The First Time

Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

He gave her a warm smile of delight. He wanted to know everything that had taken place in their absence from her. She generously went into details to narrate as much as she could remember. She showed him the practical biology assignment that the lecturer had given.

He went through the assignments with smiles. It was one of the easiest schoolwork―sketching of some animals and bisected sections of various unicellular animals and plants.

     “That’s a lot of work,” remarked Kristor smiling at Kelvin.

     “Yes and the ugly part of it all...I don’t know how to sketch for I hate any sketching work,” Chidera laments.

     “Well, you’ve got no problem if that’s your problem. Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you,” he offered.

She looked at him not knowing what to say.

     “I’ll only need your biology textbook to help me get printed samples of the assignments. That’s only what it will cost you,” he told her.

     “Yeah, we need that. Is that not a modern biology textbook?” repeated Kristor.

     “Yeah, that’s it,” she replied as she handed it over to him instead of Kelvin while still keeping her eyes on Kelvin.

     “Chidera, what’s the problem? I just offered to help you do your classwork but you kept looking at me that way without saying anything,” he remarked.

     “Kelvin, sometimes I don’t understand you quite well,' she propped up her head with her hands. "At one time you seemed to be avoiding me and at another time you will come rallying by my side,”

     “Well, you have to understand him. He had been too busy with his books and sometimes to his own detriment. Could you imagine that he reads till midnight under poor light?” Kristor said in a bid to defend him.

      “That’s not an excuse. Is he the only one who reads his books?” she snapped.

     “Chidera, I had not intended to hurt your feelings by anything. If my actions lately seemed to irk you please try to bear with me,” he was apologetic.

     “Anyway, thank you for coming to my rescue. I appreciate that, but I hope you will not spoil my books,” she said laughing as she made to leave for her lodge.

     “Trust me,” he said after her.

     “Ok,” she replied as she left the two.

     “Where did you catch her from?” Kristor had asked him as she left the laboratory.

     “You mean who?” he pretended not to have heard him. 

     “The girl that just left,”

     “You mean Chidera?”

     “Yeah, come on, what’s come over you. She’s quite a pretty damsel, and you’ve got a great taste,” he said with excitement.

     “Hey, what’re you getting excited about?”

     “C’mon man. Kelvin, relax. I meant to praise you. I can’t imagine it you don’t have a girl,”

     “Enough of your sentiments,” he charged.

     “Come on, don’t pretend she’s not your girl and that you don’t like her. Can’t you see the way she’s been looking at you?”

     “I have told you time without number that I have got nothing to do with them all!”

He laughed out loud.  “Ok, but why did you opt to do the class works for her… why did you plead with her to bear with you, that you never meant to hurt her. It shows that something had been cooking between the two of you. Now you are trying to deny it because I had caught you unawares,” he had challenged him for an explanation.

     “Kristor what are you up to? Is she the only girl you had seen me trying to help out with their school works? Or is she the only girl that had been raving about me? Ok, if I had been hiding her from you, for what must I do that? Even at that, I wouldn’t have allowed you to meet her in the first place,” he strongly put up a defense.

     “I quite agree with your explanations wholeheartedly. There had been a dozen of them all over you, but this particular girl seemed special to you. Ok, let’s put aside the fact that you gave her your books for keeps, you could’ve given them to any other person. My observations can't be false. Today, there’s something about her that makes her different from the other girls. Judging from the way you talked to her; the soft tone of your voice, your general mannerism. Boy, she affects you and she’s infecting your mind. Please own up man!”

     "What you just observed is a no-big deal. I've decided to help her with her classwork as a way of appreciating her for helping me keep my books while I was away. That's all to it,"

     "I understand that Kelvin. Still, this is no ordinary girl to you. I know you like the back of my palms. You can't tell me both of you are into each other," 

     Kristor had been right. He was having a crush on her. They were on each other. No matter how hard he had tried to deny it, he always had this feeling that Chidera had a lot to offer. In spite of all his efforts at avoiding an emotional attachment with her, his heart burns with pains for not being willing to open up to her the way he ought to. She was eagerly waiting for his formal invitation. Yes, to take charge of her. However, he was not comfortable with the strong feelings he was developing for her.

     He felt tortured by Chidera and tormented by his strong uncompromising will. He felt they were infatuated with each other. "This is crazy," he thought out loud one night. He felt this pain even more. He knew the irrefutable fact. The reason he had not been able to express his feelings to her was as a result of their divergent religious background. They were irreconcilable. There was a sharp contrast to moral views between them. And there was no way they could ever be compatible with each other no matter how deep their emotions might go. The truth is quite bitter. There was only one option; a compromise on each party which is quite impossible especially with him. Yet, no matter how he viewed it. No matter how he tried to rationalize the relationship, it was wrong from the word to go. Then he could not let go of the feelings he felt for her. He was at a crossroads. How he found himself at this point was still a mystery to him to comprehend. What had happened to his hard-nut-to-c***k postures? Was he truly spiritual? Was he another hypocrite in the waiting? Was he already being compromised? Was this a reflection of his human weakness?

     As days passed by, he began to put up a hard fight to stop his feeling from ascending to the point of no return. He might end up heartbroken. He prayed fervently, wishing she will get distracted from him. How he wished she was on the same page with her. Chidera was among the few most beautiful girls on campus. She was already in the spotlight from male admirers jostling for her attention.

     The encounter on that fateful day was an opener to Kelvin. That evening and throughout the night, he stepped up his gear towards fulfilling his promise and impressing her as well. He drew up all the drawings from the samples from the textbook. Not only for her, but he was also as well under pressure from his colleagues in the same lodge with him to finish up and draw for them too. Some who can do the drawing themselves had no reference sample to work from. Chidera’s textbook was the only source of information available for anyone to do the assignment. He had promised her to return the textbook the next day. He was working on her drawings and his too under a Kerosene lantern light.

     It was rather 2 pm in the wee hours of the morning of the next day that he was able to finish the work. He finally allowed some sleep to take him away for the next four hours before daybreak.

     When daybreak finally arrived, he felt sluggish to wake up. It was already 8 am in the morning when he finally did get awake to prepare for school. He was still sleepy when Kristor entered his corner of the room and took the textbook and drawing materials to start his own drawing.

     He got to the school in the company of his friend Kristor who had woken earlier to do his drawings and prepare for lectures. He never bothered to disturb him but waited on him patiently to stir awake. He was aware he had kept late hours to finish the drawings. Even though they were not roommates they always keep an eye on each other. Kristor could tell when Kelvin went to sleep that night. He knew that when he heard the flip of the last page as they rustle in Kelvin’s hands. Then came the final thud sound it made when Kelvin dropped the Biology textbook on the bare floor.

     Chidera was all eyes fixed to the doorway in anticipation of her hero. On sighting him, she immediately waved excitedly at him for his attention even though she knew he was going to come for her.

It was obvious that she was not expecting the drawings and her textbook so soon. She wanted anything that will draw his constant attention to her. Any slightest opportunity to help bud the relationship counts.

The disappointment was noticeable even though she tried effectively to mask it. She took a closer look at him as usual but this time rather seriously with a motherly concern.

     “Kelvin, you didn’t sleep well…please don’t say anything,” she said after exchanging pleasantries. She held up her hand in protest as Kelvin attempted to justify himself. “You did my classwork all night punishing yourself under poor light just to please me. You want to keep your word as you had promised?” she said with much concern in her voice.

     “Well, you could be making sense but I didn’t suffer myself as you’re thinking,” he made another attempt to put up a defense.

     “Oh dear, don’t try to convince me. Can’t you see your eyes are reddish and swollen? You thought I would have hacked you to death if you hadn’t fulfilled your promise or rather think less of you? Am I not a human as you are?”

     “My reddish could be this blue-tinted eyeglass I wear always,” he defended further.

     She was right. Her concern was genuine. He had thought her first concern would have been her textbook and drawing notebook. But rather than that, she had paid less attention to the completed classwork. She was quick to notice the effects of the pains it had taken him to achieve the feat. Shower of concern for his wellbeing than hers.

     “Chidera, I feel pleased to bear the perceived pains just because of you,” he added too quickly. In his mind, he had wanted to be cautious with his utterances. He does not want to betray his intentions. He did not want to give her further impressions he had been trying so hard not to make her feel but it was too late to retrace his words. There he goes again. 

     “Kelvin please, don't always try to patronize my emotions with the way your soothing words make me

feel...”

     “Take a look at the works first, please. Stop tormenting your feelings,” he finally said stopping the barrage of emotions swelling up in her heart.

     “Ok, if you insist on that I’ll do it,”