It was two days to Christmas and there were no Christmas vibes in the city like there used to be in the village.

A week before Christmas in the village was all exciting and fun. Schools would have vacated. Many children would have been outside throwing knock out. Families would be running after various fowls on the street to kill for Christmas. There would be new faces of people that came from the city to spend their Christmas with their relatives in the village. I always made sure to make those city people my friends before they left. Also, children bragging about the Christmas clothes their parents bought for them.

It was all festive when it's close to Christmas in the village. But here in the city, it didn't look like Christmas was around the corner. If anything, the atmosphere was even drier than normal days.

Oh how I missed village!

I had missed mama and papa so much. I wondered how they were fairing in the village. If I had known better, I wouldn't have moved to Lagos with aunt Caro. She had literally denied me of all forms of communication with my grandparents. But come to think of it, were mama and papa missing me as much as I was missing them? If they were, they would have called and insisted aunt Caro gave me the phone in order to speak to me. Who knows, maybe they did, but aunt Caro lied to them that I wasn't around or I was sleeping or something of that sort. There's nothing that wicked woman can't do to achieve what she wants.

Daniella you have a phone now. My subconscious reminded me. That's right. I did have a phone. But how to get mama and papa's phone number from aunt Caro's phone book was the big deal. I needed to think of a plan to do that. Maybe I should sneak into aunt Caro's room when she wasn't there and get the phone number from her phone. That would be a bit dicey, I don't need anyone to tell me that, but I was ready to do it nonetheless. I just had to wait for the ideal time.

I was presently in my room. Or maybe I should put it this way: the room where I slept. I was lonely and bored, so I decided to come online on social media. I tapped on my chat with Peter, but he wasn't online.

I dropped a message with him nonetheless.

Hey boo! Come online. I'm really bored and I miss you.

I checked through my other friends to see who was online. Adam and Gbemi were. Thank goodness!

I tapped on my chat with Adam and dropped a message.

Hey bestie!

He replied almost immediately.

Hey sweetheart! How are you doing? I've missed you o.

I've missed you too. Everything's just boring here. How are things over there?

Well, not as boring as yours might be, but it isn't all that fun here too. Hope your guardians are not still treating you badly.

Hmm, they are. In fact, it's worse o. I'm tired of this house. Anyways, is it just me or there's no vibe for this Christmas.

So you're still looking for Christmas vibe? You think you're still a child?

Is it only children that vibe with Christmas?

What vibe exactly are you talking about?

As I was going to reply, someone barged in the room and I quickly hid my phone under the pillow.

It was Annabelle and Amanda. They looked like they were ready for war.

"Hey bitch! Return all the clothes we gave to you!" Amanda snarled, folding her arms around her chest.

I looked at both of them standing in front of me, surprised with what Amanda just said.

"You heard her! Return our clothes!" Annabelle scrunched her face as she said.

"Why should I return it. It's now mine." I said with a frown marred on my face.

"See this thief o!" Annabelle pointed at me, looking at Amanda who was laughing. "When did you suddenly gain possession of our things. Better just give us back our clothes now before I go crazy."

"I didn't ask you people for the clothes. You gave it to me of your own accord, so it's now mine."

"Stop saying it's yours. You're getting me angry and I can slap you." Amanda narrowed her eyes as she thundered.

"You won't dare. Unless you want to die." I shot back.

Both of them kissed their teeth and made their way to my luggage. I immediately jumped out of the bed and hurried towards my luggage.

"Leave my luggage alone!" I cried out.

I struggled to get my luggage from them but they succeeded in opening it and some of my clothes fell off to the floor.

Mustering all the energy I had, I pushed both of them away from my luggage and they toppled backwards. Quickly, I struggled to get my luggage closed, but before I could, a resounding slap landed on my back, pushing me forward and I lost my balance and fell.

The pain on my back was excruciating, but still I managed to get up on my feet and hurried towards Amanda and Annabelle who had scattered all my clothes on the floor. I was angry. So angry that I went out of control. Out of rage, I slapped Amanda hard across her neck as she was bending over to take the clothes that they gave to me.

"Ah my neck!" She wailed.

"Are you mad?" Annabelle fumed. "How dare you hit her!" She lunged forward at me and landed a slap on my cheeks.

Angrily, I yanked her legs, causing her to flounder and she eventually fell on her back on the floor. I sat on her stomach and squeezed the top she was putting on around her neck as I beat her mercilessly.

Amanda, from behind, pushed me off Annabelle's body and helped her up. Annabelle wanted to come at me again, but Amanda stopped her.

"No leave me alone Amanda! Lemme show this fool who I am!" Annabelle barked.

"Let's just go." Amanda walked her out of the room.

Before they left, Annabelle scowled and snapped her fingers menacingly at me.

As they banged the door closed, I rolled my eyes and reached for my luggage. I was panting as I arranged my own clothes in my luggage and put away the clothes they gave me. I was going to return it to them eventually.

"Daniella! Daniella!" I heard aunt Caro bark.

"They've gone to report to their barking mother." I muttered and rolled my eyes.

The door to my room yanked open and I jolted backwards.

Aunt Caro barged in the room like a ravenous wild animal looking for who to devour. She was holding a cane in her hand.

Amanda and Annabelle were standing behind her.

"Daniella, Iwu onyara? Are you mad? Didn't you hear me calling you? Eh?" Aunt Caro hit me with her cane as she asked.

I frowned as I held the spot in my arm where she hit me.

"My daughters just told me that you took their clothes and when they asked you to return it, you refused and started to fight them. Is that true?" Aunt Caro asked.

"The clothes are mine now. They gave it to me." I said rudely.

"Shut up you thief! How will you say our clothes are yours?" Annabelle yelled from behind aunt Caro.

"Thief! Onyoshi! Barawo!" Amanda jeered.

"Return their clothes back to them now!" Aunt Caro ordered.

"But which cloth will I wear for Christmas?" I protested.

Aunt Caro hit me with her cane again. "You're very stupid for asking me that question."

"Me, I'm not stupid." I murmured under my breath.

"What did you say?" Aunt Caro shouted.

"Nothing." I answered in a low tone.

"So you now have the guts to talk back at me, right?" Aunt Caro narrowed her eyes as she asked with venom in her voice. "Don't worry, I'd deal with you in this house. Just return my daughters clothes back to them."

"That's your clothes on the floor." I said, indicating the clothes.

Annabelle and Amanda crouched down to pack the clothes.

"I'd rather burn it and use some as rag than see her wear my beautiful clothes. Rubbish!" Annabelle said rather pettily and all three of them walked out of the room.

I threw myself on the bed and buried my face in my hands as I wept profusely. I was tired of all the suffering that they were making me go through in this house. I missed my grandparents. I missed my village. I missed home.

I kept crying until I slept off.

***

I lifted up my head in a jolt when I felt my phone vibrate on the bed and I retrieved it from the pillow to check it. My chat with Adam displayed on the screen as I put the phone on.

You were typing...

Aren't you gonna say anything?

Hullo! Don't leave me hanging!

Daniella, are you there?

I checked the time on my phone and it was 5:59pm. Time had really gone. I rubbed my eyes with my fist before replying to Adam's text.

I'm so sorry. I had to handle some things here.

I sent the text and I noticed he had gone offline. I left his message board and checked to see if Peter was online. He was. He had even sent me a message.

I'm here now. I've missed you too. Sorry that I'm just coming online.

Oh now I'm the one craving for you to come online.

A smile played on my face as I read the text.

Hey!

Immediately I dropped the message, he read it and started typing.

Finally she came online!

Were you waiting for me?

Don't blush too much, but yes I was.

Aw, why weren't you online throughout today though?

I was busy playing soccer with my friends.

So that's why you left me bored here?

I'm sorry baby boo.

You're forgiven, but don't try it next time.

Yes ma'am! How are you anyway?

I'm not fine!

Why?

I miss you. I really really do miss you.

Minutes after I sent the message, Peter still hadn't replied and he had read it. Worst of all, he was still online. I couldn't help but wonder why he ignored it. I read our chat again to see if I had said something to offend him, but I couldn't identify anything I said that could have hurt him.

Why aren't you saying anything?

It took some time for Peter to read and reply my message.

Come outside now and give me a hug.

When I read his message, I blushed hard that my cheeks hurt. So while he was silent, he was on his way to come and see me. Could I have asked for a better boyfriend?

Quickly, I hid my phone under my pillow and went out of the room. I looked around to see if anyone was near, but nobody was. At least not one that I could see.

I quietly made my way outside the front of the gate, but Peter was nowhere in view. I walked a bit far from the gate and searched around but I didn't see him. It was evening already, so the sky was getting dark.

Suddenly someone hugged me from behind, startling me.

"Hey." I didn't have to turn back to know that was Peter's voice.

"Dude, you scared me!"

He chuckled, bringing his head down to my shoulder. "I'm sorry baby boo!"

"You came around. Thanks."

Peter turned me around and placed both of his hands on my shoulder. He was wearing a black round neck shirt under a denim jean jacket and a black skin tight jeans. "I couldn't stand the fact that you were missing me so much. Are you all right? You don't look so fine. You look like you've been—"

"Sleeping, yeah." I spoke up before Peter could complete his statement, even though that might not have been what he was going to say. Not like I wasn't actually sleeping, but I just didn't want him to suspect that I cried. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel bad for me. "I was sleeping throughout cuz I was bored."

"Now you're making me feel guilty." He pulled me closer to him in a tight hug.

"Okay enough hugging for today." I pulled out from him a bit. "Did you bring anything for me?"

"Oh, uh..." Peter scratched his head. "I didn't remember to. I was in a hurry to come here to see you. But yeah, I have some change with me." He dug his hand in his pocket and brought out a five hundred naira note. "You can have it."

I took the money from him and thanked him.

"So what are your plans for Christmas? Are you going anywhere?" Peter asked.

"I'm not so sure. But I don't think I am."

"What do you say we go out together?" Peter suggested.

"You happen to be forgetting that I'm staying under someone's roof."

"Yes you both happen to be forgetting that!" Someone said from behind us.

Peter and I snapped our heads towards the direction of the voice and believe me, nothing in this world prepared me for the one I saw standing few steps away from us.

__________________________________________

Guess who?

The cliffhanger is getting cliché already, I know, but I just didn't know how to end this chapter and I didn't wanna make it too long. So yeah, cliffhanger was the only way.

Until next time,
Bye 👋