The First Time

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

     Gladys was living in the second boys’ quarter some few meters opposite their main boy’s quarter. Kelvin lived with the majority of the boys. It was on the right side of the main building. Gladys turned out to be the last girl he had unsuccessfully attempted to w***e after Chinelo and two other girls before her.

     Kelvin never knew when and how the relationship blossomed even though he was aware that the two were on good terms. More so, he rarely goes beyond his own side of the boys’ quarter. It was on three occasions he was invited over by one of the boys living in the other mentioned boy’s quarter. He had gone over to have a drink of a local drink; palm wine.

     It was not long before the lid over the relationship was blown open. The sad unfortunate incident left a sour taste in their mouth. It was Kristor who communicated the incident to him. Kelvin had asked him why and what Peter had done again that everyone seemed to be making fun of him.

     “So, you never heard what’d been going on?” Kristor asked him one night while they were having dinner together.

     “Not a wind of anything. What was the matter?”

     “He-ha-ha-ha-he,” he laughed uncontrollably until Kelvin felt silly for poking into someone else discomfort.

     “Hey, Kelvin, come off it...stop this ghost-living-style here. Get involved with things here no matter how bad you feel about it all. It puzzles me. How could some things be happening in this lodge and you seemed less concerned?           He asked still trying to control his laughter.

     “A lot of things do happen here, some silly, some too obscene to talk about. So sometimes, I try to ignore whatever it is that was in the air,”

     “Anyway, don’t mind my laughter. It’s just that I just don’t know how to begin narrating what I heard,” He began looking funny. “You know that short girl, emm Gladys?”

     “Yes?”

     “This silly boy, I mean the mad dog himself had for some time been going over to her place of recent at night. I heard the story through Mekus. Peter just came back from her place one night. We were all already dead along in sleep. He first tried to wake me up but I was far long asleep so he decided to wake Mekus up. Mekus told me he saw an excited, scared, and equally confused Peter clutching his manhood. He asked him what the problem was,” Kristor was doing his best to keep another fit of laughter from exploding. “It peeled! It peeled!” Peter had cried to Mekus that night,” Kristor was clutching his balls to demonstrate what he was talking about.

     He didn’t need to continue the story. Kelvin discerned what probably had happened. Peter had gone to satisfy his libido; however, she declined due to a natural hindrance, her menstrual period. He had to agree to a hand job―masturbation. It was unfortunate that Peter had narrated his silly experience to Mekus who rarely keeps secrets. Mekus did not waste time to let out the Cat of the bag the next morning. Before it was dark, the ugly incident was already making rounds in the lodge especially in their own side of boys’ quarter.

     The embarrassing situation it created set up a big misunderstanding. It drew the ire of criticism from some of the female students and some boys on the persons of Mekus. His loud mouth was unbearable. Iyke who incidentally exaggerated the whole thing by making it a matter of flippant discussion came under fire too.

     It was while this chaos was going on that Kelvin decided to inquire about what actually happened out of curiosity. The fall-out of the incident was not a welcomed development. Peter brooded over it for some time. He recounted other seething and unresolved differences between him and Mekus. They never saw each other eye-to-eye. Iyke became Peter’s target for constant criticism.

     Gladys the girl in the middle of the saga became withdrawn for a while. She as well never met eye-to-eye with Mekus and probably Iyke.

     As things were going on, it was like an experimental falling in and out of relationships. Kelvin had felt uncomfortable when he first packed into the lodge. He was alarmed at the number of students in the lodge. On average, it was two students per each of the over twenty-roomed apartments. He has never lived in a large gathering before. He opted to relocate to another quieter lodge. He was forced to jettison the idea. However, it soon occurred to him that there was no better place free from the scenes and lifestyles prevalent in the lodge. In some places, where he had earlier tried to relocate, he saw what he would term the worse episode of events.

     In some lodges, there was that flagrant attitude towards immoral behaviors on the part of both sexes. There was a total moral breakdown; no distinction between what was normal or not normal. Kelvin decided to cope with the environment of the lodge in which he did found himself. In his own little investigation, he was able to observe that he was living in the most peaceful, family-like and if he would add the best lodge on the campus due to their strong knack for success as a collective agenda in spite of the ugly trends. Most events that actually took place were simply a reflection of the prevalent pressures his fellow youths and students had suddenly found themselves and unprepared for. Some simply became victims of peer pressure and others out of their willful curiosity and unbridled urge for the passion to experiment with s*x.

     No one could fully say he hadn’t gone through some of these pressures during this period in life. Personally, he was a victim in a way as he had repeatedly hinted. It was rather frustrating to be in the midst of people who do not share the same views on such issues as chastity. It was like being a virgin living in Sodom and Gomorra. You have to exercise great restraint and discipline on yourself if one should think of coming out untainted.

     Every passing day, he was faced with the pressure to give in―must he persists in repeating himself? He asked rhetorically. Kelvin wishes he could continue doing that for emphasis' sake.

     As time passed by, it was clearly becoming evident that he was going to undergo a serious test. To him, he believed that once he had started seeing a particular individual of the opposite s*x once or twice, a bond is bound to develop between the two. If care is not taken, romantic feelings might soon be aroused and even lead to an unpleasant ending.

     Even though he had tirelessly tried to hold his feelings at the bar by solely committing himself to God through prayers and equally building upon his spirituality through personal scrutiny. Kelvin was really not ignorant of the environment he was living in and its inevitable impact on his own mind. He had found himself really exposed to lots of foolish or even obscene talks which had consistently been aimed at undermining the way he previously looks at things. Isolating himself completely from the environment wouldn’t be all that the wise option so to say if not impossible. It was evident that one couldn’t easily change the attitudes of the people he lived with even if he constantly tried his best to dissuade their minds from the immoral orientation without been preachy―a social disease that had taken a deep root in their hearts. To safeguard his heart, Kelvin had to take up a stance and equally stick to it no matter what. He was constantly examining himself to ascertain if in a way he had unwittingly derailed in his conduct; giving the impression that he was all the same in rhyme with the horde.

     “Kelvin, it’s today that I knew that you had all the while been pretending that you don’t do what others do,” It was Aricoco lashing out at him one Saturday morning while washing his pot.

     “What is it that your searchlight had found on me?”

Kelvin asked surprised at the sudden outburst.                                                                                          

     “You claim that you don’t keep a girl just like the others but why did you accompany Kristor to a girl’s apartment?”

     Kelvin smiled to himself over the childish remarks from Aricoco. It was as well a silly question.

     “My goodness, is it wrong to accompany someone to visit a friend either a female or male? By the way, did you know what prompted the visit and what happened there? Is there anything wrong accompanying someone to a girl’s apartment?” He threw the questions open before everyone even though Aricoco was the target.

     “Don’t ask me such questions?”

     “For your information, when we got to the girls’ apartment, we met her and her roommate. There was no questionable conduct that took place there neither from Kristor and me nor from the girls either. There was also no wrong intention as far as I could visibly observe emanating from Kristor that could suggest whatever that is in your dirty mind,”

     “Didn’t you know that Kristor wants her as his girlfriend?”

     “And so, what? However, that wasn’t the intention or whatever you personally had in mind for the visit. And I wouldn’t be made to believe that he had a wrong motive else he wouldn’t have asked me to accompany him. He would have asked you or any other person else he would have gone alone, bearing in mind that I wouldn’t have tolerated the slightest of it,"

     “Keep quiet there! Do you think he’s like you, girls’ president,” came Kristor’s voice as he emerged from his room on hearing what Aricoco said.