There was Total silence, confusion on Tolu's face as she continue to stare at her uncle, she went all speechless, how? When? What happened?
Danielle parked out front at the lot at Bonny's, she could hear the music from inside the bar: sultry jazz, a deep smoky voiced-singer crooning along, the rat-tat-tat beat of a snare drum behind it. It's a beautiful warm night, and the setting sun is pink and orange in the sky to the west. All right, she thought to herself, so coming out might have been a little bit of a good idea.
She ran her fingers through her hair, then pulled back the sides together while the rest were down , she wore a silky dark blue shirt with a few open buttons, showing off the smooth brown skin of her chest; she had a very small round breast, so she didn't have any trouble going braless. She left the sleeves down to cover the bandage and she tucked her shirt in the skinny black ripped denim jeans she wore.
"Danielle!" They heard a female voice over the music before they saw her, and then she was practically climbing through the arms and legs on the dance floor to get to them. She had thick body and huge eyes and this wild country girl look. She hugged Danielle. "Amaka right?" She said to Chiamaka
"Yes!" Chiamaka yelled as the music was pretty loud.
"And the cute one?" She smiled at Niola
"Niola."
"Let me buy you guys a drink please, Danielle, it's good to see you."
They went to the bar, ordered Four shots of something, and handed one to Niola.
"Cheers!" She lifts the glass to her lips and takes it in one swig. "I'm Iman; Danielle's favorite person," she said with a grin, "my sister is Bonny, she owns the place. Welcome to Bonny's, come on, I've got some friends at a table in the back. We can sit there, and you," She pointed at Niola. "Its good to finally meet you."
Niola shrug, and they followed her lead, moving through the sweaty, bumping crowd of dancers.
Few hours later, she'd made about a dozen new friends, some of whom seem to have already heard about "chiamaka's best friend." She's been told she is "as gorgeous as Chiamaka said" and that everyone is so excited to "finally meet her."
When they say these things, she made brief eye contact with Danielle. She smiles and shrugs, looks almost shy – and Danielle; she looks as beautiful as ever.
Eventually, she leaned over to Chiamaka and whisper in her ear. "How come I have such a fan club? Everybody knows me, and I have no idea who the hell they are!"
"Have you checked my IG, I literally post almost every picture we take together there, your eyes get people talking you know, and I always make sure to tag Danielle, you know she's got millions of followers, plus she has a crush on you."
Niola choke out a laugh. "A crush. On me? Funny."
"Are you kidding?" she says whispering into Niola's ear, wrinkling up her brow.
She didn't know what to say, so she just stayed silent.
"Niola, for real. You never thought she was sort of… I don't know… attracted to you? Overly attentive? Interested?"
"Um. No. We just met a few days." she felt like an idiot for lying, of course they almost kissed at her studio the other day, which she couldn't really get off her mind either, the closeness, she could remember her fragrance, the pinkish moist lips. Right now if she could play back that moment, she'd let it play right.
She realized her hand has lifted to her mouth after she thought about the 'kiss.' She lowered her hand back into her lap as fast as she could, and looked around, they were all so invested in a conversation.
Chiamaka leaned closer with a hand on her shoulder, "Look, it's ok – I know you're not 'into girls.' Danielle is, just be cool. Don't make it awkward."
She could tell by the look on her face she's had a few drinks and it's likely causing her to be more honest than normal, a typical Chiamaka wouldn't spill it all. She realize suddenly that she was getting aroused whenever Danielle's gaze met with hers . Was she getting worked up thinking about… what… having sex… with Danielle?
"Oh shit," she said under her breath.
Chiamaka looks over
"oh shit what?"
Niola shook her head, "nothing."
"shut up, what is it Niola? What are you thinking?"
She tries to find the right words but her mouth just opens and closes a few times. Finally, she mustered up the nerve to spit something out.
"I actually like girls, I've had a few relationship over the years I just kept it a secret." She said finally.
Chiamaka froze at first, then she smiled, "I think I kind of knew, but I'm hurt, how come you never told me? So you don't trust me with that kind of secret?"
"You never asked." Niola said sipping her bourbon
"Iya Eniola?" Chiamaka raised a brow and she smiled.
"She doesn't know, I mean, she caught me kissing a girl once; our neighbor, when I was fifteen… Mehn, I almost saw heaven that day, one of the worst day of my life, and that was a long time ago, I've had a few boyfriends, I made sure to keep the girlfriends away, so she thinks it's just some teenage fantasy that has passed."
Chiamaka laughed and at the same moment Danielle laughed at something iman was talking about, throwing her head back. When she does, Niola notice how her tank top stretches over her breasts. Her breasts? Why was she noticing her breasts now? But now that she did, they were bigger than hers, higher, perky in a way hers weren't. Her nipples are straining against her bra, hard enough to be able to see the outline through the layers of fabric. she suddenly want to touch them, just put her hands on the outside of her shirt and feel the bump of her nipples through the soft cotton.
She pulled her eyes away as she stops laughing.
"What are you two talking about," Iman said leaning forward across the table.
"Nothing," Chiamaka said quickly with a wide grin.
"have you checked the video we posted?" Danielle added.
Chiamaka raised her brows and pulled her phone out quickly to check, from the look on their faces Niola knew it was getting a good vibes.
"One million views!" Chiamaka's eyes widened wonderstruck with her jaw dropped. "Oh my God! I just went viral, My first video went viral!" she yelled.
"Wow," Niola said checking her phone too, she read through the comments and saw most of the comments were about her eyes; a few argued she was wearing contact lens, her social media accounts too were getting loads of following request.
"shots to this!" Iman said and the busboy poured them liquor.
Bad idea. The liquor hits the back of Niola's throat and she instantly seize up into a cough, like fire all the way down into her lungs. She as obviously had enough liquor for the night. Iman cheered, teasing Chiamaka, and a second later, a friend Ade sat down were Iman sat across from Niola beside Danielle with another round of beer, and they were suddenly occupied, talking about some content creation at work he wanted to pick her brain about.
Niola sat quietly, but couldn't stop looking at Danielle's mouth , and sneaking a look at her breasts. When she talks, she waves her hands around and she suddenly imagine her hands cupping her breasts, squeezing, and her mouth coming down over her nipple, licking. Sucking. Moaning.
"I have to go," Niola said suddenly, too loudly.
Everyone turns to her. Danielle looks perplexed and sad.
"What? Why, no, stay."
"Come-on tomorrow is Sunday," Chiamaka said putting her hand in her arm.
"Ouch!" Niola winced when Chiamaka touched her burn.
" Are you ok—" with a concerning frown, Chiamaka felt another layer under her sleeve. "What's that?"
"Nothing!" Niola stopped her from rolling up her sleeve, Danielle has also noticed the way she carried the arm earlier. "I should go, seriously." She got up and pushed her way through the crowd.
"Ade? Please give Chiamaka a ride home," Danielle got up and placed a hand on Chiamaka's worried shoulder as she watched Niola disappear in the crowd back to the front door. "I'll give her a ride, Ade will drop you home."
"Alright, sounds good."
When Niola burst out onto the pavement, the cooler night air hits her face and she realise how hot she was, how fast her heart was beating.
'I have to get home. Get home and relax my head. That's what I need to do.'
She started walking up the street, the noise of the band lessening as she move away from Bonny's, until she turn the corner and almost can't hear it at all anymore. Then she realized she had to call a cab or something.
"Niola!" she heard, and for a split second she thought it was Danielle in her imagination saying her name.
But it wasn't, it was Danielle for real.
"Niola!" she called again, not too loud – it was late at night and there were houses with their lights turned on all over the place. And she felt another presence roaming around except from Danielle's, some sort of Spirit, she guessed.
"I'm fine!" Niola said, and kept walking.
"Niola, stop."
"Danni, it's ok alright." Danielle almost smiled; did she just call her 'danni'? Cute, she thought.
"Niola, stop!" When she says it that way, firm and serious, Niola did, immediately. She stopped, standing stock still on the sidewalk.
She catches up with her, and held her right arm to turn her around to face her.
"Are you ok?" She looks at her awaiting a response. Niola looked over Danielle shoulder and saw a shadowy figure move beside a house one block away, she swallowed and met Danielle's gaze with a sigh. "You just took off."
"Yeah, I'm ok—" Danielle held up her left hand and rolled up her sleeve before she could even protest, she took peeked at the bandage.
"you shouldn't put a bandage around a burn you know, come on, I'll drive you home, it'll take a while to find a cab."
She took her hand in hers, and pulls her along the sidewalk till they got to the car.
"Tolu!" Ifadahunsi sighed for the third time looking up with an expression filled with despair while Niola's mother sat across him, tears filled her eyes as she tried to process all what her uncle told her. What she thought it will be, wasn't it at all, his wife and his only son died seven years after she left with Niola and he went blind a few months after the tragedy; Ajoke drowned in her sleep and juwon was crushed by a train in the bathroom, how's that even possible; juwon's wife said she heard him scream 'Train! Train!!' but by the time they rushed into the bathroom, there was blood everywhere; his body was minced on the ground.
"When all this things happened, I wanted to kill my self, I was wrong to have treated you and your daughter awfully, I hope you can ever forgive me for that, because I will never forgive myself," Ifadahunsi continued. "I isolated myself from everyone and I went to stay in a cave outside oke-osa. And that was when I met Ranmi; he's a high priest, he lives in that cave….he was the one who told me everything that wasn't open to me about Eniola and the death of my family, he told me I was going to go blind, he also told me you would come back here, and when you do. He asked me to bring you to him."
"Why will I want to go to some cave with—"
"I know her visions are back," He cut in her words. "Its all complex than we can ever imagine. Eniola might lose her life."
Lose her what? Those last word rang in her head and without hesitation she agreed to go to the caves. "When are we leaving?"
"At dawn"