"Yay!" Brenda threw her arms around her friend in excitement. "So let's get you what to wear." She was already heading to Weruche's clothing bag on the floor. Zipping it open, Brenda searched through it a bit then flung a little white dress at her. "You're wearing this tonight."
"No way!" Weruche said as soon as she saw what her friend wanted her to wear. "It's too revealing Brenda. I don't even know why I bought that dress in the first place."
"Well you bought it for a time like this." Brenda insisted. Silencing her with a stern look. "You're wearing this tonight girl."
Weruche conceeded wordlessly. There was no arguing with Brenda once she got bossy. She touched her hair. "I don't even know what to do with my hair, I didn't get it done and I don't have any wigs." She glanced at Brenda, trying not to fell insecure but her friend had used attachments to braid her hair in two strand twists that fell to her waist, with that hair and her killer outfit, she didn't even need and invitation to get into any party and yet all Weruche had was her natural hair. She must have said a bit of what she was thinking because Brenda was looking at her strangely.
"You know Weruche, sometimes I can't believe you sell yourself so short. I'll give my right arm to be able to look like you. You're beautiful - lovely in the way men love and you have the most gorgeous natural hair I've ever seen." She went over to where Weruche sat and combed through her hair with her fingers. "C'mon, wear that dress then I'll style your hair for you."
Five minutes later, Weruche stood in front of her full-length mirror, she couldn't recognize the young woman starring back at her. The dress hugged her form in a compliment, emphasizing her full hips and narrow waist, the creamy white bringing out the unique paleness of her skin. Brenda had packed her hair up in a simple bun, allowing loose tendrils to trail in front. Her already long lashes were darkened with mascara and Brenda had applied a bit of lipstick to her lips. The effect of everything made her look .... Lovely! Weruche had no other words.
"One more thing." Brenda said from behind her as she locked up the house and kept the key in a place her mother and brothers could find it. "It's a rich people's party, so try to blend in. They wouldn't mind us as long as they think we come from the same social circle with them."
" But we don't!"
"Then fake it Weruche. Fake it. Look this is Karis' party, let's not blow our chances at having the best time of our lives."
Walking through the streets in the west coast was an experience. The buildings looked so elegant that Weruche wondered that people actually lived there. The roads looked so good that she could lie down on the floor. There were beautiful trees planted by the side of even the smallest streets, luxurious cars cruised by, driven by people of different ages and nationalities. Weruche wondered how two very different worlds could exist in a small town like woodville and yet never cross. Even the people walking by looked glamorous, like they had just stepped out of Essence.
"I think this should be the place." Brenda said, pulling her to a stop as she was about to walk past the street and Weruche turned to look at one of the most magnificent buildings she had ever seen in real life.
The entire mansion - it ought to be called a castle, was white. Weruche could make out the golden colour at the railings and electric lamps that lit up the entire compound and she wondered if they were plaited. From where they stood, they could see the long drive way up to the house and for once, Weruche understood now how Fraulein Maria of sound of music must have felt standing in front of Captain's gate. She wondered how it would feel to be allowed to wander the rich expanse of the compound.
The side gates opened up as they came to stand in front of it, ushering them into an enclosed space. They were required to raise their invitation card up to a camera before they were let in.
Weruche was beginning to feel cold as they stepped in. She should have insisted on wearing something that had sleeves. Hugging herself, she followed in the wake of her friend, trying her best not to be scared. Her jaw fell open as she stepped into what had to be a ball room. The low lights in the room cast a gold shine through the veil of smoke. She stiffled a cough as her eyes watered. There was something stronger than cigarettes, maybe weed, she couldn't really tell but it wasn't the smoking that shocked her. In front of her eyes were people in various states of undress. Two ladies had even gone topless and most of the women were giving lap dances, swaying their hips to low music coming out of speakers hidden somewhere. Weruche stilled her impulse to flee as both she and Brenda found a place to sit. In no time, Brenda had already adapted to the setting and was even flirting with random guys but Weruche was getting more tense with each minute.
Karis watched his best friend, Charles snort cocaine. He never understood what got people so hooked up on drugs. He had tried it a few times but there was something so souless about escaping loneliness in drugs, he preferred instead to bury it in the soft flesh of a willing woman. Yes he was lonely. He had more money than he could spend in a hundred life times but that was it. The women who flocked him didn't really care about him and neither did the multitude of fans who liked to pretend they were friends nor his Father who only cared that he lived long enough to inherit and bare future heirs. His mother had cared but that was a long time ago, she was dead now. He felt soft hands come around him and lips press on his ear. Whoever it was was whispering meaningless nothings into his ear and Karis felt like swiping at her. Weren't the rooms supposed to be out of bounds? Noticing that Charles had finished snorting, he shrugged off the girls arms
Weruche didn't hear anything about Karis again after that night neither did she attend any parties again or any gathering at all apart from church gatherings and the days flew by until it was January again and she was back at the state university where she studied Law. She sat at the front of the class and tried to concentrate while the man droned on and on, all the while shooting lascivious glances at her. At the end of his lectures, the lecturer asked Weruche to see him in his office and she was filled with dread. She had heard stories of lecturers preying on their female students and victimizing those who refused to have sex with them but she was yet to experience such. She hoped this was not going to be her first encounter with such a lecturer. "You know, you should buy a ring and then tell him you're married." Weruche turned to see her friend and classmate - Chioma. "
Weruche's eyes scanned the car. It was a Lexus, far from the latest model but still in good shape. She went over to the passenger side front seat and the man leaned over to push open the door for her. "Thanks." She murmured as she got in and strapped up, noticing the man himself didn't have his seat belts on. "So what's the name?" He asked, casting her a side long glance, his hand back on the wheel. "Weruche." "Nice name..... What does it mean?" It means -- aren't you Igbo?" She tried to clean her tear stained face with her palms, wondering how much of a mess she looked. She didn't have her make up on and so didn't have to worry about her mascara or anything bleeding but crying always made her eyes puffy, it wasn't a pretty sight. "No, I'm not Igbo." He answered.He reached into the glove compartment, brought out a clean hankey and handed it to her. "Joseph Yakubu at your service." "
Karis sat in his office in his office in Woodville. The inactivity was killing him. He wondered why his father had insisted he work at the office branch in Woodville for a whole year before he was allowed to take over the running of the company. It was probably Adam Chukwu that put him up to it. Karis wondered how Adam had started off as his father's legal advicer, became his father's best friend and now was practically dictating what his father did. Thinking about Adam made Karis remember Weruche. He smiled. Beautiful but reluctant Weruche. She was going to have to make up her mind soon because he had already made up his. He got up from his chair, stretched and went to stand by the window. The view was great, his office overlooked the beautiful lake Woodville was known for but at this time of the year, there were no beautiful women flashing amazing bodies in bikinis, each trying to out do her neighbor in beauty and class. Instead, fishermen were all over the beach, hawking thei
The moment Weruche got to her street, she knew her suspicions were not wrong. She could see her house clearly from ten feet away, and people were trooping in and out, wearing long faces. They looked like people in mourning. You did not mourn the sick, you mourned the dead. She broke into a run, her back pack that contained most of her possessions wearing her down, and stealing the little strength she had, yet she did not stop. ''Justin, where is Mama? She's not dead, is she?'' She asked grabbing her brother immediately she got into the house. ''Relax Weruche.'' He said in a flash of irritation. ''She's not dead, I told you she was sick now, or did I say she's dead. She's in the room, go and see her. She probably won't be alive for long.'' Weruche let go of her brothers arm as his words stung. Relieved as she was that her mother was still alive, she hated how unconcerned about their mother's health Justin sounded, he also mentioned that she wouldn't be alive for long. He
Lola was being inquisitive again. Karis hated it when she got like that. He was going to have to break things up with her - this time for good. They had both enjoyed an open relationship for sometime now, but things were changing, she had started getting more jealous, more annoying. ''You want to launch a charity you say, but you have no idea what particular charity -'' She said. She was sitting on his laps and snorting coke from a pen, and he had the sudden urge to push her off. He shrugged. '' The girl child education, or anything that sounds as stupid and as good as that. I don't really care. All this is a game, a game between my father, Adam chukwu and I.'' ''And what about his daughter?'' Lola asked getting up suddenly from his lap, and dropping the pen on a table. ''What about whose daughter?'' Karis asked to stall for time. ''Oh don't play dumb with me Karis.'' Lola snapped. ''Adam's daughter - the beautiful Weruche.'' She raised a palm. ''And before you accuse m
''Why Weruche Chukwu! If it isn't a pleasant surprise.'' Karis said from where he was sitted, and Weruche could feel her heart skip several beats. She shouldn't have run off to his house without second thoughts, she should have come up with a plan, but she had been naive enough to think they would continue off from where they had stopped the previous year.... she was even lucky they had let her in. ''I... I... Can I come in?'' Karis merely lifted a brow. She was already in. She had worn the flimsy dress Brenda gave her that put way too much of her creamy skin on display, and her flat ironed her was beginning to kink up again, curling into something mysterious and totally sexy. She was looking good... beautiful, if the reactions of the men she had passed on the road was anything to go by, why wasn't Karis affected by her now as he had been in the past. She smiled and tried to step up her acting game. ''I came because..'' because I couldn't stop thinking about you... that
Weruche stood in front of her wooden wardrobe the next morning, wondering what to wear. She didn't want to make a habit of borrowing clothes from Brenda, and most of Brenda's clothes were hardly appropriate, but hers were faded and worn out. She settled for a gray pencil skirt and a black v neck top that had seen better days, she was just picking up the only hand bag she owned when her brother's voice coming from behind startled her. ''Don't tell me you're going back to school and leaving mother like this - who's responsibility do you think she is?'' Weruche turned to face her brother. From the color of his eyes, he had been smoking a lot already - and it wasn't just cigarettes. ''She is our mother Justin, not just some - responsibility to be foisted on our shoulders.'' ''Skip the fancy English Uche. You put your mother in the state she is, she is yours, your responsibility..... milking her dry for a university degree when none of us ever went through with secondary school.''