EPISODE FOURTEEN
I was so angry I nearly smashed my phone on the floor. I am not the p@rty type and I really hate attending one but this man is forcing me to attend. I guess that’s what Uche meant by saying “I’ll make sure of it”. How she manage to get our so called disciplinarian supervisor into this is beyond my reasoning. This will only make me detest her the more, and to make the matter worse, I don’t know her hostel or the p@rty venue. Surprisingly I receive Uche’s text some minutes after, describing the p@rty venue. She wasn’t having the p@rty in her hostel as she earlier told me.
I left the viewing center to my room and changed to a more pres£ntable attire. I wore my gray str!pe white fitted shi-t on a blue-black jean trou-ser completing it with my dark brown sweat shoe and sprayed almost half of the perfume bottle on my b©dy just to smell good. I went along with my John C Maxwell book so I can have something doing if I ever get bored there.
Getting to the entrance of the describe-d venue, I started feeling unnecessarily nervous. On a first note, I wasn’t sure if my dressing is okay, and secondly I’ve never being to a p@rty of this type other than the normal common ceremonies like burial, wedding and naming, majority of which I attended by f0rç£ especially when my mother is involved. I entered the gate and was in the pas-sage throu-gh to the hall when I met my supervisor accompanied by Uche and some of my dep@rtmental female colleagues coming from the opposite direction.
Supervisor: Good to see you eventually come. I thought you don’t want to graduate.
Me: Good evening sir
Supervisor: (He placed his hand on my shoulder and turned me towards the exit direction he was facing) Sometimes try to enjoy yourself okay, life is not all about book, studying and what have you. Try to have real fun some time okay?
Me: Yes sir, thank you sir.
Supervisor: I’ll be leaving now, our dean is celebr@ting his marriage anniversary and the program starts by 5pm. You guys should prepare for your defense, you are likely going to have it this coming week.
Uche and the other ladies followed him down to where he parked his car while I headed straight into the p@rty hall. Surprisingly the place is alre-ady filled up with almost everyb©dy having fun with their drinks, food and music. I felt my phone vibr@ting, checked it and discovered it was Temmy calling. I wanted to head back out to pick the call as I’ll not be able to hear anything in the hall due to the very loud music blasting from every corner, but I was held by Janet who took me down to where they were sitting. I was immediately served a plate of fried rice with cold malt courtesy of Janet who made sure I have everything served others before sitting right by my side with Temmy sitting on the other side. Uche also c@m£ asking me to come and sit near where she was sitting but I declined before she was dragged off by the MC. The most shocking thing I witnessed there was seeing Funmilola sited with her friends drinking beer directly from it’s bottle.
Me: Temmy is that not Funmi? Or am I mistaken?
Temmy: It’s definitely Funmi. Wait! She’s drinking beer?
Me: I can’t believe what I’m seeing
Temmy: She looks too cool for that mehn
Janet: What’s wrong with taking beer?
Temmy/Me: What?
Rachael: You guys are funny. You talk of beer like it’s poison.
Me: You drink beer also?
Rachael: I used to, but anymore. I can’t buy it with my money though.
Janet: You mean you guys don’t take beer at all?
Rachael: They prefer wine I guess. Taking only jui-ce every time time is not good for your health.
Me: So if they offer you beer here you’ll drink?
Janet: You won’t? This is a p@rty guys not fellowsh!pgathering. What do you do in a p@rty if you don’t drink and dance?
Me: Janet, are you really saying this or my br@in is pla-ying trick with me?
Janet: Just watch and see. Funny guy.
All this while, Temmy bec@m£ extremely dumb, totally shocked by the revelations revea-ling itself. He has always thought he knows Rachael very well and would have argue this if it wasn’t coming from the horses’ mouth. To make the matter worse, Janet indeed got four beers for us and before we know what’s going on, she has alre-ady start drinking. Rachael also opened one for Temmy but wasn’t drinking herself. Temmy’s countenance has alre-ady changed, obviously disappointed and brokenhearted. He couldn’t believe Rachael could approve of him drinking beer talk-less of opening it for him to drink publicly.
I was thinking about how we’ll escape the drun!kard gathering we found ourselves when the MC took the microphone and announced they are starting a game called “Pas-s the basket”. According to him, the game will be pla-yed by pas-sing around a compact disc while the music is on and whoever has the disc when DJ st©p the music will stand up ans face another fellow chos£n in the same manner, to un-dergo some task which will be decided by the MC. Penalty for opting out is N5000, why for not answering a question or doing a task or refusing a task to be done on you is N1000.
Temmy and I decided to leave immediately but Temmy was drawn back to sit by Rachael saying we’ll enjoy the game. We stayed to avoid embarras-sment but that decision proved to be a costly one. The game started and the contestant or should I say victims were asked to do nas-ty things to each other like k!ss!ngin front of everyb©dy whether they know each other before or not. Also asking them to t©uçh or gr-ab a s-en-sitive p@rt of the other. The game continued and the disc was dropped on the table exactly in my front while the DJ st©p the music in a manner that looks like a total set up. I protested I’m not interested and do not have any money to pay. To make the matter worse, I was going to pl@ywith Uche! Who deliberately volunteer without the disc been pas-sed to her as she is the celebr@nt. This evidently showed it was a set up by her.
I was ushered or simply dragged to the front, standing with Uche where I was able to see Funmi very well. Funmi did stood up and c@m£ to me speaking directly into my ear “You said weren’t coming to the p@rty with me, yet you are here with another lady. Why are you trying to make me jealous?” with her mouth smelling alcohol and her manner of speech shows she’s drun!k. She left my side and spoke with the MC as he handed the mic over to her announcing she’s handling our session.
Surprised will be an un-derstatement as I witness the angel I’ve always admire turn into a demonic evil. She pick the mic and gave me three tasks; one is to re-move three things from Uche that nob©dy can see from outside; two is to allow her do the same; and three is to k!ssher mouth to mouth. From the way she was speaking it’s obvious she’s totally drun!k.
Me: Funmi when did you join the drun!kard gang? You are a lady for Christ sake.
She busted into laughter as I started leaving the place but was blocked by some hefty guys who ordered me to go back to the stage. My statement about “drun!kard gang” obviously infuriate them as it shows they are re-ady to fight. Temmy had alre-ady stood up obviously coming to my aid as I tried to maneuver my way out of the place. “So who are the drun!kard gang?” a voice from my back asked. The guy obviously stronger than I am then pushed me backwards and I made a regrettable mistake of pushing him back with so much f0rç£ he nearly fall over. Before I could escape the place, the other guy hit me with a plank in the head. I felt my my head vibr@ted in God-knows how many revolutions per second before everything turned upside down and I started going down till everything went totally blank and dark.