I had a friend Shola Olagoke. We were more like twins cos we did everything together, everybody knew us. If you are looking for him and you find me then you’ve seen him and vice versa. One day we were at his place and I told him we needed to talk.

“Wetyn dey sup brother?” he asked facing me.

“Na that Shade girl o.”

“Wetyn do her.”

“Omo the girl dey give me sleepless nights o, ever since I sight her for church, my mind no gree rest.”

“I no understand, wetyn dey cause am?”

“I too like that girl die, I wan date her.”

“My guy, finally, e go make sense I swear, two of una fit una self I dey tell you.”

“Thanks, baba, you don ginger me wella with this talk.”

“Idiot, shebi you bin dey talk say you no go date any girl till you wan marry, wetyn come happen now, bookworm?” he asked me teasingly.

“Guy, forget that thing, this girl don really touch my heart, I no fit think of any other girl as I dey so.”

“Oshey, my guy don fall in love, wahala for who no dey in love o.”

“Free me jare, mad man, na me you dey use catch trips abi?”

“Before nko, how pesin go talk say till him wan marry before him go get girl, abeg,” he replied laughing.

“No mind me, na book bin cause am but now book go rest till university.”

“Abi na,” he said “hahaha, you don ment I swear, he say na till university, craze man.”

“That reminds me, how Christy na, I never see una two together for a while?”

“Omo na long story o,” he replied and I could see the sadness on his face when he narrated everything that happened to me.

Apparently, he had been dating this girl called Christiana Adebonojo. She too was a friend of mine and we were very close, more like brother and sister. But there was this girl, Taye Faniyi who was in love with Shola but he never reciprocated. Taye wasn’t happy to see Shola dating Christy her close friend, so she told Christy’s mum about their relationship in hope of it ending. They never ended it immediately, meaning to fight for it even with all the obstacles, but it wasn’t going to last for long because there was already a hole in the relationship. Both of them that never had any misunderstanding before started quarrelling for the littlest of things, so they had to end it after a while when it wasn’t working. I really felt sorry for him but that’s life, we’ve gat to stand up and move on.

***

On Sunday, 13th Nov, 2011, I texted Shade in the morning and told her about my feelings for her and that I would like to have a relationship with her. I told her I would love to get a response from her after service that day. I was tensed all through the service and couldn’t concentrate because of what I was going to hear from her. I barely got home after the service and I called her immediately and asked her what her reply to my proposal was but she told me that we should meet in church on Monday night vigil, cos we usually have a vigil every Monday for youths.

After the vigil, I was expecting her to come to meet me and give me her reply not knowing she too had the same thoughts, “very funny right?” here’s the funniest part, we actually walked home together without saying a word to each other,

“Don’t even look at me like that, am new in this man, so cut me some slack,” he said to the guy beside him laughing.

 “When I got home, I put a call through to her and asked my she didn’t come to me and give me her reply.

“I was also expecting you to come and meet me for your reply,” she answered.

“Well, I failed at that, I guess,” I said smiling, “So what’s your reply?” I asked.

“I’m sorry Segun, but we can’t be together.”

That shook me, but as a guy-man that I was, we no dey carry last, so I composed myself and asked her why she said so.

“Nothing, I just don’t think we can be together.”

That was a hard pill to swallow but we live to die another day. I said ok and added that we would talk some other day but deep down inside me I knew it wasn’t over, whatever it will take, I need to make her mine, that day was Tuesday, 16th Nov 2011.

***

On Friday of the same week, I called her around 1 am cos we used to make night calls courtesy Xtracool package from the mobile network we were both using. It favoured us then because it was free from 12 am to 4 am and as youths, we had the energy to stay up all night.

“Shade, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, I’m all ears.”

“Can you look into my eyes and tell me you don’t love me?” I asked her, intending to put her off guard. She was quiet for a while and I was happy that I was winning her over, but she shocked me with her reply,

“Segun, did you look me in my eyes and tell me you loved me?”

That was one hell of a counter-attack and it kinda unbalanced me but so as not to look beaten, I had to compose myself and told her I knew I didn’t but I could if only she gave me another chance. She agreed and told me I might be lucky if I did. I asked that we meet the next day after choir practice cos we both were in the adult choir now and she accepted. Unfortunately, she didn’t come to practice and she called to tell me something came up and she couldn’t make it and we agreed to postpone it.

She called me the next Friday during the night call but I didn’t pick the call cos I was deep asleep cos of tiredness from the day’s work. When I woke up and saw the missed calls, I chatted her on 2go. 2go was a chat app we used back then, youths loved it so much because it was the cheapest and fastest means of communication. You needed to see us challenging ourselves to go higher in rank, you can’t imagine the funny things we did to achieve the ranks.

He paused with a laugh, as if recollecting those moments.

I told her I saw her calls and asked her for the reason she called, she told me she wanted to tell me that her birthday was Sunday 27th Nov, I told her that I will get her a gift but not on the d day cos I was a little short on cash. I was actually surprised that she told me about it cos she never told me even when we were just friends, not to talk of now that am trying to date her. I asked her if she was coming to church on Sunday and she said yes, so we agreed to meet after the sermon.