Kora

"Did you tell him?"

I left my eyes to stare right into Grace's. I could see how anxious she was, anxious to know what really happened last night, anxious to know what really went down between Jeremiah and I.

What went down between Jeremiah and I anyway?

Nothing exactly, besides us just talking about a whole lot of things. Even though things were a bit weird between us, now that I knew who he really was, it didn't really change that much. How I thought of him, how I felt about him didn't really change, even though I knew he had an attitude that wasn't really accommodating of me. Yes he was arrogant and extremely rude, but that had to be because he didn't know it was me.

That was all I needed to tell myself. I really wanted to believe that. Maybe he was that way to people he wasn't close to, to people he didn't know. I guess when you get to know him the way I was starting to, he loosens up, and warms up a little to you. He told me everything. He told me about his family. Not that there was much to tell anyway, I mean, who on this part of the world or continent didn't know about the Ozors? I'm not a news person, or a fan of politics, but that was one family I just had to know, not because I wanted to, but because everyone around me did, and wouldn't just stop talking about them.

Their faces were literally everywhere. On billboards, on magazines, on Forbes, award shows and a lot more. They literally had more recognition in this lifetime, than even the president. They were especially known for living really cool lives, luxurious lifestyles. Every rich person in this continent somehow wanted to be affiliated with them. They were also known for their good works, like their foundation for homeless and abandoned children, their yearly scholarship programs for over a hundred Nigerian students to study abroad, their annual giving back to the society auction gala, where they raised a lot of money for widows, clean water and good roads for people living in the rural areas.

Talking about the gala, that was one party everyone always wanted to attend. Every rich folk would kill to be invited. I mean, who wouldn't want to attend the GBTS annual gala? The GBTS was like the grammys of our continent. Everyone wanted to be given an invitation, because only really important people were ever invited. You could be rich and all that, but you wouldn't still get an invitation, no matter who you were. At least old money had a higher percentage of attending, the rest of us, all we could do was hope we were ever deemed important enough to attend. You should see what happens on social media during the event. It was more like a low key competition show, or runway for the best dressed, and most successful celebs, a time for them to show off.

You'd see them spending a lot of cash, just to look good and catch the attention of the public on TV and in the news. That's all rich people do, crave for the attention of the public, and we all give it to them, me included. This year's gala was coming up real soon. I heard it was going to be an all red, nineties theme. I also heard that invitations were getting handed out already. What did I care? It was not like I or my mum and her family ever had a chance of attending anyway. Peter wasn't that important to the Ozors. I bet they had never even heard his name all their lives. Levels.

Grace said her only wish for Christmas this year was to get an invitation. "Do you know the kind of people you could bump into, inside those walls?" She always used to tell me, and I totally agreed with her. I mean, the GBTS gala wasn't just a nationwide or continent wide gala, there were a lot of other really important people all over the world coming. People from the UAE, you know what they say about Arab money, It is always the sweetest, a few British and American people too. The Ozors had their mark everywhere. What I didn't know was that I had actually been talking to one of them, the second son of Benjamin Ozor. Jeremiah Ozor.

You know, I never really paid any attention to it. I never really checked, or asked questions. Maybe if I had, I'd have been able to recognize him, even before he texted me. I mean, he trended a lot over here for that movie he was in, turnt star. I might have come across him on tv too, once or twice. I just never paid any attention, and now that I did, everything was becoming so clear to me. I was friends with a celebrity, and not just any celebrity, an old money celebrity. Trust me, it's harder to even think it than say it. Now that I knew everything, I was starting to do a lot of thinking.

"Well?" Grace leaned closer to me. "Did you?" She was dying to know. I could see it in her eyes. Too bad I had to either disappoint her or not. I exhaled.

"I didn't." I told her.

"You what?!"

"I couldn't." I continued.

"Oh, Kora." She placed a hand on her forehead to show her disappointment. So she was disappointed.

"I wanted to trust me." I leaned closer to her, hoping she could let me explain. "But we got to talk about so many things, and I just didn't think I wanted to ruin the moment."

She hissed, and then looked at me.

"Ruin the moment? You were supposed to tell him the truth."

"And I will. Not just today. I will, when the timing is perfect. I have to be careful about this, Grace, so I don't hurt him, you know."

"Wow." She said. "Hmmm, perfect timing. Okay o."

"We are finally going to meet on Saturday."
I continued. "We talked about it, and we want to see, face to face."

"On Saturday?"
I nodded.
"So you're going to tell him?"

I nodded again.
"Just like you said. He deserves to know the truth. I have to tell him the truth now, so he doesn't find out on his own, or get hurt later."

"Kora, tomorrow is Saturday."

I let out an exhale.

"Are you sure you're ready for this? I mean, this is someone you've grown used to. Things could actually go bad or good from tomorrow. Things could change."

"I know." I whispered to her. I did. "I'm not mentally ready for it yet, but I will be. It's the right thing to do. I mean what's the worse that could happen abi? It's either he accepts it or not, isn't it?"

Grace looked at me for a while, and then she exhaled.

"Let me just tell you now." She started. "And I want you to listen to me carefully." She leaned closer to me. "Tomorrow doesn't have to change anything. It doesn't change anything." I listened to her carefully with all my heart. "No matter what happens tomorrow, if things go bad, and he gets angry and worked up, or irritated by it, you can't feel bad about it. You can't feel less because of it, less of yourself." She continued. "Nothing that happens tomorrow should define you, or change how you think about yourself, you can't hate yourself for any reason whatsoever. If he sees you, and doesn't like what he sees, then it's his problem, and his loss. Not yours. You get?"

I let out an exhale. I couldn't see it, but there was a smile finding it's way on my lips now. Grace's words somehow made everything feel better. Made me feel better about Saturday.

"That's enough talk about you and your boyfriend."
I let out a soft scoff and rolled my eyes.

Here we go again.

"Jeremiah is not my boyfriend."

"Warrevs ." She swung her hands in front of me. "I'm hungry." She told me. "Choose where you want to eat, school's cafeteria or off camp?"

"Hmmm."

I pretended to think for a while. That was really a hard choice to make. NAUN had the best food, and best cafeteria in the entire world. Their food was bomb, and there were a lot of varieties to choose from, so much. It wasn't your regular kind of cafeteria. I mean, we spent a lot on food per semester so It just had to be good enough.

"I don't think I'm hungry yet." I told her. "I want to make a quick stop at the mall."

"The mall?" She asked looking into her handbag. "Why?"

"I need to pick up a birthday gift."

"A birthday. Is there going to be a party? I love going to parties."

I chuckled nervously.

"There's not going to be any party jor. At least none that I'm aware of. She's not really a party person."

She scoffed

"You have to be really old to not like parties." She took out her lip gloss, and a mirror to watch herself as she applied some on her lips, she smacked them.  "How can anyone not like parties? Is she broke?"

I faked a smile.

"She's just someone that doesn't really care about all these things. She loves spending her time and birthdays alone. She's more like a low key person, doesn't really like attention. She's going to be forty-five tomorrow."

"Oh I see." Grace was too focused trying to get her lips to shine. I doubt she was even listening. I thought for a while.

"What kind of gifts do you give someone in their mid forties?"

Grace closed her mirror, and then looked at me.

"I don't know. It depends." She said. "Is she married?"

"Nope." I shook my head. "I don't think she has ever been married." What does that have to do with giving gifts?

"Does she have sex often?"
I raised my brows. How on earth was I supposed to know that?
"Scratch that. Don't answer it." She told me. Thank God, because I wasn't even going to.

"Anyways," she cleared her throat. "You could get her a vibrator or a dildo or something." She told me. "Old single people get lonely sometimes. My mum gets one on all her birthdays. She tries to hide them from me, but I know exactly where she keeps them. It works like a charm."

I chuckled faintly.

"I'm not going to get my nana a vibrator."

"Oh. She's your nanny? Thought she was like your aunty or something."

"She used to be my nanny a few years ago. Now she just works at a restaurant. We've been close, for as long as I can remember. She's like the next thing I have to a mother."

"Oh."  She turned back to her bag like she couldn't care less what I said. I pouted. "I forgot to pay for another ticket again." Grace searched into her bag for her food ticket card. "The cash in my old one is finished." She exhaled. "I'd have to call my mum to credit my aza this afternoon."

"W-well, You can take mine." I volunteered. "I still have a few cash left on my card." I was more of a junk person, so I didn't really eat healthy all the time.

"Can I?"

I scoffed.

"Like you have to ask."

"Then the cafeteria it is." She got up in a hurry. "I can't wait. I'm so hungry."