Growing Yams in London (6 page)

Why hasn’t he replied? Ohmigod, what if I didn’t put the wink at the end of the sentence?

I quickly checked my sent messages and breathed a sigh of relief: it was there, but Nelson still hadn’t sent another message. I checked the time he sent his last message: it was 8.16 p.m.
and I’d sent mine at 8.19 p.m. I looked at my watch; it said 8.30 p.m.!

I threw myself onto my bed and screamed into my pillow. Why was Nelson taking so long to reply?

My phone beeped again.

I stared at the message. Then I screamed and started dancing around my room.

Tanisha rushed in. ‘Makeeda, are you OK? Your dad asked me to —’

‘Tanisha, you’re not going to believe this! Look!’ I said, shoving my phone in her face.

She screamed. ‘Ohmigod!’

‘I know, I know!’ I said.

‘What is going on in here?’ Dad said angrily, appearing in my doorway.

‘Nothing,’ Tanisha and I chorused.

‘Then why are you both screaming?’

‘Sorry, Dad,’ I replied.

‘Right, well, stop that nonsense. Delphina’s trying to sleep,’ he said.

‘Sure, Uncle,’ Tanisha said.

As soon as Dad left, Tanisha grabbed me by the shoulders.

‘Makeeda?’

‘Yeah?’ I replied, dreamily staring at my phone.

‘I hate to point this out to you, but you haven’t replied.’

Tanisha covered my mouth before I could scream loudly.

‘Ohmigod, do you want your parents to know or something?’

I couldn’t see why not. I mean I lie to them about the small stuff but never anything this big. I couldn’t think about that now, I had to reply to Nelson.

‘Well?’ Tanisha asked impatiently.

‘He wants me to go to his place.’

‘For a first date? I don’t know, Makeeda. I’m sure that like breaks soo many dating rules!’

‘In the States maybe, but . . .’

‘I’m serious. He could do anything to you . . .’

‘Ohmigod, Tanisha, stop it!’ I said.

I knew she had a point, but I didn’t think Nelson was like that.

‘Call me every hour,’ Tanisha said.

‘What?’

‘If you’re going to his place, then I want to know you’re safe. Better still, I’ll teach you some defensive moves,’ Tanisha said.

Tanisha had taken self-defence classes in the USA, and had already taught her favourite moves to Mum and basically any other woman she came into contact with. So far, I’d managed to avoid
it, but I knew she wasn’t going to let me get out of it now.

‘You know, my parents won’t mind . . .’ I began.

I was interrupted by Tanisha laughing hysterically.

‘Girl, sometimes you’re so funny!’ she said, clutching her stomach and doubling over.

I wasn’t laughing.

‘What now?’ I said, folding my arms across my chest to stop me hitting her. I hated it when she did her all-knowing older cousin thing. I always ended up looking stupid.

‘You can’t tell your parents,’ she said.

‘Why not?’ I asked.

‘There is no way they’d let you go,’ she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

‘They might,’ I replied, irritated.

Just because she was older, it didn’t mean that she knew everything. Mum and Dad wouldn’t have that much of a problem with me having a boyfriend. I am fourteen, after all. Besides,
Mel’s had a boyfriend since she was twelve and her dad can be as strict as mine.

‘OK, I’ll prove it to you. Follow me,’ Tanisha said.

We headed downstairs to find Mum curled up on the sofa flicking channels, and Dad sitting at the dining table engrossed in a Haynes car manual. Tanisha sat next to Mum, whilst I sat opposite Dad
at the dining table.

‘That’s a good show, Auntie, you’ll like it,’ Tanisha said.

‘Thanks, what’s it about?’

‘Well, you see that woman on the right? She’s a detective and struggles with the whole work-life balance thing.’

‘Hmm . . .’ Mum replied.

‘Yeah, and she has this teenage daughter who she caught dating a boy, like, three grades above her,’ Tanisha added.

‘Oh dear.’

‘Then she messed up on a case and nearly lost her job.’

I couldn’t really see where this was going, so I caught Tanisha’s eye and tapped my watch. I still had to reply to Nelson and her experiment was taking for ever.

‘Auntie, how old were you, when you had your first boyfriend?’

‘Well . . . um, I was about twenty.’

Dad coughed like he was choking, then disappeared behind his manual.

‘Need some water?’ Mum asked him.

‘No thanks,’ Dad mumbled.

‘Twenty?’ I said, shocked.

‘Really?’ Tanisha added.

‘Yes. Personally I’m glad. I don’t think it is right for young girls to have boyfriends at an early age.’

Ohmigod! Tanisha’s right.

‘So how old do you think is right?’ Tanisha asked.

‘Well, at least eighteen.’

That’s it, my life is over! How can I tell Nelson to wait four years before going out with me? Why, why did my mother have to be a late bloomer? This is so unfair!

‘You see at that age you’re practically an adult . . .’ Mum began.

‘Um, aren’t you legally an adult at eighteen in the UK?’ Tanisha asked.

Ohmigod, I can’t believe Tanisha said that. Is she crazy? Mum is so going to spell it out.

‘Yes, but not in this house,’ Mum replied sternly. She held Tanisha’s gaze in the process.

‘I see. Well . . . it’s good to know,’ Tanisha said, averting her eyes. I could tell she was embarrassed.

‘Tanisha! Can you help me with something on my computer?’ I said, jumping from my seat. Dad looked at me curiously.

‘Sure, Makeeda,’ she said, smiling brightly.

We got to my room before I spoke again.

‘Thanks for that, but—’ I began.

‘Listen, if you want to see him, you have to lie,’ Tanisha interrupted.

‘Seriously?’

‘Yeah, unless you actually want to wait till you’re eighteen?’

‘Ohmigod! I hate this,’ I said, reaching for my phone.

I knew she was right though. There was no point telling my parents. They would never let me meet him.

‘Are you going to be around on Sunday?’ I asked Tanisha.

‘Nope. I’m staying with Auntie Mary. You know, my mum’s friend from uni.’

‘Oh yeah. Damn! I can’t use you as an excuse then.’

‘Bharti.’

‘Bharti?’

‘Yeah, all you have to do is show up at Bharti’s, stay for a few hours, and then go to Nelson’s,’ Tanisha said.

‘That’s risky. I mean at Bharti’s – I could end up staying longer.’

‘OK then, just pretend you’re going to Bharti’s . . .’ Tanisha said, just as the door opened.

‘Tanisha, your Auntie wants you,’ Dad said interrupting us.

‘OK,’ Tanisha replied.

‘Makeeda, are you all right? You look worried,’ Dad said.

‘Oh it’s nothing. Dad, um . . . is it OK for me to go to Bharti’s house on Sunday?’

‘Yes, of course it is,’ Dad replied. ‘Is that what’s been worrying you?’

Blimey I can’t lie again, can I?

‘Well, sort of . . .’ I said.

‘You really are a strange girl sometimes!’ Dad said, flicking my braids before leaving my room.

I gave him a huge grin as I grabbed my phone to tell Bharti.

Tanisha better be right about all of this lying or I’m a dead girl.

Bharti picked Monday of all days to be ill. That left me with no one at school to talk to about my date. Mel was totally preoccupied with practising for the latest netball
try-outs during every break we had. Plus, because of Tanisha’s weird ‘trust no one’ rule, I had texted her every hour just to let her know I was safe, so she’d already got
my date details on Sunday night.

My phone rang as I walked home.

‘Hello?’

‘It’s me. When are you going to get home?’ Bharti asked.

‘Calm down. I’m two doors away.’

‘Calm down? You tell me via text you had a “nice” time and leave it at that? Girl, that was over twelve hours ago! I want details, so hurry up!’

‘Well, if you’d been in school . . .’ I said as I opened my front door.

‘Shut up and get on MSN!’ said Bharti, ending the call.

Talk about rude! She can wait till I’ve had a bit of tea and toast, I thought. I headed for the kitchen. Within ten minutes the house phone rang.

‘Have you even switched on your PC?’

‘Well . . .’

‘Ohmigod, you made tea and toast, didn’t you?’ Bharti said in an accusing tone.

‘Well . . .’ I said, taking a bite of warm toast coated in melted butter and strawberry jam. I couldn’t help it. It was like a ritual: get home, make some tea and toast.

‘Makeeda, you know if my parents catch me on the phone they’ll kill me and make it look like an accident!’ Bharti screamed.

‘Yeah, yeah, sorry – two minutes tops!’ I told her.

During the summer, Bharti had managed to hike up her family’s phone bill by nearly a hundred pounds in a month. She had got bored and called her pen pals, Linda in Australia and Rachel in
Chicago, and her cousin Priyanka in India. As a punishment, her parents cut her pocket money and confiscated her mobile phone for a month and even now she wasn’t allowed to use their house
phone unsupervised.

I switched on my PC and as soon as I logged on to MSN, she popped up!

I stopped as I could see Bharti was already writing to me.

I walked straight into that one. Nick’s birthday party was fine when I sat down, but dancing in those shoes nearly killed me. I lost my balance and, had it not been for
his brother, Paul, I would’ve fallen into the birthday cake! Not that I minded being rescued by Paul, it was the humiliation of everyone else knowing I couldn’t walk in heels that added
to my pain.