Ifeoma was the most beautiful, elegant, and brilliant girl in our department.
She was fair, tall, and reserved. Everything was rightly placed in her. She was well endowed with beauty and intelligence that could have been shared amongst five people. I couldn't help but stare at her during lctures. Oh, it wasn't just me. All other guys were doing that, too.
In my head, i call her my beautiful Ifeoma. Her name, Ifeoma, which is of the igbo origin is translated to mean, 'good thing.' So you see, 'my beautiful good thing,' or however that sounds. You sure get it.
Despite her beauty and brilliance, Ifeoma did not have a boyfriend, not even a friend. She was known to always turn down any guy who tried to woo her, including the cute, rich guys that other girls would jump on in a heartbeat.
I started developing a very strong affection for her, even though I knew nothing about this girl. Being a shy guy, sort of, I couldn't brace myself up to go and meet her despite the affection. I knew she would turn me down, too, as she did others.
It was a very hot afternoon when the unimaginable happened and threw me off my feet.
We just finished a lecture and I was hastily packing up my books to go home and relax a little before going out to play football later, when I heard the most beautiful voice call out from behind me. I turned around to find Ifeoma standing, gazing at me with a smile on her lips.
"Hi," she said sweetly, and my knees almost gave way. For a moment, I could not speak.
"Hi," I said in reply, finally finding my voice. I could tell by her demeanor that she was used to guys reacting this way around her.
"Can we talk, please?" she asked pleadingly.
"What's happening here?"I screamed in my mind. Is she really begging me? Does she not know that she's got my attention any and every time? I was mad with excitement, and I replied to her with all my obvious excitement.
"Yeah, we can talk. We can even talk for the rest of the day. Where do you want us to talk? Hope it's nothing serious?, I replied in my state of frenzy with three successive questions.
She just smiled slightly at my excitement, and we excused ourselves to have the conversation.
"Soka, I've been watching you for some time. I've been longing to tell you this, but i couldn't bring myself to until now," she said while pronouncing my name in an angelic manner.
"Anything, anything at all, you can tell me. What is it?" I replied immediately as if I was being interrogated.
"I like you, and I'll will like us to be friends," she said. At those words, my heart skipped in excitement. I wonder how i was able to act cool like my heart wasn't exploding in jubilation.
"Excuse me?" I needed to hear her say that again.
"Erm, i would want you to be my friend," she repeated, bending her head and staring at the desk.
"It's done, we're friends", I answered immediately, giving a wild smile.
"You mean it?" she asked, finally looking up at me.
"Why not? Of course i do," i said, smiling.
She looked happy at my positive response and then said, "Thank you. Can we go grab some snacks to celebrate our friendship?"
I nodded in agreement, and we walked out of the class. I could see the rest of our course mates who hadn't left the classroom look at us with questioning gazes. Even my friend, Jerry, on seeing us looked at me surprised. He walked up to us and asked me,
"Soka, what's up? Won't you be joining us for the game?"
"Hello, Jerry," Ifeoma said before I could give a reply, her voice tinted with a nice melody.
"Hi," he replied curtly, only sparing her a brief look.
"I'm not sure. I don't feel like it, maybe tomorrow," I replied Jerry in a rush to have him dismissed and hoping he got the message.
"We're going to get snacks. Will you want to join us?" Ifeoma asked Jerry. I thought how sweet it was of her to want my friends to like her.
"Hmmm... you, Soka, miss a game....I'm surprised. No problem," he said and walked off, ignoring her.
"He probably did not hear you, don't be offended by him," I quickly tried to make her not feel bad.
"It's okay. It's fine. I understand," she gave a smile. You see what I said, she's a sweet girl.
For the next few days, I and Ifeoma became very inseparable and hung out together at school. Rumor even had it that we were an item.
Fast forward to about two weeks later. It was the student week. I had made up my mind to take things up with Ifeoma. We met at the open field beside our department at usual.
"I have something to tell you," Ifeoma said as she joined me on the bench where i had been waiting.
"Quite a coincidence. I was also going to tell you something," I said.
"Alright, go ahead," she said.
"No, you go ahead. Ladies first."
She broke into the beautiful smile of hers, cleared her throat, and leaned forward.
"I like your friend, Jerry," she said, dropping a bombshell.
"I'm sorry, please say that again," I mumbled.
"I said, I like your friend Jerry. I have feelings for him and would want you to link us up. He doesn't seem to notice me, so I want you to help me," she said.
At that, I felt my heart shatter, only the noise was all in my head.
"You, you like Jerry?" I stuttered, she nodded, "I thought you said you liked me?"
"Of course I do, I like you, but as a brother and a friend. Wait up, do you have feelings for me?" I stayed silent, and she continued, "You can't be serious, " she said, laughing, "you're not my spec."
I cleared my throat and tried to maintain composure, "So you're saying that you only became friends with me so you can get together with Jerry?"
"Erm, it's not like that," she said, but her eyes betrayed her.
"Wow! Life is funny. To think that who you want wants nothing to do with you," I said under my breath.
"Sorry, I didn't get that," she said, looking right at me, pouting, "Will you help me?"
I stared for a minute, hissed, gathered my stuff, and walked away.
Thanks for stopping by
SOKA 🖤
