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Good day people. This is a short-short crime story that had been bobbling in my head for a few weeks now, and i just decided to get it out today. When I write Thriller/Crime, I use my middle name- Olumide. I hope you like it.

Chapter 6: Bisi Sanmi Versus Debby (Part 1)

Time went bye super fast, and before I knew it, first semester exam timetable was out. The euphoria of being a University of Lagos student finally ended and I suddenly wanted to get serious. I made an attempt to join friends, Fair Kunle, Dare, Babatope, and Debby’s study group. I no longer cared about avoiding Debby; I just wanted to get good grades. But after a few days with them, I couldn’t cope. They were way too far, and it was like they were speaking Chinese when we studied. Ladi had travelled out, and Sope had an overnight reading habit I couldn’t keep up with. I went in search of my church friend, Desola, and started studying with her and some other of our course mates.

After reading, everyone would discuss what they understood from what we had read, and this method made understanding things simpler for me. There was a slim dark-skinned girl called Bisi Sanmi in the study group I took a liking to I always wondered why everyone called her ‘Bisi Sanmi’ instead of just Bisi. She was intelligent and a sharp talker. I don’t know if I would have been attracted to her if she wasn’t intelligent, and I wasn’t a guy who was about to fail his exams if he didn’t get help. Whatever the reason, I fell for Bisi Sanmi slowly, without even knowing it.

Like me, she also stayed off campus, so we would take buses out of campus together. On the Sunday before our first paper, I didn’t feel comfortable staying all by myself in my apartment, so I decided to head over to school. I got to Yaba, where we take campus shuttle to school, and who was the last person on the queue? Bisi Sanmi. She was in a brown body fitting Ankara gown, and the smile on her face when she turned around and saw me approaching gave me butterflies in my tummy. That was the first time I realized I had fallen in love with this girl, without even knowing it. I walked up to her and helped with one of the two bags she was carrying. She said she was going to be squatting with a friend on campus during exam period, and I thought it was a good idea.

We ended up in the back seat of a cab, with one other person from our department. During the ride to school, we discussed some of the courses we would be having that week, and the likely areas that questions would be coming from.

The last stop for the cab was in front of Moremi Hall, where Bisi Sanmi was going to be staying, and I decided to help her with her luggage to the room. We entered the legendary Moremi Hall, and I was busy feasting my eyes on the dozens of beautiful, loosely dressed girls scattered all over the place when Bisi Sanmi nudged me and said, “I don’t want Debby’s trouble o. You can go back from here.”

“What?” I asked, perplexed as she took her black duffel bag from me.

“Debby stays right there.” She said, turning around and looking at the east wing of the hall. “You should go and see her.”

“Why should I go and see her?” I asked, still wondering why she had thought Deborah would have any issues seeing us together. I didn’t even know this was her hall.

“You look really handsome today. Go and see her. She will like it.” By now, I was standing still in the middle of Moremi Hall’s quadrangle, and Bisi Sanmi was walking off, slowly. And then she came back to say, “She’s in room 112; just go. Trust me.” She added with a genuine smile and walked off. She turned around one last time to wave at me. I waved back with a forced smile, and then turned around. I took a deep breath as I headed towards the staircase that led to Debby’s room.

Oh my, was I nervous. Now that Bisi Sanmi wasn’t by my side anymore, I felt like all eyes were on me. I felt like the girls were looking at me and saying, ‘who is this unserious pervert coming into female hostel at 7pm, a day before the start of exams.’ Also, I wondered why they were comfortable being so scantily dressed when boys were around. I kept my eyes down as I climbed the stairs, and headed towards the direction Bisi Sanmi’s gaze had gone earlier. I was lucky to see the room number boldly written on Debby’s room door.

I knocked twice and a short, slightly chubby light skinned girl opened the door. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, and she appeared nervous when she saw me. The girl beside her, who had the same physical features as her, but a little older, answered me with, “Yes?”

“Hi. I’m here to see Debby…Sorry, Deborah.”
“Deborah! There is someone here to see you.” The other girl shouted out and the shy girl walked back into their corner.

“Who’s that?” Debby said as she came out, with her hair scattered, and a mean look on her face. She was wearing a white boob tube and jeans skirt. Debby was slim, but busty, so I didn’t know whether to look away, or walk towards her. A genuine smile replaced the frown on her face before she said, “Hey, Kunle, how are you doing. Come in.” That wasn’t reaction I was expecting from her at all. She was back to the old Debby, as if that awkward moment when I tried to ask her out had never happened. She took me to her corner, and I found out she shared the same space with Sade, one of Sope’s old secondary school friends that was in 300 Level. I greeted her casually, and it was clear on Debby’s face that she liked the fact hat I knew this girl she probably saw as a senior.

I sat on Debby’s bottom bunk, and talked for a few minutes, before saying I had to go. As she walked me off, I was surprised she didn’t ask why I came to see her unannounced or ask how I got her room number. She was just back to the friendly, playful Debby. She walked me all the way out the gate, to the road, and just as we were about to say our goodbyes, a music blasting, pimped-out, silver coloured Audi 80 parked in front of us. I thought the person had stopped for Debby, till the windows came down, and I saw it was a friend of my brothers’. I said bye to Debby, and hopped into the backseat of the car. I looked at her one last time as the car zoomed off and saw the huge smile on her face. It was a wonderful day.

Treasure17:
So real. [b]Kunle's temperament towards ladies is a common characteristics shy guys can relate with. Very hard to overcome. [/b]Thanks for the update Kayo80.

You are so on point.

Chapter 5: The First Party

One of the reasons why I had wanted to get into Unilag all those years was because of the stories I had heard of how fun the school could be. At the time, I would say it was the most fun school in Nigeria. A lot had been going on since I resumed- different kinds of shows, freshers night, beauty pageants, club parties, but I hadn’t really attended any. One day during school, I saw one of my course mates, Ladokun walking around with a stack of paper, talking to most of the cool kids. It looked like he was sharing test scripts, but he was the last person to do such, so I was curious to find out what exactly he was up to.

In Unilag at the time, to be in the upper echelon of cool kids, you had to be a member of a club. The most popular clubs were ON, ABC, Dynamic, and Papas Club. Yes, their names were funny, but to be there was the dream of most University of Lagos students that wanted to hang with the popular crowd. They had the freshest girls, threw the wildest parties, and had the most fun.

When Ladokun walked up to me, I found out he had been assigned by his Club Chiefo to get the word out about a party On Club was having on the island that night, and the pieces of paper in his hand were data collection papers about the music people that would attend the party wanted to hear. He handed me one, and as I filled the form, he told me about how crazy the party was going to be. He was one of the first friends I had made when I first got into school and was wearing my dad’s gold watch, but I had to slowly detach myself from his crowd because I couldn’t keep up. Ladokun had joined the On Club almost immediately he got admission because his elder brother who was in 300 Level stood for him. One of the rules of being a club member was never to be caught taking public transportation. My parents were middle class, and I sure couldn’t keep up with that, which was one of the reasons I stopped hanging around him. But we were still cool, as he respected my taste in music and fashion.

The paper had space for ten songs, and I remember making sure the last song was a very hard song to get- I needed to know if they took things like this serious. After feeling out the form and handing it back to Ladokun, I went in search of my ride or die friend, Sope. The rest of my friends were still coming from home at the time, and couldn’t think of what to tell their parents about going for an all night party. But Sope was already squatting with someone on campus, and I had a lot of freedom at my guardian’s place.

Very few people had phones back then, so if you were looking for someone, you had to actually look for him. It’s hard to explain if you never experienced living in that era. Anyway, after about an hour of combing through campus, I finally found Sope when I returned to class. We started out discussing how we were going to get to the party venue on the island, and I remembered two of my old friends were coming over to see me later that day around 5pm, and they both had cars. Although I hadn’t discussed it with them, I was sure I could convince them to tag along with us. Then we got to the issue of gate fee. It was seven hundred and fifty Naira for most club parties at the time- that was half of the weekly allowance my parents gave me, and I had just a thousand left in my wallet. Sope always had money back then as he was into fish farming at a very early age and used to set up fishponds for other people for a fee. This was 2002, when fish farming was relatively new in the country, so he made a lot of cash from it. He volunteered to give me two hundred and fifty Naira to support my gate fee and also pay for drinks when we got in.

After lectures, I headed back to my apartment off campus. Back then you had to keep to meetings as there were no phones. My friends were coming to see me, and I had to wait for them to come around. I remember my room in Jibowu had a great view of the road and bridge that led straight to Yaba. Most of the buildings on the road were used for transporters going to the east, so it was always busy. Sometimes, luxurious buses would take off at night, and some would arrive at 3-4 in the morning, from the eastern part of Nigeria. It was never a dull moment.

At about 6:15pm, my friend Fola, arrived in his rare, diesel engine white Mercedes Benz 200. Minutes later, Stephen came in his silver coloured Nissan Blue Bird. I got into the Benz, and we headed down to University of Lagos. There was a little traffic along Herbert Macaulay road, and it was already dark by the time we got into Unilag.

The years I spent at home before getting into Unilag, I had become famous in my neighbourhood for throwing the best parties. The parties were famous for having a lot of girls at them, and having great music, two areas I personally handled. My brother and our friends handled drinks and security. I had a cousin living with me back then who had a lot of friends, who automatically became my friends after she travelled out of the country. So there was never shortage of girls at our parties. Most of those girls had also just got into Unilag, and it was some of those girls my friends had come to see that day.

We drove straight to a place called Newest Hall, where all the 100 Level students resided. My friends and I walked into the hall, and I swear, I have never seen so many beautiful girls in one place till that night. We located our friend, Laura's room and after greeting my friends and accusing me of not looking for her since we got into Unilag, she took us to our other friend’s room. We came out with five girls, and went to hang around were we had parked. I went off with one of my friends and to get drinks- the drinks came in large white cups and were sold just opposite the female halls at the time. It was a Punch drink that had a little alcohol in it. The drinks loosened everyone up, and we had a great time talking and catching up, while we waited for Sope to find us. When he did come around, the place got lively. Around 9pm, we walked the girls back to their rooms, and it was time to plan how the party would go.

My friends, Fola and Stephen said the timing was too impromptu and they couldn’t go for the party, but they dropped us at the school gate, where we took a bus going to Obalande, and another one going to Awolowo Way, where the party venue was. Sope was wearing a brown Rocawear jacket, blue jeans and butter colour Timberland boots. I had on a brown fitted Timberland T Shirt with the tree logo in the middle, black jeans, and Sope’s coffee brown Timberland boots. The name of the nightclub was 11:45; the hottest club on the island at the time.

After strict security checks at the door and getting our hands stamped after paying the gate fee, we walked into the club like gods. The place was ice cold, and the speakers boomed so loud it hastened my heartbeat for a minute, before I adjusted to the atmosphere. The Jagged Edge and Nas song I had requested came on just as I was stepping on to the dance floor and it got me really hyped. I had already started getting down on the dance floor by myself when I saw Ladokun heading towards me with a seductively dressed girl by his side. He greeted Sope and I with quick hand slaps, handed me the girl, and walked off with Sope to the bar. The girl was really in the mood to dance, and when she saw how hyped I was about the song that was playing, she turned around and started grinding up on me. I had a little liquor in my system from earlier, so I wasn’t as shy as always. I immediately started rocking the girl and rapping along to the song. The girl looked back and smiled at me; that got me even more hyped.

You have to understand that back then, there were rarely ‘Oloshos’ at clubs- at least not at clubs of high repute like 11:45. So, dancing with a girl who was happy to dance with me, not because she sees me as a potential customer but because she is naturally having fun made me feel good.

Unfortunately, when the song ended, the hype was gone and another guy took the girl from me. Ladokun came back and asked where the girl was as he handed me a chilled bottle of small stout. When I told him some other guy took her, he said I should have held on tight to her while dancing. This was something a 19 year old me feared the most at the time; holding onto a girl in a sexually provocative manner.

Ladokun excused himself and headed towards the VIP section upstairs as Sope and I went deeper into the dance floor; bobbing our heads to the loud music, and sipping from our beer bottles. We hadn’t gone far when a petite girl in dungarees thrust herself onto me. I was shocked, but when I pulled back from her, I realized she was one of Laura's friends I had hung out with at Newest Hall earlier on in the day. She was drunk, and two of her apologetic friends came to get her off me. They headed out the club with her, not wanting her to cause a scene.

A few minutes later, one of the drunk girl’s friends came to apologize to me. I didn’t hear what she said at first, and when she leaned in closer, I caught her a whiff of her sweet smelling perfume. On impulse, I grabbed her hand and pulled her back when she turned around to leave. I started dancing. She stood still for a few seconds, and smiled at my unexpected reaction, and then went on to dance with me. She wore glasses, was about my height, and had jeans and denim shirt on. We didn’t talk much, but danced for a while before she said she had to go check on her friend.

When it was time to leave, I asked for her room number. That was the most you could get back then. She was really like me, an introvert who had a little party spirit in her, and I really wanted to see if something could grow from that night of dancing.

Over the weekend, I ran into my friend, Laura who was her roommate and got the full details on the girl. She turned out to be the twin sister of a guy in my class. The thought of dating her now seemed weird, and before the end of the weekend, I had made up my mind not to pursue the thought any further.

BIGGIE121:
Hnmmm .. Kayo80 you never ceize to amze me with your thrilling and captivating stories i am marvelled,,,,,keep the updates comming bro we are solidly behind you......

Thanks. I appreciate the compliment. I just dropped an update. I plan to drop another tonight.

Chapter 4: The Girl Who Liked Me

I was going down the stairs of the Art building in Unilag one day when I saw a girl who looked mighty familiar. She was a dark skin beauty, but what really got my attention was the fact that she was using a phone. I didn’t even care what kind of phone it was; the fact that she had a phone was cool on its own. The small black Trium phone and Econet line my mom had gotten a few months earlier cost her a total of thirty-five thousand, and I knew how long we had to wait in line at the Econet office to get the phone.

I slowed down my pace as I got to the floor she was on, and when I got closer to her, I remembered who she was. I said hello in a low voice not wanting to disrupt the conversation she was having on the phone, and she looked up at me with her a smile. But the moment she realized who I was, the smile disappeared from her face. She waved at me and walked away- there was no need to go after her any further, I had gotten the message.

The thing is, we had had an encounter a few weeks prior, which if I had handled well, we would probably had ended up dating. In hindsight, I see why some girls don’t like showing their feelings towards guys they like.

Her story goes thus. Debby and I were still an item at the time, and I was heading over to the Distance Learning Institute in school, which was were we had our elective courses. Everyone had left me behind because I had been delayed by my dad’s friend who was an admin staff of Unilag. I had gone to see him concerning my accommodation at the time.

While waiting for the cab that would take me and the other students to DLI, I saw her staring at me. The way she stared at me was intense, and it made me a bit uncomfortable. I had on black Sean John denim with two of the top buttons loose, exposing the pristine white tee underneath. And my baggy black jeans sat well on the white Nike trainers I had on. I was fly; looking like puff daddy himself. But the way the girl looked at me, it seemed she saw past all that; it was like she was gazing into my soul. She was a real pretty dark skinned girl with bright white eyes.

When the cab finally came, we got in, and ended up sitting side by side. I had a phobia for talking to girl’s in public transport because I always thought of what people around would think, and also because I knew it wasn’t like stepping up to someone in class or on the road, where you could just walk away if it didn’t go well. With this, you had to sit through the trip if things turned out bad. For that reason, I didn’t strike up a conversation with her.

When we dropped at DLI, I just walked off, heading towards the lecture theatre with Debby on my mind. I hadn’t taken more than ten steps when I heard a female voice say “Hello” out loud. I didn’t stop till I heard the second hello. When I turned around, I saw her hand making a stop sign, signaling for me to wait as she walked up to me. I noticed her nice set of white teeth when she smiled up at me. “Hello, my name is Biola, are you going to DLI?” She asked. I said yes, and she suggested we walk together. The distance from where the cabs normally drop people and where the actual halls were was about a two-minute walk, and all through that journey, I kept thinking, wow, what a bold girl. This was something I thought only happened in American high school movies.

We found out we were going for the same lecture and that our departments were on the same floor at the Art Building. When we walked into the rowdy lecture theatre, the first person I sighted was Debby, and all my senses flew out the window. Instead of at least sitting through the lecture with the girl by my side, and getting to know her better, I turned to her, said I would see her around, and left her standing there, as I walked off to meet Debby. When I think about that moment sometimes, I feel so stupid, and I also feel like all the bad relationships I had on campus was karma for what I did to that girl.

Thanks to you all.

I was meant to update today, but went out with the Nairalander that inspired this story today and she inspired another story. I can't wait to finish this so I can start that one.

I will update tomorrow afternoon by the grace of God.

EkopSparoAyara:
Kunle is my kind of guy but I THINK I am gradually coming out of my shell...

BRAVO KAYO80...am so glad you're back.... Welcome...

Thanks a lot for the promo...I really appreciate it.

Chapter 3: Someone from the Past

It was more than a month since I messed things up with Debby, but people still asked me where she was when they were looking for her. It was annoying, and I wanted to snap at them, but I guess it wasn’t there fault. Debby and I must have made a strong impression in the minds of a lot of people, and it was hard for them to erase that memory from their minds.

My accommodation processing was taking too long to pull through, so my parents made arrangements for me to stay with one of our family friends that lived just ten minutes from campus. They gave me a vacant two-bedroom apartment where their mother used to live, downstairs their house. It was great times for me. I no longer had to go through three hours traffic on my way home, and I could stay in school real late before going to my new home.

My clique now comprised of six people; Me, Sope, Babatope, Fair Kunle, Dare, and Ladi. Babatope, Fair Kunle, and Dare always studied with Debby, and her best friend, Toyin after classes as the five of them were determined to leave our department, and they were seriously gunning for that 4.0 GPA by the end of 100 level. So, now I spent most of my time with Sope and Ladi. Sometimes I would be with my new female friend, Desola, and we would talk about people from our church that were in University of Lagos, and some times talk about school work. Even though I spent a lot of time with her, people still asked me about Debby. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t assume Desola and I were an item, until one day when someone in class told me Desola and I looked a lot alike. I guess people just assumed we were siblings or related in some way.

One day, while I was talking to Desola, Sope and Ladi came to drag me away from her. They said it was time for what we had discussed yesterday. I had forgotten what it was, till I looked at their feet, and saw they had on different colour Timberland boots on each foot. The day before, we had had a discussion on what to do to get people’s attention, and we had come up with an idea for Ladi and Sope to come to school wearing different colour Timberlands- Sope was wearing coffee colour on one foot, and butter colour on the other. Ladi had on the more uncommon colours- paprika and navy blue. It seems stupid to me now, but as teens, it was really cool considering the fact that a pair of Timberland boots at the time was selling for eighteen thousand Naira.

So, after telling Desola I had to go, I started a tour of the whole school with my guys. We left the art and social science faculty for the law faculty, and then to Business Administrations, before heading to Sciences, and then taking a cab to the school gate, where the Diploma students had their lectures. That was our last stop and it had about three big halls. At the time, this was where the rich kids who couldn’t get into Unilag with Jamb paid a quarter of a million to study for one year, before getting into 200 level. It was a great bargain, and people that had the money made sure their kids enrolled for the Diploma course. The place had a lot of rich kids, and we wanted to impress them.

Being a shy guy, I stayed back while Sope and Ladi walked with all the confidence in the world into the first Diploma hall. I had on blue chinos and a sky blue Thomas Pink shirt that I had bought for seven thousand Naira. It was one of my favourite shirts, and it gave me confidence, but I still wasn’t confident to walk in with my friends. I was still standing back, watching with keen interest, the reaction of the diploma students to the stunt my friends were pulling when I heard a sweet sounding female voice shout out, “Kunle!” I looked in the direction the voice was coming from, and I saw this sexy looking girl smiling at me about twenty meters away. She clasped her hands together, and had her mouth open in shock for a second before heading towards me excitedly.

I looked behind me to make sure I was the one she was calling out, and then when I focused back on her, I remembered her. Her name was Darasimi, and she was my friend briefly at the jamb tutorial centre I had attended last year. But my o my, her body had totally transformed since then. The best way I can describe her is to say she went from having a body like Beverly Osu, to having a body like that of Yemi Alade. She still had an ample amount of pimples on her face, but her body was amazing. She had on a purple mini gown that had a V shaped neckline which exposed an ample amount of her breasts.

She came over and gave me a full body hug that left me embarrassed. I had stayed back because I didn’t want eyes on me, now all eyes were on me. I guess I had also grown more attractive since she last saw me, because I couldn’t remember us being as close as she was acting.

While I was talking to her, catching up on old times, Sope and Ladi walked up to us, and her attention shifted to them. She held back a laugh when she looked at their feet, but she was more amused than anything about what they had done. She and Sope kicked things off immediately, and I even left both of them together for a minute while talking to Ladi. When we were leaving, she wrote down the name of her hall and room number on a piece of paper, and asked me to come see her after lectures that day.

Later that evening, Sope and I went to a place called New Hall; it consisted of five halls- two for girls and three for boys. Darasimi’s hall was one of those halls, but we were heading to one of the boys halls called Sodeinde to see one of our friends. Just before we got to the hall gate, Sope ran into an old female friend and walked off with her. I was waiting for him to return when he reappeared with Darasimi on his arm. One look and I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with this girl. She was too wild and sexy for me to handle in a school like Unilag.

When they got to me, and Sope let her go, she came to my side, and I tried to make myself hold her by her waist like Sope had done, but I just couldn’t. I also couldn’t make her laugh the way Sope had been doing. After a few boring minutes, she said she had to go finish her assignment. Sope and I saw her off to her hostel gate, and when we were heading back to out, Sope asked why I let her go like that. I didn’t say anything. I had no words to explain the kind of person I was. It was like the Universe had a job to throw girls at me at every corner, and it was my job to screw up every of those opportunities.

Chapter 2: Short Lived Relationship with Debby

Debby and I became pretty close after the book incidence- in fact, a little too close, too fast. I remember one incidence I had to write a letter concerning my accommodation processing, and she wouldn’t let me concentrate. I had to run off to an empty class to hide from her, but she found me. She was a very playful girl, and always happy and smiley. I remember her finding me, and almost falling off as she ran on the benches to get to me. I begged her to let me finish the letter, and she left reluctantly. I was with Ladi when she came over, and he asked what magic I had used to get the girl. I just smiled and continued with what I was writing.

Ladi was the one of coolest kids in our class when it came to dressing. At the time, Timberland boots were in vogue, and he had different colours of them- coffee colour, butters, paprika, ash, blue- I would say he had all the colours of the rainbow. He was another one of my friends, but he stayed for just a few weeks, before relocating to America.

After I completed the letter and submitted it, Ladi and I went off to a place called DLI, Distance Learning Institute. At the time, we had most of our elective courses there and we were meant to have a course there that afternoon. I remember walking into the place, and having to stop to tie my shoe laces. Ladi walked on, and when Debby saw him, she asked where I was. He lied to her that I was not coming, and she instantly became sad. He went on to ask her if she liked me, and she said yes. Then I popped up, and she looked away embarrassed.

The lecturer ended up not coming, so we spent the whole period by the lecture hall staircase talking. It was me, my posse of friends, and Debby with some of the girls in our department. Debby was close to all my other friends, so sometimes she would off talking to one of them. It was one of those times. I was by myself, leaning on the wall when I saw a girl moving toward me, backwards. She bumped into me, and I had to hold her to stop her from falling. If someone had taken a picture of us right there it would have looked like we were a couple. It was weird to me when she told me it wasn’t accidental, and that she knew I was there. Her name was Taiwo, and she was a light skinned beauty. She was more beautiful than Debby, but I was too in love with Debby to have even noticed her back then. What shocked me was why she was flirting with me right there with Debby just a few inches away. Maybe she didn’t know I was seeing Debby. Maybe everyone thought Debby and I were just friends, I thought to myself. Taiwo and I started a conversation. She was really nice to talk to; A very intelligent girl with an angelic smile.

After a while, we all decided to walk back to class, and while strolling, I started thinking of Taiwo. Of course I was in love with Debby, but when Taiwo bumped into me earlier, I felt something; something sexual. The dirty side of me had been awoken. I started having dirty thoughts. I was still lost in thought when I heard, “Hi.” It was Toyin, Debby’s best friend. We started talking about class work, and before long she asked me why I hadn’t asked Debby out. I was a novice to the whole dating game and didn’t know I was meant to ask Debby out. I thought we were just meant to let things flow as long as there was attraction between both of us. But Toyin said I had to ask her out. I looked at Debby up ahead laughing with my friends and my heart started beating fast. It was like I had been given a Jamb question to solve.

Before I could quiz Toyin on the best way to go about it, she had disappeared. A while later, Debby came to my side and asked where I had been. I just smiled. She kept asking what was wrong as we headed to class. She knew something was off with me, but I couldn’t tell her. I was going to be twenty a few months, but so immature when it came to the matters concerning the opposite sex.

My mind was racing. I wondered, did Debby ask her friend to come and talk to me? Or did Toyin act on her on volition? I couldn’t tell. I also didn’t know how to go about asking Debby out. I should have waited to talk to my friends first, but I just went ahead to make the dumbest move of my whole four-year school life.

So this was how the conversation went…

Debby- “Kunle, tell me what’s wrong.”

Me- “Nothing. Nothing is wrong.”

Debby- “Are you sure? You are too quiet.”

I was silent for a while, and then I said, “Umm. Toyin said I should tell you how I feel about you.” She looked at me, confused. I went on to say, “Toyin said I should ask you out. Sorry…I…umm. I want to ask you out. Sorry…I mean- will you be my girlfriend?”

The look on her face was that of disappointment mixed with disgust. It was like I had gone from being her Superman to being Clark Kent. She didn’t say anything, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say after the bollocks I had just blurted out, so we both stayed quiet the remainder of the walk back to class.

When I told my friends about the whole thing, they laughed their butts off. None of them could believe how immature I really was to have handled the situation the way I did. It was a Friday, and that weekend turned out to be one the most depressing weekends ever. I just kept thinking of how I could have handled the situation, and what I really should have said. It was 2002 and very few people had mobile phones so there was no way I could call to talk to her. I had to wait till Monday to see her.

When we saw on Monday, everything had changed. Debby who used to be very playful around me, was now acting stiff while with me. We sat down together for the first class, and my mind couldn’t comprehend anything the lecturer was saying. I just wanted to make things go back to how they used to be, and then I made my second biggest mistake. I told her I wanted her to forget what I said on Friday and that I would like us to go back to being just friends. She nudged me with her shoulder, trying to get me to stop talking but I had already let out another round of bollocks. The thing was, she had already accepted the fact that I messed up the process of asking her out and was ready to live with that because she really did want me to ask her out. But now, I was trying to backtrack, and make it seem like I didn’t like her enough to ask her out in the first place.

I was just too clumsy and immature at the time, and I started irritating everyone with my Debby matter. And then Debby herself got tired of my awkwardness. At some point, I knew there was nothing I could do to salvage the relationship, so I pulled back. I would just greet her, but never try to initiate conversation. I also stopped sitting on the second row in class, which was where Debby and I used to sit. I moved all the way to the last row. What made my matter worse was that Debby was still close to all my friends, and it would burn me deep down in my soul when I saw her talking and laughing with any of my friends. I would spend time talking to Taiwo, the light skin beauty to make Debby jealous, but it seemed she didn’t even notice me at all. After a while, Taiwo and my friend, Ladi became an item, and I was kicked out of that picture too.

I hardly sat with my friends during lectures because I didn’t want things to get awkward as Debby was always somewhere in the mix. I became a backbencher, and stopped paying attention in class. One day, a lecturer came in and asked every one to stand up for some reasons I can’t remember. After saying something to the class, he asked us to seat, and then asked us to stand again. When we finally sat for lectures, the slim girl beside me said something about this reminding her of her church. I asked her why, she said she attended an Anglican church, and that they stand up, and seat at short intervals for short prayers, and short sermons. I said that was what happened at my church too. When I asked for the name of her church, we found out we talking about the same church. It was a very big church, but I still marveled at how we didn’t know each other.

That’s how I met and became friends with Desola- a slim, pretty girl that one of my friends would end up falling head over heels in love with.

Diary of a Shy College Kid

By

Kayode Odusanya

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Where do I start? Maybe right at the beginning back in April 2002, seventeen years ago, when I finally got into the university of Lagos. A lanky kid that dressed as good as any kid on campus but had no confidence in self. Honestly, even though I wished to have a very interesting life, I never knew it would turn out much more fun than I had expected.

I had been preparing for this for years, so once I saw my name on that admission list at the top floor of Art Block building, I activated my plan right away. What was my plan? Well, as I said before, I was a very reserved individual, but I wanted to have fun and be among the cool kids on campus, so I needed to do something outstanding to stand out. What I did was to use all my savings to buy the latest clothes. I also was lucky to have cousins in America who sent me clothes regularly, so I was more than ready when school resumed. I remember having at least thirty new shirts; which meant I could go a month and the half of lectures without repeating a shirt.

The first weeks I stole my dad’s Gold Rolex watch and wore it everyday. The watch was given to him as a gift for twenty-five years of service at a popular Nigerian bank. I didn’t care how much my dad worked to get that gold watch; I just wanted to be popular. When I started attracting the wrong crowd, I returned the watch and toned things down a notch. Then I met my posse.

There was Sope, the opposite of me when it comes to personality. I still don’t know how we clicked. I guess we connected because I needed someone in my corner that could amplify what I had inside and bring out the party animal in me. A few inches less and Sope would have been considered a short guy, but he had the heart of a giant. He had the kind of dark complexion that would make you automatically think he was a bad guy without even knowing him personally. He was also down for anything I was down for, and I liked that.

A few days of being friends with Sope, and we met Kunle and Babatope. It was cool having a namesake, and I liked that when girls wanted to different us, they called me Tall K, and called the other Kunle, Fair K. Fair K was a cool, quiet guy like me, and ladies loved him because he was quite good looking. Babatope had same urge I had to be a popular kid on campus, but his own determination was ten times mine, and he went too far some times. He was almost as tall as me, wore glasses, and looked like a nerd. This made it worse for him to achieve his dreams.

We met the last guy in our team a little later. His name was Dare, a loner. Dare was in between being chubby and buff. He was a reserved kid, but loved music. This fact connected us, as I had just found someone that loved the rapper Nas, just as much as I did; little did I know that we would also end up liking the same girl in the near future.

Me, Sope, Kunle, Babatope, and Dare were the five man pack; a mix of different characters. I would say this was what made my university days interesting; I had a hard guy, a chick magnet, an adventurous guy, and a music lover as my friends.

We were all in the same department; there were about seventy of us in our class, so it took me a little while to know everyone. But I would never forget the first time I saw her. Who am I talking about? Deborah; the girl that I had in the grasp of my hands, but messed things up and ended up chasing damn near half of my school life.

We were having a class and the lecturer had asked her a question; she got up and spoke in the sweetest voice I had heard. Debby had a British accent, and the way she smiled while answering that question melted my heart. She was about 5ft6, slender, but busty. She had on a black Nike knapsack, and had her hair knotted into two ponytails. I can even remember the sky blue short sleeve shirt she had on that day.

I knew I had to get Debby, but how? I was a shy guy, and never had experience with girls, thanks to my six years in a boys’ secondary school.

Sope and I lived in the same area and used to go home together. During one of our long rides home, I told him how much I liked debby. I don’t know how the conversation ended up being about shapes of boobs. Sope had gone to a higher institution before coming over to Unilag, so he was a lot more experienced than I was, even though we were about the same age. He had told me about things that made my heart beat fast from excitement. I was in my late teens, a virgin, but with raging hormones. I wanted to experience it all…I wanted to go all the way.

……..

The first few weeks of school were filled with registration activities, orientation, seminars, and a couple of lectures here and there. At free periods, I would go to the back of the class with Sope to buy Gala and La Casera, and marvel at how boys would smoke so freely. Although I was never really a fan of cigarettes, I loved the idea of freedom. Freedom to do anything you wanted, as long as you were not hurting anyone. This was like the preliminary to adulthood and I loved it.

On one of my visits to the back of the class, I met with a few of our other classmates, and while talking about music Debby came by to buy La Casera. One of my course mates, omari walked up to flirt with her for a bit before she walked off. I felt sad immediately. Why wasn’t I like that? I thought to myself. Why couldn’t I just walk up to Debby and talk to her like Omari just did. I was same height with Omari, and just as good looking as, but I was too shy; a handsome guy with a low self esteem.

As I walked back to class that day feeling miserable, I overhead my other classmates arguing about who was going to get Debby first. I sure don’t stand a chance with these guys, I remember thinking to myself. She probably doesn’t even know I exist. I concluded that day I was going to kill my dreams of getting Debby and put my focus on something else.

Sope’s had a couple of friends from the polytechnic he had attended before getting into Unilag, so he sometimes wondered off with them. Fair K, Babatope, and Dare were trying to transfer to another department in our second year, and they needed at least a 4.0 GPA to do that by the end of 100 level, so they were always studying together after classes. So, there were days I would be all by myself, hanging around the corridors before the next class.

One of those lonely days, I was leaning on the concrete balcony of my department’s corridor, reading an old Sidney Sheldon book I had stolen from my dad’s room the day before. I wasn’t really a book lover, but I had watched the movie adaption of the book as a kid, and just wanted to enjoy some nostalgic moments. I hadn’t even made it through the first chapter when I noticed someone walk past me, stop, and walk back. When I looked up, I saw Debby standing right there in front of me. My heart skipped a bit.

“Hi…Can I see the book you are reading?” She asked in her high-pitched voice. After clearing my throat and greeting her, I handed the book over to her. I watched her closely and could tell from the look on her face that she felt like she had just found a rare gem. If Tomorrow Comes was released in 1985 and had immediately become one of the most successful books in Mr. Sheldon’s career. The book was published when we were both babies, but here it was, connecting us.

She asked if she could read it after I was done, I said no problem. She walked off, but came back and asked for my name. I told her, and she begged me to please look for her when I was done reading the book. I said I would. She walked off, only to stop and walk back to me again, with a big smile on her face asking if she could get the book from me that day. She said she was a fast reader, and would have it back for me in a few days. Who was I to say no to the girl of my dreams. I gave her the book, and just like that, we became an item. Without doing any work, I got Debby.

Hello guys...I'm back; after just a week of retirement. lol. I guess I'm a WRITER...and a writer must write. Anyway, I was going to really take a break, but over the weekend, I met up with a girl I met here (Literature section), and while having drinks and Asun, I asked her to tell me a story. I do that a lot when I meet people in real life. Everyone has a story to tell, and truth is stranger than fiction. Anyway, after hesitating for a while, she started with a love story of when she was in school. Her whole stories all revolved around this one guy...a reserved guy that seemed to be loved by everyone. When i got home that night, the idea for this story was formed. So, thanks to that girl...she knows who she is. Also, thanks to olufemiwhit who urged me to be persistent with my writing here.


Unlike my other stories, which are written in third person narrative, this is written in first person point of view. It is a little different from my normal style, but it is still romance. I just wanted to be a bit versatile with this one. And this story is going to be a lot longer than my other works. I hope you enjoy it.

Shedrak1:
Thanks Bros Kayode For The Wonderful Stories, It Gets Me Glued Whenever I Logon Here! God Bless You Immediately! Hope The Hybernation Period Wouldnt Be Long?

Maybe a couple of months...But I can't say exactly how long. Thanks.

Thanks guys.

Eva and Queen...I hope so too.