Alteration

“Are you coming out tonight?,” Chike asked, as she applied another layer of lipstick to her lips.Her black curly hair was packed in a high bun and large hoop earrings adorned her ears. She wore an off-shouldered red sequin dress with a pair of golden-coloured heels to complement her look.

I glanced up from the book I was reading and shook my head.

“I don’t think so. I’m not feeling too well.”

“Nonsense,” Chike said, turning to me. Her eyes were intimidating, and I squirmed under them.

“We both know that you’re as healthy as a horse, but you waste your energy all day by doing nothing except reading those...” She contorted her nose in disgust.

“Books?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever. You are going out with me tonight, whether or not you like it.”

“Are you threatening me?”

Chike turned to give me a mischievous smile.

Fifteen threatening minutes later, seated at the dressing mirror with my hair in rollers; I watched in horror as Chike ransacked my wardrobe.

“Nope... Nope... Nuh uh.” She threw clothes after clothes from my wardrobe.

“Hey! That’s my favourite sweater,” I said, as she threw away a blue Frozen themed sweater.

“Aha!” she exclaimed, as she saw what she was looking for at last. She held the dress up like a trophy, and my blood ran cold as I saw it. It was a short black strapless gown she had forced me to buy a month ago.

“There’s no way I’m wearing that.”

“Girl, you are definitely wearing it. I would have killed to fit in a dress like this,” she said, as she threw the gown at me. I picked it up with two fingers like it was tuna. I hated tuna.

“Why can’t I just wear a hoodie and sweatpants instead? It’s more comfortable than this.”

Chike looked at me like I developed another eye on my forehead.

“Kambili, you’re are going to one of the biggest parties on campus. Not a slumber party.”

I still looked at the gown with disapproving eyes.

“Wear it. Now!”

“Fine. Yessh,” I surrendered putting on the dress.

After minutes of intense makeup torture, I was ready. Chike beamed at me, proud of her handiwork.

“OMG! Kam, you look so cute!”

As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, I noticed I looked nice. Maybe I should put more effort into dressing up often.

“Can we go now?”

“Yes... just after we take this selfie,” Chike said, bringing out her phone.

I groaned within.

“Smile.”

I took in a deep breath and forced myself to smile. Click!

“Ugh, I don’t like this one. Let’s take another.”

“OMG! Chike!,”

“Ok, ok. Let’s go.”

We left the hostel and as soon as we stepped out; I felt a drop of water on my arm. And then another.

“Is that ra—”, Before I could finish my sentence, more raindrops interrupted me, which suddenly blew out into a downpour.

Chike gasped, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

We immediately took shelter under the roof of the hostel to avoid being soaked.

“Don’t worry, I will order an Uber or something,” Chike said, trying to open the Uber app on her phone.

As if the angels had come to my rescue that night, the app kept on crashing.

“Aargh!” She shook her phone in frustration.

“Thank you, Jesus,” I said under my breath. She seemed to have heard me as she gave me the evil eye before trying the app again. It didn’t work.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait for a taxi then.”

After an hour of waiting with no taxi in sight, I decided that I’ve had enough.

“Chike, I’m shivering here and so are you. The rain is only getting heavier, and not a single taxi has passed since. Let’s just call it a night.”

She pouted. “But we have to go to this party. Ethan’s going to be there. This is my only chance for him to see how beautiful I am and realize what he’s missing.”

I almost felt like slapping her at that moment.

“So the reason you’re dragging me to this party, even if it involves my butt freezing off, is because of your crush?”

She remained silent. That was my answer.

“Chichi, you’ve had a crush on Ethan for more than a year now. If he still hasn’t seen your beauty and worth up till this moment, then he needs to visit an optician. There so many other guys out there, Ethan’s not the only fish in the river. What do you even see in him?”

“Well... He’s hot.”

I grimaced at her.

“Maybe you’re the one that needs to see an optician.”

She chuckled before putting on a grim expression.

“I don’t know what to do, Kam. I just wanted to attend this party with my bestie, ogle at my crush and have fun. Is it too much to ask?”

I thought for a moment before saying, “How about we have our own party?”

She turned to me, looking confused. “Party? Nobody will come under this weather.”

“Yeah. It will be just be you and me and a lot of hot choco,” I said, knowing how much she loved the beverage.

“Hot choco? With lots of marshmallows?” She asked in a tiny voice.

“Yup. With as many marshmallows as you want.”

She paused before saying, “Well, it’s not like we have a choice. I’ll prepare the hot choco and you make the bed.”

I gave her a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

Some minutes later, we were snuggled under warm blankets with two mugs in our hands, giggling and gossiping as the rain poured down.

“This is better than most parties I’ve attended,” Chike said as she blew out the steam from her mug.

“A toast then, to more indoor parties.” I raised my mug in the air and she clinked her’s with mine before laughing.

“I guess it’ll do every extrovert some good to be introverted once in a while.”

I took a sip, nodding my head in agreement.