Chapter Eighteen – What Happens In the Holidays Makes Good Tea

Hello dear reader, I’m sure you missed me. I missed you too. As you can imagine, a lot happened over the holidays but before I give you the juicy details, I must first remind you of what happened last season.

My best friend Boateng broke up with his toxic girlfriend Farida after she asked him to choose between her and me. Lara had been sleeping with Kwame who was dating Nana Yaa and after Mara’s guilty conscience couldn’t bare it anymore, she told the secret and it was all out there.

As you can imagine this had consequences for Lara who got trolled on the internet and called a slut many times. This also allowed Lara to come to terms with the fact that she actually had feelings for Kwame. Unfortunately, he was still hung up on Nana Yaa but since that ship has sunk, he’s open to seeing where things go with Lara.

For me, I finally realized I have feelings for Sly and we both agreed to explore where our feelings might take us. Ugh! It's feelings everywhere! Boateng was not happy about any of it but in the words of every independent woman “who cares?”

Now that you’re all caught up, I’d like to take you back several months. Five months to be precise. This is the story of how Sly and I met. Of course, I know I promised to give you the Christmas tea but I think I’ll serve the cookies first.

After orientation, lectures were to begin and our respective faculties expected us to register for the semester in person. That would also give us a chance to meet other students who could help us with any concerns we might have. That’s how Sly and I met. He had been the one to assist me with my registration and he took down my number after offering to help me with anything I might need.

He turned out to be an excellent teacher and other seniors told me I was lucky to have him and how helpful he might be.

That’s how we met and I never imagined that we would be here now.

Having said all this, I can now give you the Christmas tea.

Oh, where to begin. I suppose we can start at one Christmas party we all went for. The whole gang was there except Carl. As you can well imagine, there was no peace where the Mara and Lara were concerned.

You would think with their names almost similar; they would find a way to get along and lie to everyone that they were twins. I wasn’t the only one thinking this since Carl pointed it out.

“Mara is just short for Marianne. We don’t share the same name” Mara quickly informed him. Lara rolled her eyes so hard I thought it might sink back permanently into her head. I know she had already thought of something cheeky but Kwame had begged her to let it go so she was doing the best she could.

During the party, the two found a way to talk things out in private.

“Look, I don’t want to fight with you. We share the same friends. I really am sorry for what I did. I see how it must have hurt you. I didn’t mean for that to happen. Just think about it though, if you were Nana Yaa, wouldn’t you want to know?” Mara had said.

Maybe it was the alcohol, her new fling with Kwame or my influence but she agreed. “I don’t want to fight with you either. We have the same friends like you said but that doesn’t mean we have to be friends. We can be cool though. I asked Araba to choose between us and I later saw how unfair that was to her. So we’re cool” Lara had replied.

Mara smiled contentedly. “But let me warn you, cross me again and I will drag you to the depths of hell” Lara said before returning the smile and walking away.

I was uncomfortably watching Kwame and Lara on the dance floor when Boateng walked up to me with Marilyn. “Araba, you know Marilyn, right?” he asked. I said I did and we shook hands. He then left us to get Marilyn a drink.

She was a thick curvatious girl with gorgeous hair. “I love the hair” I said. She thanked me and then we went back to looking around the dance floor.

“So, you are the girl best friend then?” she asked me. I thought about it for a while but only smiled in response. “I hope we can be friends” she said. I had heard that line before. It was either let’s be besties or please leave my man alone. There was rarely an in between.

“Can I be honest?” she asked. “Sure” I replied. I shifted myself so I was facing her directly. “I have never really liked the concept of a girl bestie. They can sometimes be overbearing and enter the relationship beyond what they’re supposed to do. At the same time, Boateng is allowed to have friends and I don’t want to end your friendship just because I’m insecure. I guess I am saying all this to please ask you to respect our relationship” she said.

“You guys are in an official relationship now?” I asked in surprise. “Yeah” she replied. I feigned a smile and assured her that there would be no problems from me.

I excused myself to go and meet Boateng at the drinks section.

“Boateng, I didn’t know you and Marilyn were dating now. When was this?” I asked. He fumbled for the specific date but it was apparent that it was fairly recent.

“Are you sure you should be getting into a relationship right now with all that is happening with your parents and then you and Farida broke up not too long ago?” I asked.

He didn’t seem happy. I turned to walk away but came back to offer some advice. “Maybe you should really think about what you’re doing before you traumatize this girl” I said. I didn’t bother to wait for a response before leaving.

I loved Boateng but he was a menace.

Kwame and Lara were thriving together. After Nana Yaa had blocked him everywhere, he had now invested himself in the relationship but all that was soon to change. Kwame had stepped away from the dance floor for a drink when his phone pinged to a message from Nana Yaa saying how she missed him and wanted to talk.