The First Time

07. You are beautiful

DEBBIE'S POV

As I wrapped my hands around my phone, I resisted the urge to click on i********: to search for the name 'Timini Peters'.

I was sitting patiently at the passengers seat inside my mum's car waiting for she and my brother to walk out of the church.

It was a Sunday morning and as bad as I wanted to sleep in and not go to church today, I had woken up to the sound of the gospel song my mum was blasting in the speakers. She did that every morning before we left for church. Blame Nigerian mothers and their impeccable love for gospel music.

I watched them come out of the church. My mom entered the driver's seat and my brother slipped into the back seat. He normally argued about who would seat at the front seat but he knew better than to do that today. My mum was pissed at me and that meant she was pissed at everyone.

First offense I made was that I slept off without washing the plates yesterday evening.

Two, the whole kitchen was smelling. At first I thought it was the waste bin but when I followed the offending smell to the area where it was the greatest, it turned out to be a dead rat which was hidden inside the kitchen cabinet.

My mum kept whining to me that if I washed the plates like she always told me to, rats won't be at our house at all.

And the third one, during the church service today, my eyes were glued to the screen of my phone. And no I wasn't on the internet searching about Timini Peters. I wasn't!

I was the bad daughter for today.

As soon as my mum pulled into the drive way, I ran upstairs to my room but not before catching my mum rolling her eyes at me and my brother giving me a dirty look for seating at the space he wanted to seat in.

I closed my bedroom door behind me and sat on the bed, sighing. Removing my phone from my dress pocket, I dialled my friend Laura's number and she picked on the second ring.

'hey b***h!' she yelled in my hears. I immediately removed the phone from my ear and cleaned my sore ear with my fingers.

'what the f**k girl. You want to make me deaf? your voice is too loud and I always tell you that!'

She cackled,

'you love me anyways. So whatsup? How are you?'

'fine.' I replied dryly.

'What happened. You're sounding like you contracted HIV or something.'

I face palmed myself, then shook my head. Trust my friend to be that crazy.

'Laura I am serious right now jor. I'm not in the mood for your jokes.'

'Okay. what happened? Is it the fine boy Timini Peters? Girl I googled that guy and he is extremely hot wtf. And guess what? He is considered to be one of the biggest boys in Lagos State. Debbie I'm jealous you even had the chance of staying in the same space as him for minutes. And you two exchanged words? You were also close enough to know how he smells like? Girl you are a one lucky b***h!' Laura exclaimed.

I relatd everything about what had happened yesterday on my way home from her place to her earlier in the church through w******p, not leaving the part where I embarrassed myself in front of him and safe to say, she was extremely psyched about it.

'He is a fine piece of specimen, I know. But it is not only that. A lot is happening right now. My mum is mad at me more than anything and I feel a strong need to go on IG right now and follow Timini's fine ass then fill his DM's with my love messages. Trust me.'

'Debbie you know I'd tell you any day not to give up on the things you feel are not in your level or class. Hope for the best and make sure to be positive about it. I mean you accidentally bumped into him under the rainfall. How romantic is that? Something big is definitely coming up. I can feel it.' Laura joked.

'This is not a romance movie or whatever Laura. I told you that he has a girlfriend and she is.. she is so hot.' I breathed out, my voice breaking a bit.

'okay,i checked her out on IG this morning and I wont lie she is smoking hot, regal and beautiful but have you seen you? And I'm definitely not saying this because you are my best friend and I love you so much. I am f*****g serious Debbie. You are very beautiful.' Laura replied with honesty laced in her voice.

'Thank you but I know I'm not all that. You don't need to say that to make me feel better.'

'Debbie oh God Is my witness, if you utter any other word like that, I am going to slap you through this phone.' Laura said in a stern tone.

I could already picture her face right now and I laughed loudly, covering my mouth with my palm.

'Okay I am sorry. I definitely don't want to get slapped from the phone. Especially by you. Your hands are rougher than sandpaper.' I joked.

'you know better than to mess with me young lady. So let me tell you something. One, you have the height every lady would die for. You have the best skin I have ever seen even though you say otherwise. You are smart as hell, hot, and strikingly beautiful. So don't let one i********: model bring you down. You are just twenty and you are this beautiful. How will you now look when you are her age. You need to accept all of yourself. Pause and just take a self assessment of yourself and then love it. And also man up and follow that hot man on i********: right now. '

My eyes burned and I blinked back the tears threatening to fall. Ugh she always knew what to say.

'i know you're about to cry right now.' She muttered.

I burst out laughing and cleaned the small tears that managed to escape from my eyes. She knew me as a crybaby. 'shut up! I'm not crying.' I lied.

'i know you cried a little.' She pressed.

'Okay okay I did but a bit.' I admitted.

And thank you. I love you so much baby and I also promise to not be insecure all the time. It is going to be a hard job loving myself but I am going to try.'

'You better. And I love your fine ass also.' She made a kissing noise with her mouth which made me cringe.

'Before I forget, who was the guy I saw with you in your recent picture?' I remembered and asked.

'oh that one? His name is kolade. We f****d and that was all.' She replied casually.

'HOE!' I semi yelled and she snickered.

'I have to go now, i will talk to you later. Bye.'

'Okay b***h, I hope I hear news of y'all f*****g very soon. Bye.' She cut the call before I could come with a response. I laughed at her mischievousness.

Few minutes later, i followed him on i********: and screen munched almost all his pictures, then I used two of his pictures as my lock screen and wallpaper.

There was a picture of him with a young girl who looked so much like him on his page. From the caption, she was his younger sister.

I followed her also and stalked her pictures. She was very tall and light skinned compared to her brother. And she was also beautiful with big brown eyes and full lips. She looked absolutely drop dead gorgeous! I wondered if they were half casts from the rare brown colour of their eyes.

My phone chimed from an incoming notification and I ignored it. It chimed twice again after a few seconds. I was about to turn off the sound of the notification when something caught my attention.

It read a follow back from the account I just followed @sharonpeters1, Timini Peters sister. My hand stopped and I cleaned my eyes with my hand to check if I had seen the wrong thing. My eyebrows squints in confusion. Why would someone like her follow me back?

There were also two messages from her. My fingers clicked on it as fast as lightening.

It read,

'Hello. I went through your page now and I am extremely impressed with your work. It is unique and flawless. Do you do home services? Because I need a makeup artist as soon as possible. I would pay any amount you tell me to.'

I gasped and immediately went to my profile. It was my business account I was logged into. My second account which was my makeup business page. 's**t s**t s**t!' I groaned loudly, covering my face with my pillow and screaming into it.

I cant believe this was happening to me. s**t! What was I supposed to do now.

Going back to my message box, I saw the little blue sign signifying she was online. Then I clicked on the message again and kept staring at it, my brain going through many ways to come up with an excuse. I could feel my heart was beating wildly in my chest.

Then it all came flooding into my brain. If she was telling me to come to her place for a home service, then that meant I might get to meet Timini Peters or if he had his own apartment and wasn't living with her, I would at least have the chance to meet his sister and be in the space he had also been.

I might even succeed in persuading her to give me her brother's number. Or... yes! I would just steal it from her phone if she doesn't comply.

I opened my keyboard and typed, 'Thank you very much and yes I do home services. The stable amount I charge for home services is twenty thousand naira plus the transportation fee. Send me your address and I would be there as soon as possible.' I held my breath and sent it to her. She read it and immediately sent her hone address.

Now the question was, what was I going to wear?