Tegan 1

Meaning

Tegan: a beautiful, tall, independent lady who can be bullheaded but has great fashion sense.

                                ***

 Tegan Maduka rolled on her bed lazily. Her king sized bed was covered with a white and red bed-sheet. Her duvet was definitely on the floor as she couldn’t feel at as she rolled. She hugged her three pillows at once and thank God for the day. Yes, it was a Saturday and she thought Saturdays were glorious. 

It was her lazy day and also her busy day. She could decide to wake at whatever time she wanted, just as long as there were no fashion shows that needed her presence. 

Yeah, damn the alarm!

 She could decide to stay in bed all day. Then again, damn all those people who said she needed to go out more. She was a top editor in a fashion magazine, Fashion Today. She could be called out any time to go for one fashion show or the other. That was how busy how Saturdays could be, but she still loved it.

 So, whenever she wasn’t at those shows, she’d eat whatever she wanted, act however she wanted, listen to music, dance and see movies all day at home. This Saturday was gonna be lazy. No shows needed her presence. No fashion designer needed her say in any design. No one needed her. She was free to do  whatever she wanted. She opened her eyes to the light of day. Of course, the sun was already in the Eastern sky and it gladly assaulted her eyes. She blinked multiple times and realized why the assault was terrible, her curtains were open. This only meant one thing. Her twin sister, Taylor, had done that.

 Again. 

She could hear Taylor moving about in the house, or rather, the kitchen. That woman was a machine. Taylor hardly slept, was always working and creating new designs. Taylor was a fashion designer, the best at that. Most of her ideas went into Fashion Today, thanks to Tegan. They both worked hand in hand and hard enough to get them to where they were. They shared a 3-bedroom apartment at GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, which was fully furnished and beautiful. This also meant Taylor can stick her nose into her business, or in this case, her room, and open her damn curtains. How on Earth hadn’t she woken up when Taylor came into her room? That was her curse as the other twin, she slept through anything and everything. A bomb might go off in the next room and Tegan wouldn’t wake unless she was tired of sleeping.

Tegan stretched, tossed aside her pillows and got out of bed. She yawned and stretched more, standing. She had a habit of making her bed once she got up. She did just that and looked around to make sure everything was in place. Yes, her duvet was still on the floor. She picked it up and pressed the soft, yet thick red fabric to her face before she folded it and placed it on her bed. Her eyes went to her red curtains and with a hiss, walked to the windows and released the curtains from the rope that tied them. The curtains fell freely and the golden rays of the sun vanished instantly; leaving a not-so-dark room.

“There,” she smiled, “just the way I like it.”

She looked at her vanity table with all her bottles of perfume, body lotions, facial scrubs and make-up box. Everything looked well placed. She let her eyes drift to her desk. Sitting majestically on it was her laptop and volumes of Fashion today scattered about it. She sighed and walked to it. She put her laptop on one side of the table and stacked the magazines together at the other side.

“Neat.”

She turned around again and went to her wardrobe. She opened it and saw some of her clothes still neatly hung in the black hangers while some were lying around, like lost children. She raised an eyebrow and thought for a while.

“I guess I’ll do my laundry and tidy you up after breakfast,” she said to her wardrobe and clothes.

 She picked out a pair of denim bum shorts, a white polo and her skipping rope. She set her clothes on her bed. Humming to herself, she started her regular workouts of sit ups and skipping. She had to keep her body in shape, it came with the demands of her job. After about 20 minutes of breathing in and out like someone who ran a marathon, she waltzed into her bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower.

With her brush in her mouth, moving up, down and sideways, she thought about how the house would be all hers once Taylor left. Taylor had somewhere to be. She always had somewhere to be. She rinsed her mouth and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were small and dark, compared to her twin’s. They had some similarities but they weren’t identical. Tegan was on the tall side, which was more of her long, slender legs. Taylor was curvier and not as tall as Tegan. They both had long hair and fair skin, which they inherited from their mother. Tegan always thought Taylor was more beautiful. Her face had a softer look compared to Tegan's. Taylor also smiled more. Tegan kept a straight face most of the time. Taylor had all the boys wooing her throughout their days in school, secondary school and the university. Tegan, on the other hand, hardly dated. Someone made a joke when they were teenagers that she scared guys away with her feistiness. Yeah, Taylor was the calmer and nicer one. Tegan thought she herself wasn’t that difficult. She liked her space a lot and had little or no tolerance for crap. At 27, she was perfectly fine being single, but her sister won’t let her be.

 “You need to go out more, Tegan. Meet boys and men. Go on dates with the ones you like or hangout with the friends you didn’t push away with your attitude. Quit sitting in front of the TV all day when you’re not working.” 

Tegan would roll her eyes and reply, “but I go out, I go for your fashion shows and the magazine's fashion events. If those friends wanted to hangout with me, they could always call me. I shouldn’t do all the calling and checking up.”

“I’m not talking about the fashion shows, Tee,” Taylor would reply, with her hands on her hips, “cos you don’t even mingle at such. I’m talking about real hangouts with friends, where you get to meet friends of friends. People who could increase your social network. What happened to our dreams as little girls of getting married on the same day?” 

“I’m a busy woman, Tay Tay. I don’t have time for hangouts. My social network seems fine to me. And I’m so sure we’re not getting married on the same day,” Tegan would retort.

God bless Taylor’s beautiful and childlike heart, but Tegan wasn’t dreamy anymore. She was logical. Taylor was already engaged to a great guy while she wasn’t even in a relationship. She didn’t even have feelings for any guy. Tegan was happy for her sister, but she just wasn’t interested in men. Being in a relationship wasn’t part of her plan at the moment. It meant she had to think of someone else who wasn’t family or the handful of friends she had. Men were big babies and really obnoxious. 

She also wasn’t interested in women. Many thought she had the sexuality of her namesake, Tegan Price in the law series “How To get Away with Murder.” But she was straight, single and definitely not searching.

Tegan would have loved to enjoy a jacuzzi bath but she was starving. She opted for a cold shower in her blue bath tub and dashed out of the bathroom. She placed her pink night gown in her laundry basket and wore the shorts and polo she had initially placed on her bed. She massaged some lotion on her fair skin and smiled at herself in the mirror above her vanity table before dashing to the kitchen were Taylor was preparing breakfast. 

“Good morning Tee,” Taylor said as Tegan entered the kitchen.

“Good morning, Tay,”  Tegan matched Taylor’s tone. “Smells good in here.”

“Yeah, I made pancakes. Want some?” Taylor asked, already taking out two plates from the plate rack resting on the kitchen slab.

“You know I want some and more,” Tegan sat on one of the chairs at the small kitchen table.

Taylor laughed, “you eat like a horse and never get fat, I wonder how you do it.” She filled the plates with pancakes and syrup and made two glasses of milk.

“The secret is exercising,” Tegan replied with a mouth full of pancakes. “Damn this is glorious, Tay. What would I do without you?” She closed her eyes and savored the taste. Moaning with pleasure as the pieces of pancake danced around her taste buds.

“Probably nothing,” Taylor winked.

“I’ll forgive you for tampering with my curtains because of these pancakes.” Tegan took a sip of her milk.

Taylor laughed wholeheartedly at that. They ate and chatted about different things. They finished eating soon and Tegan offered to do the dishes.

“What are you doing today, going out or watching TV?” Taylor asked, with one eyebrow raised.

“What’s wrong with watching TV?” Tegan replied with a soulful expression. She dried her hands with the kitchen towel, folded her arms and looked straight at Taylor.

“I’m not even going to try to convince you to go out. Just lazy about all day as usual,” Taylor left her in the kitchen and walked to her room to get dressed.

Tegan shrugged and went to the living room instead. Their living room had black cushions, which was complemented with purple and pink pillows. The walls were violet and adorned with awards, art and portraits. There was a picture of Tegan, Taylor, their younger brother, Tony and their parents hanging on the wall. There was also a vase of red roses on the glass center table, courtesy of Tegan. She loved roses. The wall clock was shaped like the moon. She glanced at it and realized it was 9:15am. The day was still young. She connected her iPhone X to the Sony speakers and loud music filled the air.

From her room, Taylor rolled her eyes. “Tegan, for the love of God! Turn it down!”

But Tegan couldn’t hear her as she danced to Stormzy's “own it.”

Taylor, dressed in a white playsuit that she designed and black sneakers, came to the living room and met her sister dancing. For someone who danced really well, she didn’t let the world see it.

“Dance with me Taylor. Damn, look at those curves. You look beautiful,” Tegan complimented her sister and danced towards her.

“...Own it, baby just own it, cos your body’s on fire…” Tegan sang along.

Taylor laughed, “sorry, I can’t, I have to leave now.” She said something else at the door but Tegan didn’t hear her as Burnaboy's “anybody” filled the air.

                                                                                               ***

Dozie tapped at his Samsung Galaxy phone, to reduce the boredom that came with sitting in an Uber, driving to anywhere in Lagos. He would have preferred to be on his bed, sleeping or perhaps using his laptop to write instead of his phone. Writing soothed him. God knew he needed all the soothing at the moment. He briefly glanced out the window and realized they were already in Ikeja. The sun stuck to the sky like a bulb, shining with too much voltage. It was barely 10am. Why was the sun so scorching?

 Cynthia wasn’t nice enough to let him do his laundry before sending him on the errand. Some words rushed into his head like a turbulent stream during a storm and he went back to typing vigorously. He edited, added, subtracted, before he decided his poem was magical enough. The traffic made movement in Lagos a living hell. That’s why Cynthia made sure he left their home at Ajao Estate at 8:30am to avoid traffic.

The Uber made a right turn and parked. Dozie figured they’d arrived at their destination. Or, should he say, at the street. He had crammed the name of the street, thanks to Cynthia. Dozie made the payment and grudgingly alighted from the Uber. He carried the bag filled with fabrics from the boot of the car and scanned the environment.

 He didn’t see any SARS official around. Maybe cos it was GRA. He unconsciously ran his hand over his head which had a nice and decent haircut. He had been harassed way too much by SARS that he had to stick to this particular hairstyle. Even with it, he still got harassed because of his phone. Was it a crime to own a Samsung Galaxy? Those people needed orientation.

#endsars

#endswat

#endpolicebrutalityinnigeria

#endbadgovernanceinnigeria

He unlocked his phone and checked the house number he was supposed to go to. He sulked then, remembering how much he hated running these sort of errands for his elder sister. But, she had a way of blackmailing him. 

“I helped you get your NYSC posting. I also helped you with the internship you’d start on Monday. You should be happy running errands for me or I won’t help you again,” she had declared, when he complained  she was ruining his Saturday sleep.

 Again. 

“I’m not saying I don’t like helping you,” he grumbled, “but it’s too early to go to someone’s house. It’s too early for you to send me on this dropping-fabric errand.”

“Chidozie! I’ve sent you the address and the Uber will soon be here. Get dressed, biko.” Cynthia left his room, knowing fully well he would run the errand.

She was a pain. Just because she got him the job he loved during his NYSC as well as the internship he would start soon, she felt he owed her for life. He had called the lady he was supposed to drop the fabrics with but she said she wasn’t home. Her sister, however was. He spotted the house with the sign, “No 6 Adejare street” and walked to the gate. All he had to do now was locate flat 2B. He went into the compound through the black gate and asked the security guard which flat was 2B. The flat was adjacent 2A and very conspicuous, he realized.

 The compound housed three bungalows, labeled A-C. As he got closer to 2A, he heard loud music coming from the flat. He smiled to himself and knocked. This was something he enjoyed doing. Listening to music through speakers. He knocked again, but there was no answer. He knocked and waited and knocked again. Still no answer. He tried the knob and found that the door was open. He thought that might have been an error or maybe the occupants of the flat liked leaving their door open. Whatever the case, he stepped inside, into a small hallway and followed the direction of the music.

 In less than a minute, he found himself in the living room and his initial irritation at the errand vanished when he saw the lady dancing to Rema's “lady”. Her back was to him. She was putting on bum shorts and a big polo. That didn’t prevent him from noticing her great body and long legs. He wanted to see the face that belonged to the lady, but at the moment, he continued to watch her dance, since she was oblivious of him. The scent of roses floated to his nostrils and he let his eyes drift to the roses on the table. He went back to watching the lady dance in a second. It was a great show.

Tegan was lost in Rema's lady. She mumbled the lyrics as she flowed to the rhythm of the song. She tried a lot of dance moves and even tried twerking. When the song was almost over she turned around and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw the stranger standing in her living room. She found the remote in a blink of an eye and turned off the music immediately.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in here?” she asked, pointing the remote at him. It might have been her weapon or her shield, she didn’t really know.

 She saw him smile lightly and noticed he was young. Not a teenager, since he had a small goatee, but definitely young. Why was he smiling?

“Is that supposed to keep me away from you?” he asked, gesturing to the remote. Not only did she have a mad shape, she had a pretty face too. And she was feisty.

Her eyes darted to the remote in her hand for a jiffy before facing him again.

 “I asked who you were. I won’t ask again.” She warned.

“Relax,” he said, putting the bag of fabrics on the black cushion close to him. “I’m Dozie, from Cynthia's fabrics. I’m supposed to drop this off with a Taylor Maduka, but she said she won’t be home. She asked me to leave it with her sister, Tegan. You’re Tegan, right?”

“Yeah I’m Tegan and I know Cynthia,” Tegan said, folding her hands now. “Tay didn’t tell me anyone was coming.”

“You could call her or Cynthia, if you don’t believe me.”

She thought of calling Taylor. “You invaded my privacy. I have the right to be how I am.”

“I’m sorry I startled you.” Dozie smiled again. “I knocked and no one answered. I tried the knob and the door was open, so I just walked in.”

Well, well, not only had Taylor not informed her of the visitor, she had left the door unlocked. Thank God it wasn’t a thief or a serial killer who walked in on her, but a good looking guy who had perfectly trimmed hair, a goatee that fit his jaw and a killer smile. He wore a pair of denim trousers and a denim jacket which he rolled up to his elbow. The jacket wasn’t buttoned and it exposed a black shirt. He had caramel skin. He was young, with a cute face and she wasn’t supposed to notice. She dropped the remote on the center table and stepped closer to him to open the bag of fabrics. She touched them and scanned through them a bit before zipping it shut.

“Thanks, I’ll let Tay know you dropped by,” she replied testily.

She wanted to believe she was only angry at him for invading her privacy, but that wasn’t it. She was also angry at herself for noticing how cute he was and angry at him for actually being cute. When last had she noticed a guy?

Dozie took the tone of her voice as his cue to leave. He turned around and went back the way he came. Tegan followed him to lock the door. At the door, he turned to face her and said smugly, “for what it’s worth, great dancing and great ass too.” He smiled again, opened the door and left. 

Tegan just stared at the door, open-mouthed for about 10 seconds before she banged it. 

“The nerve! Who the hell does he think he is? Walking in here, feeling so conceited and commenting on my ass.”

 She took in deep breaths to calm herself and vowed that Taylor was going to pay for this embarrassment. She, however, went to the mirror in her room to check out her ass and realized her hair was in shambles. Great, another embarrassment! She wasn’t wearing a bra too, at least her big polo protected her rather sizeable boobs.

“Arghhhhhhh!” she yelled.

                                                                                                  ***

Dozie had noticed the horror on Tegan's face after his comment and was very pleased with himself. This was the height of his day. He quickly ordered an Uber to take him home while he walked to the end of the street. On the ride home, he thought to himself. If Cynthia sent him on errands like this, he’d run them any time, any day. He also thought of how he’d see the feisty Tegan again.