ᴅᴇᴇᴘᴇʀ

42

Truth hurts,
needed something
more exciting...

__

Chimdi's palms were balled into a fist, with perspiration dampening them in growing seconds.

The closer her ride got to their destination, the more paranoid she became. She inhaled -- in and out, creating a rhythm as she tried to calm her racing heart. She couldn't for the life of her, figure out why she was getting so worked up at the dying minute.

It wasn't her first red carpet event and she'd never been this nervous. Her nerves were far from being smoothed out and her sweaty palms? She'd lost count of the times she'd tried to dry them up with the designer cloth she had on. Sadly, they never got the memo, but instead, dewed up seconds later.

Memories of 2017 saga still haunted her. The nervousness, the state of unease were all courtesy of the dreadful year. The day had been quite eventful - with the bad kind of fun that only appealed the cynical and trouble tasty - a gentle reminder of what might happen next.

The sleek limo trailing behind Antni's Bugatti had the key to a lovely night or another scandal that would top the gossip and entertainment headlines. She could make a perfect mental picture of what the blood tasty bloggers were capable of doing.

Child Star, turned homewrecker!

She shuddered in fear of what was to come. All the while, trying to figure out why her mother and godmother had handpicked another stranger as her date, when the last time was a big disaster.

She felt a perfectly manicured hand rest on her leather covered knee. She looked up to see Antni's elegant face, looking nothing less than moderate. The makeup the older woman had on, was a burst of the right colours which in a way, suited her perfectly.

"You're antsy aren't you?"

Her godmother's face, poised and perfectly upright met hers. She sighed.

She was the star of the company and yet, she couldn't help but feel out of place.

Antni looked flawless, with no hair out of place and her fair skin -- looking like it got dipped into a milky bath. She sighed again, sitting upright, while straightening the cloth moderately clinging to her body. Her lilac nails, which cost quite a fortune yet moderate, grazed them lightly.

"I'm okay." And so she said, but was feeling like a total fusspot.

She wanted her friends and wished they were there with her and not her Mother trailing behind, with her supposed date and her godmother sitting beside her. She felt like she was trapped with strangers. She needed her friends, it was meant to be them with her, against the world -- a kick-ass team.

She looked away from her godmother and her attention was directed to the image staring at her through the tinted, one-way window. To her utmost surprise, she looked nothing like how she felt. She looked calm and calculated, quite the opposite of the hailstorm going on inside her head.

Done by the best makeup artiste in the country, her makeup and hair looked nothing but elegant and moderate, with the ascending pearls on her ear giving her a regal look. Sighing out in utter relief, she told herself that everything was in total control. If she could look like that -- Pretty, perfect with no care if a tornado or hurricane was on it's way, then she was good to go.

As they pulled up to AKWAABA five star event center, she eyed up the smattering of paparazzi at both sides of the long and narrow red carpet. The car came to a stop in front of the gold and red themed carpet, narrowing into the entrance of the massive hotel. And as she waited for her date to open the door so they could walk in - hand in hand, her fingers held tight her cellphone and itching to call the one person she couldn't stop thinking about for the past three days. She'd promised she'd chat him up as soon as the event began and he'd joked about watching on TV while she smiled at his texts. She'd rolled her eyes then, telling him not to get ahead of himself, while in reality, she wanted nothing but that and more.