The semester holidays came and went. Chilo was now in her final year. It seemed like it was just a few weeks back when she was still doing battle with jamb, trying to gain admission into the prestigious UNILAG. Well, she liked to think the university was still prestigious. When it came to flexing and fun, UNILAG was tops. In the other important areas like academics…she couldn’t be too sure, neither was she ready to investigate.

She had decided to relax in her final year. She had been studying very hard for three years, so she believed she deserved some fun. The only challenge was Chilo was reserved and didn’t have too many friends. Apart from Deborah and George, she wasn’t really on friendly terms with her other school mates. She and Deb were polar opposites in nature, hence, while her chubby friend was the live wire of any social gathering, Chilo often preferred to skulk around in the background of things, preferring her own thoughts as company. Since she was bent on taking a much deserved break from excess ‘jacking’, she allowed Deb drag her to social events in and around campus.

Consequently, for the first time in her life, Chilo attended a night club and her right hand woman, Deb made it possible. She had always wondered what people found so fascinating in clubs. Back in her 300 levels, she had hall mates who attended night clubs three times a week. Sometimes four, if they got lucky. The girls would be clad in very tight bum shorts, sheer tops and sky scraper heels that often had Chilo wondering how they were possibly able to walk on such ridiculously high heeled shoes. Then, when they were leaving for their nocturnal club prowls, their laughter and the clackety clack and 'koin koin koin' of their shoes on the cemented floor of the corridor often made such a racket that she would grit her teeth and bury her head underneath her pillow. She vowed to attend a night club one day to know what magic it held for those who frequented there.

When the opportunity presented itself, she didn’t hesitate to take it. A course mate’s older brother was having his Stag Night at Bacchus club in Ikoyi, so he invited all his friends and course mates to come along. On the night of the party, Deborah primped her up, gave her a pair of wicked looking high heeled shoes that had Chilo walking like a duck, and stuffed her into the air conditioned vehicle of a villainous faced young man who looked like he was high on cheap crack. Just where on earth Deb met these kinds of people was beyond her.

They exited the campus premises in a convoy at a few minutes to 12 midnight. As they moved, Chilo was thankful that the windows were tinted because she would be hard pressed explaining why she was coiffed, perfumed, powdered and sitting dandy in a strange vehicle by that time of the night to her fellowship members if on their way back from night prep, they happened to pass by and see her.

To say the whole night was an anti-climax will be an understatement. First, their creepy looking driver turned on the car stereo at full blast and when Chilo complained, he looked at her with an amused glare {if such a thing was even possible} and barked over the boom of the music that Chilo obviously had never been to a club because if she had, she would know that the music at the clubhouse was ten times louder than his stereo.

He was right. The music was so atrociously loud that Chilo felt that her eardrums would surely explode and seep out through her eyes and nose. Then there was the god-awful stench of cigarrete smoke in the premises that permeated everything in the club, humans included.

Thank God I am not asthmatic, she thought in annoyance. I would have had an attack instantly!

The drinks were expensive, the dance steps of the clubbers salaciously scandalous, and the whole atmosphere one of general moral laxity.

However, Chilo decided to try to relax and see if she could try to milk out some form of fun that wouldn’t put her in a compromising position. She tugged self-consciously at the blouse Deborah had squeezed her into and hesitantly made her way to the bar. The garment was a size too small and Chilo felt her bosoms straining against the material. Her friend had abandoned her to her own devices immediately they entered the club and was now in a corner deep in earnest conversation with a young lady with the tightest bum shorts she had ever laid eyes on. The girl looked vaguely familiar. Probably a course or school mate. Chilo dismissed her and moved to the bar.

Perched at a vantage point on a barstool, Chilo surveyed the whole scene through a thick haze of cigarette smoke.

So this is what a club looks like, she thought. There is nothing here nau. Just smoking, drinking and dancing. I wonder how anyone can possibly come here to unwind in the midst of all these noise and rowdiness.

Right there at the bar, she was propositioned by several men but she politely but firmly turned all of them down. As the hours dragged on, Chilo’s boredom increased. Sometime during the night, Deb brought a chapman drink to her.

“How you are enjoying the place?” her companion asked at the top of her voice

“I know what we will gain if we were in church praying to God right now. The way I see it, there might be a lot of marine and witchraft guys and girls looking for virtues to drain!” Chilo replied, also at the top of her voice.

Deb laughed merrily and moved back to the hall.

About an hour later, the DJ started playing a very popular song by Dj Zeez titled ‘Bobby eh’. The drama that followed thereafter was hilarious. A wild eyed guy unceremoniously dragged her off the stool and unto the dance floor. From the corner of her eye, she saw a very harassed looking Deborah sandwiched between three guys who seemed bent on having a feel of her ‘bobby’. Her friend was very, very well endowed.

Bobby eh

o ja mi laya

Ju di eh

O ja mi laya

Bo she shaki eh

Mo mo pe o le fake e

Dj Zeez’s deep voice rumbled through the sound systems and drove the crowd wild. Chilo was forced to use ‘anya akakpo’ {‘strong eyes’, as Mother would say} to extricate herself from the grip of the young man who was twirling her round the dance floor and fled through the mass of wriggling, sweaty bodies to a dark corner of the hall. ‘Fled’ might not be the right word; wobbled away’ might be a more appropriate phrase. The heels of the shoes were so darned high. Those wearing these kind of shoes were inviting an early onset of rheumatism, Chilo fumed, swaying this way and that as she made her clumsy escape. The bulb was out in that corner so no one was exactly keen to go there.

From the corner, she saw her wild eyed dancing partner scanning the crowd for her and ducked behind a large table nailed to the wall. To her surprise, there was a low stool beneath the table. She dragged the stool out and sat on it. She could see everything happening from where she sat without been seen, so she made herself comfortable watching everything happening. Enclosed in the warm darkness, she amused herself until she fell asleep.

She slept for about two hours, waking intermittently when the Deejay changed tracks. Much later, Deb marvelled at how in God’s name she had been able to sleep through the noise and Chilo replied that it was all a function of the mind. She had simply blocked out everything and focused on sweet, blessed sleep.

Someone shaking her roughly by the shoulder dragged her up from a dream about rainbow coloured dancing robots. The robots wore skirts and high heeled shoes and were doing the moonwalk when she was pulled back to wakefulness.

‘’Chi, sleepy sleepy, let’s go jor! I’ve been looking all over for you and our driver is about to leave us.’’ Deb looked impatient and relieved at the same time.

She checked her wristwatch. It was a few minutes past 4am. What a blasted waste of time! If she had attended night vigil instead of this nonsense place, the heavens would probably be shaking by now. Hissing, she picked her shoes which she had tossed aside while she slept and walked barefooted out of the club and into the car park. It wasn’t the same guy who had driven them to the club. It was a different gentleman, one who appeared saner than the first one, but not by much.

The drive back was silent, and in no time they were back at the school gate. Their driver refused to drive into the campus so they were forced to disembark and trudge their weary way back to the hostel on foot. They used their ‘Legedes Benz’, Deb wryly remarked much later.

Chilo didn’t mind ‘legging’. The quietude, the hard tarmac beneath her bare feet {she hadn’t put on those ridiculous shoes since she left the club}, the feel of the cool night breeze against her skin and the calm ambience which was usually absent from the campus during day time suited her just fine. She could have trekked to Timbuktu without feeling it, and when she voiced this out, her companion merely snorted savagely and kept silent.

They didn’t feel any danger so they moved at a leisurely pace. Besides, the Man O’War guys would soon be out for their twice weekly early morning jog so there was nothing to fear.

The girls walked on in silence. Chilo looked around her. Unilag. The Great Akoka. It was hard to believe that very soon, she would be leaving these four walls. Four years, gone in a jiffy . . . she was likely going to graduate among the top five in her department, she had never had any issues with any of her courses; well, almost. Her voltron force had disappointed her badly when she was in her 200 level, scattering at the last minute and leaving her and Deborah stranded. She had carried over GST212 as a result, but she bounced back in 300 levels and passed the course in flying colours. Lesson learnt: never put your trust in man.

God had been good to her academics. After the initial delay from jamb, it had been smooth sailing all the way. She had had no run in with any lecturer, her romance with Paul had not left any bad blood between them and she hadn’t had to struggle extra hard to pass, unlike most of her course mates. God was indeed good. If only the other areas of her life were as smooth and devoid of bad drama as her academics.

They were very close to New Hall where their different hostels were located when they ran into a course mate, a visual arts major named Billy Benson, or BB for short. The incursion of the blackberry phone into the Nigerian market was still a few years away; otherwise with a moniker like ‘BB’, Billy would have been the butt of jokes all over the faculty. For now, he was just plain old Beebee to his friends, which Chilo wasn’t. Which was why when they came across him on his way to his early morning training at the Sports Centre, Chilo casually called out “Hey Billy!”

There was nothing plain about Billy Benson. He was about six feet four inches tall, ebony black in complexion, muscular, broad chested and handsome of features. He was also a notorious borrower. Billy never went anywhere without finding someone to leech from. Most women were taken in by his charms and usually didn’t know when they dipped hands into their pockets and purses to lend him generous sums of money. It was only when they had parted ways with their money did they suddenly wake up from what ever spell he had cast on them. The painful thing about Billy was that he never repaid any money he borrowed. Once you lent BB money, you could kiss the money goodbye because as Deb had once said, the money would ‘’enter voicemail’’: please try again later. Despite this, BB was very popular in the faculty and was very active in his student fellowship.

Chilo had had a crush on him longer than she could remember, so she always went out of her way to exchange pleasantries with him but it never went beyond that because she was well aware of his reputation and she on her own part would rather hang out with someone she stood a chance to gain something from.

Billy scrunched up his nose when they got close to him. Chilo knew they reeked of cigarette smoke; their hair, their clothing and who knew, perhaps their underwear too. He didn’t comment, however, and they exchanged awkward pleasantries. Chilo was very conscious of the fact that she was tramping down Unilag barefooted while Debbie was concerned about the dishevelled state of her hair. Add the stench of cigarettes coming off them in biting waves and you had every cause to be self-conscious around a hunk like BB.

"Hello babes," he responded, a knowing smile on his lips. "I see you are both returning from night vigil. How was service?" He was grinning from ear to ear by now.

The girls laughed louder than was necessary and fell into awkward silence. Deb unconsciously reached up and chastised a strand of wayward weave.

A few minutes of stilted conversation later, he offered to see them the rest of the way, but they declined his offer. It wasn't necessary, they assured him. They were almost at their halls of residence. However, Billy, being the charming fellow he was, insisted on acting as their body guard and the girls found themselves agreeing despite their initial adamant stance. Billy was indeed a very persuasive fellow. Very.

At New Hall, they exchanged phone numbers and every one parted ways.

The subsequent days saw Chilo and BB getting on very familiar terms with each other. When he called her that very evening, she had been pleasantly surprised. Wow, she thought giddily, dinner!! Their meeting went on pleasantly enough and soon, a routine was established.

After classes, they would hang out at the Love Garden, chatting for hours on end. He got to know about her family life and she found about his. He was in a very serious relationship and his girlfriend was in the UK studying for her masters. She was a virgin, a rare thing in these days where kids as young as twelve years old were already sleeping with men three times their age. He was so proud of her and was ready to wait for her as long as it would take. He was also the first son of his family and the backbone of his father’s house.

Really? Backbone you say? Is that why you go around borrowing money from everything that moves? She thought with some scorn when he told her this.

Despite knowing fully well that he was in a serious relationship, Chilo allowed herself get drawn to him. She found him a very intriguing character. He made her laugh even when she wasn’t in the mood to laugh and he was a chatterbox like Deborah.

He was also such an exquisite eye candy... God!! She feasted her eyes on every nook of his physique whenever she was in his company. Many times she found herself wondering just how well endowed he was in the nether regions, seeing as he had such thick, muscular arms. . .

O Chilo, your mind! She often chastised herself whenever her heart took this path, trying to force it back to more edifying climes.

But, soon enough, she began to let her guard down around him. Memories of the gruelling torture she had faced while fasting was already beginning to fade; after all it had been almost seven months now. She had stopped asking herself what would happen when she was faced with temptation again. She had overcome Emmanuel, so he couldn’t harm her again. The thing which had kept her tied to him had left her life, so she was safe. She had forgotten her weakness because it had been months since she walked out of mid-week service to go and have hectic, senseless sex with her boyfriend.

Thus, when temptation came, it was swift and merciless. The first time she and BB kissed in the visual arts studio, very close to the lagoon front, there had been some light petting and it had ended there. Chilo knew she was playing with fire but she was so attracted to him that she allowed herself to be invited over again. She felt confident that nothing would happen. It would stop at petting and smooching, she vowed.

Indeed. The second time, there was no holding back. Luckily for her {depending on which way you choose to look at it}, he was the quintessence of the 'one minute man' so everything was over in a space of two minutes. She had derived no satisfaction from the whole exercise. Her pleasure had just begun to mount when he exploded and everything ended, bringing her crashing back to concrete reality with unapologetic force.

Chilo was stunned. Fighting back tears, she struggled to keep herself together as she pulled her panties back on. He hadn’t bothered to take off her clothes. He had just simply pulled down his trousers, lifted her skirt, unceremoniously yanked down her panties and gotten down to business.

Feeling numb, she quietly asked him to see her back to the hostel. She was afraid of being alone with her thoughts right then because she knew what awaited her once she was alone with them.

Affecting a very convincing façade of nonchalance, she chatted with Billy about nothing and everything under the sun.

“You are very special, sweetie, I hope you know that?” BB asked with such a note of tenderness that Chilo felt her heart melting anew.

She smile demurely and kept silent.

Yes, perhaps there was still hope. Never mind that his girlfriend’s picture was his screen saver. All these Nigerian girls that went abroad for one thing or the other often had excuses not to come back when it was time for them to do so. BB’s girlfriend might meet another man over there and that would be the end of the relationship. She would stick with Billy and together they could build a life together.

Barely five minute had passed after he made his tender statement when his girlfriend called him from her base in the UK.

“Hello baby,” BB said softly into the phone.

When Chilo saw the expression on his face when he answered the call, she felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on her. The expression was one of such love and devotion that she immediately knew that her cause was hopeless.

She felt humiliation wash over her. So what was she to him? What, really? How can a man sleep with a woman one minute and in the next minute, profess love to another? It was sheer heartlessness! He didn’t even have the decency to wait until she was no longer with him before whispering sweet nothings into another woman’s ears.

I slept with him, so I OWN him, you hear?? You silly, silly girl!! she railed bitterly in her heart of hearts at this nasty girl, who all the way from the white man's land, was muscling in on her territory. The girl was spoiling her moment! But even as the words formed in her head, she knew she was just deceiving herself.

She got there before you, so who are you fooling?

It was so galling.

Abruptly, she walked away, leaving Billy still whispering dementedly into the phone. The bitter truth was there was no one to blame but herself. She wanted to lay the blame at the door of her skirt, because after all, skirts meant easier passage to one's nether parts. But could she really blame the fact that she had worn a skirt? Even if she had worn trousers, it would still have happened.

Could she also blame spirit husband for this one too? Did spirit husband ask her to put herself into a compromising position that made her vulnerable to temptation? It would be easy to pass the blame, but she wouldn't. Oh no, she wouldn't.

That which I hate, I find myself doing. O wretched girl that I am! Who will save me from this?

When she got to her room, she was too guilt ridden to even think of praying for forgiveness so she slumped on her bed and quickly fell asleep.

That night, she dreamt she was pregnant.

The dream was so vivid, almost like the one she had during her deliverance programme. When she woke up, she was so startled that the following day, she was forced to tell Billy about the dream.

"Do your dreams come true?" he asked, looking panicked.

She licked her lips. "Em, sometimes, but not all the time", she answered quietly.

He ruminated on this for some seconds. "It's a chance I'm not willing to take" he said finally.

He took her to a drugstore at the complex opposite New Hall and bought her Postinor. He also bought a sachet of 'pure water' {he can't even buy bottled water, she thought with irritation}, and right there and then by the road side, under Billy's watchful eyes, Chilo swallowed the drug like it was some sort of life saving elixir.

Three days later, she saw her period and it was horrible. Her flow was very heavy, so much so that she was confined in bed for the better part of the duration of her period. The cramps and pain were so excruciating, she thought she would die. She was forced to do a little research and she found out that heavy bleeding was a side effect of the drug she took.

Chilo was very bitter. So this was it? Seven months of righteous abstinence, gone down the drain because of one randy iidiot fellow who, despite having a girlfriend, still flirted around. And good God, she had allowed herself be used. AGAIN. What was her problem??

Her actions filled her with shame and she felt that old stirring of total hopelessness in the pit of her stomach.

With a deep conviction, she knew her days on earth were numbered…

Ishi please put Chilo out of her misery. She just keeps going back.


you've been scarce btw, work?

An0nimus: Ishi please put Chilo out of her misery. She just keeps going back.


you've been scarce btw, work?

I wish it were that easy, dear.

Yeah, I've been very busy cos of work thainz

...

Ishi I am an ardent reader of ur work, ur syntax is opulent and ur style eccentric, the story line is just too realistic accomadating all the incidences of youthfullness. However am afraid as to whether the end will be satisfy my suspense. Am sure u will make the denoument orgasmiic. Ride on!

Enitsua: Ishi I am an ardent reader of ur work, ur syntax is opulent and ur style eccentric, the story line is just too realistic accomadating all the incidences of youthfullness. However am afraid as to whether the end will be satisfy my suspense. Am sure u will make the denoument orgasmiic. Ride on!

I haff died

Enitsua: Ishi I am an ardent reader of ur work, ur syntax is opulent and ur style eccentric, the story line is just too realistic accommodating all the incidences of youthfullness. However am afraid as to whether the end will be satisfy my suspense. Am sure u will make the denoument orgasmiic. Ride on!

hahahaha

Ishilove, please stop rushing thru the sweet part, we would appreciate more in-depth, rigorous, exhaustive narration of "the" event. Blow by Blow.

please don't miss any part. Neither are you allowed to jump acts or scenes.

Hmm.......
Interesting,more life battery data bundle to your device.

I went on awol. And it feels good to be back here.
I'm happy chilo has been liberated and I wish she will just get a suitor who will put an end to all her wayward thoughts. She has really been through a lot.
Ishi, pls try to update o. I hate suspence.

ishilove, why has thou forsaken us

princesa: ishilove, why has thou forsaken us

I guess she learnt from some1

Am unfollowing this story, justa ain't worth waiting for it anymore. Haba

Ishi,this is not fair oooo

Sorry folks, I don't have a laptop anymore that's why I haven't updated. The contraption crashed on me so I'm saving for a new one

*sobs* It will have to be my phone I'll be using to update from here on out. Please bear with me

Ishilove: Sorry folks, I don't have a laptop anymore that's why I haven't updated. The contraption crashed on me so I'm saving for a new one

*sobs* It will have to be my phone I'll be using to update from here on out. Please bear with me

Sowy. But pls make do with the fone.

.

Ishilove:
Hello my children

Abeg make una no vex. My lappy is having some serious issues o that's why I haven't updated yet.

naptu2:

FUND RAISING! FUND RAISING! FUND RAISING!

Donate to the "New Laptop for Ishilove Fund"! No amount is too small. Donate today!

i no be your piking ooooo.i will format the lappy free sha.

keeep it coming

I am following....

ishi,,, are you a MFM member??

faithgokz: ishi,,, are you a MFM member??

Yep

Ishilove:
Yep

kulll. . i'm also one. .your story appears so esp dat deliverance side. .:-D

ishilove am a newbie here on nairaland.but i must say u r talented.

but my question is,which one cum be SU love.lolz

Ishiluv...Apart 4rm thankn u 4 showing dix awesome display ov writing talent dat wil definitely mak prof Chinua Achebe(RIP) hapi whereva he is coz d future ov Nigeria literature is definitely bright wit pple like u arnd,i av to thank u 4 introducin me to Are u lonesome tonight by Elvis Presley,it has bin on replay since i downloaded...it luvly

Dahkogrin007: Ishiluv...Apart 4rm thankn u 4 showing dix awesome display ov writing talent dat wil definitely mak prof Chinua Achebe(RIP) hapi whereva he is coz d future ov Nigeria literature is definitely bright wit pple like u arnd,i av to thank u 4 introducin me to Are u lonesome tonight by Elvis Presley,it has bin on replay since i downloaded...it luvly

You're welcome

Nawaooo last updat was......Ishilove(f): 2:39am On Jun 05
so nothing for this month abi the story dont have continuation....

Na so we see aam ooo. And I don't think she has an excuse cos she is very frequent on the nairaland story. God help us. We give upp

eunisam: Nawaooo last updat was......Ishilove(f): 2:39am On Jun 05
so nothing for this month abi the story dont have continuation....

Lack of Inspiration+depression+lack of lappy= no update

So sorry

Wow. What an honesty

Those this mean that fans are not motivating you?