The First Time

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

She could not help but smile broadly. She slowly flipped through the book page after page, pausing on each page to examine the drawings. The drawings were nice and beautiful except for some points where the drawings were not sharp due to the pencil being blunt. In spite of that, they were all excellent judging from the fact that they were all drawn during the night and under poor lantern light.

     “I never knew you’re such a pretty good artist. How best can I thank you?” she finally found her voice.

     “You had already said enough worth the appreciations,” he replied with a sense of humor.

Then her friend Amanda who had been observing in silence decided to take a look at the drawings. She too was impressed at the artistic drawings. She immediately handed her own drawing notebook to him to do the same favor he had done for her friend. Amanda always has enough dimple smiles to give away. It comes attached with a burst of warm hearty laughter that warms the heart.

     Kelvin accepted it. Then he took his exit as more students came over to admire the work. On his way out of the lecture hall, he overheard a female voice, exclaim: “Who did these beautiful drawings for you? Hey, it’s quite nice. I wish I knew the guy I’ll have him do mine too,” That was exactly what he had wanted to avoid―a lead to open the door to him. A lot of the girls in the department felt shy to approach him. They had been waiting for someone to open up the door to him. Chidera in oblivion had thrown the door to him wide open.

     Now with the: “Please, I don’t know how to draw and I can’t afford to do the drawings,” “Please, help me do it, I can pay you no matter how much,” they would usually come to him pleading.

Such was the case with a particular girl. Though from the same department as he was.

    “But who told you that I could draw well?” he tried to find out the girl.

     "Were you not the guy that drew for Chidera?"

     "Where did you get that from...you can't verify that. Can you?" he asked her.

     “At least you’re a boy. Boys draw better than we girls,” most would respond.

     “Do you think all boys can draw well?”

     “If you can’t draw well then draw it anyway. I’ll still appreciate it,” A good number of them dumps their works on his desk and walk out. Some of the naughty ones will grab at his books and hold them to their breast demanding that he do their biddings. It was like crazy!

     He recalled also a particular girl who after he had vehemently refused to do the drawings for her, did grab at his notebook. Kelvin made to grab it back from her but she swiftly took some quick steps backward to fend off his hands from getting to her. The next thing he saw her do was shocking to him. He saw her pull up her skirt slowly not minding that she was exposing her nudeness before him. She was deliberate about her actions. She was only wearing transparent black lace g-string thong pants beneath her brown shirt. He could see the shaved pubic area of her private parts partially covered by the underwear. Kelvin was dumbfounded and speechless. He froze in shock at the thought that someone might enter the classroom where he was alone with her and read a negative meaning out of her display. There was this naughty-mischievous smile she wore on her oblong face. It was one that explains his sudden state of mixed reactions and curiosity. It appeared she noted his reactions to seeing her nude. The reactions from him seemed to egg her on. That was his first time seeing the nude of a girl. The first time a girl was undressing before him. She quickly shoved his book into pants and covered it with her skirt giggling at the same time as she made to walk out leaving her drawing notebook on his desk. It had taken his compromise to retrieve the book from her.

     "You shouldn't have gone that far. It wasn't necessary," he later reminded her on the day he returned the finished work back to her.

     "That was what it cost me to make you agree. By the way, did you like what you saw on that day? I observed it was your first sight on a woman's nude. Isn't?"

     The ugly part of it all was this. Each of these girls that he had later helped in doing their class works would always recommend him to their friends. This lead to a wave of girls of all shapes and tastes whom he had never set eyes on before besieging him to assist them.

     They would come looking for him with their various demands.

It was not unusual for him to meet a girl asking him to help her call the guy known as Kelvin in his department for her. When this happens in the presence of his friends, they would all claim to be him depending on how attractive the girl in question was. If the girl is not that endowed, there will be the usual sideways glances of surprise followed by silence.

     “What do you want him to do for you?” Kelvin would ask to save the embarrassed girl.

Some will ignore him. Others will walk into the lecture hall to inquire again from another person only to be directed back to him. He had become a sudden celebrity without having a recognizable image

Sometimes, he would get warm hugs from unknown girls in the public in appreciation for what he had done for them. Most times it would turn out that he had not met them before and in oblivion if he had ever done what they claimed he had done for them. It was later that he discovered what had been going on without him being aware.

     He had gone to the Afor-market and was at it bargaining with a woman, one of his regular customers over a certain item. He was taking his time with the conversational bargain. Warm airs filled with a feminine delicate scent aroused his consciousness. He turned to the direction where he felt the source was from. There standing with a lowered gaze he noticed a dazzling beauty of a female student. She serenely was watching him. He wanted to ignore her and turn away when she greeted him.

     “Hallo moonlight. How are you?” he found himself responding.

     “I’m fine and you?” she had a sweet and soft accent like a white American. It was what initially got his attention. She wore a medicated frameless eyeglass. There was something about her that strikes him with familiarity. He did not want to waste his time guessing where on earth he had met her before.

     “Well, I’m cool only that hunger is trying to harass me than ever,” he said with humor.

She laughed softly, still pouring those endearing looks at him. Those looks were the kind that could make any man wobble at the knees. They were creating holes in him.

     “And what are your plans towards it?” she said amidst smiles.

     “Am planning to cook a delicious soup to teach the hunger a big lesson of its life,” he said. He was still trying to figure her out.

From the looks of things, she had already finished shopping. She was heading back to her lodge when she caught sight of him and decided to brace herself to approach him. Coincidentally, the item he was bargaining for was the last item on his list.

     “Am glad to meet boys that can cook,”

     “You mean boys that were grateful that their mothers allowed them a practical session in her office?”

     “Hahaha, you can’t stop being amazing,” she came closer. “They must be good boys to win their mothers’ confidence to steer her will of power in her absence,’’

     “Yeah, I think you’re right. So thanks to my mother,”

He had brought out a bill to pay, the woman bemoaned lack of change and he had no other smaller bill on him. The seller made to ask her neighbor for help. Yvonne the name of the girl as he later learned came to the rescue.

     “Lots of thanks from my person,” he thanked her relieved.

     “You’re welcome. I should be the one to thank you,” she replied.

     “How do you mean? You helped me pay for the item and I am meeting you for the first time. So...ok…explain how you mean please,” he said interrupting himself sharply.

     All she could do was admire him. She was looking at him amused as they strolled together home. He must be have been amusing her.

     “You’re an intriguing kind of a person with those serious enviable looks you wore always,” she remarked. “Which makes one feel a sense of security,”

Kelvin has been to this road before on several occasions with several other girls he could not call to mind. He has heard quite a good number of girls lavishing him with praises and words of endearments. He had actually come to see that as an unnecessary road to derive pleasure from.

  “Such a wonderful personality you paint of me….,” he doesn’t want to tread those lines.

     “You’re cute with that. Well, what I mean is this, you wear a serious charming look that at first sight one thinks you’re unfriendly. Then on looking closely one begins to see a rather beautiful mind full of endearing personalities. It lures you to the heart of your admirer making her longing to see you, even though you might not have cared to notice,” she declared.

     “I’m beginning to feel guilty for my hard-heartedness,” he jokingly expressed his remorse.

     “Nope, dear. Point of correction, you’re only been hard-headed,”

     “How do you mean?” he was really beginning to wonder how long it would take her to get to her final point of view about him; she was a total stranger to him. He attempted with great effort to keep her on the wheel to get a better view of her impressions. He was trying to explore her mind a little bit longer.

     “Your type of person knew pretty well the effect you have on the opposite s*x. At the same time, you knew how best to make them pine away for you with feelings by making yourself inaccessible to them. Sometimes, I get to wonder if this is a skill on your part. I came to understand too maybe this is a form of protection against unnecessary emotional entanglements. However, it can make a girl crazy and lovesick. If you continued to ignore her, it could make her hate you for that. Nonetheless, there's this nagging feeling that she will always believe that one day you will turn your attention on her and be hers forever. No girl no matter how hurt she felts can afford to ignore the possibility of actualizing her dreams. She would continue to idealize you in her heart; it doesn't matter how long,”

     “That’s kind of romantic to note of observation,” he remarked. “Do you read romance and magic novels a lot?”

     “Yes, I read romance a lot but not magic whatever that means,” she replied. “What about you?”

     “I don’t,” he smiled. “I prefer crime and detective, thriller, mostly fiction. Those are my favorites,”

     “That’s my elder brothers’ genre too. The two of you have most things in common,”

     “Really?” he raised his eye-brow “He must be an articulate and impressive person,”

     “Yeah, he’s one kind of genius and shrewd,”

     “But how on earth could you be able to get such a vivid description of someone you had only met for the first time. Are you a sorcerer?” he asked her amazed at her in-depth understanding of his character from her own perspective. He was doing all his best to keep the air of humor about him fresh.

     “Maybe I am, maybe am not. I knew well enough that in my heart you aren’t a stranger. It pains me that you purposely and cold-constantly ignored me,” she replied. There was a taste of pain in her voice.

     “By Jove! How could I have ignored you when I am in the oblivion of what’s happening in your mind. I hadn’t seen you before? Had we? Possibly we might have passed each other on the road. Hey, you don’t expect me to walk up to every pretty female student and start talking to her just because there was a slight or flint of interest by mere eye contact or so. Wouldn’t that make me rather a Casanova?” he pressed hard defensively.

     “When you had made yourself inaccessible and made up your mind not to care. How do you think you’ll be able to be aware of anyone? Even when they scream out your name in a passionate way in their private dreams,” she bemoaned once more.