Ipods in Accra (8 page)

‘Yeah, but if I do, you'll think he's a geek!'

‘Well, I already know he is; he answers all the questions in class! Only geeks do that, but then some geeks are really cute …' I said thinking of Nick.

‘OK, we were arguing over the use of ASBOs as a deterrent for young people. I was against and he was pro. It was a class debate.'

‘Okayeee …' I said. I suddenly thought that it was something
I could imagine Nick doing with Sanari, but not with a girl like me. I've never felt comfortable in a debate – I always seemed to get angry quickly and lose it.

‘Thing is,' Bharti continued, ‘our debate went beyond the classroom and we started arguing in the TV room. He accused me of being a soft socialist, so I called him a right-wing idiot! Then I left the room.'

‘Whoa, dramarama!' I said, surprised.

‘Seriously, Makeeda, I was furious! Um … but I wanted to kiss him too,' Bharti whispered.

‘Yup.' I grinned.

She looked embarrassed.

‘It was totally illogical, right?'

‘Anyway, even though I made the debate personal when I didn't need to, he chased me out of the room and asked me out.'

Bharti's eyes lit up then. It was like she was suddenly glowing.

‘That's so cool!' I said, hugging her.

By the time we had reached her front door, I knew more about their first date and had already given her the details about Nelson and Nick. She asked me if I had a thing about boys with the initial N, something I'd barely noticed because Nelson and Nick are so different. When Bharti told me she knew before I did that Nick was always going to be the right person for me, I was stunned. I had only worked it out properly after seeing Nick with Sanari. I wondered how everyone else could see something that I was not even aware of feeling.

A bit later, Bharti and I were messing about with her brother's Wii when Nana-Sunita walked in. She said hello to
me in a curt manner, then marched Bharti downstairs.

Within minutes an almighty argument erupted, then the front door opened and Bharti's mum walked in, then another argument roared through the house. I decided to leave. I made it to the front door, just as Bharti's brother Tejas was entering.

‘What's going on?' he asked.

I shrugged. ‘Just tell her to call me later.'

‘Sure, Makeeda,' Tejas replied as he joined his family in the living room.

As I was walking away, I heard Nana-Sunita call Bharti a name in Gujarati that definitely wasn't a term of endearment. I realised Bharti's worst fears had come true – her family had clearly found out about Rafi and there was nothing I nor anyone else could now do. I wished I could've gone into that room and made them all realise that my best friend must have been really frightened to keep him a secret for so long. I knew what happened, I'd been there. It's like the lies build up and become toxic, and then you end up believing that the truth will make everything worse. That's the biggest lie of all.

When I'd been lying to my parents about Nelson, I had actually felt relieved when everything came out. I mean, I didn't tell Mum everything going on in my life now, but I wouldn't lie about how I was feeling, either.

As I stepped on to the bus, I could see Bharti's Aunt Gayatri making her way towards their home. She was almost skipping along the road and I knew Bharti's evening was about to get a whole lot worse.

Bharti had been grounded. I couldn't believe I was being deprived of my best friend just before I went on holiday.

I could, too. Exaggerated horror stories weren't just the stuff Bharti read but also her aunt's way of getting what she wanted. She had once convinced Bharti's nana to stop using her favourite shop in Wembley Central because it was too close to a rough secondary school. Her evidence: a former student had been arrested for theft. Turns out she'd got the wrong school, but it worked.

I really felt sorry for Bharti; it was hard enough being grounded without all the extra grief from her nana and aunt. I hurried out to Nick's, as I knew it would be the last time we saw each other for a while. I was leaving for Ghana within a week and Mum would need my help with the packing closer to the time we left. So I suggested I'd drop round with his books and he said I could watch a DVD with him and have
dinner. Mum, Dad and Delphy were all out, so the thought of having dinner somewhere other than home was very appealing. This wasn't the first time I'd seen him since our almost-kiss, but it would be the first time we'd seen each other since Nelson and I had split up. I told Nick a few days after I'd split up with Nelson. He just went quiet on the phone and asked if I was OK. It still felt raw so I changed the subject. I knew I'd made the right decision but I wasn't ready to discuss it then.

I was still a bit nervous deciding about the puberty ceremony, but that was nothing compared to the butterflies in my stomach on the way to Nick's. I felt sick and, worse of all, I was nervous. I hated feeling nervous. Things always went awry. I felt better when I had something else to concentrate on – that was why talking to Bharti on IM had helped. Now all I could do was the bus-stop countdown to Nick's stop.

I had just jumped off the bus, when I saw a girl heading towards me.

As she approached, I could see clearly that she was one of
those
girls. The girls who never ever cut themselves shaving their legs, or smudge their eye make-up in a non-rock-star way. She looked immaculate in her lilac hijab, indigo jeans, white shirt and lilac flats. The girl's make-up was just like something out of one of my mum's magazines. It was Sanari.

‘Hey, Makeeda!' she said, smiling at me.

‘Oh hi, Sanari,' I replied brightly, trying not to completely freak out.

Please, please, please, let her tell me that she hadn't just
come from Nick's house and had actually been to the library or something, even though she has no books and a tiny handbag.

‘Nick told me you were on your way, so I thought I'd better leave you to it.'

‘Huh? You were with Nick?'

‘Yeah,' Sanari said. ‘He was helping me out with a job application.'

Oh great! So that meant they'd been sitting really close together at a table in Nick's house. She
was
with Nick! That was it! GAME OVER! I was officially the loser in
Quest for Nick's Heart
. It was like I reached level ten, then found out there was another hidden level that I didn't have the passwords for.

‘You OK, Makeeda?'

‘Um … yeah,' I lied.

‘Listen, I'd better go or I'll miss my bus. You look really nice by the way.' Sanari smiled.

‘Um … thanks,' I replied.
It's kind of wasted now he's your boyfriend
, I thought.

‘See you around!' she said.

That was it. Sanari left and took all my hopes of a relationship with Nick with her on the H12 bus. I was actually frozen to the spot. I only realised I hadn't moved when she waved at me from her seat. She probably thought I was being polite by waiting for her bus to leave!

My phone beeped.

Well, at least he still wanted to see me. I couldn't bear the thought of being around him for longer than I had to, so I had lied about needing to leave. I'd rather be alone than have him go on and on about Sanari, Miss Wonderful!

I walked up the drive to Nick's house. It was a detached house in the posh side of Pinner. His drive could fit four cars easily and his garden was the size of a small field. I'd heard Nick's mum and mine discussing the house and she said they'd got very lucky with it, as it belonged to an old friend of Nick's grandparents and they'd sold it to Nick's parents at a heavily discounted price. It looked really Gothic on the outside and totally modern on the inside. I rang the door bell.

‘Come on then, dump your stuff down here,' Nick said, answering the door.

‘Well, “Hello, Makeeda, how did your exams go?” would be nice, but I'll start dumping,' I moaned.

Nick closed the door and stared at me for a while.

‘What?'

‘Nothing,' he said, and I followed him into the other living room.

In Nick's house there were three living rooms – the posh
one, the one he shared with his brother Paul and the one that was more like a study. We were in Nick and Paul's room, which was almost as neat as the other two except it had posters and film quotes on the walls. Their mum had dissuaded them from putting up posters of glamour models in bikinis by saying that for every poster of a model under twenty-five, they had to put one up of a woman over fifty-five, so Nick and Paul had decided to put up quotes from their favourite films instead. There was an air-hockey table in the corner next to a sound system and a flat-screen TV that I knew Nick and Paul saved up for last year. There were huge comfy sofas and a small coffee table in front of the wall with the TV.

I sat down, slipped off my shoes and tucked my legs under me. I felt really tired. It had already been a long day. I suddenly yawned loudly.

‘Hey, hey, hey! Don't fall asleep; I've got popcorn, water, juice and nachos.'

‘You've got all that to watch a film?'

‘Uh huh, I wasn't sure what you'd want,' Nick said, blushing.

‘OK, have you got a glass?'

‘Oh, yeah!' Nick said, smacking his forehead as he rushed to the kitchen.

This was really weird. Nick had never ever treated me this well before. I mean, he usually told me to help myself – unless his mum was around, then she made him serve me. As he placed the glass in front of me, I noticed his hand was shaking slightly. He seemed almost nervous around me.

‘Are you OK?' I asked.

‘Yeah, why?'

‘Nothing.'

‘What?'

‘Nothing.'

We started watching the film. At first he was sitting in a chair that was in the corner, until I told him to sit beside me. As he did, he unfolded my legs and placed them across his lap. I was a bit surprised but too tired to say anything. He hadn't done that in ages. We used to be really comfortable like this, but it all stopped when I started going out with Nelson.