... by Favour Olumese
“Hello!”, were the words I heard before I turned to behold the lanky but well-dressed young man running towards me. He had on his neck a well-plated necklace and several wristbands on his hands, and he wore denim jeans and a polo. He also smelt nice. He told me that I was pretty and other sweet words to make my heart melt. Unfortunately, he was meeting this Folake for the first time, and he was shooting his shot wrong. I kept a straight face while listening to all he had to say. He concluded by asking if I could give him my number, and I retorted with a sharp “NO” to his amazement. He was yet to recover before I turned and continued my journey to my hostel.
When I got to my room, I could not help but laugh it out with my roommates. Some said I should have given him a chance, and I said, “which ye ye chance? Chance my foot.”I was not going to allow any lost boy filled with lust to make me lose my virtue.
After a week, he came up to me as I was leaving class, and I did not bother giving him any attention. He consistently repeated the same action every day of that week.
On Saturday, as I was leaving my hostel with Bolu, one of my roommates, he was waiting outside for me. I could not help but wonder, “What kind of trouble is this?” He approached us and requested I give him my number; I was about to give him my sharp “NO”when Bolu burst her big mouth with each numeric of my phone number. I was both shocked and angry. I stormed back into the hostel while Bolu followed with giggles. She said that he looked handsome. I was so furious that I swore in my heart that I would never speak to her again until she apologized. As though she could read my mind, she said that she was sorry with resounding chuckles. I could not help but forgive. She knows me too well.
Later that night, as I prepped to get set for church, my phone rang, and my Truecaller app spelled the name, “Femi Balogun”, I picked up, and the first words I heard were, ‘Beautiful Folake, I …’ I did not allow him to complete his words before angrily terminating the call. My anger renewed. Bolu did not only give him my phone number but also told him my name. The number called again, but I immediately put my phone in airplane mode.
Femi kept calling every day, sometimes fifteen times per day. It was distracting and affecting me emotionally. My roommates were not helping. They kept on telling me to give him a chance, but it did not make sense to me. How do I give someone who randomly met me on the road a chance? The math was not mathing.
... to be continued next week