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Thanks so much for reading and sharing this story, its written by @thisboyperforms, stalk his twitter timeline and tell him about how much you love the story. This is the end of Season 1 for Following Chris, more information about subsequent stories will be communicated.
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Getting into the house with his dad, he headed straight to his room to drop his bags and as he was coming out of his room, he saw his mother waiting at the door.
“Young man. I have seen your handiwork”, his mum said.
Creasing up, he said “What handiwork did you see, Mum?”
“None other than the girl you brought home. She’s so pretty. I see you have the same eyes that your father has. It’s a shame that your brother did not inherit those eyes.”
Chris laughed some more and said “you better not let him hear you.”
“How will he hear? Will you tell him? Shior”, his mum said and then added “ehen young man, I don’t know what you have been doing in that swanky pseudo-bachelor pad of yours; but I hope you know you both are not sleeping in the same room, right?”
“But Mum, where will she sleep?” Chris asked trying to cajole her.
“No buts. Both of you are not married and it is not in my house that a child will be conceived out of wedlock.”
Laughing at his mum’s mock seriousness, Chris said “oh you mean the child can be conceived out of wedlock but as long as it is not in your house?”
“Don’t patronize me young man. But I am serious though. That even reminds me. Have both of you defined this relationship or are both of you just looking to see where it leads?”
“Yes we have defined it and I don’t think I want to put labels on it just yet as I really do not want to jinx it, but I really really like her mum.”
“I can see that. You don’t have to tell me. If you didn’t, there’s no way she would be here right now. Another thing I need to ask. Where are her parents? I mean you can’t tell me they don’t celebrate the holidays in their house. Abi are they Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Laughing again, Chris said “No mum. They are not Jehovah’s witnesses. Her parents aren’t around now. They will be back in 3 days. So I though since everyone was leaving school and going home for the holidays and instead of her going to spend time at home all alone, I would bring her here and let her meet my family.”
“Good. Good.”
“So can she sleep in my room now?” Chris asked somewhat tentatively.
“No way in hell”, his mum said and then started walking towards the stairs that led down to the sitting area. “Come on down”, she says, calling over her shoulder.
As he was walking down the stairs, he heard the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway close to the entrance of the house. He knew his brother had arrived. Getting to the sitting area, he walked over to the door and opened it. Seeing his brother, they both hugged and shared some pleasantries. Seeing his sister-in-law, he ran over to her to help her with her bags.
“What haven’t you not been eating? You look so skinny!” His sister-in-law remarked.
“It’s school stress joor. Plus there’s nobody to cook for me and make me as rotund as. . .” Chris said and then used his head to motion towards his brother and they all burst out laughing.
“Don’t you have a girlfriend ni? Or are you dating one of those ‘I don’t know how to cook’ sort of girls?”
“No oh.”
“Wait first. Lola can cook, can’t she?”
“Yes. She can.”
“So why isn’t she cooking for you?”
Heaving one of the bags onto his back with its strap comfortably resting on his shoulders, he scratched his neck and then replied “Well. . . it’s school stress for everybody around this time and she really needed to face her own books rather than come stay at my place to cook for me and besides, we have broken up.” Chris said.
“Wait. What? Since when?” His brother asked joining the conversation he had been observing for a while.
“A while ago. Come on. I will tell you the rest of the gist later. Let’s go into the house. Quick heads up, I brought a girl home and we’ve been dating for a while now.”
“Orishirishi. The same one you told me and Lade about like a couple of weeks back?” His sister-in-law asked.
“Yeah. That one.”
“Okay oh.”
Getting into the house, his sister-in-law went to greet his mum and dad and he and his brother went to drop the bags and then they came back downstairs where apparently dinner had been prepared and laid out on the dining table.
They all – Chris’ Dad, Chris’ Mum, Junior, Junior’s wife, Tosin; Chris and TY – sat at the table and started to enjoy the meal that had been obviously well prepared by Chris’ Mum and conversation flowed. Laughter was perpetual and constant. Chris’ Dad was entertaining them all with tales of his single days and how he met his wife.
When dinner was over and they had rested for a while and it was time to retire for the night, Chris’ mum played the chaperone and showed TY into a room of her own and then allowed them – Chris and TY – to bid each other good night and then pointing Chris in the direction of his room.
The next day, Chris’ sister, Lade, came to the house and she met TY for the first time. They also hit it off and Chris thought to himself that he had really hit the mother lode with TY.
The day came when she was to go and she said her farewells and Chris drove her to her house. They said their goodbyes and promised to call each other and then he drove back home.
********************
When school reopened and everybody was back in school, Chris and TY were still going on strong. Since he was a couple of months away from completing his studies, he started applying to schools in the UK for his Master’s program. He also managed to convince the firm that owned the apartment building to allow him join the flat next door when its occupants moved to make a larger flat. He was happy that when he was convincing his Dad he needed an apartment off the university’s campus, he had selected a serviced apartment, which meant that the apartment and its immediate neighborhood were not an offshoot of the university’s campus and what’s more? It was smack in the middle of the city. He had convinced his Dad that if he came back from his Master’s program that he would still love to live there and his old man had agreed.
By this time, Chris and TY paid a couple of visits to his parents and his siblings so TY had basically become family, which was why when she decided to leave he still couldn’t believe it.
A part of his apartment had been cordoned off as the works to enlarge the apartment had begun in earnest. He came back to the apartment and there she was in the living room with a look he still had not been able to place on her face. He had asked what was wrong and she replied that nothing was wrong. He asked again and she said nothing was wrong again and he thought nothing of it. She came to meet him and said she didn’t think she wanted to continue with their relationship anymore.
“Wait. What?” Chris replied.
“I said I’m not sure. . .” TY began.
“I heard you the first time. I meant what do you mean?”
“I mean take a look around. You’re planning to live here for much longer after school, you have things mapped out.”
“What does the remodeling have to do with anything?”
“It’s not just that. It’s the other things. Your mum thinks we’re getting married. I don’t want my life to be decided like that. I want to explore. Have some fun. Go on some adventure. Our lives are really just beginning.”
“Wow.”
“I’m sorry Chris, but I don’t want my life already planned and mapped out. I’m sorry.”
With that, she picked up her hand bag and had left without looking back.
********************
PRESENT DAY
Another text message came in and the whistle notification sound of his phone jarred him back to the present. He looked at his phone and he saw:
“Making your favorite. Hope you’re hungry xx”
Getting off the bus three stops away from his own stop, he checked on his mechanic that had been telling him stories upon stories about his car, who had finally told him to come pick it up earlier today.
Exchanging pleasantries with mechanic he enquired to know what the problem was with the car and the man explained at length after which Chris produced a wad of banknotes from his bag and handed it over to the mechanic and then proceeded to put his bag in the backseat and then drove the car out of the shed and towards his house.
Getting to his front door, the first thing he noticed was the smell of food coming from nowhere else other than the other side of the door.
Pushing the doorbell because his key was no longer where he had kept it, he waited until she came to open the door.
The vision that was TY in the entrance to his home was for a slight instant, truly angelic. Then the memories came flooding and his body stiffened. Walking into the hallway, he asked:
“What are you doing here?”
“Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“That’s not what I asked you. I said ‘what are you doing here?’” He asked growing impatient.
“I just came into town and I thought I should surprise you.”
“Oh? Really?”
“Yes. Really. If I’m not welcomed here, tell me, let me leave.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Tell me if I’m not.”
“Okay. You’re not.”
“Alright fine. Bye. For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry for what I did to you.”
“I’ve heard. Now, please leave.”
“Good night.” TY said going through the doors that Chris was holding for her.
Closing the door behind her, he exhaled really sharply, surprised so much tension had built up in the short period of time.
She texted him a couple more times that night, but he didn’t respond.
If anything, he was glad she had prepared some food before he threw her out. He enjoyed the meal and went to bed thankful he didn’t have to go to work the next day.
********************
The sound of very persistent knocking woke him up the next morning. He got up to see who was at the door and when he peeped through the hole, he saw two men dressed in impeccable suits waiting at the door. One black, the other one looked biracial.
Opening the door, he asked “How may I help you gentlemen?”
The black one spoke in an accent peculiar to South London brandishing a badge and identification.
“Europol sir. I’m Agent Peter Matthews and this is my colleague Agent Juliano di Gennaro.”
“Yes. How may I help you?”
“We want to speak to you about Toyin Maria Deinde-Roberts. Got a minute?”
That was when the text TY sent last night started to make some sense.
“Chris please I need to talk to you. Something happened. I really need to talk to you.”
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