Breathe Tilda...
Breathe...
Everything will be fine...
Just don't be weird
You can do this!
After more than ten minutes of contemplating on whether I should knock on the gate of Tobi's house or not, I finally summoned the courage to.
I had sent the driver that had brought me here back home since I knew working on a biology project would take almost forever.
I took one last deep breath and brought my fist against the gate.
"Who be that?"
"It's me," I responded to the voice that came from behind the tall gates as if the owner of the voice knew who I was.
To be honest, this was my first time at Tobi's house.
Today was a public holiday and also, I had to go over to his place so we could get the project ready before school tomorrow.
Doing it at my house would be a bad decision.
"It's Tilda, Tobi's classmate," I added after weighing the senselessness in my previous statement.
It took the gateman a short while to open the gate for me.
When I was finally allowed in, I was escorted by the gateman who appeared quite young, to the spacious garden at the back of the house where Tobi was, obviously waiting for me.
Did I tell you how beautiful his home was, not to talk of the garden that was graced with various beautiful flowers? - From roses to sunflowers.
"Hi," Tobi greeted me with a handsome smile as soon as the gateman left the two of us alone.
"Hi," I forced a smile in return.
"So we should start or you would like to get something first?" He asked, sounding all so sweet and caring.
Maybe this was how Tobi was whenever he was around me but I had never for once taken note of it.
"Let's just get over with it. I'm not even that hungry," I turned down his offer with a wave of my hand.
"If you say so," He smiled.
The project every of our groups were assigned to do in class was to scout about fifteen different flowers and to tape them to a book made from cardboard paper, stating beside each flower their names and their properties.
It may have sounded easy but it wasn't easy, considering the fact that I was alone with Tobi.
I didn't get a chance to give him my response at the sleepover since Sandra had unknowingly intervened and so my mind was very unsettled.
Breathe Tilda.
You're going to be out of here in no time.
However, thanks to Tobi's spacious garden, we were able to select fifteen flowers.
I was the one who had picked most of them, considering the fact that they were the ones I found very beautiful.
After that, we proceeded to the main aspect of the project - arranging the flowers into the cardboard paper book.
Believe me when I say that working on this project with Tobi called for tension in the air between us.
You know that point in time when you are with someone and neither of you know what to say or how to react?
That was what I was facing with Tobi.
As if an angel had finally decided to help me out of my situation, he decided to write the details of each flower himself.
"Let me handle it. You should probably get going now," He said.
"Are you sure?" I asked, my expression unreadable.
He simply nodded with a smile of assurance.
I moved to pick up my hand bag and as I was about to leave, I heard my name.
"Tilda."
I halted in my steps and turned around to see Tobi who was taking gentle strides towards me.
"Yes?" I raised my eyebrows in question but deep down, my heart was racing like never before.
Please Tobi...
Don't do this.
He stopped once he was in front of me and bent down at my feet. My eyes followed his movement with every bit of suspicion in them.
At the end of the day, he was only trying to pick up a flower pot that stood next to my feet.
"I want you to have this," He handed the pot over to me as soon as he got back up.
"It reminds me of you and so I...I thought I should give it," He added, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
It was a pot of red roses. It was a burst of crimson beauty, a riot of colour and fragrance. The petals were velvety soft, the stems strong and vibrant, and the leaves a rich, deep green. The roses stood tall and proud, their scent intoxicating and sweet. The pot was brimming with life, the roses blooming with abandon. It was a vision of nature's perfection, a masterpiece of crimson and green.
"Thank you. They're so beautiful," I squealed and brushed the petals with the tip of my fingers.
He sighed and ran his fingers through his short hair.
"About that night... I'm really sorry," He began. "I just felt like I needed to tell you of how you feel. I really like you, Tilda."
"Tobi..." My voice trailed off. "I don't know what to say."
"You don't need to say anything. You could take as much time as you want before you finally give me a response," He quickly said.
Tobi was a good guy and I didn't want to hurt his feelings but Kiki was my friend and I didn't want to hurt her either.
"Ok," was all I said.
Afterwards, he escorted me out of the house and waited till my driver returned to pick me up.
He had previously offered me to wait in the living room before my drive would arrive but I was insistent on standing outside.
"See you in school tomorrow," He waved as I got into the back seat of the car.
"See you," I waved back with the most smile I could muster.
*.*.*.
It was exactly 12:00pm when I got home.
Sharon was out with a friend and Miriam had gone to visit her family for the break so I was left with my mum and her good-for-nothing husband, Richard.
Sometimes, I wonder what mum really saw in the man.
He didn't have a job that any of us were aware of. He couldn't do anything around the house. All he simply did was to move in and at of our house at will.
The days he was around, his routine was to eat, sleep and blabber on and on about the things that weren't his concern.
I decided to sit in the living room and watch TV since my favourite reality TV show was on.
Trust me, I didn't get a chance to enjoy the show.
From the corner of my eye and with a disgusted look playing on my face, I could see the couple cuddling and uttering words of love to each other.
"I love you so much, my sweetheart, to the moon and back."
"I love you more my sugar pie."
"Stop. You're making me blush."
How disgusting!
There were many things I could tolerate but seeing these two people playing love was definitely not one of them.
Let's meet up at the park
My fingers did not waste time in sending a text to Kiki.
"I'm going out with Kiki," I simply spoke to their hearing and left the living room almost immediately.
My mum simply waved her hand at me to show she had heard. I wouldn't have cared less if she hadn't given me a response.
_
"Na wa for this girl sef," I grumbled as I called Kiki over the phone for the umpteenth time.
"Where are you nau?" I asked immediately she answered the phone.
"Sis nor vex abeg. I be don dey come but I hear say my grandmama dey hospital. Nor vex."
I could sense the tension in her voice.
Kiki's grandmother was a lovely woman. She loved me as much as she loved her own granddaughter and I loved her too.
"Grandma is at the hospital?" I didn't know when I jumped off the bench I had been sitting on, causing people around to stare in my direction.