always the late comer, hu will shift for me to sit now
keep up the good work, looking forward to more updates

Chapter 10: Channel O

Second semester kicked into full gear about two months after resumption and everything started moving pretty fast; Back to back lectures, evening lectures, standing for hours when lecture halls were filled to capacity. The euphoria of being a Jambite of the university of Lagos had now been replaced with a constant feeling of stress.

Some days, I would be so tired after classes I would just lay in bed listening to Brilla FM till I dozed off. The sports radio station had just begun broadcasting that year, and used to play a lot of music to attract a wider audience. Being a music lover, I would say they always played the latest songs first at the time; add this to the fact that most of my roommates were football lovers. We kept the dial on Brilla all day.

One day, I had fallen asleep tired, and woken up real early the next day around 6 am to see Joshua, one of my roommates leaving the room. Just as he was about to exit the room, another of my roommates asked if he was going to watch Channel O again, and he said yes, with a smile. And then they both bust out laughing. As I thought of what was funny about watching Channel O, I slipped back into sleep.

During lectures the next day, I kept thinking of what was had made my roommates laugh and couldn’t wait till I got back to the hostel so I could ask Joshua what Channel O was all about. I was sure it definitely wasn’t the same music channel on DSTV we all knew, because no one would wake up that early just to watch music videos.

Towards the end of lectures, I started feeling really weak, and by the time I was in the cab taking me back to the hostel, my temperature was through the roof; I was boiling hot. Sope noticed something was wrong when we were walking back from the park to the hostel as extremely quiet. After telling him how I was feeling, he suggested I take Alabukun. I had heard about the fast relief from fever and headaches the drug gave, and it always scared me, so I turned down the offer.

After dozing off at 8 pm that night, I woke up in cold sweats at midnight, shivering. I had the top bunk, and as I came down from it, I almost tripped and fell. I regained my balance, and rubbed my right kneecap for a few seconds before using my right foot to locate my leather slippers underneath the bunk; I needed some air. We had three double bunks in the large room, one directly opposite the entrance, and one on each side of the room. Sope and I shared the bunk on the right side of the room.

Everyone was fast asleep, some snoring, but as I turned around at the door, I saw Sope awake- his eyes wide open like he had not even been sleeping at all. He asked how I was, and I lied I was feeling much better but needed some fresh air. He nodded and went back to sleep.

I stood at the balcony and looked down from the two-storey building, marvelling at how quiet the whole place was compared to how noisy it normally is during the day. The hostel had four corners, like a rectangle. The two long sides were filled with rooms, and the short side to the right was were the staircase, entrance and porters lodge was while the bathroom and toilet were on the other end. I went back inside after a while, really feeling better, and fell asleep immediately I got in bed.

I woke up just in time to catch Joshua heading out in shorts and t-shirt- I guessed he was going to watch Channel O. I wanted to ask him what exactly he always went out to do in the mornings, but my mouth felt so dry and I just let him be.

……….

After classes the next day, I decided to go to the hospital. I was feeling a lot better, but I had the feeling I would get a fever again at night, and thought it was best to get to the root of the problem. My mom’s workplace clinic was in the same Yaba suburb as Unilag, and I still remembered my card number. I got to the place at 5:30pm, an hour before they closed. After seeing the doctor, and being given drugs, I went off to sit in the corridor of a section of the clinic.

It was an old section of the clinic, and was linked to the new place by a small pedestrian bridge. The ward had about 5 rooms for patients, and 2 rooms for nurses; all rooms in one straight line. There was a toilet at the right end of the corridor that gave the ward its ‘L’ shape. I was seated in the middle of the quiet corridor, dressed casually in jeans, and t-shirt, trying to get my mind off the fact that I was going to get a needle stuck in my butt any minute. I was lost in thought when I heard the toilet door open. I almost jumped off my seat when I saw the girl. She was about my age, dressed in aquamarine blue t-shirt and white shorts; lanky with braids. She was walking towards me slowly, holding a drip stand, with the pipe from the drip fixed to her hand. It was just a creepy sight to see her walking slowly, holding the drip stand in one hand, and her second hand in a position like a waiter holding up a tray. I guessed it was to enhance the flow of the liquid from the drip into her body, but it freaked me out.

“Hi.” She said and as she walked past me. I replied her with “Hey” without looking too long at her. I quickly looked away when she turned around before walking into the nurse’s office. Seconds later, the nurse, a rotund lady in her early 50s called me in. She was having a conversation with the strange girl as she stuck the needle in a small bottle and sucked out the liquid by pulling the plunger back. From the way they related, I guess they were mother and daughter. “Please pull down your jeans.” The nurse said and I hesitated for a while, embarrassed that the nurse’s daughter was just across the room from us, and was going to see my butt. The nurse didn’t seem to care to ask the girl to go out, and girl had an expressionless look from where she sat. It was clear she had seen people getting injections so many times it was nothing special to her anymore. I guessed that was why she was comfortable walking around carrying her drip stand earlier.

I reluctantly unbuckled my jeans, pulled it down a bit with my boxer shorts, revealing an ample portion of my right butt cheek as I turned to face the window. The nurse stuck the needle in my butt and as she slowly pumped the liquid into me, the daughter said, “How come you didn’t flinch?” She was talking to me, but I didn’t have an answer so I just said nothing. “You didn’t feel pain?”

“Ijeoma, Leave him alone.” The nurse said as she pulled the needle out of my butt and threw the syringe in the bin beside her. I rubbed my butt a few times, pulled up my jeans and buckled it. I had a smile on my face as I turned around to face the girl. She had a strange look on her face for a while, as if still wondering why I handled the situation so calmly, and then she smiled back at me. “Go home and rest. You will start feeling sleepy soon,” The nurse said to me as I headed out the door.

“Okay ma.” I said, and as I was about to step out, I turned around and said bye to Ijeoma. She had a beautiful smile on her face when she said bye to me.

……….

I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my hostel room, and woke up at about 6am the next day. It must have been Joshua leaving the room that woke me, because when I looked at his bunk bed, I didn’t see him on it. I was really curious to know what Channel O was all about, so I got out of bed immediately, and was lucky to see him just going down the stairs as I walked out of the room.

He headed to the back of the hostel when he got downstairs and walked towards the wall. I saw a few other guys by the wall and wondered what was going on. I was just recovering from Malaria and my brain was still a bit fuzzy. When I was a few feet from Joshua, I noticed something that made me stop approaching, turn around and walk back into the hostel. There were round holes in the walls and guys peeped at naked girls bathing outside the female hostel that shared a wall with ours. Channel O turned out to be a real life channel o.

The channel O is making me laughing

Channel O got me
Thanks for the update

Channel o .....:Lmao ...kayo08 where have been!!!!

BIGGIE121:
Channel o .....:Lmao ...kayo08 where have been!!!!

I've been around the world.

Kay....wats good bro.....

OlufemiWhit:
Kay....wats good bro.....

I'm cool. How are you doing

kayo80:


I'm cool. How are you doing

All good boss...been very busy past few days...just read the val story tonight sef....good work....i feel i've read it before tho

OlufemiWhit:
All good boss...been very busy past few days...just read the val story tonight sef....good work....i feel i've read it before tho

Yeah... You must have read it when I posted it 2018 Valentine's Day... I just commented on it again this year cos I felt it didn't get enough reads/exposure last year.

kayo80, where art thou? Please come and update biko

Kayo, pls when are you going to continue with this. We re waiting

Next update will be on Saturday. Sorry for the delay.

I thought this story was dead...but now am refollowing it again...d channel o part got me laughing

Read this late into the night. Damn, you are good. Ever thought of going for writing contests? I mean international contests?

dplordx:
Read this late into the night. Damn, you are good. Ever thought of going for writing contests? I mean international contests?

Thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate it.

About writing contests, I'm always on the lookout for them.

Chapter 11: Reconnecting with Temisan (Part 1)

After the day I discovered what channel o was all about, I teased Joshua about it all the time. He was just a very unusual guy that did real weird things; like, he told me he was the best drummer in his church, but no one knew he smoked weed before climbing the stage to drum during night vigils. He also used to dress up real nice on Saturdays to crash parties at the Multipurpose Hall on campus. He asked me to tag along on multiple times, but I always turned down the offer, because I knew the day I joined him would be the day he gets caught. I just didn’t have mind for stuff like that, but I liked having Joshua around; there was never a dull moment with him.

School went on as usual, and we were getting closer to exam period. A lot more people had gotten phones now. Dare, my close friend had gotten a small, silver coloured Motorola phone with an Econet line. Omari had a Motorola Talkabout, and a couple of girls had also gotten phones too. A few weeks after Dare got his Motorola Sope got the same type with an Econet line. At the time, Econet was doing a promo. They had dropped their sim card price from eighteen thousand Naira to six thousand. The day Sope got his line he had gone out with thirty six thousand with the mind of getting six lines- one for him, two for his parents, two for his siblings, and the last one for me. Yea, that’s how great a friend Sope was. But the issue was that, he got to the Econet office a bit late, and they had run out of stock. So he had to buy from a reseller who sold at double the price, and he could only afford three lines.

A few weeks to the start of second semester exams, I went home for the weekend and discovered my mom had gotten another phone with an MTN line for a call centre business. I asked if I could take her other phone to school for a week, and she said no problem. So, there I was on a Sunny Monday morning, walking to class from the Moremi Hall call park, with my black Mitsubishi Trium Mars phone in my hand, feeling fly when I heard someone call my name from behind. I turned around and saw a tall and pretty girl walking towards me with a smile on her face. It was Temisan; a girl from my past.


Back in 1999

During the three years I spent at home before getting into Unilag, I had become famous for throwing parties at my house; the parties were organized by me, my brother, and a couple of our friends. The three things that made the parties successful were music, the elite crowd that attended, and girls. I was a music freak at the time, so I was always the DJ, and never disappointed. My brother knew the happening people in the area. And as for the girls, thanks to my two friends at the time, black skin beauties, Tosan, and Felicia, the parties never lacked girls. I had met Tosan first at a tutorial centre; she was a friend to my cousin who was living with me at the time. We became friend after she invited my cousin and I for her brother’s birthday party. Felicia had been at the party too, and then I found out later that she lived two streets away from mine. Any time Tosan came over to see Felicia, they would come over to my place, and our friendship grew.

At one of our crazy parties in 1999, I was arranging the white plastic chairs in my compound, anticipating guests when I heard a knock at the gate. I went over to open the gate and saw it was Tosan and Felicia, dressed up flashy like they were in the girl group, Destiny’s Child. We stood by the gate, talking about the party and when their friends would be arriving when a silver-coloured Volvo 740 drove up towards us with a girl behind the wheel. I was immediately drawn to her. Her hair was scatted, but in a sexy way. She was brown skinned, with pimples on her face, but she was still really pretty. The heavy sound of the Volvo engine filled the air. The car slowed down at my gate and with a poker face, she waved at us before driving off. The whole thing was so damn sexy to me at the time.

“Do you know that girl?” I asked them, still looking at the car as it drove off.

“Kunle, that’s my sister, Temisan. She just dropped us off.” Tosan said.

“Oh! I didn’t know you had an elder sister. Why didn’t you invite her for the party?” I said, turning around to face them. Tosan just rolled her eyes at me and walked into my compound.

“Kunleee.” Felicia said, hitting me on the head with her black handbag. “You like girls too much.”

We went in for the party, but I couldn’t get Temisan out of my head. It had been like a scene from a Hollywood romance movie. The fact that she was about my age, 17, pretty, and could drive really turned me on.

A few days after that particular party, I had to travel to Ibadan for WAEC GCE, but I kept in touch with Tosan via landline. I always asked about Temisan, but would say NO anytime she asked if she should handover the phone to her. I didn’t want our first conversation to be on the phone.

The day I wrote my last GCE paper was a Saturday, and my parents had a party in Ibadan that day. So, after attending the party, they came to my cousin’s house to pick me up for the trip back to Lagos. That same day was Felicia’s elder sister’s birthday party back in Lagos, and I just couldn’t wait to get back home.

Tosan and Felicia had come over to my house twice that day to check if I had gotten back from Ibadan, and the moment I got back, I started preparing for the party. I ironed my favourite shirt at the time; a deep blue long sleeve shirt, with double breast pocket. I wore that on charcoal black jeans and brown leather moccasins.

Even though I was a reserved guy, I was very popular in the area because of my elder brother, and as soon as I got to the party, people started greeting me, left right and centre. Felicia appeared from nowhere, gave me a hug, and disappeared. Seconds later, Tosan walked up to me, held me by the hand and led me into the house. I asked where she was taking me, but she didn’t hear over the loud music. We walked into the crowded living room, and I kept greeting people as we made our way to the back. Then, she stopped by a dark corner of the large living room with a single seater couch. There was a girl on braids and white bodycon gown on, sitting alone. When I looked closer, I saw it was Temisan. Tosan introduced us and walked away. I sat on the arm of the couch next to her. “Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m glad we are finally meeting.” I said.

“Hope they were good things?” She replied and we kicked off the conversation from there.

I don’t think I had connected with anyone before the way I connected with her. For a shy kid, I did real great that night. The day was just so magical; one of those rare days that my shyness goes on leave, and let’s me be bold and confident.

I didn’t get up from where I sat with her throughout my stay at the party. Felicia and Tosan checked up on us every once in a while; they got us drinks, food, small chops and every other thing we requested. Those two girls played cupid that day. They were just so happy to see me with a girl that I liked. Temisan and I talked about any and everything. I was blown away when she told me she had been driving since she was 13. Being the first born, her dad wanted her to be very responsible and he thought her a lot of things at a very early age.

While walking her to the bus stop after the party that night, we spoke about the future. She had already gotten admission into University of Lagos to study Business Admin. But I hadn’t passed all my WAEC subjects yet, so we made a pact that she would wait for me, and not date anyone till I got in the following year. I must have made a strong impression on her that night for her to agree to something like that. She gave me a hug at the bus stop before getting into the bus, and for months afterwards, I had her scent in my head.

She resumed at Unilag a few weeks after that party, and we lost contact. I would pass word of mouth messages to her through Tosan; there was no GSM at the time, and no Internet, and as time passed, the communication reduced, till she became a distant memory.


Present Day

After finally getting into the University of Lagos three years later, here I was, face-to-face with Temisan- my old crush. She was in her final year, and I was a freaking Jambite.

I've been waiting for this. I've been waiting for this.

I've been waiting for this.

Thanks bro, but can we start getting faster updates pls....

Adelodun24:
I've been waiting for this.

Thanks for being a loyal fan...I noticed you have been a fan since 2017. It is people like you that keep me writing.

Olabantu:
Thanks bro, but can we start getting faster updates pls....

Bro, it isn't easy... It takes me between 5-7 hours to write a chapter...and since the mods in this section blackballed me and stopped pushing my stories to front page, i don't get motivated to write as i used too. The best I can do is twice a week. Please bear with me.

Baba kayo80 abeg give us updates on a regular coz dis ur story na die!!!!!!

Nice story bro Keep it up but d update slow ooo

Where was i even the first seat where taken...

kayo80:


Bro, it isn't easy... It takes me between 5-7 hours to write a chapter...and since the mods in this section blackballed me and stopped pushing my stories to front page, i don't get motivated to write as i used too. The best I can do is twice a week. Please bear with me.

God pass them jare. Please don't be discouraged boss man, if not for anything, for the fans that follow

Olabantu:

God pass them jare. Please don't be discouraged boss man, if not for anything, for the fans that follow

Exactly...thanks for that short maiden speech

Thanks for the update

Kunle with his likeness for beautiful ladies sha. Thanks for the update.

One short chapter coming up.

By the way, this story is going to have four parts...Year 1- Year 4. This is Year 1 (Book 1), and there are about 5-6 chapters left. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 12: Reconnecting with Temisan (Part 2)

We hugged, and as we disentangled from the embrace, we stood face to face for a few seconds, saying nothing, just smiling at each other. She had on a simple, black sleeveless gown and black leather flat sole shoes. I wonder why I had spent almost two semesters in Unilag, and I had not even seen her once till today, when her faculty was more or less behind mine. I don’t even know why I didn’t look for her all this while, then I remembered that I had had romantic encounters with almost half a dozen girls since I got admission into Unilag. I had been too preoccupied with those to remember her.

“Tosan told me you had gotten into Lag, but I didn’t know what department you were in.” She said as she brushed off hair from the front of her face. She was holding a green jotter that had Harry Potter’s face in the front. I guessed being in final year she probably had just one course for the day, unlike me that had like five every day. “So, what department are you in?” She said, and I realized I had been silent for far too long.

“Oh, sorry, I’m just really shocked seeing you. Let’s walk.” I said and we started walking towards the senate building, which stood between my department and hers. “So…how have you been? It’s been really long.” I said, turning around to look at her with a smile on my face. It was really cool walking with someone close to my height for a change. Most of the girls I had been involved with the last couple of months had been almost a foot shorter than me.

“I’m fine. Yea, it really has been long.” She said with a distant look in her eyes.

“When was the last time we saw?”

“I don’t know. I really can’t remember.”

“I think it was that one time I came to your house to invite Tosan for a party and…”

“Oh yea, I remember that day.” She cut in and laughed lightly. Actually, my visit to her house that day had almost cost me my friendship with Tosan.

After meeting Temisan for the first time at Felicia’s sister’s party and instantly forming a bond, we had seen a couple of more times, but I had not been in the rare form I had been in the night we first saw, and gradually, the magic between us had died. The day I had gone to invite Tosan for an impromptu party, she was not home, but I met Temisan and their brother in the living room. After finding out Tosan wasn’t home, I had wanted to leave immediately when Temisan complimented the silver watch I had on. I sat back on the other end of the long couch she was on, and ended up spending about an hour there. We talked about a lot of different things, but never about what went wrong between us. During the course of our discussion, she had asked why I always invited Tosan for my parties, and I said it was because Tosan liked parties. Temisan and her brother didn’t like that answer, and when Tosan got back that night, they had a discussion with her concerning what I had said. They must have made her believe I saw her only as a party animal and not a friend, because after that day, Tosan didn’t talk to me for months. I cherished the friendship that I had with Tosan, and this made me hate Temisan for telling her what I had said. I kept on going to see Felicia to help me apologize to Tosa, and ended up falling in love with Felicia in the process. That’s a story for another day.

Seeing Temisan in Unilag and remembering the promise we had made so many years ago brought back the magic of that night, and made us forget all the in between periods were I was being a wuss. We exchanged numbers when I got to the front of her department building. We hung out later that night behind the big art block building on campus; it was a car park, but after the car park, just before the swamp was a long line of food canteens made out of wood. We were in one of them, sipping coke, and catching up on old times- laughing at all the silly mistakes I had made over the years.

She told me she had failed a major course last semester, and would have to stay back for an extra semester after her mates graduate in a few months. I was amazed at her nonchalant attitude as she talked about this. I knew I would be depressed if I failed any courses- little did I know I was going to experience something similar in the near future.

When we went our separate ways that night, I just knew nothing would happen between us romantically anymore. I knew we would be good friends, but it wouldn’t go past that.