A couple of hours later
"...and that look on the captain's face when he saw that the girl was wearing false hips," Princess chortled out. "Oh my God, it was beyond priceless. It was as if the discovery had fried his brain cells, he couldn't even talk."
"I know right, he actually thought 'oh I'm gonna have the time of my life with this hot chick' only to realise that everything she was wearing was fake," I laughed, following her through the throng of people to the auditorium's exit.
Halfway down the stairs, Princess let out a sigh of contentment. "Thank you so much for this, Akwasi. I really enjoyed the show and all the music. If I'd known the theatre students were this talented from the start, I wouldn't have wasted a good 80cedis subscribing for Netflix."
I chuckled. "I'm glad you had fun, Princess. It's nice to finally see you smile and be happy."
Her lips slowly crawled up, cheeks turning into cute round spheres. "So... what happens now?"
"Uuh...I don't know." I shot a look around. The crowd was dispersing, making us the only people standing in front of the auditorium. "I can walk you back to your hall."
"Ooorr," my companion began with a twinkle in her eyes. "We can go somewhere else, to have some more fun. It's just a few minutes past nine. The night is still young."
"Ok," I smiled, buying into the idea. "Got a place in mind?"
After a twenty minutes taxi ride, we arrived at an outdoor smoothie café. Rainbow fairy lights hung from the surrounding trees, working in co-ordination with the colourful furniture and the artful designs on the sides of smoothie summer hut. Fruits & Shakes glowed in neon lights on a board atop the thatched roof.
"Wow." My eyes moved around. "How did you find this place? It's way off campus."
"I didn't find this place, Ethan did," Princess responded, leading us to a table close to a garden of purple hollyhocks. "Last year, he...organised a surprise birthday party for me here."
"Oh that's nice." I settled down.
"Yeah, it's still my most favourite birthday...one I'd never forget." Her eyes drifted down to the table, a mixture of sorrow and nostalgia wafting in them.
I was about to ask her if we should leave when a waiter came by, ready to take our order.
"Oh, hang on." Princess quickly grabbed the colourful card menu. "Umm...I'll have the raspberry shake with the kiwi buns."
"Oh kiwi buns, that sounds interesting. I'll have that too, but with a mango milkshake instead," I said and the waiter took his leave.
"Mango." An expression of disgust touched Princess's face. "Bleh."
"Why?" I relaxed in my seat. "You don't like that fruit?"
"Why should I like such an oddly shaped fruit that attracts flies when you're eating it?" She shuddered.
"Oh c'mon, it doesn't attract that many flies."
"Tell that to ten-year-old me who accidentally chewed one while eating a mango."
"Oh my God, you chewed a fly?" I burst out laughing. "That's beyond disgusting."
"No kidding. Though I washed it all out, I couldn't help but feel..." she twitched in her seat. "Yucky. Even some of the guys in my class started calling me housefly chewer."
"Princess, the housefly chewer," I threw my head back, laughing.
"It's not funny." She playfully tossed the menu card at me.
Soon, our orders arrived and I took a sip of my tall glass of mango flavoured shake. "Mhm, this is very good."
"I know right." Princess slurped her purple coloured shake. "When Ethan brought me here, I couldn't stop drinking their beverages. I've tried every single one of them except the mango milkshake. I don't want to have anything to do with mangoes."
A soft chuckle left my mouth as I picked up a kiwi bun and took a big bite. The bread was soft and warm until a tangy sour taste joined in. It started off mild, but as I continued to chew, the tartness grew. "Mh!" I quickly swallowed, surprised by the biting intensity. "What the-"
"It's the kiwis," Princess grinned. "They put chunks of kiwis in the bread dough before baking it. That's what's giving it that sour taste."
"Mh," I swallowed down some of my milkshake to wash the tartness away. "Then these buns should come with a warning. It's like you're chewing a whole packet of Sour Patch kids at once."
"Ethan said something like that the first time he tried them," she giggled then the smile faded off. "I'm...I'm sorry, Akwasi. I know I should be forgetting about Ethan but I-"
"Oh it's...it's fine." I assured her. "I mean you can't just get up and forget him in one day. You have to take baby steps."
That cute smile of hers returned as she nodded. "Yeah."
Silence joined us for a brief moment.
"I have question though," I cleared my throat before continuing. "Don't get offended but...if you care so much about having Ethan in your life, why did you cheat on him?"
Princess sighed, toying with her drink straw. "When you're under the influence of alcohol, you don't really give much thought to the things you do, you just do them. That's what happened to me that night."
She took a pause then began. "During last semester's break, Boris, the captain of the football team, he invited me and Ethan to a party at his house. But Ethan was out of the country at the time so I... went alone. Met a few friends, had some fun and eventually had too much to drink. The following morning..." her lips quivered as she sighed, "I woke up in Boris's bed, stark naked with him by my side."
Regret morphed onto her face. "I begged him not to tell Ethan and he promised me that he wouldn't. But what the douchebag didn't tell me was that he'd recorded us having sex."
"Oh shit." I drew back.
"Yep." Princess still kept her eyes on her drink. "The video was just circulating amongst the boys in the varsity team, until it finally got to Ethan. He wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to explain. He just...called it quits." A tear slipped past her lashes and she tried brushing it away but wasn't quick enough.
Pulling out a tissue, I leaned over and wiped it away, earning me a soft smile.
"Thanks," she mumbled, taking the tissue from me.
I watched her dab at her eyes. "Sorry about what Boris did to you. He's an ass."
"Well, I learnt my lesson, didn't I? Never attend a douchebag's party without your boyfriend," she managed to let out a nervous chuckle. "But enough about that. Let's enjoy our shakes."
"Yeah sure." I sat up, bringing the straw to my lips.