Must Read: The Player

6 years ago

Must Read: The Player

It happened after I had finished my exams.

I noticed things had changed between us.

She wasn’t as excited as she was some weeks ago. I thought it was as regards the promise of S£x, but she told me it wasn’t that.

That everything was normal and I was being paranoid. I believed her and saw reasons to her claim that I was paranoid.

She still came around to take my sister out with her; she still gave her clothes and occasionally brought us food. But I could not remember the last time we kissed or even held hands. I still gave her excuses for the distance between us. It all came crashing when I and my guys decided to buy beer for the first time.

Although there were a couple of bars in Zone D, we went all the way to Zone A to partake in the ritual that we had been waiting for. I had tasted beer before, first on the lips of my father, who I kissed every night when I was a young boy.

When I was older, he would allow me a few gulps from his bottle of Star Lager. But I hadn’t bought beer before, with my money, for myself.

Waitresses with short provocative skirts were all around the Bamboo bar, the music playing in the background was Igbo Highlife, but we weren’t interested. I ordered for a bottle of Star, Ugo asked for Gulder and Tope took Harp. We ordered the brands of our fathers.

I ordered for three plates of turkey wing pepper soup. If we were too young to be ordering for drinks and p.soup in a bar, the waitresses didn’t show it. After a couple of cups, Tope decided to prepare us for the future.

“My brothers, the future belong to us. We might be surrounded by parasites and anti-christs, but we shall be victorious.”

His eyes were growing dimer by the second, but he was unrelenting.

“Now that we have ascended the peak of secondary education, it is time for us to spread our wings and fly to the promise land.”

“Where is our promise land, bro?” I asked

“University, money and pvssy,” he replied.

Ugo and I hissed. I wasn’t enjoying the beer as I thought I would, the turkey was a revelation though. Tope was not offended that we had cut him short; he focused on the meat in front of me.

That was when the new dude that had packed into our block walked in with a girl, the guy that uses his money and charm to straff girls from our echelon.

The girl was Oge.

I have heard before that the mind of a girl was deep, and they could swap from being an angel or a demon in less than a second, but seeing Oge threw me off balance. Ugo noticed the change in my countenance asked me what was wrong.

“I have to go home soon, Hana would be hungry by now,” was my excuse. I couldn’t help stealing glances at them. I told myself that she would have a valid reason for coming to a bar with a serial straffer until she leaned forward to take a piece of Suya from his hands with her mouth. I couldn’t drink the beer anymore, even the turkey was tasteless.

We probably would have ordered for another bottle, but I told them I really had to leave, so we left. I was glad Ugo didn’t see his sister.

He would have gone berserk.

Hanatu was watching an Indian movie when I stumbled into her room. She was so engrossed in the romance being displayed by the actors that she didn’t see the pepper soup I had brought for her in a plastic bowl.

I quietly placed it beside her and went to my room. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t so I sneaked out of the house because Hanatu wouldn’t have allowed me go out again. Sure that Oge was not back from her rendezvous, I sat on a stool beneath the staircase. More than an hour later, the guy’s car pulled into the drive-way.

I expected her to walk out of the car with him but he came alone and entered his flat with a song on his lips, I think it was Diallo by Wyclef. It took another 5 minutes for Oge to approach the stairs.

She was dressed in a black gown; one of the clothes I had told her turned me on.

“Oge, howfar?”

She almost fainted out of shock, until she realized it was me.

“Fifi, why did you scare me like that?”
“Where are you coming from dressed like this?” I asked

“An outing with a friend.”

I noticed that she maintained her distance. I walked up to her, tried to look into her eyes but she kept looking away.

“Who was the friend?”
“When did you start caring about my friends?”

I hurt real bad. I hurt that I had seen all the writings on the wall but I chose to be ignorant.

“I saw you guys, you and bros Emma,” I said this without looking at her. I didn’t want to see the hurt in her eyes on realizing that she had been caught. Her reply surprised me though.

“Okay, I am glad you did. I was tired of hiding.”

I was shocked. I expected her to defend herself and tell me it was all a misunderstanding, but she didn’t.

“You and bros Emma are….”
“We are dating, Fifi.”

“When did it start?”
“Two weeks ago.”

“You love him?” I asked.

It took a while, but finally, she nodded. It started as a chuckle, then I started laughing hysterically.
“But you loved me a month ago,” I said.

She was remorseless; in fact I felt she was getting angry with me.

“It’s not like you love me,” she said.

“If I told you that I did, would it change the fact that you are with another guy?”
“No,” she replied.

“Have you fvcked him?”
I expected a no. I said it so that she would feel slighted that I considered her a wh0re.

“Yes,” she replied.

I was dumbfounded. She looked so beautiful in that dress, she was among the brightest colors of my world.

“Why, what did I do to you, Oge?” I asked.

“Nothing, Emma and I just clicked. I’m sorry, but you will find yours.”

She didn’t bother to wait for a reply; she went to my flat to give Hanatu a pack of Lucozade. We met at the door, i told her goodnight, all she did was nod, then she went to her flat.

I went back downstairs, walked up to bros Emma’s car and deflated all his tires with a pocket knife my dad had gifted me