Óloturè

Neighbors

CHAPTER THREE

“Kukuru coooo, kukuru coooo..." the sound of my alarm went off, i slammed it off. Who uses 'c**k coo' for an alarm ringtone, it's really annoying, and its the only loud tone in my alarm clock, sometimes i could sleep through an earthquake, more reasons for me to hate Mondays, have to wake up early for my 7am class. Mr Adams again, the public relations lecturer, setting his silly test in the early hours of the morning. I hissed, getting out of bed into the bathroom to get ready for school.

I packed up my books, carried my sling bag, and applied gloss on my love shaped lips. Locking my door and throwing the key into my bag i made for the bus park. I met one of my neighbors, Ngozi, outside the gate of the hostel

“How far babe, you no dey play with school oo” she jokingly said

“No mind my lecturer wey go fix text this early morning, later na” i bid her goodbye and kept walking.

So a little about myself, am an ambivert, which is a mixture of introvert and extrovert, i only talk to a few people and have a few friends. Although sometimes i go out with friends, party, have fun and all, other times, i just wanna be alone. Most of the times it’s just me and Chioma, shes the closest female friend i have. I got to the bus park and boarded a shuttle heading for school.

Looking out the window of the seven-seater bus that was yet to move as rhe driver was still loading passengers, I could see a quite robust woman frying ‘akara’ she removed some fried akara from the hot oil into another bowl. A rather slim woman was standing next to her, opening groundnut pod and throwing them into her mouth as she chewed loudly. She was talking to the robust woman, from where i stood her voice was inaudible but it seemed she was giving her a ‘hot morning gist’ as the mouth of the robust woman kept contorting into ‘ahhh’ ohhh’ ‘ehhnn’ sounds. She quickly dipped her frying spoon into the hot oil and scopped some fried akara before it got burnt. A four year old sitting beside her tried to dip his hand into her bowl of akara and she slapped his hand away.

The sky was changing and it looked like it was going to rain. I wondered if the robust woman was going to be bothered by the rain, Although She has an umbrella shed but it looked shabby. I stretched my hand out the window to feel any drop of rain, someone held them. I looked up and met the most beautiful pair of transparent brown eyes i have ever seen, i knew the face looked familiar ‘Err... nancy right, we meet again’ he said in his deep baritone, exposing his perfect dentitions.

My heart skipped a bit, truly he recognized me, and remembered my name. “Hey.. its you, Santos, sorry i never called somehow I misplaced the paper you wrote your number on”

“I was wondering why you didn’t, its okay anyway, hopefully you have memorized your number now” he said hoping I’ll answer in the affirmative

“Yes sure.. you can have it... 080..” i started calling as he brought out his phone to type in the digits. By the time i was about calling the next digit, the bus came alive and zoomed off.

“f**k!” I cussed, i was so engaged in the conversation that I didn’t noticed when the bus got filled. Now there goes my second chance of keeping in touch with him.

Almost immediately it started to rain “jezz, i hope he doesn’t get beaten by the rain “ I muttered to myself. Leaning back in my seat and closing my eyes, my mind drifted to him, i find myself getting attracted to him, i liked the way my name easily rolled off his tongue and I imagined what his tongue tastes like. I quickly shook the thought off my head. Somehow I knew I’d see him again.

It’s Saturday morning and I don’t have any class today. Still lying on my bed thinking of what i was going to be having for breakfast when i heard a knock on the door “who’s it?” I queried, and got no reply, I mumbled and stood up from my bed to open the door. I met my friend Chioma, rolling my eyes

“so you cant say its you abi” she shoved me aside and walked majestically inside. What a naughty girl.

“Hope you cook, am so freaking hungry”

“Yeah, because am your house help na, am i the one that brought you to school, get out jor” i eyed her

“This girl pls na dont kill me oo” she said amidst laughter holding her stomach.

“So who’s that hot guy moving into your hostel?” Chioma asked

“How will i know, ive been indoors since I woke up”

Just then we were interrupted by a knock on the door, I’ll get it Chioma said beating me to it with a mischievous smile on her face. This girl ehn. I walked back to my bed and sat down. She turned to me with a wide smile plastered on her face

“You new neighbor need your help” she whispered. What’s she even talking about. I stood up and walked to the door, she made way for me to stand at the entrance while she stood behind me. And then i stood face to face with him, I noticed the shock on his face and then his lips slowly spread into a wide smile, i stood petrified. I heard Chioma cleared her throat behind me “he needs hammer baby girl, and close your mouth “ she chuckled and excused herself.

“Wow, nancy, we keep meeting each time, only now I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get your number, am your new neighbor” Santos said still smiling

“Really, this is really amazing, i knew I’d see you again, wow “ I said assessing him from head to toe “let me get the hammer” I went back inside and got the tool handing it to him

“Thank you,’ he said “I’ll return it as soon as I’m done, then we can talk well”

I nodded, watching his retreating figure, this is gonna be a long school year...

“Ayeee.. I didn’t know you two knew each other oo, see how you both look like Romeo and Juliet” Chioma screamed in ny ears as soon as i closes the door

“What, is he your husband, i know him na, I’ll gist you later jor”

“If i slap you ehn, gist me now jor, chai, see fine boy i was even eying sef, honestly if not that you two already knew each other, he would be the only reason for me coming to see you” Chioma said

“Look at her fake friend, because of man” I clapped at her face. We both laughed, then I started gisting her how we first met.

The dried grass rustled on the floor as my feet made contact with it. Its eerily quiet out here, i looked around, am surrounded by tall trees with big branches. Suddenly i felt something wet and cold upon the back of my neck, i lifted my eyes and that was when i saw it. Hanging from one of the trees was a giant redish slimy monster with big black eyes and amazingly long tail, it was monstrous looking, it flashed its fangs at me, i screamed and took to my heels. I could hear it running after me in hot pursuit, i ran as fast as my legs could then I tripped on something and fell flat on my face at the foot of what seem like a kolanut tree, looking around me I couldn’t see the monstrous creature again and everywhere was back to being eerily quite. A cold wind blew past me, i felt something drop on my skin, blood, i looked up, and there it was, the creature, it opened it mouth really wide and launched at me “ahhhhh” i screamed jumping out of bed, it was only a dream.

Panting and sweating I strolled into the kitchen to get some water to drink, it’s really dark and hot in here. I went outside and was greeted by a cold refreshing breeze, I might as well sit here for a while. I sat on a pavement directly opposite my room. Checking the time on my phone it reads 12:30am apparently i wasn’t the only one outside by this time as I noticed a figure sitting opposite where i sat at the other lane. I bent my head and started scrolling through my phone, i heard footsteps walking towards me i looked up, it was Santos our new neighbor, he happened to be the one sitting opposite me.

“Hey Nancy, good morning.. and what’s stopping a pretty girl from having her beauty sleep?” He asked concerned

I smiled “how cheesy..” i answered “it’s really hot inside and i had a nightmare “

“Oh wow..shoulda called me to help you shoo it away ‘shoo-shoo’” He gesticulated. I laughed

“You’re really funny new neighbor”

“Oh now you forgot my name because ive moved into your hostel abi” he said and we burst out laughing.

“What about you why aint you sleeping?” I asked him

“Well same as you, can’t sleep in the heat and i need to browse dunno where all the networks in my room ran off to”. “You know.. ‘ he continued ‘i never in a thousand years thought I’ll end up in the same hostel as you”

“I know right,’ i said giggling, ‘ever since that bus experience, i mean it happened twice”

“Swears, it now looked like something is against me getting your number, and as for that number, I’ll be needing it, before i wake up and realize you’ve moved out of here...ahh, I’ll just go mad” he said extending his phone to me

I input my number and saved it “i cant just wake up and move out without you knowing na”

“Hmm, who knows what might happen, i mean happy i can finally get to see you more often now that we live in the same place” he smiled.

He sat next to me on the pavement, we just sat in comfortable silence. “Good thing tomorrow is Sunday, you dont have to worry about early morning lectures “ Santos said breaking the silence

“Me? What about you” i asked

“Well am a graduate, computer science, graduated last year, so am just sticking around awaiting service, though for now i work part time for a company online “ he answered.

“Thats awesome, me am in my final year studying business administration”. We talked about lots of things, school, projects, politics, religions, etc. The sky rumbled and and it began to rain.

“So... its time to go inside and have your beauty sleep nancy” santos said

“Yes, certainly’ I yawned ‘and you too santos”

“I’ll watch you go in first”.

I blushed “o..kay..goodnight and sleep well” “you too” he answered. I entered my room and shut the door, i looked through my window and watched him go into his room. ‘Ding’ a w******p message popped on my screen “sleep well beautiful” it says, with a heart emoji. I smiled and texted back with a snoring emoji, i saved his number and went to bed. That night, i dreamt of rainbows.

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