A Promise to Keep

[VINA]

A Holiday story of love and friendship.

 

👏🏾

[VINA]

"Let us promise, that if by 2021, we are both unmarried, then we will have sex, with eachother," Ofure repeated to the laughing girl who was now rolling on the floor in hysterics.
"No way! I will make no such promise," Osas replied still laughing.
"Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like with a woman?" Ofure questioned insistently.
"Yes, but, you're my best friend!" Osas replied simply as though that was enough explanation.
In a way, that should have been clear to Ofure that there were boundaries with friends that shouldn't be crossed but after being in love with Osas since secondary school, she knew that come 2021, she would be single and waiting for Osas.
"Come on, just promise. I know you wouldn't be single by then, but if you were, I would like to do this one thing with you. Please!" Ofure pleaded again.
Osas finally stopped laughing and sat up. 
"I promise, Fifi, I'd do anything you want, as long as we're both single."
The two girls used a small pin to prick their thumbs before exchanging thumbs and sucking off a little blood. They sealed their promise with a chaste kiss to the lips.
*********
December 2021

Ofure greeted her parents with her knees to the ground as they blessed her.
The atmosphere was charged with excitement as the family examined the handsome young man standing behind their daughter of 30 years who had refused to settle down for the longest time. At last, she had brought home a suitor.
Ofure's mother made sure that food and drink were surplus as she and her husband grilled their future son in law.
They asked him everything about his life, down to his favourite colour to the chagrin of Ofure. This was the exact reason that marriage hadn't appealed to her.
As soon as they could, the couple escaped the compound and took a walk around the village where Ofure excitedly showed her fiance around the place she had grown. 

"That is the place that Osas fought this huge village boy for my sake. When she realised he was winning, she gave me the eye, poured dust in his eyes and we ran for our dear lives," she said bursting into laughter as she remembered.
It was the hundredth memory of Osas she was telling him when he turned to her and said, "I hear so much about her, your best friend in the world and you've never introduced us."
Ofure let the comment slide. She didn't think to reply. Osas had left, just upped and left the country and had never called or texted. It had been 5 years and the loss still hurt like it was a new wound.
The couple continued their walk, stopping at the houses of aunts and uncles. 
****************************
"This is Osas' house?" Ofure asked again and again in surprise.
She was standing in front of a high gated mansion that looked like it belonged in a modern mansion magazine.
Last time she'd seen Osas, she'd been the one to lend her some money. It wasn't that she never believed in her best friend but this growth felt too sudden.
Ofure entered through the gate with her younger brother, Osaze who seemed to navigate the house very well. He evidently visited a lot.
Ofure greeted and spent time with Osas' mother. In the time, she handed the older woman an invitation card for the traditional marriage holding in January. There were prayers and songs with lots of well wishes. 

As Ofure was about to leave, Osas'mother asked "you didn't ask of your friend. Are you people fighting?"
Ofure said nothing. She nodded and continued on her way out.
"She will be coming any time soon o. Last time I called her, her flight had landed in Lagos."
************
Ofure stayed up in bed that night and eventually cried to sleep. There was a time that she was the only one that knew whatever was happening with Osas. There was a time that Osas' mother would call her to find out about her daughter and now, she was a stranger who knew absolutely nothing of the person she considered her best friend for years.
******
"Fifi, someone is waiting for you in the sitting room. Hurry!" Osaze said bouncing from leg to leg. 

Ofure yawned and wondered which of her distant relative it would be this time. The next day was Christmas and Ofure knew that it was possible the visits would start a day early.
Her fiancé had left the village some days back to return a little after New year's and Ofure felt grateful for his absence.
She loved him so much but having him constantly hanging around her hair was such a chore. She often wondered how marrying him and living together permanently would feel. 
Ofure put finishing touches to her make up as she and her mother were to visit the market and get all the supplies needed for the Christmas cooking. She would never be caught looking unkempt. It took very little to have the whole village whispering about who was doing well in the city and who wasn't.

Ofure entered the sitting room to greet whoever it was that had come visiting but to her surprise, sitting there was Osas.
Ofure's heart beat loudly in her chest and she felt like she might pass out. She wanted to scream, jump, but in the end she settled for crying. Shamelessly she broke into tears, deep painful tears.
Osas was confused, she looked askance at Osaze and the young boy shrugged and walked out of the sitting room, leaving both women with their problems. It definitely wasn't the reaction he had expected.
Osas knew what she'd done and knew exactly how it would affect Ofure but she'd done it anyway. In the journey of life, people were bound to get hurt by the actions of others. Plus, it had been necessary to vanish the way she did. How could she have told Ofure that she was migrating illegally to the United States, using a route that could have killed her? Ofure would have died before she'd allow her leave that way. It had been hard but here she was now.
Osas finally stood and pulled her wailing best friend into a soft embrace. Ofure relaxed into the embrace, held Osas like she was oxygen and cried some more. Then, a slap.
"Well, I guess I deserved that," Osas said rubbing her cheeks. 
"You wicked, evil, cold hearted girl. You did not think about me..." 

"On the contrary, I thought about you every day. Thoughts of you kept me going." Osas said still rubbing her cheeks.
"You liar! I am so pissed," Ofure said as she tried to get her face into a presentable shape.
Then, for an instant, their eyes caught eachother and held. It was like deep rivers calling on to eachother. 
They both took cognizance of the changes time had left on their bodies since the last time they saw each  other. While Ofure had filled out in all the right places, Osas was fit and tan.
Their eyes caught again, and all the walls came crumbling down, and Ofure was allowed to see just how much Osas had missed her and just how sorry she really was. This time, the hug was fierce, it was oxygen.
***********
In the village, the two friends were a menace. They attended events curated to keep the city folks happy. There was a carnival, a beauty pageant where a random girl was crowned Miss Esan and there was lots of drinking.
Osas spent money like it was nothing and even though people lined up to get something from Osas, there were rumours that she was involved in Fraud and Drug trafficking in the US. Ofure often wondered if her best friend could involve herself in something so illegal.
The parents of both girls observed their children gallivanting around the village together, involving themselves in habits that were not fit for adult women.
"Maybe this is the last thing they will do before the wedding and reality will set in," Mama Ofure said.
"Let's leave them be," Mama Osas concurred.
******""***
It was New Year's Eve and the friends had just returned from a bar where they'd danced and had a little too much wine. They were in Osas' opulent room upstairs.
"I am still single, and as I can see, no ring on your finger too. 2021 would end soon and you owe me a fulfilment of promise," Osas said casually as she shed her clothing.
Ofure knew exactly what Osas was saying. She'd often thought of that promise but they had been so young, was there even a point to fulfilling that promise?
Osas pulled Ofure up and helped take off her own clothes. It wasn't the first time that this had happened, and it definitely wouldn't be the first time they would bathe together, but this night, everything felt different. 

Osas washed Ofure as Ofure washed her. The shower was long, dealing considerate damage to the earth's climate.
Then as they finished showering, Osas kissed Ofure. This, however, was a first. It would be the first time that they would kiss with tongue. Ofure sighed and took everything she could get from the kiss. It was long and deep, and sweet and they didn't want it to ever end.
But it ended. "I have something to tell you," Ofure said.
"No, not now." Osas cut her off as she stepped out of the shower and pulled her friend along.
She cleaned them dry and they went into the room once more. Eyes locked fiercely and the kiss resumed.
In between kisses, Osas asked, "have you done this before?"
"No, never, you?" Ofure asked back but there was no response.
Osas explored Ofure's body so intently. Slurping here, biting there, kissing everywhere. Then she slid down, took a wet and aching clit in to her mouth. She loved on that stub, pouring kisses and affection on it. 
A bell rang in the distance and fireworks erupted into the sky as people screamed, "happy New Year."
"Happy New year," Osas said against Ofure's clit and the other woman convulsed and climaxed so violently that her legs started to shake.
When Ofure climbed down from the clouds, there were tears in her eyes. She pulled Osas up and kissed her thoroughly. 
"Happy New year," Ofure finally said.
They kissed again before Ofure started to make attempts to bring Osas as much pleasure as she'd just received. Osas smiled and climbed on top of her, pinned her hands above her head, eyes locked, clits joined and she started to move. 

********
Hours later, they finally separated. Both woman panted and tried to catch their breath. 
After a while , Ofure announced, "I'm getting married."
"I know. It was the first thing my mother told me once I got it. Does he love you?" Osas said. 

"Yes, and I love him." Ofure replied.
"Congratulations."
***********
It was a good day to have a wedding. The sky was clear and the day was beautiful.
Ofure, the beautiful bride, in her traditional attire danced out of the house with her friends lined up behind her. Osas, constantly doted on her best friend, cleaning her sweat and making sure the hand fan was positioned correctly as they all danced towards the groom.
The wedding happened without incident. Ofure was glad that she could do this life thing with a kind, supportive best friend like Osas.