Chapter Six – Never Throw a Party. Seriously, Those Things Never End Well. (Part 2)

Nana Yaa could not believe the things she was hearing. How could it be true? Kwame and Lara? It was just not practical. It was too unbelievable. There was no way he would look at her face and behave in such a vile way. He was a good boyfriend. He was doting, he visited her regularly and he was always there for her. There was no way he could hurt her like that.

At the same time, Mara was their classmate. She knew them more. Why would she come up with this terrible lie? She didn’t seem like the kind of girl.

We like to judge girls in these instances, but understand something, between a man you’ve known intimately and a random girl telling you he’s bad, you’ll be inclined to believe the one you’ve known more.

Mara searched Nana Yaa’s face to understand what she was thinking. She didn’t know what she was expecting when she told Nana Yaa. Perhaps she had been expecting a more animated reaction but Nana Yaa was in her seat as silent as the night. Her face looked blank. Mara began to question everything. Snitches get stiches. What would happen if Kwame knew that she had spilled the beans? Why didn’t she think this through before walking over to crash this poor girl’s world?

She spoke instinctively. “I’m sorry. I really should not have said anything. Please you can’t tell anyone I told you” Mara rattled. She didn’t even wait for an assurance before quickly vanishing. Mara was on a streak of bad decision making because guess who she came to tell, about her slip of tongue? Me. I know! It makes no sense. You’ve done a bad thing. You don’t want anyone to know about it, and then you come and tell the best friend of the person involved. How do you behave so foolishly?

Reader, I have no problem with snitches. In fact, I think snitching is good. I’ve done quite a bit of it in my day. But you have to be wise about these things. You cannot act recklessly. Think it through. If it is possible to remain anonymous, then do so. Or, you can just be bold and tell the person you plan to snitch. That way, you can actually sleep at night.

Nana Yaa was in a daze. She looked over at Kwame who was talking to his boys and then over at Lara. You know those scenes in the movies where everything suddenly makes sense to the character; like some epiphany? This was that moment for Nana Yaa. She saw Lara look at Kwame almost longingly and watched her walk over to him. He ended his conversation quickly and hugged her. He looked at her the same way.

In that moment, some part of Nana Yaa must have died. Who else knew about this besides her? How long had this been going on for? If Kwame really cared about her like he said he did, why didn’t he just break up with her?

I think that’s an excellent question. If he really did care about her, why not leave her? This shows how selfish human love can be. He wanted to eat his cake and have it and it didn’t matter that the cake was getting rotten in the process.

She spent the rest of the night brooding and would only reply Kwame with one-worded answers. The night wore on and soon we were at the good part. That’s the part where everyone leaves and it’s left with just a few close friends.

We were helping Carl pack up the mess that was made. We got tired after a while and poured what was left of the drinks and sat around chatting.

Reader, I wish you could see the room. It was so tense with the drama that was to come. Farida was sitting in one corner, pouting. Understandably so. Her man had been kneeling and crying like a baby in front of what was his supposed best friend. To her, there was no such thing. Nana Yaa was resting at the point between anger and tears. Mara had chewed her nails clean away, fearing the situation she had just put herself in. Funny how she had done the right thing but was still paying a mental price. This is the true definition of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Boateng was experiencing some sort of release after having been forgiven. Now that the burden of my rage was lifted off his shoulders, he had time to really think about what he really wanted and why he was choosing to stay with Farida.

“Should we play a game?” Lara asked. Wrong question sis. Wrong question. Carl enthusiastically agreed since he had no weight to carry.

And so, the game begun; a game of truth or dare. The bottle was spun and it landed right on Nana Yaa. This was her moment. This was her moment to be messy. Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned. To that quote I add, no one can be messier than an angry church girl.

She pointed to Kwame. Mara felt blood rush to her face. Kwame smiled. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. When asked to pick between truth or dare. He picked truth. Wrong choice bro. Wrong choice.

“Are you sleeping with Lara?”

The question shocked the whole room. The hum of the freezer sounded louder than ever. Lara could have sworn she heard her heart beating from her buttocks. Kwame thought he had perhaps been captured into a simulation where he had to face his worst fears – kind of like the one in the Divergent series.

“W…w…what?” he stuttered.

Nana Yaa didn’t bother to repeat herself as she stared him down.

To you, this reaction might seem unexpected. Sweet, innocent Nana Yaa couldn’t suddenly be doing this. You see, in those 30 minutes between the time she was told and this very moment, she had weighed her options.

It was safe to assume that everyone knew and they either felt sorry for her or thought she was stupid. For those that didn’t know, she wanted to be the one to tell them. She wanted to own her narrative. She wanted those who thought she was stupid to see that she wasn’t and for those that felt sorry for her to see that she was not weak.

Her face seemed solid and unmoved, but underneath all that, she was crying. Wailing. She was beside herself with grief. She felt sorry for herself. In that moment she only wanted to give herself a hug. First, she had to save face. I think it worked because I respected her ever since. Anyone that would ever want to mess with her would hear this story.

To me, the queen energy she exuded was immaculate. Broken hearted but still checking a man. I am absolutely here for it. I just realized you are more interested in what happened next. You might think my chattiness is annoying but I promise you it makes the story interesting. Let’s move on.

“Can we talk outside” were his next words. I had known Lara almost 10 years. She was never a quiet person but I could see her shrink into a corner.

“No. Those are not the rules of the game. Answer the question, yes or no?”

How do you lie at a time like this? You cannot.

“It’s true but I can explain. Can we go outside?”

“We can leave if you want” Carl offered, more for himself than for them.

“Why? I’m sure everyone here knew about the two of them so I think there’s no problem” Nana Yaa said without making eye contact with Carl. That checked Carl immediately as he also shrunk. Our silence confirmed her suspicions and she let out a loud gasp for air. She stood to her feet and stormed out. Kwame followed.

We all sat in awkward silence for a few minutes before Lara excused herself. That was also my cue to do the same.

The next morning, I was up getting ready for church when Lara woke up too and said she wanted to go with me. In Ghana we’ll say “aha! Wobeka nokware” which literally means, “aha! You’ll speak the truth”. We say it when someone does something silly and it eventually catches up with them. It’s a more annoying version of I told you so.

I cannot tell you how Lara felt at this time because I’m not sure even she knew how she felt. More than anything we were both worried that the news would spread. Everyone would soon know that Lara with the huge Instagram following was sleeping with another person’s man. Her suspicions were of course confirmed in a short time.

Nana Yaa had cried herself to sleep the night before. All her girl friends had gotten wind of Kwame’s sins and you can only imagine the things they said. It was the usual “men are scam”, “men will show you”, “I knew he was worthless”.

Kwame hadn’t slept a wink. I wonder why he didn’t. Men usually have it easy with these types of scandals. Their fellow man wouldn’t think anything of it. They might only tease every now and again. The only judgement he was to expect was from his failure to not get caught. Women would be angry and blacklist him for two months tops. Then, a stupid girl would come along and think she possessed the ability to reform him.

That wasn’t the only trouble brewing in paradise. Farida was stewing. She was like a kettle at boiling point. Nana Yaa had snatched the wind from her sails and prevented her from confronting Boateng about his probable infidelities. After all, if two friends could do this in the friend group and keep it silent, who’s to say that there wasn’t another affair ongoing?

She turned over the thoughts in her mind and carefully calculated how she could also ambush Boateng. Well, more me than Boateng.