When she saw me off to the junction, I could feel the tenseness emanating from her. I wanted to ask her why she kissed me like that, but I just couldn’t form the words. She turned to face me to say goodnight, and I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her into me. She gasped, and like she had done earlier, I returned the favor. I savoured the taste of her mouth, taking my time to run my tongue over her lower lip, and giving equal attention to her upper one. She literally melted into my arms, and I felt all the tenseness seep out of her. I kissed her for about two minutes before disengaging. She wobbled on her feet a bit, her eyes glazed and unfocused. She finally shook her head to clear the cobwebs that had crept in.
She began to talk — or would I say, blab. Most of what she said didn’t really make much sense. I attributed it to the effect the French kiss I gave her. She started saying she did not mean to kiss me in the room in front of her friends, but when they were threatening to steal me away from her, she didn’t know what else to do. She only did the first thing that came to her mind. She was sorry that she led me on, and that she didn’t mean for our friendship to become weird. I tried shutting her up by placing another kiss on her lips, but this time she pushed me back. She said she was sorry, but she couldn’t do that again. I told her it was okay and bade her good night.
Later, after I got to my room, she sent a long message apologizing for the events of the evening. She then said something in the message that I can still remember —
“It is not that I don’t like you Dimeji. I am just afraid I will fall for you and then lose you later. I think I already am, and it scares me. I am still eighteen.”
This girl will definitely need working on, I told myself that night.
———————————–
The school year dragged on, and Yewande and I continued with our “relationship”, if what we had could even count as a relationship. Since that night we kissed, things had at first been kind of weird between us, but we got past that. She would sometimes stay in my room overnight, and most of these nights I would be tempted to touch her. What mostly stopped me was the presence of my roommate, but the thought of not knowing how she would react often crept in my mind.
And then I introduced her to my brother, and things were not the same after then.
The charming younger brother every single damsel fell for in movies and love novels.
The brother who swoops in to capture the heart of the fair damsel after all the hard work of the “hero”.
My brother was a medical student in another university and he had come around to spend a few days with me to let off some steam after writing his MBs(first medical exams). They both hit it off immediately, like they had known each other for a long time. I never took it for anything. Besides, I was very busy working on my final year project, so I was happy for him to help me distract her while I worked towards finishing and graduating. By then she was in 200 level(second year). I never took any sort of meaning from their sudden closeness, and even when he left after two weeks, she always inqured about him any time I spoke to her. She kept asking when next I would invite him over, that she missed speaking with him, and so on. Warning alarms started ringing in my head, but I often dismissed them. My brother knew I had this girl at heart, and will never betray me by going after a girl he knew I was interested in. Or so I thought.
All of this changed about five weeks to the end of my final year. I hadn’t seen Yewande for almost a whole week and she had not been happy about it. I decided to pay her a visit in her room one evening after I had left my project supervisor’s office. I didn’t call her before going as I wanted to make it a surprise. I got to her room and met Aijay outside. From the look on her face, I guess she was shocked to see me. I asked if Yewande was in. She hesitated at first, then said a reluctant yes.
I was stunned upon entering to find my brother there. They were both lying on her bed, and when they saw me, they disentangled from the embrace they were in. I stared at my brother, asking what the hell he was doing. Why didn’t he tell me he was around? He stated that he had tried to call me all day but my phone had not been reachable. I didn’t want to have an argument in front of Yewande or any of the other girls, so I told him to let’s go to my room. All the while I hadn’t said a word to Yewande. We both left and when we got to my room, I told him to stay away from Yewande. He had so many pretty girls falling for him already. Why add Yewande to the list when he knows how I felt about her? He started saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, but I reminded him of the compromising position I found them when I walked in. He eventually apologized after my roommate told him what he did was wrong, and said it wouldn’t happen again. I told him to head back to his school in the morning, which he reluctantly agreed to.
I saw Yewande in school the following afternoon, and rather than apologize, she demanded to know why I scolded my brother. Apparently, he had spoken to her before I did and had hinted her on what happened when we left her room the night before. She told me she owed me nothing, stating she was minding her own business before I decided to interfere with her life. That was my choice and not hers, she said. I couldn’t dictate who she could or could not see.
I stood there in total shock, not believing a word she was spewing. Remember when I said she had a sharp tongue? That was the day I found out. Here was a girl who knew how much I cared about her stabbing me right in the back. I finally asked her – even if she wanted to see someone else, why would it be my brother? She responded by saying it didn’t matter, and besides we were not even dating, so why was I that bothered? It was none of my business who she wanted or did not want to be with. Those words really cut me deep. She eventually hissed and walked away.
I did not see Yewande for the next several weeks. I kept wondering – what happened? Could it be because I was going to graduate soon? No, if not she would have gone for a guy on campus rather than my brother who did not even attend school in the same state we were. Looking back, I realized that the signs were right there under my nose. I had simply refused to acknowledge them. It was the typical play for my brother; he was the ladies’ man among the three of our parents’ sons. I should have been more cautious about him and Yewande. But why should I have been? Her words were nothing but the truth; we were not dating. I had no right to stop her from dating whoever she wanted to date. I hadn’t even kissed her since that last time. I won’t lie, it hurt badly, but what was I to do? I focused all my energy and attention to completing my project, defending it, and graduating with the 2:1(second-class upper(more like a cum laude)) I was trying to maintain.