This is a short story. I wrote it on a jotter yesterday at a friend's house, and just finished typing and editing it right now.

I will get back to the Novelette I am currently writing, but I just decided to put this one out there for the lovers out there.

first to chop



following keenly

Valentine’s Day Party

By

Kayode Odusanya












 

© 2018 Kayode Odusanya




















 

Obinna had written his last paper the day before and he thought there was no use staying longer than necessary on campus, so he packed his stuff early valentine’s day, and left school. He was lucky to get the last seat on the first bus going to Lagos at the bus garage opposite his school, the University of Ibadan. That was how the day begun with a spark; but even at that point, he had no idea the valentine’s day was going to be one the most unforgettable lovers day of his life.

……….

He switched his black duffle bag from his left shoulder to his right as he stepped into his street. Packing light was his plan, but the long walk from the bus stop had made the bag feel heavier and tire his lanky body out. As he walked down his street, his eye caught a red pickup truck looking for where to park up ahead. In the rare end cargo area of the truck were wooden parts he guessed were for setting up a stage. There was always one celebration or the other on his street, but he was surprised anyone would be having a party on a Wednesday. Maybe someone died again, he thought to himself. He noticed bright colored posters on most of the gates, and as he slowed down by a broken down car to actually read what was written on the poster, a little kid shouted out, “Uncle Obinna.” He stopped and looked to his right were the voice had come from, and he saw the little toddler running towards him from the entrance of a cream colored bungalow with low fence. He immediately dropped his duffle and assumed a crouching position to hold the boy in an embrace. “What did you buy for me?” The little kid said enthusiastically.

Obinna laughed, and as he was about to answer the little cute kid, a shadow was casted in front of him. He looked up, and by the gate of the bungalow was a chubby light skinned teenage girl with a smile on her face. “How are you doing Titilayo.” Obinna said. She was on the phone, and waved at him in greeting. “Tobi, go and meet your mom.” He said as he got up and swung his bag around his shoulder.
“No jor! Come and tell me ninja tortoise story.” The little kid said and folded is arms.
Obinna laughed lightly before saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll come back and tell you the story, let me drop my bag first.” The little three year old boy stood there, with a frown on his face, watching Obinna walk away. “Don’t worry, I will soon be back now, you hear?” Obinna added.
“Make sure you come back o!” The little kid said with a smile on his face before running off to meet his mom.

As Obinna turned around to continue his walk to his house, memories came flooding back. It was just like yesterday when his best friend at the time, Teju had brought Titilayo to his house after school on a valentine’s day in 2014. Obinna’s house was always free as his dad was a pilot who was never around, and his mother had passed away when he was just a kid.

Teju had been talking to her on the street late at night for weeks on end as their puppy love grew, but that was the first time they had been under a roof with no adult supervision. One thing led to another, they started taking shots of Tequila, and they ended up having sex; just once, and according to Teju, it didn’t last more than thirty seconds. But three weeks later, they found out Titilayo was pregnant.
Teju couldn’t come to terms with the reality; they were all just fifteen at the time. Teju started having sleepless nights, and even skipping school as Temidayo, Titilayo’s twin brother always beat him up every chance he got for impregnating his twin.

A month after the pregnancy news broke out, Teju was found unconscious in his room. He was rushed to the hospital, but the doctor pronounced him dead right there in the backseat of his dad’s Toyota Corolla. His death was a puzzle until an empty bottle of sniper pesticide was found by his bed side.

Relieving the experience of that day again in his head made him sad, but when he turned around one more time and saw Tobi playing with his mom outside their house gate, a smile returned to his face.

His street was a very long one, with about 40 houses total, but a closed community. There were four entrances into the street; the north and south entrances, and the two opposite midsection entrances. The gates were locked at three of these entrances by 7pm every night, leaving only the north end entrance for everyone to use. Majority of the residence of Olufemi street, in Bariga were printers, and had their businesses located in the same location around Shomolu area of Lagos, so it was like one big happy family.

He got to his house and put his hand through the small square hole in the black gate to open it from inside. An Alsatian started barking and charged towards him; it slowed down its pace as it picked up his scent. Then it started wagging its tail and dancing around. Obinna raised his hand in the air, and the dog stood on its hind legs, trying to bite Obinna’s hand, but he kept raising it higher and higher, as the dog lipped up in the air; after a while, he crouched down to play with the Alsatian a little before walking off. He had his eyes on the upstairs balcony, as if waiting to see someone or something, then looked away and walked off to his apartment.

……….

His dad wasn’t home as usual. He got the house key from the secret place under the flower pot. Their apartment was at the back, and it had its own separate gate; although the gate was never locked, it still made it harder for intruders to wonder into the area.
After taking a quick shower, and changing into ripped blue jeans and a red t shirt that had ‘The Greatest’ inscription on it, he walked out of his room, unplugged his phone from the living room wall, and walked out of the house.

The dog was by the generator house when he opened the gate that demarcated his apartment area from the rest of the compound; it looked up at him, wagged its tail for a while, and then went back to playing with the empty Eva water bottle in front of it. “So you’re already tired of me, right?” Obinna said as he walked past the dog. He stopped in front of a red metal door, took a deep breath and knocked on it.
“Who is it?” A sweet sounding female voice shouted out.
“Janet, it’s Obinna…Is Kevin around?”
“What? Is that Obinna for real?” A guy said out loud.
He heard footsteps coming down stairs, and then the metal door swung open. “Hey Obinna, how are you doing?” The slender brown-skinned girl in front of him said. A big smile was evident as she pulled her braids back from her face.
“Whoa!” Obinna exclaimed
“What?”
“You have…you look different.” Obinna said and she chuckled before running back up the stairs. He stepped in, closed the metal door behind him, and was lost in thought as he walked up the stairs. Not only had she grown a bit more flesh since he last saw her four months ago, she also appeared a lot bolder.
He walked straight to Kelvin’s room, and as he suspected, his friend was playing video game. “You haven’t changed?” He said and as he shut the door behind him.
“Hey! My man!” The smallish guy in oversize white t shirt and boxer shorts got up from the floor between the bed and the TV, dropped the game pad and raised his hand for a hi five with Obinna. They slapped hands, and hugged. “What’s up bro!!? Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”
“No battery on my phone.”Obinna replied.
“Hmm! Nice afro. You look good.”
“Thanks.”
“Men! This God of War is the shiznit on PS 4.” He said and rushed back to resume his position in front of the TV. “What’s up bro! Fill me in on all the girls you have shagged so far.”
“What the…”
“Oh, you don’t want Janet to hear?”
Obinna looked at the door before saying, “What are you saying?”
“Hope you have grown balls to tell Janet you like her now?”
“Kevin, stop.” Obinna said with a laugh.
“Bro, you better tell her before one unknown guy comes along and shags her.”
“Dude, that’s your sister you are talking about.”
“So? She's 18. And I’d rather it were you than some random guy.” He stopped the game to massage his neck, and then started it again. He looked sideways at Obinna for a split second before saying, “At least I know you like her.”
Kevin had always had a slick mouth, and he got away with a lot of things he said because he had sickle cell disease, and people just let him have a field day when he started running his mouth. Even with his parents, he got away with almost everything. He was always the first in the neighborhood to get the latest video games.
“Hey dude, you know there is a valentine’s party tonight right?”Kevin said without looking Obinna’s way.
“Are you for real?”
“Yes. Didn’t you see all the posters on the walls?”
“Oh yea, I noticed that but…” He was saying then stopped to pull out his vibrating phone from his pocket. He looked at the screen for a second before picking up and saying, “hello sir.”
“Obinna, how are you? Are you home now?” His dad said on the other end of the line.
“Yes sir.”
“Did you see the Mars chocolate bars I left for you in the refrigerator? I know you like Mars.”
“Yes sir. Thank you.”
“Okay. I’ll be home tomorrow morning.”
“Okay sir.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
“Awww! Daddy’s baby.” Kevin said.
“Ode!” Obinna said, and hit his friend at the back of his head. Kevin concentrated extra hard on the game, and after a while, he dropped the control pad and looked at Obinna with a frown. “You killed my vibe bro.”
“Whatever.” Obinna said before free falling on the bed.
Kevin switched off the TV from the wall socket, got off the floor, stretched and said, “Let’s go outside.”

……….

When Obinna, Kevin, and Janet stepped out of their house, music was already booming from the set up stage at the west midsection gate of the street. Teenagers dressed in red and white colored clothing were all over the place. Janet had on a red leather skirt, white jumper top, with a red leather jacket that had zippers everywhere like the jacket Michael Jackson wore on the cover of his Bad album. Even adults had a little red and a little white here and there in their dressing. Major Lazer's Particular came on and everybody automatically got into the mood to dance. Obinna kept repeating the words, "I like you girl in particular" and pointing at Janet as they moved to the rhythm of the song.

The DJ kept people dancing, and there was a chorused shout each time a new song came on. After about twenty minutes of his wing-man being hijacked by his sister, Kevin stylishly found his way back to the house.

Around 8pm, Janet said she had to go home and let her parents know where she was. He volunteered to walk her home, but she said he should stay and have fun. He watched her run off, and he caught sight of Titilayo sitting alone on a car on the east wing gate, opposite where all the action was going on.

“You’re missing out.” He said to her when he was a few feet away from her. She smiled and said nothing. She had always been a very reserved individual, and Obinna was use to her that way. He sat silently with her for a few minutes, and then asked her where Tobi was. She said he had cried himself to sleep because uncle Obinna didn’t come back to tell him the Ninja Tortoise story. They both burst out laughing. Obinna promised to check on him the next morning, and Titilayo said she would pass the message along to him. They chit chatted for a while, and then she urged him to go have fun. He told her he would check on her again after some time, and she nodded at him with a smile.

They had started sharing food, and music had stopped playing as one of the parents that organized the party was on stage talking about importance of abstinence. He found her wondering around the place, with two packs of food and two cans of coke in her hand. He tapped her, and she turned around with a frown on her face, which was quickly replaced by a smile. “Hey! Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.” She said enthusiastically.
“I…never mind, what do you have here?” He asked and she handed him a food pack, and canned coke. They sat on an old yellow Volvo close to the street’s public borehole tank.
“So…how is Ibadan?”
“Well, it is not Lagos.” He said and they both laughed. “I don’t leave campus much, but I guess school life over there is interesting enough.”
“Yea? Like how interesting?” She asked and looked at him with a mischievous smile on her face.
“Well…Umm! You got rice on your mouth…” he said and used his thumb to brush off the food from the corner of her mouth.
“Thank you.” She said with a smile.
“About school, just normal fun stuff…video games in the common room, talking rap music with friends, going out for drinks…stuff like that.”
“What of girls?”
“Well, the girls are there…they are there.” He said and laughed a little.
“You have a girlfriend?”
“Well…” he was saying then stopped to take a sip from the can in his hand and then turned to face her with a smile on his face as he said, “wait, I got to ask, how did you get so bold?” She chuckled and he laughed a little before adding, “Did you take a boldness pill or something? This is so rapid.” She laughed some more and it got quiet afterwards.
“Umm! I overhead what Kevin said earlier.” She said, breaking the silence.
“When was that? What did he say?”
“He said you were afraid to tell me…to tell me you liked me.”
“Oh my! This is getting awkward.”
“Are you?” She asked, with her eyes focused on him.
He looked at her for a while before saying, “No I’m not. I just didn’t know how your brother would feel about it.”
Kevin’s loud voice disrupted his speech, and when he looked up, he saw his small statured best friend having an argument with the chubby six foot bully, Temidayo. He jumped off the car, and Janet did the same. Kevin was cursing Temidayo out, and Temidayo kept saying he didn’t care if Kevin was sick or not, that he would still give him a beat-down if he didn’t shut up.
Obinna saw that slap like it was in slow motion, and then Kevin fell to the floor. He rushed to his side, and pulled him up. “Are you okay?” he asked, but Kevin was quiet, looking downcast. Obinna shot Temidayo a mean look as he made to walk Kevin home.
“Yea, run along, wimp number two.” Temidayo said and shoved Obinna. He was going to keep walking, but he saw the disappointed look in Janet’s eyes; a picture of his dead friend, Teju frowning, flashed through the screen of his mind, and like a car going from zero to sixty in six seconds, his anger level rose. It was like Teju’s spirit got in him as he turned around and swung a left hook at Temidayo. His fist landed a heavy blow on the big bully’s jaw. Temidayo staggered back and almost lost balance. He stood there, with his hand cupping his chin, looking at Obinna. It was clear he never in his life thought Obinna would have the nerve to actually hit him. Obinna stood there like, bring it on. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Temidayo turned around and walked away from the scene.

“That’s my boy! You did me proud my boy!” Kevin kept repeating as he stood in front of his friend and shadow boxed. Still basking in the euphoria of what had just happened, Obinna remembered someone and turned around to look in the direction Titilayo was seated. He didn’t know how she would feel after he just punched her twin brother, but she smiled at him and slowly nodded. He shot her back a smile, and turned around to face his friends.

……….

After Kevin had gone off to change clothes, and everyone had gone back to dancing, eating, or whatever they were doing before that epic moment, Janet walked up to him, and said, “So, what were you saying before we were rudely interrupted.” He looked at her, and it was like he was in a movie; Ed Sheeran’s song, Perfect was playing in the background, and timing felt perfect. He slowly leaned in and kissed her on the lips. He pulled back, and she opened her eyes, smiling. She leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips, put her arms around his neck, her head on his chest, and they slow danced under the bright moonlight.

The End

Sorry for the delay guys. I was about to hit 'submit' when my laptop died. The story is up now.

Big ups man!!! I've been following your stories for a while now and I must confess,
You've got all thats needed to be the very best in the field...
More Ink to your pen bro...
You'd go places...

Awesome piece Sir... you still remain my best nairaland writer, you deserve an Oscar

Shedrak1:
Big ups man!!! I've been following your stories for a while now and I must confess,
You've got all thats needed to be the very best in the field...
More Ink to your pen bro...
You'd go places...

Wow! Thanks a lot. I really appreciate this.

dammyd46:
Awesome piece Sir... you still remain my best nairaland writer, you deserve an Oscar

Thanks a lot. Maybe one day I will get an Oscar.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

kayo80:
Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

Same to u ooooh... thanks for d awesome and beautiful story.. btw hope Val isnt boring sha??

becca2017:



Same to u ooooh... thanks for d awesome and beautiful story.. btw hope Val isnt boring sha??

Thanks.

No... Val isn't boring.

kayo80:


Thanks.

No... Val isn't boring.

You're welcome

Ohhhkk..

How do you do it... what's your drive... Every piece you write is overwhelming... I just have one request teach me how you do it... The only thing I wrote correctly was my philosophies of life that I gathered... From past experience, books I read and lectures from people...

carloz685:
How do you do it... what's your drive... Every piece you write is overwhelming... I just have one request teach me how you do it... The only thing I wrote correctly was my philosophies of life that I gathered... From past experience, books I read and lectures from people...

Thanks for the compliment.

Honestly, what I can say is that I got better over time. I have been writing since 2007...and I would say my stories got good/presentable around 2016-2017. Practice makes perfect.

What drives me? Well, I'm a very quiet /reserved person in real life, and I just do a lot of watching... Watching people, watching movies, and creating mini stories in my head of how things could turn out if the people I watch (in real life and on screen) do things a little different. And then I get motivated to write/create that alternate world. I watch lots and lots of movies... Different genres. It drives me.

I would just say I have passion for life generally. Art imitates life.

just too perfect.....

Happy Valentine's day to you all

Your stories always remain ever fresh and wonderful, I've already bookmarked your moniker on nairaland, so as to ease re-reading your stories. More wisdom Mr Kayo.

kayo80:
Happy Valentine's day to you all

I wish you the same.

Dybala11:
Your stories always remain ever fresh and wonderful, I've already bookmarked your moniker on nairaland, so as to ease re-reading your stories. More wisdom Mr Kayo.

Thanks

kayo80:


Thanks

You're welcome sir.

Happy Valentine's day to you all.