Zara || A Nigerian Lesbian

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗

𝚉𝙰𝚁𝙰
━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

After my encounter with Bella two nights ago, I hadn't heard from her, and Nena, I was glad she didn't spend the night.

Today, Dad had asked me to stop by to discuss family matters. I was the only child, and I knew the family matter that needed discussion was my inability to find a man.

Coming home to hear my mother nag me about being single, that wasn't what I wanted. But my dad knew how to press my buttons, hence why I was sitting down in their sitting room. He was my rock. He had always been the one to push me to be where I wanted to be.

Then someone clearing their throat made me realize I was in present-day Nigeria, not the '90s. I smiled and turned to greet who it was. "Daddy!"

I fell into his arms. The arms that had always comforted me when I needed them. "How's my little angel doing?"

"Doing ok. Not sure why you asked me to come here, though."

He let out a quiet laugh. "Sit down. The thing is -"

"The thing is, you need a man in your life," a familiar voice uttered.

I knew who it was, and it didn't come as a surprise to me. My singlehood was what I was going to listen to all day. Behind her was Lolia, with a smile on her face holding a bottle of malt. The girl had some nerves.

"Your best friend here already has a man that wants to marry her. Why can't you be like her?" My mother continued as they both sat down.

I felt my dad hold my hand, pulling me gently to have a seat. I took a deep breath and did as he suggested. If it hadn't been for him, I would be in my car driving away already.

"That's enough," my dad warned. He turned to me and sighed. "The reason you are here is that Lolia said she had something she wanted to share with us, and you had to be present."

I shook my head in disbelief. I was really blind not to see that the one person who I thought had my back didn't, after all. "Lolia, really? You want to rat me out to my own parents?"

"Because she has respect for her elders," my mother answered.

Every time she opened her mouth, I got angrier. I had done my best to swallow whatever she threw at me, smile, and move on. But today only made it worse. "Mummy, I swear to God who made me, if you say one more word..."

I forgot all about my dad's hands until he held mine tightly. "Don't say something you'd regret. Calm down, ok?"

A smirk appeared on my face. I was disgusted at Lolia, and I didn't even know what the hell motivated her to do this. "The reason Lolia is here..." I took another deep breath because I knew what I would say was going to be a shocker. " She's here because she wants to tell you both that I am a bisexual. A lesbian."

My mother suddenly burst out laughing and clapped her hands. "Bisexual? Lesbian? Wait, what kind of bisexual or lesbian, please?"

"Zara," my dad said. "Are you sure about this? Are you sure you are?"

What did he mean, was I sure? I had known this since I was 11, since the first day Lolia and I shared a kiss. At first, I didn't know what to think of it, but I knew it was something I wanted to do again. But it never happened, and to date, we had never spoken about it.

"Zara, answer your father!" My mother screamed in my ears. "This can't be true. You need deliverance because I know it's the devil. The devil wants to take my only child from me. Don't you know that you are committing a grave sin!"

All this woman could think of was that I was sinning. She couldn't see me for who I was or the pain I had been going through all these past years. My own mother couldn't see that this attitude of hers was why I wasn't open to her in the first place.

"You are supposed to marry a man, for god's sake! That's what the bible says. Don't you read your bible anymore?"

I scoffed at her. "Mummy, right now, it is not about what the bible says. It is about what makes me happy. A wise one once said, 'the secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.'"

"Lolia," my dad called. "Is this why you called us all to be here?" She nodded. "Well then, I don't think you deserve to be called my daughter's best friend."

I couldn't believe my ears. What he said was something I assumed my mother would say. Not my dad.

"You cannot come into my house and try to turn your friend's parents against her," he continued. "You know what, leave my house."

Lolia looked at me and then my mother. She was expecting at least one of us to counter what Dad said. I wasn't.

"Leave my house this minute!"

At the sound of his angry voice, she quickly grabbed her bag and waltzed out of the house.

Clearing his throat, he turned to me, "Young lady, you've got a lot of explaining to do..."

"Is that all you will say to her? The girl needs deliverance, and we need to call Rev. Sebastian to pray for her."

He shook his head in disbelief. "You will do no such thing. She is our daughter, so you need to take this seriously. I mean, seriously!"

My eyes and mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise. Although I was staring straight at Dad, it appeared that I did not notice him at all calling my name.

"Zara, are you listening to me?"

I didn't say a word because all I wanted was to leave.

My mother was busy weeping and muttering different things. "See why I didn't want her to go to school in America? Now she's behaving like them?"

"Excuse you? Why..."

Before I could finish my statement, her hand connected with my face, and the whole room went silent — dead silence.

A few minutes passed, and no one said anything except for the tears that threatened to fall down my cheeks. That was the height of it.

Walking towards the door, I could hear my dad telling my mother she went too far. "You don't have to leave like this, Zara," he said behind me.

I didn't listen because I was already out.