She loosens her hair like it doesn’t matter. She brushes her hair, brushes her teeth and what she wears is all that matters; “usisi we make-up”. She powders her face with make-up making it certain that she hides the evidence of the breakout on her skin.

I guess I was never going to meet up with her standards. My boyfriend, who happens to be her ex, got himself all wrapped up on her petite figure again.

“But Luke you said she was history,” that’s what I said after I saw the way he was gazing at her physique. It was as if she put some wicked spell on him. I wanted to just turn and walk away but the thought of that doll winning over my man backend me to stay. So, I stayed and continued on competing for Luke’s affections. I also put on my make-up, loosened my hair making it look a bit messy, and brushed my teeth that were the only things that mattered.

Luke looked puzzled after he saw what I did to myself for, I did it for him. He was unsure of what to say, the words that came out of his mouth were: “Siyakha, you look beautiful I guess.” And that was that. Maybe, I applied the make-up wrong, maybe it didn’t suit me. One thing was for sure, he didn’t like it.

Those words, “you look beautiful I guess,” played on repeat in my head. It was all I thought of until I stopped feeling sorry for myself and stayed true to who I was, a girl with an afro. Competing with unodoli oshukumayo was hard so, I became the bigger person and let them be that was that.

The End

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Tell us: Have you ever competed with someone for your partner’s affection?