Night in the city...

I mean, it's eight o'clock and I'm sitting in my room reading my biology note.

My mum's been back home for an hour now but my dad still isn't here yet.

I hope he's ok. I always get a little spooked when my parents say out late.

Nigeria was already a pretty insecure place and the corona virus pandemic only made it worse.

I sighed before closing my book and picking my phone up from my bedside table.

"Wattpad, here I come" I smiled to myself.

When I logged in, I noticed that I had a few notifications so I decided to check them.

I read an announcement that Nina had posted about her latest book update.

Then something else caught my eye.

Someone had responded to the reading request that I had left on Anime_lover243's message board.

But it wasn't Anime_lover243, it was another user called Emiliabanks.

Hi.
I know this message wasn't for me but I would like to send a reply.
I would really like to check out your book, it'll probably be really cool since its about girl power.
  - Emilia.

I rushed back to my notification box and checked it again.

There were a few votes and comments on my book!

"Yes!" I shouted bouncing on my bed.

" Toluwaniyi Okosi! " My mother yelled from downstairs "Why are you shouting?"

If there was one thing my mother hated, it was shouting for absolutely no reason. She said that it wasn't a good idea to raise false alarms like that, especially if you don't want to be like the boy who cried wolf.

"Sorry mum" I said laying down on my bed "I was just really excited"

"Behave yourself" She warned.

I could hear my brother say something like "Typical Niyi" But I decided to ignore it.

A few votes were from Emilia and the others were from Nina.

She had even added my book to her library.

I scrolled to the left to check my unread messages and unsurprisingly they were from Nina.

Nina_writes: Hello

Nina_writes: I would love to check out your book.

Nina_writes: Your book is pretty cool. I hope it goes far.

I grinned like an idiot at her encouraging messages feeling on top of the world.

Multimouse_3.0: Thanks for checking my book out and thanks for the complements too.

Multimouse_3.0: You're a great writer yourself.

I scrolled over to my notification box and reloaded it  but nothing new appeared.

Checking out the comments that Nina and Emilia had left was the only thing I felt like doing right now.

So I did just that.

"He's a goat!" Jenny said with her hands on her waist "I don't want him anywhere near me"
Nina_writes: You keep saying that Jenny. That Robin boy cannot hear word.

I took a deep breath moving backwards trying to escape but he just kept coming closer. Soon, he had me backed up against a wall.
Emiliabanks: Oh no. So much for girl code

While reading Emilia's comment I tapped on her profile picture in inadvertently and was redirected to her profile.

Her bio was probably the shortest one I had ever read.

A nerd who reads...

Her book has about five thousand reads and unlike a few other users that I had stumbled upon, she was quite friendly.

I followed her to show my appreciation.

Suddenly, I heard the gate open and A car drive in noisly. Different voices could be heard but they sounded like they were coming from outside.

My dad must be back, yes!

I dropped my phone on my bed and rushed down the stairs to greet him.

Tayo, my dad and my mum were walking back into the house when I got back.

My dad wasn't too tall, I think he's about the same height as my mother. I inherited my chocolate brown skin colour from his as well as my unquenchable thirst for books.

"Good evening dad" I said bending down a little to greet him.

"Good evening dear" He said smiling at me " How was your day? "

"It was fine dad" I said.

"And your lessons" he said sitting down on the sofa in. The living room

" I'm doing great dad" I said looking at him.

"How about your friends?" He asked " Faruq and Amy"

I smiled widely when he remembered their names. He had met them in March when Amy had invited me to her fifteenth birthday party but I didn't think that he would remember them.

"They're ok" I said deciding to sit in one of the armchairs. "I chat with them almost every day"

"That's good" He said picking up the remote " By God's grace the pandemic shall soon be over"

"Amen" We all said.

"Now" he said pressing A few buttons on the remote "Let's see what the news has to offer"