My Life

chapter three

Dotun's POV.

Ire was a beautiful girl in her own right, always smiling and very funny, she has dark curly hair that stopped right at her shoulders, big brown bright eyes that one could drown in, her lips was naturally pink and I felt drawn to her, she looked so innocent which captivated me, guess I fell in love with her right from the moment we became friends and I got to see her for who she really was then, she always has an opinion about everything though she won't voice that out in the public but once she is among her friends oh Lord help us! She unleashes everything she's been holding in and even demonstrate a lot with her hands, she has a unique way of painting a clear picture of whatever she says, when you need someone to explain a complicated statement or sentence to you, Ire is your girl, beautiful, smart and intelligent, that is a nice combination and she has a good sense of humour to cap it up. Every day I watch her grow more gracefully in her tom boyish ways, she jumps windows and climbs trees, packs a mean punch and can be seen punching a boy or two at every opportunity she gets, as young I was I knew I was in love with her but I could not bring myself to tell her this for fear that she may no longer want to be my friend if I ask her out, besides I believe we were too small for such and so I remained just a friend, my older self still agree with the fact that we were too young then to be dating because I would not want my daughter dating at an early age also.

By the time we became seniors I had become a very quiet boy and my nick name changed from RUDE to GENTLE, once again I becamea gentle person, it was a strange transformation to most, cause they couldn’t believe that I could be so gentle and reserved, Ire on the other hand remained stubborn or should I say she became more stubborn, although her stubbornness was channel towards good causes like fighting for whatever she believes in, she believes that a Lady should be treated with respect and will go to any length to proof this to guys, especially the boys who were brought up to think that women are to be treated as slaves while men enjoys their life, am always fascinated whenever she starts one of her lectures on what a woman deserves or does not deserve, we were a team then, I, reserve my comment but she speaks her mind, she had built up her confidence to a certain level, so she speaks more in public than she does before.

Whenever we went on vacations she calls me through my friend’s phone and we talk for hours, I didn’t have a phone then so I just flash her using a friend’s phone and she calls back, one of those days while we were on holiday, I flashed and flashed but there was no call back, I was so worried that I couldn’t eat.

On the third day of no call I was so worried that I could hardly get out of bed, what was going on, who can I call to find out what the issue was, at around mid day that day my friend rushed in, panting cause he was out of breath, after a few seconds when he seems to have gathered himself he said, "Dotun your girlfriend called, sorry not your girlfriend per say, Emm her mum called and asked to speak with you", her mum!!, why would her mum call, instantly I became so nervous, what if they thought she was my girlfriend indeed and they are now mad at her and also me, lots of scenario was playing in my head.

After some time, I summoned courage to call the number back, "Heelllo hello ma, good afternoon ma, how are you ma", I didn’t even wait to hear the response to my questions I was just asking nervously, when I ran out of questions to ask I heard laughter on the other side of the line and my nerves calmed, it was indeed Ire’s mum, she said Dotun "calm down, I know who you are to my daughter, she tells me everything, I decided to call you so as to put your mind at rest, I know you’ve not heard from her for some days now and must be worried sick, anyway she is fine and will get in touch with you as soon as she can, so don’t worry, I would have told you what happened but I'll leave that to her to share or not", and with that she cut the call.

My nerve was calm now but I was still somewhat worried though not as much as I was before, I kept thinking of what could have happen to make her not call for three days, thinking of the uncertainty of when she would eventually call, I didn’t know I was pacing up and down and mutterings word until my brother and friend shouted my name in unison “Dotun!!!”, I stopped pacing then and I sat down looking marooned, quickly my brother and friend sat by my side, my brother on my right and friend on the left, what did she say, how is your girlfriend, what happened. I placed my head in my hands and said quietly, “i don’t know”.

It was two weeks after I received her mum's call, we were playing a video game at my friend's when his phone rang, immediately he saw the number calling he shouted Dotun!!! I was alarmed but from his expression I could tell it was my long awaited call because though I was playing games my friend knew that my mind was not in it as they kept winning me which was unusual but no one mentioned this cause they’ll rather I play and lose than to sit down mopping all over the place, I picked the call and I heard my beloved voice, it was like a sweet melody to my ears and a tear drop fell but I was quick to cover it up because I don’t want my friends taunting me about it for the next ten years, which they will by the way, Ire said she has missed me so much but couldn’t get in touch until she has healed enough, "heal" I asked and she say yes, I asked her the question that has been dancing in my head all these days and also plaguing my nights, "what happened" she said they were relocating to Lagos, her Dad had secured a better job there and she wanted to wait until they were there before telling me about it but on their way they had an accident and unfortunately the side she was seated got the worst impact and she was out of it for three days according to her mum, it was when she woke up that she pleaded with the mum to give me a call so I would not worry, well! what good did that do, since i still worried my heads off, though she has recovered now and will be discharged the next day according to the doctor, after she hang up the phone I was speechless, I was wailing on the inside but couldn’t let it show outside cause you know the crappy thing about men been able to hold in their emotion, that sucked though cause I wanted to scream my lungs out at the thought of what my Ire must have gone through this past weeks, I long to see her now more than ever, to hold her so tight and not let her go ever again, I just realised how much she means to me, I thought I knew this before but this was a new level for me, I suddenly realised how fickle life can be and how I don’t think I can stand it if anything happen to her, am not sure she even knows how much she means to me though, oh! I prayed so much for God to keep her safe for me, though I didn’t know what was happening then. I later gave my friend a brief rundown of what she said and they shared in my pain just as a true friend would.