I ran after him and only caught up because there was a queue. Mel might have been right about me needing more exercise.
‘Here you go,’ he said, giving back my hairband.
I was too out of breath to respond.
‘You should leave it down. It looks nice,’ he added.
‘Thanks,’ I replied, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The last thing I wanted to do was to whack him in the eye again with my renegade braids.
We climbed the stairs to the upper deck of the 340 and sat at the rear of the bus.
This is it! I thought. Back seat of a bus equals second kiss, (those pecks don’t count). Ohmigod, I hope I don’t mess this up. What if I bite his tongue or something?
‘Makeeda? I . . .’ Nelson said, as a woman came and sat two seats away from us.
‘Yeah?’
‘Um . . . nothing,’ he said.
OK that was weird. Why did she have to sit so close? There were like twenty other empty seats and she had to get within earshot of us.
We sat in silence until the woman got off in Stanmore.
‘Come here. Why are you sitting all the way over there?’ he said and patted the empty seat between us.
Hmm . . . let me see, I thought. I could be annoyed because you don’t seem to want to kiss me or just too flaming nervous to sit closer to you!
‘No reason,’ I lied.
He leaned in close to me and I could feel his breath over my face. My heart was pounding so hard that I actually held my breath. I was surprised: the closer he got, the more his breathing became erratic. My eyes closed and I waited. I felt him pull away, so I opened my eyes to find him looking out of the window.
What was going on with him? I didn’t just imagine it – he was going to kiss me! So why was he ignoring me?
‘Nelson, I . . .’ I began, but I was interrupted by a voice coming from the stairs.
‘Hey, DJ Nelson!’ said a mixed-raced boy in a blue puffa jacket and a baseball cap heading towards us.
He was followed by Stephen, the red-haired boy from Mel’s party, and a tall, thin black boy dressed smartly in a black coat, trousers and shoes.
‘All right?’ said the smartly dressed boy, nodding towards me.
I smiled back.
‘We weren’t interrupting anything, were we?’ said the boy with the baseball cap.
‘Shut up, Jordan,’ Stephen said.
‘Why? Isn’t she the one . . .?’ Jordan began.
‘Leave it, Jordan,’ said the tall thin one.
‘All I was going to say was, isn’t this the girl Nelson’s been . . .’ Jordan began.
Been what? Had he been talking about me?
‘I don’t believe it! Jordan man, can’t you stop running your mouth for a second?’ said the tall, thin boy.
‘Makeeda, this is Hakeem, and you’ve met Stephen, right?’ Nelson said.
‘Yeah,’ I replied, smiling at Stephen.
Jordan coughed loudly.
‘Oh yeah, and motor-mouth over there is Jordan,’ Nelson said, pointing at the boy with the baseball cap.
‘So where are you two off to then?’ Jordan asked.
‘Harrow,’ Nelson said.
‘Cool, fancy some company?’ Jordan added.
‘I don’t think so!’ Nelson said sternly.
‘Man, you must have been dropped as a baby!’ Stephen said to Jordan.
‘What is wrong with you?’ Hakeem asked.
‘What?’ Jordan said, looking confused.
‘Would you take your mates along if you were out with your girl?’ Hakeem asked him.
‘Well . . . they look bored. Maybe I could help break the ice . . .’ Jordan began.
‘More like shatter it!’ Stephen said, making us laugh.
‘Shut up! Ginga minger!’ Jordan said.
‘Here we go,’ Nelson muttered.
‘Listen, at least when the laydeez see me, they don’t forget. You look like every other brother with that hair. Actually scratch that, you wished you looked like every other brother!’ Stephen said, swiping Jordan’s hat from his head.
Jordan tried desperately to conceal his uneven afro but we’d all seen it.
‘That’s out of order!’ Jordan said angrily.
‘Bro, sort that out! Please?’ Nelson said, smirking.
‘My sister keeps promising to braid it but keeps cancelling,’ Jordan moaned.
‘Find someone else then!’ Nelson said.
‘Don’t suppose you know how to . . .’ Jordan said to me.
‘Er . . . no. I don’t,’ I replied.
I was pretty much hopeless at plaiting hair. Mum tried to teach me using Delphina’s hair, but gave up and ended up combing out all the knots my plaits had made. Delphina still believes I did it on purpose.
‘Oh, I just thought maybe you’d prefer to run your fingers through a real afro!’ Jordan said.
Ohmigod, he’s flirting with me! In front of Nelson too!
‘I don’t think so,’ I said.
‘You can’t say stuff like that to your mate’s girl! You were definitely dropped as a baby!’ Hakeem said, whacking Jordan’s cap.
‘You know what, Jordan? With hair as dodgy as that, you couldn’t even get a granny to give you a smile,’ Nelson said and we all began laughing.
‘Hey, it’s our stop!’ Jordan said, jumping up.
‘Jordan, you better not take long. My shift starts in half an hour!’ Hakeem said.
‘Where are you going?’ Nelson asked.
‘Oh we’re going to find a barber in Wealdstone for Jordan,’ Stephen said, making us laugh again.
‘Shut up, man. It’s not that bad!’ Jordan said, racing down the stairs.
‘Yeah well, he can’t see the bits peeking out below that cap,’ Hakeem added.
‘I’ll give you a shout tonight!’ Stephen said, smirking at Nelson. ‘See ya, Makeeda!’ he added.
‘Bye!’ Hakeem said, racing after them.
As the upper deck became silent once more, I wondered about Hakeem.
‘Hey, how come Hakeem works?’
‘Oh, he’s sixteen. He has to support his mum and little sister.’
‘Oh.’
‘His dad left them about two years ago . . .’ Nelson began.
The noise outside interrupted him.
‘Hey, Nelson!’ screamed a voice outside.
We stared out of the window to see Jordan.
‘Are you two going to snog all the way to Harrow?’ he asked.
‘Ohmigod!’ I said.
‘Jordan!’ Hakeem said, whacking him on his hat again.
‘Ahh . . . come on, you know they want to . . .’ Jordan began.
I stared at the huge queue of people getting on to the bus. Some of them were our age and enjoying the scene.
‘I’m going to kill him!’ Nelson muttered.
‘Hey, if you’re going upstairs, give the lovebirds some space!’ Jordan called out, laughing.
‘Jordan man, that’s so wrong!’ Stephen said, trying to shut him up.
I pulled myself away from the window, closed my eyes and sunk into my seat. I was hoping that my head wasn’t visible, even to the people sitting ahead of us. I wanted to die. This was beyond embarrassment. I felt like I was being punished for every single lie I’d ever told.
As the bus pulled away from the stop, I could still hear Jordan shouting.
I slowly opened my eyes and turned towards Nelson. He too had crouched down in his seat – quite an achievement for someone of his height. I could hear the sniggers of a group of girls our age, a few rows ahead of us.
‘I am so sorry,’ Nelson said, looking at me.
‘It’s OK,’ I said, and he surprised me by giving me a peck on the lips. It would have been more than that, if we hadn’t got the mwah-mwah kissing sounds from the girls sitting ahead of us. Once again, Nelson looked out of the window, while I gave them a dirty look before grabbing my book from my bag.
I was beginning to think that Nelson didn’t
want to kiss me, when he slipped his hand in mine. He was still looking out of the window, but I saw him smirking at me through his reflection in the glass.
Fifteen minutes later we were standing in the middle of Harrow debating where to eat.
‘The Chicken Hut?’
Tanisha had warned me about eating chicken with my fingers on early dates.
‘No.’
‘Makeeda, where do you want to eat?’
‘I don’t mind,’ I said.
I didn’t want him to think I was fussy, despite my responses. I could hardly tell him I didn’t want to go anywhere I’d spill anything.
‘You’re not vegetarian, are you?’ he said worriedly.
‘As if! How many West-African vegetarians do you know?’
‘True, my mum and my aunt put meat in everything!’ he said, laughing.
‘So do mine!’ I said, joining him.
My phone rang. It was Mum.
‘Hello?’ I said tentatively.
This was it. She’d found me out on my second date. I waited for her to start screaming at me. Nothing happened.
‘Hello?’ I repeated.
‘Makeeda, I’m going to text you right now,’ Delphina said, immediately cutting off.
‘Ohmigod, I’ll kill her!’ I said angrily.
I totally forgot I was with Nelson.
‘What’s wrong?’ Nelson asked, looking concerned.
‘My little sister’s just being annoying as usual.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Delphina.’
‘Really? It means Dolphin in Spanish,’ he said, smiling.
‘Yeah, it was my grandmother’s middle name.’
He said something in a foreign language.
‘Is that Spanish?’
‘No, Portuguese – that’s what they speak in Brazil. I speak French too, because of my mum. Togo used to be a French colony.’
‘Oh right,’ I said.
‘Say it after me.’ He said something in Portuguese and I repeated the phrase.
‘What does that mean?’ I asked.
‘My boyfriend is gorgeous,’ he said, grinning.
‘That’s so cheeky!’ I said, hitting him on the arm.
Wait a minute! That meant that he saw me as a girlfriend, didn’t it? But without that second kiss they were just words.
My phone beeped. It said Mum, so I knew it was Delphina.
Mum:
Can u buy my Fairytale CD please? You promised! Love, your favourite sister, Delphina. X
Me:
Fine. Just don’t call or text me again today.
I quickly shoved my phone in my bag.
‘Er . . . I have to get her something from HMV,’ I told Nelson.
I was hoping he’d just think that I meant a poster or something. There was no way I was going to tell him I was buying a Fairytale CD after the way I reacted at Mel’s party.
‘Oh right. If we go now, we can chill and eat before we go home,’ Nelson said.
‘OK,’ I said smiling.
We headed back to the shopping centre and narrowly avoided being separated by a group of Italian students in brightly coloured winter jackets and huge rucksacks. Nelson’s grip on my hand tightened until we were standing safely in HMV.
As I looked across the shop, I began to regret teasing him at Mel’s party.
‘So what are you going to buy?’ Nelson asked.
‘Oh um . . . a CD for my mum. It’s a surprise,’ I lied.
‘Yeah, which one?’
‘Oh um . . .I’ve forgotten the name,’ I said, avoiding eye contact.
‘Hold on, you’ve got to buy a CD, but you’ve forgotten the name of the artist?’
‘Uh huh,’ I said.
Just let it go Nelson.
‘What about the title?’
‘Um . . . nope.’
‘What about the colour of the sleeve?’
Oh flaming hell! He would decide to be helpful, wouldn’t he? My fault for going out with a DJ.
‘You know what? I’ll just call my mum and ask.’
‘I thought you said it was a surprise?’
For crying out loud!
‘Er . . . I meant I’ll call Delphy. Why don’t you look around, it won’t take me long,’ I said, hoping he’d take the bait.
‘OK, if you’re sure,’ he said with a shrug.
I headed towards the rock section and pretended to call Delphina. Then, I made sure he wasn’t looking, which wasn’t hard given the way he towered over the racks of CDs, and I grabbed the Fairytale CD. I held it low, against my thigh. When I looked up, Nelson was smiling at me.
Crikey, he knows! I thought, but he went back to flicking through some CDs, so I rushed to the queue, nearly colliding with a security guard.
‘Watch it, love!’ he said.
‘Sorry,’ I replied.
I paid for the CD and turned around to find Nelson waiting for me by the door.
‘Finished?’ Nelson questioned.
‘Yeah,’ I said, stuffing the CD into my bag.
‘You know what? That security guard was following you around the store.’
‘Really?’ I said in disbelief.
Ohmigod, I’m not a thief.
‘Yeah, it was really weird. I guess he thought you were trying to steal something.’
Great! Now I’m going to be followed every time I go in there, all because of a Fairytale CD! I could kill Delphina!
‘You know, you did look kind of shifty . . .’ he said, smiling.
‘Hey!’ I said, laughing nervously.
‘So what did you get?’
‘Oh um . . . The Fusion Funksters,’ I lied. That was an old group Dad liked.
‘Oh right.’
‘You know who they are?’
‘I’m a DJ, Makeeda?’
‘Oh yeah, of course,’ I said, feeling stupid.
‘I’m kidding. My dad has their album too and plays them when he’s dropping me off at my mum’s. Can we eat now?’
‘Yep! Let’s go to the café over there!’ I pointed, and this time I grabbed his hand and led the way. By seven o’clock we’d finished eating and I had managed not to spill my food everywhere.
We still hadn’t had our proper second kiss, but I wasn’t as stressed about it. After Jordan’s antics and managing to hide the Fairytale CD, I was feeling really chilled out. I still had half an hour to get home; my curfew was eight p.m. but Tanisha told me to get home half an hour early, as apparently parents love it. I wasn’t convinced that mine would even notice because of their radar for my lateness, but I decided to go with it.
I turned to Nelson. We were sitting on my bus home, as he’d insisted on at least taking the bus back with me.
‘Thanks for coming with me,’ I said, smiling.
‘I wanted to,’ he said, smiling back. ‘Besides, after all that stuff with Jordan, I had to make sure you didn’t bump into him again.’
‘True,’ I said.
We got off the bus and Nelson pulled me into a doorway.
‘I wanted to, um . . .’
‘Yeah, whaaat?’ I said, confused.
He surprised me by kissing me.
‘Oh!’ I said, pulling away.
Crikey, he’s going to think that I’m weird. I wait all day for it, then I pull away.
‘What’s wrong?’ Nelson said, concerned.
‘Nothing, I just wasn’t, um . . .’ I stuttered.
‘Didn’t you want to?’ Nelson said apologetically.
‘No, no, I did . . . I just . . .’ I leaned towards him and this time I just relaxed.
Wow! Now that’s what I call a second kiss.
My phone rang.
‘Um . . . hello?’ I said, flustered.
‘You OK?’ Tanisha said.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said, giggling.
‘OK! Well, I’m waiting for you at the bus stop. Hurry up, I’m freezing!’ Tanisha said.
‘Yeah, yeah, OK,’ I said, and hung up.
; ‘Who was that?’ Nelson asked.
‘My cousin. I’ve got to go now.’
‘Oh right. Well, I think I’m entitled to one more kiss.’
‘Yeah?’ I said, smiling.
‘You know, seeing as I had to wait all day . . .’
‘There you go!’ I said, pecking him on the cheek. Two can play your game, mate!
‘Is that it?’
‘Yep!’ I said, as I began walking away.
‘Hey wait! Can’t I walk you home?’
‘No, it’s OK. My cousin’s just over there,’ I said, as I pointed ahead of me.
I didn’t want to tell him that my parents would kill me if they found out about him. I looked at my watch. It was half past seven, so I started to run. Nelson began chasing me down the street and caught me by the waist.
‘Can I call you tomorrow?’ he said, breathlessly.
‘You ran after me to say that?’ I asked. Or maybe he wants to kiss me again, I thought.
‘Well, yeah,’ he said smiling.
‘OK. Um . . . you can let go of me now,’ I said with a grin.
He let me go.
Ohmigod, why did he let me go? Didn’t he want to kiss me?
‘OK, well . . . bye then!’ he said, waving awkwardly.
I guessed not.
‘Bye!’ I said, but neither of us had moved.
We were staring at each other. He had amazing eyes, even without the contacts in; they were an unusual light shade of brown, compared to his deep skin tone.
We probably would’ve kissed again, if it hadn’t been for Tanisha running up to us. That would have made our third real kiss. I guessed that would have to wait till our next date. If my parents didn’t find out first.
Chapter 9
Makeeda’s Online Community
I threw my notepad on to my bed and chewed the end of my pen. I was really glad that I hadn’t just regurgitated pages from a school library book. Instead, I was learning about an amazing woman from Ghanaian history. It was weird. I was actually enjoying the assignment and, at the same time, I felt like I was connecting with my Ghanaian culture. My only problem was that I’d hit a wall. I couldn’t seem to understand the real reason Yaa Asantewaa went to war. I was beginning to wonder if Mrs Hipman had been right about me not finding enough information. My phone beeped twice.
Bharti:
Get on MSN now!
Nick:
Have u finished your essay yet?
Growing Yams in London Page 7