The Reunion - Episode 1

 

 Reunions are as good as the people who organize them, on one hand you have those who use them as an opportunity to rub their success story in everyone’s face, then there are those who are known to be bored sick with the lives they have, they gain sheer satisfaction in realizing that some unfortunate people in their peer group are as bored as they are with their lives. Then, you have the third parties, the silent partners if you may …they are the ‘many’ in the group, the many who prefer to remain silent when it comes issues like these . Mariah could be classified as the ‘many’. 

“Wake up.” Lisa yelled as she hurriedly scampered around Mariah’s bedroom. “Babe!” Foundation faced Lisa yelled again as she tapped Mariah furiously.

“What?” she slurred as she grunted in her half sleep. “Why are you so early?” she continued, as she lazily sat up in her queen sized bed.

“There’s this thing called a job which all sane people wake up early for …you should try it.” Her friend gave her a dead panned reply; Lisa gave Mariah a stern look and then headed for the vanity mirror in the room as she finished up her makeup.

“You should really stop coming to my room to dress up.” Mariah said as she yawned out what was left of her short sleep. “And I have two jobs aunty.” she retorted 

“What job? Your freelancing that has clearly flopped? Or the one at a supermarket? I mean …what’s a linguist doing working at a supermarket ?” Lisa asked honestly, Mariah Adejo and Lisa Reynolds had a close knit friendship that started off in the University, were they both studied Linguistics …while Lisa got a job at a highly professional organization; Mariah was stuck with freelancing and an afternoon shift at a large supermarket.

“Not all of us have parents with connections.” Mariah replied defensively, she knew for a fact that Lisa’s parents had everything to do with her getting her job.

“My parents had nothing to do with it.” Lisa retorted as she rolled her eyes at her roommate, she explained how she got the job for the umpteenth time and hoped that it will somehow change Mariah’s view, but it didn’t.

“You’re still in denial, I get it.” Mariah said as she headed for the bathroom.

“You’re just so annoying M!!” she yelled at her staggering friend.

“Love you too lee!” Mariah yelled back.

The best part of her day was when she had the place to herself, Lisa finally went to work after an hour of whining about how she hated her boss, Mariah stepped out of the kitchen with her plate heaped up in Lisa made breakfast, she relaxed  on the couch with her laptop as she searched for freelance writing jobs online, when that went south, she decided  to drown her failure in a stream of iroko movies .

The most dreadful time of her day was about to begin, she wore a custom made t-shirt for Super supermarket, the most dreadful working place she knew …Mariah had an Alicia Keys moment going for her, no makeup, the only difference was that she was make up free, in the poorest way possible

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/the-reunion

. On her way out, she almost cat-bumped into her brown furred baby, Munchkins …she made her to the kitchen when she realized that she hadn’t fed the cat in two days, she shook her head at her bad mom skills.

SUN, HASSLE, TRAFFIC, the three things she hated most about afternoons, after what seemed like forever, she got a taxi. She imagined how her life would have been entirely different if she had a car like Lisa.  Mariah’s job at the supermarket, involved being the cashier, all she had to do, was sit with her annoying co-worker for hours as customers came in and out, after three hours of smooth job affairs, something  went wrong in her face .

“Mary!!” a lady as fair as she was, squealed so loud …she looked up to see that customer in front of her was currently looking at her, with a smile that branched from ear to ear. “Its Judith, I can’t believe this, so you’re alive?” she asked in a half witted excitement.

“Judith Dimka“  Mariah said half heartedly, she then realized that the customer was in ffact, her secondary school mate, she wondered how mysterious time was …ten years ago ,Judith was hands down prettier than she was, but time had changed all that and it made her smile.

“Yess, Mary …it’s been a long long time …the last time I saw you was at our graduation, you had the ugliest gown …you look much better now.” Judith said nicely, but what on earth is as bad as throwing nice shades.

“It’s Mariah.” She replied sternly “it’s the complete opposite for you.” she continued in an attempt to make a comeback out of Judith’s previous statement.

“Ooh my! its sooo good to see you .” she said excitedly as she tried to hug Mariah over the register counter, at that point, Mariah wondered why Judith was acting like they were ever friends, she could count the number of times they had a conversation in school, Judith was one of the ‘too cool for school’ girls while she was just the normal one, with one or two friends .

“It’s nice to see you too.” Mariah replied what was clearly a lie, in one breath.

“you’re coming for the reunion right?” Judith asked, Mariah was still trying to figure out what she was talking about as she packed Judith’s purchased items in a shopping bag. “You remember Steven right? Steven Kingsley?” Judith asked, Mariah tried to get a word in, but couldn’t. “ you know he is now a major pop star, I mean he just blew overnight, he is now called Stevie king …anyways, he just organized a reunion for us , scarlet high school  set’08, imagine that …all of us under one roof, you should check your email or whatever for the invite . “ Mariah nodded in response as she handing over the shopping bag to the blabbering lady. “I work at a television station; I have two cute girls and an amazing husband …what of you? You look like you’ve done your best with your life?” Judith asked mischievously and all Mariah could think of was, all the Judith’s she would encounter if she attended the reunion, just then, Mariah was saved by an angry queue of customers, and a death glare from her co-worker .

“Congratulations on your amazing life.” she replied Judith sarcastically. “Thanks for coming.” she added quite nicely.

“Okay honey, bye …I look forward to seeing you at the reunion.” and just like that, the blast from the past b**ch was gone. 

On her way back home, all Mariah could think of was the reunion …it would be a huge reminder of how she had made nothing good out of her life, she had no job, no boyfriend, no car, no nothing …being a side chick was a bigger accomplishment than what she was, and she hated herself for it . There and then, she decided not to subject herself to a planned torture, created by someone who didn’t care about actually reuniting with anybody, she wasn’t going to be a tool for Stevie king’s planned show off.