The Ego awards after-party is still pumping at 8 pm. The ground floor of the mansion smells like a combination of Vodka spiked Chapman and Zobo, laced with the occasional breeze of weed coming from the rooftop.
The after-party mansion is packed. People are scattered about the hall-like living room dancing, playing group games in private parlours, or casually flirting in the buffet-style grand dining room. Like a loner, you watch them piling plastic plates with small chops or filling disposable cups with spiked Zobo or Chapman from labelled dispensers.
Your friends are uncool, so this isn't theirs' or your scene. The fancy mansion, the cool kids, the only Ego award you might be nominated for is the title of 'Party Pooper' and you need to be invited to parties to qualify. Even if you manage to score an invite, you know wouldn't win the nomination for your school, because to most of the people here, you are just Nancy's little brother. Plus, the music here didn't match your taste, hence the need for the traditional earphones that are whispering soft rock into your ears.
Your dad made you come as a plus-one for your older sisters (Jessica and Nancy), who are nominated for the best smile and miss popular respectively. One of them even won. This is their scene, not yours, but your dad sent you here, ironically to 'protect' those two girls.
Standing alone leaning against a dining chair amid couples, you start wishing that you could hangout out with Chinny, your secret bestie. Chinny had been busy throughout the after-party, from ensuring the Zobo and Chapman dispensers are spiked to making edible deliveries to keep the party going for the SS3s upstairs.
You could try to hang out with some of your setmates playing drinking games with SS2s in private parlours, but it would be too awkward. Besides, your immediate older sister Jessica, and her winning evil smile, had been scamming drunk kids in one of those private parlours. You hate playing against her! She has a habit of finding loopholes to ensure that she'll win, and you hate to lose.
At least staying here in the dining room, you get to have quick chats with Chinny whenever he comes over for a dispenser refill. Plus, you have your phone to keep you company, even though you're getting bored of playing Candy Crush.
After a while, you begin noticing unique things in the mansion, like the mini shelves on the legs of the dining table or the light sculptures. Captivated by the beauty of the mansion you decide to make short videos to post online with the caption "dream house".
After you finish filming the ground floor, you walk up to the first floor with your video camera on, "I swear this house is my dream house, even upstairs is… wow", you say as you go towards the first door, "All the rooms are different, the interior designer had overdone their job". Your thoughts and comments are stolen by a painting beside a particular door. You end up absent-mindedly videoing the room.
The painting looks expensive, like the kind art thieves would plot a heist for. You smile as you remember that Chinny's second favourite kind of movie is heist movies.
Upon your return downstairs, you get a better view of the architectural masterpiece that is the dining hall. It has narrow, long windows draped with dark curtains that scream expensive. The piece de resistant is a chunky fibre glass gold pillar that connects the floor to the ceiling in the centre of the dining table. It has carvings of African women in pairs carrying baskets on their heads, farming, and pounding yam.
You have a bad habit of eating and singing. While admiring the videos you took of the house, you combine chewing the small chops and repeating the lyrics of 'Ghosts by Saint Raymond' playing on your iPod touch. Although you crave the Zobo, you choose bottled Fanta because you believed, the bottled drinks wouldn't be spiked.
All the rooms in the mansion have different themes. You begin to wish you had the comic-themed room you had seen upstairs. Neither your former house, a duplex on the outskirts of Lekki nor your new house, a 5-bedroom apartment in Banana Island had themed bedrooms that detailed. Your room still has some of the furnishings your oldest sister used before she left for University in Cyprus.
"Hey Dimkpa", your second older sister, Nancy says as she teases your hairless chin. Dimkpa isn't your legal name, it's just what your family calls you. But you like it when she calls you that because Nancy is the sister that babies you. "What-you-doing", she says in a sing-song voice, her Phineas and Ferb impression makes you smile. You remove one earphone to give it to her.
"Nancy!" She turns back to face the person that called her and ends up accidentally unplugging your earphones while diving into her boyfriend Sadiq's arms. You didn't like him because he is an asshole that describes with hand and body gestures, how he will fuck your sister.
Once, you reported him to your dad who shockingly took his side. Your dad said, "Dimkpa, don't you know the difference between a joke and reality, he was joking... I don't know how I got such a soft son". Your dad has practically dashed Nancy to Sadiq, he always tells them about the speech he wrote for their wedding toast.
Everyone thinks he is joking, whenever your dad speaks about your sister marrying her secondary school sweetheart. But you know he means it when he refers to Sadiq as 'son' and warns you not to upset your in-law.
"Hey Dimkpa", Sadiq mocks, leading Nancy away by hand and giving her a romantic movie twirl. Your sister had told him it means 'strongman', and since then that psychopath would give you herculean punishments like pushing the wall or breaking the floor. He enjoyed watching you jump repeatedly in an attempt to break the floor and throw your body against the wall, though you never created a crack in any of them.
Memories of how much your feet hurt and body ached force you to angrily plug your earphones into your phone. You resume watching the videos with the natural sounds instead. No more indie music. Your mood worsens when you see and hear something in your video that ignites the protection spirit you didn't know you have.
You call an uber.
Then run up to the private parlour to get Jessica out of her drinking game. "David chill! It's just 9 pm", Jessica yells grabbing her money as you drag her in search of Nancy. "Nancy!" you scream, and Jessica pulls away.
"I'm not ready to go yet, I was winning!" she says turning away. She is always stubborn and constantly refuses to let her 14-year-old younger brother lord over her. Especially now when she is doing her favourite thing, winning.
"Jessica, I'm not playing", she couldn't see the seriousness on your face, but you are sure she could sense Fear resting against your shoulder because her gaze softened. "We are going home! Please!" you beg, and she lets you take her hand in search of Nancy. Your words are echoed by Fear each time you call her name, "Nancy!". Fear grips your other hand tighter.
"What if-" Fear starts, and you shake Fear off your hand. Nothing will happen to Nancy, you tell yourself.
Your mind is having tunnel vision. Your thoughts are centred on taking your sisters home. At that moment you spot Nancy grinding against Sadiq as they had done at numerous school parties.
"We are going!" you say dragging her hand, wondering where this courage is coming from. You refuse to hear anything as Sadiq yells some words at you. You practically run out of the mansion like you are being chased by Fear. Each of your hands pulls one of your sisters, they had never seen you this panicked.
You regret coming.
All the allure of the house is long gone. It now makes your skin crawl. Even waiting outside feels unsafe, you keep moving your sisters away whenever any boy approaches. You tie your denim jacket around Nancy's waist to cover up her exposed legs. Both Nancy and Jessica had questions, but your mind is elsewhere.
You couldn't fight but you could run. So, you run away with your sisters the moment your uber arrives. But Fear ends up tagging along for the ride.
…