"Ouch! That hurt terribly!" He said. I rolled my eyes although I did feel sorry for him, I almost felt his pain.
"It wasn't that bad", I said.
"You sure do hit a lot for someone who shouldn't hit people", he said with a cute pout.
"Whatever!"
"By the way, why are you even here?"
"I was angry."
"Why?"
"It's nothing really. I just wanted to free my mind", I half-lied. It wasn't exactly a lie because I didn't just see how possible it was that I was angry to see my best friend together with her boyfriend.
I was probably still frustrated by the crowd I was in.
"Okay", he said. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again. "Aren't you going to give me a hug?"
I shook my head. "I don't do hugs"
I saw him pout. "I came back from Canada just because I was missing you and you won't even give me a hug?"
I laughed. He was obviously lying. The Auti Shakes I knew wouldn't even walk to my class which was just next to his if he were actually missing me.
Honestly, he was the longest friend I had but we both had unique ways of doing things.
"Now that you're in a good mood, let's go to my class so we can catch up", he said and I decided to follow him.
****
"We have arrived ma... Alya", my driver said sounding unsure. He probably wanted to just tell me 'get down' but was wondering how he would do that without loosing his job.
I looked around. The environment was so different. "Where exactly are we?" I asked and before he could speak, I interrupted him, "Don't worry. I'll just call Stephanie".
When Stephanie answered the call the first thing she said after I greeted her was 'Are you guys having fun?'
"Fun? How am I meant to be having fun?" I asked in confusion.
"Oh no! Don't tell me you guys are still on each other's neck. For Christ sake you guys are sisters".
"Sisters?"
"Yeah, she is still your sister whether she has the same mother with you or not. The fact is that you are still sisters. Isn't it?"
"Hold on, you are talking about Kylie?"
"Yeah, it's not like you have some other sister."
"So what about her?"
"Aren't you with her?"
"She's in Nigeria?" I asked accidentally ignoring her question.
"Yeah, she has been here for about four days now. Your mother said she would inform you when you picked her calls. Didn't she do that?"
My lips parted a bit in surprise. Maybe I should try and answer her calls or at least read her texts.
I made a mental note to go through the recent text messages she sent once I dropped the call; that is if I hadn't deleted them.
"Alya? Are you still there?" Stephanie asked.
"Yeah, I am still here. I was just trying to remember if she ever mentioned it. I think I'll check through her messages".
"Okay. Just know that you'll be staying at the hotel room your mom booked for her for tonight".
"WHY?!" I didn't quite know why but that just sounded like a horrible idea. Kylie did not just seem like a nice person or a person I would want to stay with.
"Because there's like a snake chase going on in the house. The gardener said he found a snake in the garden".
"Wow. That's bad. But can't I stay somewhere else like hundreds of miles away from her?" I sounded dramatic but I absolutely didn't care at the moment. No one likes their step sister anyway.
"Alya!"
"Pleeeease!"
"She's your sister for goodness sake..."
"No she's not. She's just that motherfucker's daughter..."
"ALYA! Mind your language. You can't call your father that..."
"But that's what he is".
"One more word and I'll call your mother and make sure you stay a week with your sister".
I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see me.
"Now please stay there, it's just for a night. You must not complain about every single thing".
"Fine!" I resigned.
"Have fun", she said.
"Where are you staying tonight?" I asked out of curiosity.
"In case you have forgotten I still have a house..."
"So you're staying there?" I asked without the slightest bit of interest.
"Yeah... I guess I might. Forget about me. No need to worry..."
I rolled my eyes at that statement. Who told her I was worried about her? I admit that I actually liked her... at least more than my mother but still...
"Have fun", she said and I hung up. I sighed in frustration for a moment. When I looked up, my driver was still staring at me.
"I...I have... an errand... So..." I hissed and came down from the car. The car rolled away as I walked into the hotel with only my school bag.
I got to the reception and before I could speak, the receptionist raised her head.
"Can I get the room number of Kylie... Sorry I don't exactly know her surname but I think she has an accent or something. She has been here for four days or so..."
I hoped that was what Stephanie had said. At that moment I wondered why I never paid attention to anything.
"You are Alya Chizitaram?" She asked. I nodded. So Kylie knew I was coming.
"That's okay. So she was right. You would probably be confused", she muttered but I heard her.
I still hadn't met Kylie but I was starting to dislike her more by the second.
"She's in room 209 on the fourth floor."
I thanked the receptionist and took the elevator. I got to Kylie's room soon enough. I noticed that in place of a door knob, there was a slot. Probably for a key card.
So the door couldn't be opened from the outside.
I was frustrated by my bad luck. I knew it wasn't polite to just barge into someone's room but I wanted to do it just to piss her and there wasn't a fucking door knob on the outside. Fuck this expensive hotel.
I saw a doorbell next to the door and I clicked on it. It took a while before queen Kylie came to the door.
I was about to click the bell again when the door flung open and I beheld my half sister.
This was the first time I was seeing her apart from one picture I had seen of her when I was little. She had a very pale complexion and she had quite a height, a little taller than me. She was slim and she was really pretty.
"Hi... Alya", she said with a smile. I was about to respond when she turned around and started entering the room. I followed her as I responded.
"As you should know by now, I am Kylie West. We are basically related and all..." She said in a monotone as she sat on the queen sized bed in the room.
"Your mom is pretty cool so I guess you would be too", she said.
"My mom?" I asked almost scoffing.
"Yeah. She got me this pretty awesome lodge. She even got me the other rooms on this floor", she said.
"Let me get this straight, my mother is paying for your room and every other room on this floor?"
"Yeah", she shrugged.
"Why didn't you just get one room?" I asked puzzled.
"I don't know. I really don't just like people."
"That's your reason for making my mom pay for a whole floor? There are like four rooms on this floor apart from yours. The last time I stayed in this place, a room cost about two hundred thousand a night and that was like five years ago. Assuming that's still the price, my mom pays a million naira a night and you have been here for four freaking days?!"
She shrugged. "As I said, that's pretty cool of her. It was also cool of her to help me come to Nigeria."
I pulled my phone out and went to my mother's chat. Luckily, I hadn't deleted the last messages she sent. It read:
Your half sister is coming to Nigeria. She says she wants to see you and spend time with you. Please meet her when she arrives and try not to be mean.
"You said you were coming to Nigeria because you wanted to spend time with me?" I asked refusing to believe it.
"Yep. I said that"
"You're kidding right?"
"What makes you think that?"
"You! You never cared that we were related. I didn't either so I was pretty okay with it. I don't know why my mom kept trying to put an effort to make sure we got along. And when I finally decided to give it a try, you never answered my calls and yet you made my mom think I was being mean to you and so you stopped taking my calls when you never even took them in the first place.
"And somehow, she believed you instead of her own daughter. So please don't feed me that shit about you being here to see me cause I know that would be the last thing you'd do", I said annoyed.
She kept quiet for a while. "You're wrong about me wanting to see you. But you are right about something...", She paused for a minute.
"I am not here because I want to see you."