DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode eleven
   My faded smile bloomed again, bright and rosy as it was before the smirk she had planted on her face when she lifted her head from her phone. Her reply was a muscle relaxer. I had half expected something that would annoy me and irritate my ears,  something that would make me ask Karmsi to pull off her cap,throw it away and shove her phone down her throat.
  It did prove me right though, Favour had been listening to everything and her reply was an evidence that they had told her all that happened. The way people spread news . I wondered how many other people they had told in the name of having 'a hot gist'. Did i care? No, i had nothing to hide anymore and i could tell Favour liked me immediately.
   Priscilla and Peace were still laughing at Favour's reply and so was Karmsi and i. We all didn't expect to hear that from her. Laughing and giggling like nothing had gone wrong.
The past had been buried. "As much as i hate to share our pizza , i will go get it from the counter now. It should be ready." Karmsi smiled and crossed her arms "Karmsi Alaribe? " Priscilla asked and Karmsi nodded. "Oh my goodness, the foodie Karmsi ! Melvin's sister??" Karmsi laughed and nodded again. They began to talk and i humbly offered to get the pizza and our drinks to join them at their table while they did the proper greetings and introduction.
  So while everyone in the country was complaining about the 'change' that ruined the economy, my definition of a change was different. Priscilla and Peace were ready to change their impression about me and other ordinary people. Our official enemy status was going to change.
  We were going to be friends and i was going to change too.
Karmsi had ensured that, i would be Abigail and Abigail alone not 'The clumsy clown', not 'the flirt' just myself.  At the counter i picked up the box of Pizza and looked at the cute attendant, he smiled and surreptitiously tossed me a small paper.
"Please call me" it read and his mobile number was written handsomely on the next line. I looked up and he was gone.
This was going to best summer of my life.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode ten

   The look on their faces was priceless. Peace looked like she had been apprehended by a white cop and was scared of being shot for being a black. The recent killings of black people living abroad sure had an effect on everyone.
   Priscilla's eyes held a sparkle so bright,i could tell she bought everything i had said and would do anything to listen to more. I wasn't wrong, i could sense her interest. She liked me.  Favour on the other hand blanketed herself with her phone, avoiding a eye contact. One last selfie before she blasted me? Or was she capturing the first time an ordinary person stood up to her friend?
Priscilla stuttered and stammered as she talked. " You have....Prince is.... Peace didn't...Why should i..." Then she heaved a sigh and forced herself to say the long awaited truth. They were...' kind of' cruel. 'Kind of' tell me why you can't toss your pride aside and do the right thing.
  There was a time i would have done anything to be friends with her but with the bad first impression between us, things was definitely going to be different.
    I hadn't asked Peace to apologise to me before forgiving her because i knew even if my words pierced her heart, her pride wouldn't let her say the apology in words though it was painted on her face like the facial colour paints done for kids on children's day. She was apologetic.
   Who would have thought she would be apologetic?  Sometimes i wonder what would have happened if i had picked my first choice.      Maybe Karmsi and i would have been victorious because Peace's bottle of fanta was already empty and Maybe we still would have lost, they were three and the only person who could fight was Karmsi...definitely not me. I was a Peace Maker... I am still a peace maker even though i have also learnt to fight but only with the greatest weapon the world can ever create, my words.
   Anyway none of that mattered anymore. The past wasn't going to define the present, it was going to reshape our future as friends.

  Favour finally dropped her phone and turned to me with a smirk.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode nine

  I straightened up and looked so deep into her eyes,i could see my reflection. My hair wasn't good looking but that wasn't what mattered.  What mattered was Karmsi was on the edge and i could feel her oozing with anger.
" i am so disappointed in you, Priscy. I expected you to be more cultured and disciplined but all i have seen in you is so much strife and pain because you are threatened by everything and everyone. You have no mind of yours and your friend Peace has been a bad influence..." Peace looked up and made to interrupt me but Priscilla gestured to her to be calm and keep quiet. Karmsi snickered very inaudibly, only i heard her and i felt  successful within me. I wasn't winning neither was i losing. I was making a point and with the look on Priscilla's face, i could tell my words were being nailed to her hypothalamus.
I continued " I believe you are an awesome person and you are just letting the fame you have cloud your judgement about other ordinary people. The rich talk to the rich and the famous to the famous, right? You don't want to be that way. " i paused letting my words sink into her mind before i continued "Everything that has happened in the past has been a misunderstanding. Our first meeting was my bad and i apologise again but i wasn't hitting on Prince. He isn't even worth it. No offence but he doesn't deserve you. I know am not in position to say this but Prince is not the best thing that can happen to you. Peace should have told you what he said." I threw her a questioned look and she pressed her lips together in withdrawal. "Peace, just so you know your behaviour the other day was uncalled for and you did not only embarrass me, you tarnished your own image too. Thank God no one took pictures. You might believe you can beat everyone up because you have the size of a professional bouncer but self control is stronger than a fist even sharper than a doubled edged sword.  I forgive you both and i hope you take my advice." Karmsi scratched my elbow.
She was feeling me. I was on fire.
Maybe self control wasn't the only thing sharper than a spear, words were and they fought for me dutifully.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode eight

  Peace interrupted me with a reply branded with sarcasm and i smiled. What do you do about someone whose lips were full with nothing but sarcasm and found joy in being mean to other people everytime?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
   Everyone has their good side and their flaws , turns out Peace's good side was her flaw. She was funny and it made her sassy. Not my business anyway, i wasn't at the table for her alone and Favour sure knew i wasn't on the table for her either. She seemed engrossed in what she was doing on her phone but i doubted it, the smile on her face was too bright to be from a chat.
  She was listening and she was fighting the urge to laugh out loud.  Priscillia's did the magic and i curled my lips in a large smile then leaned against their table. So i wasn't the only one interested in turning the eatery into a wrestling ring where fists was replaced with bottles of coca-cola and their was no rules,no referee and no...what else rhymes with 'r'? Yes, no reasonable reason for fighting, she wanted it too but i wasn't going to give her what she threatened to start.
  It was a mere threat to get me out of their sight and it wasn't going to work. I wasn't going to be the weak one again. " What are you still waiting for? Here for a little rematch? Is that why you brought 'her'?" Priscilla shot Karmsi a hateful glare and Karmsi stepped forward.
" You should watch your tongue, it's no match for a tooth" she said calmly and i placed my hands on her shoulder. I had come to make peace not rage war and even though Priscilla thought winning was about being cruel,i was going to teach her it was more about being kind.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode seven

  "Hi Priscilla, hi Peace, hi Favour so good to see you here"  i said and they replied with a snort, a scoff and a sluggish 'hi' respectively before pulling out their phones and pretending to be engrossed in a false chat.
  Priscilla didn't join them, she was just as excited to see me as i was to see her but while i was enthused to make peace with the enemy, she was ready to pounce on the flirt her friend had caught with her boyfriend.  She leaned forward ,placed her elbows on the table and her the back of her hands found shelter under her chin,supporting the weight of her curved neck.  She was ready to devour me if i said anything she didn't want to hear and maybe anything she was sure i'd say.  Ceteri Paribus , my every action was equal in her sight. No 'Yes', no 'No' amd my version didn't count whatever Peace told her had sank into her ears and my part of the story...i didn't even have a part in their story. I was just one short clumsy girl ruining everything.
  Her question almost swept me off my feet and i saw Peace carve her brow and Favour twitch her lips. Truth be told i was being a fool for kindness sake. Why didn't i just stay back and enjoy my pizza with Karmsi instead of walking over to pull hell's tail?
Anger replaced the flow of blood in my arteries and i felt my heartbeat increase. Again Karmsi's words swept in my heart... "Take a chill pill..." and i tuned her in. If i wanted to go pass the confrontation, i had to be calm,be reasonable and matured.  I heaved a sigh and bit my tongue, ready to explain what i was standing at her front for.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode six

As we stood up, i felt my self get fueled  with courage and determination. Courage to say the many things that i had in my mind and the determination to say it without bluffing or breaking into tears in the middle.
  I still had to help Priscilla boost her self esteem. It was bad enough that she wanted Prince because he was cute ,presentable and she was blindly in love with him but things could get really worse. Recalling the twitching of Prince's lips when Peace asked why he kept cheating around, it was obvious she wasn't getting down with  him and in this f**ked up twenty first century, it had become the very first objective of dating.
She was in danger even though no one was going to shoot or kidnap her. She could be manipulated into giving out her body with intent to express her love for him or worse still, forced into giving it against her will. Rape was the last thing i wanted to think of as i walked towards her seat.

  Few steps away from them, i felt my fingers go very cold. A sign of my nervousness. I thought i was the only one with the second thought but Karmsi took my hands in hers and i knew i wasn't alone.
They looked up and  began to whisper into each other ears. Peace to Priscilla then Priscilla to Favour. I couldn't hear what they said but it had an effect on me. I soon began to wish i was the girl on lemon,perched on a high chair, having a nice time on my own with no worries,no pain , no need to make a confrontation her and when i looked at Peace, i wanted to go for my first irrational choice.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode five

I could tell they were celebrating something and unlike me they knew what it was. Priscilla,Peace and Favour. The amazing instagram trio but unfortunately i didn't feel the same enthusiasm i had felt the first time i saw Priscilla even though it was my first time seeing Favour. They were more like humans to me than gods as i seemed to have mistaken them for at the very beginning.
   The attendant walked pass our table and even though i felt him staring at me,i didn't spare him a glance. My vision was glued to  the girls. Karmsi was complaining about the pizza taking forever to be done even though it was hardly three minutes since we sat down but i paid little attention to her as i fought within myself,the choices i had to make.
    I could walk over to the table,turn over their bottle of coke over their heads and run away from the eatery. It was the perfect place for my imagination because they wouldn't want to soil their image by running after me. If they dared , Linda Ikeji would have it boldly written on her blog "Priscilla Ojo, daughter of nollywood's best Iyabo Ojo in mortal combat with another minor" and as expected other blogs would jump into their sites and reframe the headline as if they were there. There would be pictures and if my face was caught on the camera, i would not only be popular , i would be a topic of mass humiliation.
  It was a bad choice. It was the devil in me speaking and i hurriedly banded it by the holy spirit. If i wanted to be of help to her,i had to set a good example. Show a level of maturity, step up my game and stop being a pathetic loser. Like Karmsi had said. "don't let your past define your present emotions" and judgement. The past was were it was and it was not too late to start over.
" are you thinking about them again?" she asked snapping me out of my thoughts and i nodded before pointing towards the seat occupied by the 'them' i was thinking of.
  She turned and saw them. It was her first time seeing them but she didn't even flinch or look twice. People sure had different ways of reacting to celebrities and hers was very reasonable.  I like the way she didn't ask what i wanted to say because i had no idea what i would say.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode four

  Even though i felt the arms of shame embrace me as i recalled how i slipped and spilled my bottle of coke on Priscillia and how the same liquid flowed down my hair , entering my nose, crossing to the tip of my nose and soaking my cloth even to my bra as Peace wickedly drenched me, i didn't leave the counter without another bottle of the drink.
  When you love something or even someone, you never forfeit them for the world despite their flaws and imperfections. Besides a mere bottle of coke couldn't be the cause of the misfortune and mistakes that happened in the past weeks. Don't be ridiculous, there was nothing supernatural about everything.
Maybe except, Peace's ridiculous fight for no reason.
   Karmsi sensed the sudden change in my mood and didn't need to ask what was bothering me. She knew my fears. She had asked me if i really wanted us to go out and i had told her it was fine. She sighed, took my hands in hers when we sat and began to talk.
".... don't let the past define your present emotions"
The cute attendant passed us and our eyes met. He grinned and i frowned then looked away.
" i think that guy has been staring at me weirdly...maybe he was there, maybe he remembers" karmsi laughed and told me i was being paranoid.
"you need to take a chill pill. Guy sure has good eyes" She winked and as i smiled my eyes wandered off to the attendants direction . He was talking to some customers at the other end. The part of the eatery with a sofa and the air conditioner was just above them. What was wrong with people and air conditioners?  I wanted to see the faces of the girls that seemed to also have the same relationship Prince and Karmsi had with air conditioners but the attendant obstructed my view.
I shifted my head to the right and left searching for a comfortable view but the attendant looked back and our eyes met again. He smiled and walked away, a barrier between me and the view i had wanted to see again for the pastweeks.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five.
Episode three.

   The coolness of the air conditioned room behind the door blasted against our skins as we pushed the glass doors open. I don't know if the man who stood there was the security man but he sure didn't seem interested in opening the door for us.
Karmsi had no trouble opening the door,she had the muscle for it but i struggled with the knob and pretended i had a masters degree at pushing big and strong doors.  My facade worked, i finally opened the door and joined  Karmsi by her side. I saw her inhale deeply and i smiled.  Long before Karmsi and i became best of friends i wondered if she ever stopped eating and the first time she slept over in my house, i couldn't sleep. I feared she would eat me up before any one else woke up. She wasn't a vampire or a zombie, she was a foodie and still is .  Sharing a box of pizza between the two of us was like giving free food to bergers on christmas day. Karmsi was excited even though she acted like she wasnt. Definitely scared of being teased for her food consuming addiction. No wonder she had that stomach! Large enough to swallow another Jonah.
We walked over to the counter and ordered Karmsi's favourite: barbeque chicken . The cute male attendant told us to take our seats and wait to be called on then he flashed us a smile that made me want to stand at the counter instead but Karmsi pointed to an empty space very close to the air conditioner and it reminded me of the space in Chicken republic.
" lets take a seat over there" she said
Such déjà vu ! What else was going to be a coincidence? A cold bottle of coke?  The bottle of coke i always take before every scene of another Abigail,the clumsy clown episode?
Just then Karmsi turned to the attendant.
"Can i get two bottles of coke for my coke loving bestfriend and i?"

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode two

   To be honest, i had been hiding. Two days after the incident at Chicken republic, my mum sent me to buy her a bucket of chicken for some distant cousins who came to spend the summer holidays in Lagos.  I had never met them before and even if my mum thought they were sweet and respectful i hated them immediately she sent me that errand.  There was no way i could go back to the same place i had been humiliated only two days after. My wounds weren't healed and i could bet the floor wasn't dry of the coke i was bathed with.

I had already narrated in full details the date to Karmsi and she was sorry for me. She was very disappointed in Prince even more than i was and the look on her face when i told her what Peace did to me was enough to give Peace a stomach ache wherever she was at that time. I told her everything was fine and i was going to fix it however i could because i wanted her to feel better. She crucified herself for the ideas she out in my head and apologised for making me go but i explained she was wrong.
If she hadn't teased me,i still would have gone on the date. I already had the seedling of a crush in me and all she did was help water it.  Nothing seemed to make her feel better for her mistake and she felt indebted to me. It was for the greater good eventually, she came to my rescue and helped get the chicken from the eatery.  I avoided that eatery, that route and every road that reminded me of that day like a plague. It almost never happened but i was growing old in the house and i soon began to smell like kitchen utensils. I did have fun with my best friend in the house but she always wanted us to go out and it seemed like i was a self centered constraint.  The holidays was going to be over and everyone would go back to their normal lives, i didn't want to be the reason for the failure of the fun season so i decided to go out again. To give Karmsi a treat and celebrate myself.
Even though i wasn't quite sure what i was celebrating.

DEAR DIARY

Scene five
Episode one

The rest of my summer didn't come with more episodes and drama. I had gone to spend a week with Karmsi and was glad i didn't have to stay in my estate and risk seeing Prince. It was bad enough that he changed his dp and was online twelve hours a day but still didn't message me not that i was stalking him . It just hurt that he didn't bother to look back, to pick up the pieces and prove me wrong. I wished he could say something...anything to make me believe he wasn't what i concluded about him but for weeks there was nothing. Just a lonely me waiting for a miracle .  I soon concluded there wasn't going to be any intervention and admitted to myself that Prince had abandoned me. Of course, it cheapened me and i was determined to save Priscillia from the same feeling: the depression and heartbreak. As a beautiful girl, every guy would definitely want her and as a celebrity, she could have anything she wants. So why did she think Prince was the best that could ever happen to her?  Purity of the heart and care for my neighbour has always been one of my core values and i wasn't going to sit back and watch her mess her self up because she didn't believe in herself as much as i believed in her. I was determined to help her and the numerous messages i dropped in her DM didn't seem to catch her attention. She never read any. So much for having that number of fans!

Again i picked up that imaginary wand that made my first wish come true: The wish to meet her in the first place. I wished for a second meeting and a third chance to perfectly sail on the boat of friendship i intended to build. This time i had a sweet feeling in my guts. The custodians of fate arranged the cards.