LIAR, CHEATER, TROUBLEMAKER 2

“Hello beautiful”

“Hi”, she said shyly

“Can I have this dance?”

She took a moment to think about it before she emphatically said “No thanks, I’m okay here”

“Are you sure?” The guy asked again

“100%, never been surer about anything”

“Then I’m not going anywhere”

He dragged her out of the party venue and before the night ended, he got to know more about her than any other guy she had ever met and she got a fair hearing of his story. He was the kind of guy her brothers warned her about; the smooth-talker, always has an answer for everything, a million watts smile and was sure in control of the conversation. Ahmed.

They met at her departmental fresher’s party, her second night on campus. Bolanle was admitted barely a week before the last list was released, making her registration for courses and the accommodation registration extremely late…Earlier that day, there had been a crazy rush for her to get her registration done and she returned to the hostel tired, hungry and dirty. She arrived just in time to hear Tola, one of her new roommates mention that there was a fresher’s party for the department of English.

“Are you coming?” Tola asked

“No I’m not, I’ve got to eat and go straight to bed”

“But it’s your department, you’ve got to come now”, Tola whined

45 minutes later, she was dressed in a blue jean trouser and a red top, sitting on a plastic chair with the music from the basement pulsating through her veins. That same night, Ahmed became her friend for the rest of the semester and her first boyfriend for the next two sessions. They were great together; with them, perfection was underrated. They met every night and talked about anything and everything, it was a whirlwind of romance. They were extremely happy and content with each other; they understood unsaid messages and shared their pains, checked every results together, held hand, hugged and kissed. She was a virgin and he never put any pressure on her. He was willing to wait. They talked about baby names, after school plans. Bolanle told her mum about him after 7 months and she met his brothers. It was perfect.

100 level break came and she just couldn’t wait to go back to school; they talked every hour and expressed how much they missed each other. Finally, school resumed and on their first meeting, he held her for over 20 minutes, kissed her sweetly on the lips and told her how much he wished they would never be separated again. It was a sweet sweet reunion and that week, school resumed fully.

“Hey babe” he called one night and as usual, she got the normal tingles that flutter whenever she hears his voice.

“Hi dear”

“I missed you all day”

“Ditto, honey. Classes were boring so I had all the time to think about you all day”

They went through their normal chats about their day, friends, lecturers and everything they remembered to tell each other

“You sound worried, is anything the problem?” Bolanle said after awhile

“Well, there’s something I should tell you”

Heart running 10 miles per minute, she said “oh…hope it’s not anything serious”

“We can’t see like before anymore, you know how Geology is and now that I’m in 300level, there’s even more work and practical. One of my most demanding courses is 303- structural geology; its laden with lots of practical and extra classes because according to the lecturer, we won’t finish the syllabus if we only depend on the time-table hours” he said.

“You scared me! Of course I understand, that’s the primary assignment after all. I’m sure we can definitely find a way around it. What about Saturdays?”

“Wow, I didn’t think you would understand. Thanks baby, you’re the best. Actually, we can meet up on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If that’d be okay”

“Sure. Loosen up, okay? Nothing is going to change”

They talked some more and dropped the calls that night. For two months after that, they only met up twice a week, Ahmed always tired and Bolanle with food and drinks. She used her time off with Ahmed to become close friend with one of her roommates, Yewande, a student of Geography and one of Yewande’s coursemates, Bisi (who was allocated a bed space in another hostel but was like another roommate because of how much time she spent with them).

“So I met this new guy today, OMG; he’s so so cute and cool headed” Bisi gushed one night during their lazy talk hours.

“You’re always meeting a new guy” Yewande and Bola chorused, looked at each other and burst out laughing. Bisi pouted and continued getting starry eyed, telling them how special this one was and expressed how certain this one was and in fact, they were already dating.

“But you just met him! Ashewo buruku” Yewande protested, while they all burst into another bouts of laughter

“Well, I feel like I know him in and out already” The conversation died there and for the next three weeks, they heard earfuls about how outstanding this guy was.

Bolanle started hearing less and less from Ahmed and even saw him lesser. Excuses upon excuses came every week; until she got tired, angry and decided to tell her girlfriends about the issue. They told her to take a chill pill; as lapse in communication happens in all relationships and hers was no exception. The straw that broke the camel’s back happened one night during the lecture free week; examinations were fact approaching and preparations were on the go. It was a Saturday night and Bolanle decided to call Ahmed and ask if they could see again; he gave an excuse about a practical he had to round up, told her he loved her so so much, missed her more and would do things differently if he had a choice. With nothing else to do, Bola carried her bag and decided to go to the academics area to read for the last night until the exams came.

She just passed the famous white house, so lost in thought that she didn’t hear someone screaming her name from afar until Bisi slapped her arm lightly and jokingly asked if she was thinking about her boo.

“Thank God I saw you sef…I want you to meet my boyfriend, the one and only Niyi I’ve been telling you guys about” she said, bouncing up and down, whilst dragging Bola to one of the staircases . There stood Ahmed in all his glory, grinning widely until he saw who Bisi dragged along. Bola almost fainted; Ahmed’s second name was Adeniyi. He let the smile slip back onto his face and pecked Bisi’s cheek.

“Hi, you must be the famous Bola. I’ve heard a lot about you”, Ahmed said with a straight face.

Gob smacked, Bola turned and ran back to the hostel where she collapsed and cried for two wasted years, time, effort and unconditional love.

He never tried to explain, Bisi stopped coming around and Bola never talked to either of them. It ended that Saturday night after months of lies upon lies and 2 years of the best moments of her life.