talking about.
                          
After the Church service, we had to wait in the church's parking lot for my father. He was a Deacon in the church and all the Deacons were supposed to be having a meeting with the resident pastor.
                          
I could see mom talking to the head of the women's fellowship a few cars in front of ours. CJ was sitting at the driver's seat with the car key in his hand and Nenye was outside, leaning on the car with her arms folded.
                          
The girl with the yellow dress appeared from nowhere and started addressing her.
                          
"Have you spoken with Vicky?" She asked.