A love story

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing, I had been sleeping all day. I had no classes today since it was a Saturday. Sleeping helped a lot when I didn't want to think or feel. “Hey”, I said as I picked the call. It was from Halima my closest college friend. “Yeah Teni, I wanted to ask if you could help me out with something” “What do you want me to help you with?” “My roommates have a lot of visitors and the room is crowded and stuffy. I invited two guys to my room and they are already on their way. Can I use your room instead please?” “I’m not sure I want visitors right now Halima” “Yeah I get, but can you just help me this time please, it would be rude to tell them to go back, I promise they won't stay long” “Okay, no problem” I would have said No but she has really helped me these past days. I decided to get up to wash my face, damped my face with a clean towel and wore a large shirt then I put on joggers to feel comfortable and climbed back into my bed. I was on my phone going through my chats when I heard a knock. “Halima?”, I asked even if I knew she was probably the one. “Yeah, can we come in?” “Yeah sure, I said as I sat up” I was a little nervous about meeting new people but I wasn't really in the mood for conversations. They came in after her, both of them looked humble, but isn't that most guys do, they always act as if they are harmless but in reality they are not. “Hey, these are my friends, Alex and Niyi” She said pointing at the short one and then the tall one, they were both good looking but the taller one was really handsome. “Hi”, I said awkwardly. “This is my friend Teni”, Halima said, strolling into my room to get chairs for them to sit on. “Hi”, Alex the short one said with a big grin, he looked like he had a cheerful personality. “Hi Teni”, Niyi said with a smile. Halima came back with just a chair. “I only found one, can he sit on your bed”, she said making gestures at Alex, he sat on the edge of my bed while Niyi sat on the chair, Halima also sat on my bed. I adjusted to make them feel more comfortable. I went back to going through my phone as a distraction like I always do when I had nothing to say or when I didn't want to talk but I could still hear their conversation, Halima was asking Alex to gist her about his love life. “I don't have a love life, I'm just there”, he said, he was probably just shy because of me but Halima never gives in until she gets what she wants, she would disturb you till you finally give in. She looked at him with that “I know you do” gaze. “What of Ruth?, don't you have a thing with her?” “Yeah, but she doesn't know what she wants so it's not working out, she's making it hard, the last time we talked, she got angry because I told her she could improve her nail services by learning more. I can't even stress anymore” he replied and Halima laughed. “She actually needs to improve her nail services, all the people I introduced to her said her nails don't last long” “Exactly, same here, and that's what I was trying to tell and she just got pissed”, This time Niyi laughed, I thought he wasn't listening because he was on his phone too and then he said “Girls don't like hearing the truth” “I know right, they only want compliments”, Alex replied. “It actually depends on how you say it”, Halima said clearly trying to argue. “I told her, you're really good at what you do, you can still try and learn more so you could be perfect, what's wrong with that” “Nothing, she just took it the wrong way”, Niyi said. “Well, she probably didn't want to hear it from you”, Halima argued. “I didn't want her to hear it from someone else too”, Alex replied. “Why is she so quiet?”, Niyi said. “Teni?”, Halima called getting my attention making me realise he was talking about me. “Ohh, sorry”, I said acting confused. Why was I saying sorry? “Hope we are not disturbing you” Niyi said and I shook my head in response “Oh no, Not at all” “So why are you not saying anything”, he responded most likely not convinced. “She's just depressed” Halima said which made me glare at her. “I'm not depressed” Now I was getting annoyed. “She just had a bad break up that's why she's sad” She said further annoying me, I don't why she wasn't getting the signal that she should bottom up. "Halima!" "Oh, I'm sorry" she said with sad eyes looking guilty. “I didn't go through a break up and I'm not sad, I just woke up” Niyi was staring at me weirdly, he was probably smart enough to get the hint of annoyance in my voice. "Yeah true, you didn't date him sha, should I gist them about it” Halima responded clearly not getting the hint. I didn't want to get angry and then ruin the mood and get everyone uncomfortable so I just nodded. “So she was dating this guy, sorry pre dating this guy, that's what they called it because she didn't want to put a label on it, she found out he was just using her for her money, she's really nice so she didn't notice but she just figured it out, that's the summary” “s**t, that sucks”, Alex said with a tone of pity. "And the both of you know him too", Halima added. I felt my heart pace up at her statement. "Should I tell them", she asked and I nodded rolling my eyes internally at her behaviour. "Maxwell broke her heart", she said. Shock was displayed on their faces, they probably couldn't picture us, a lot of friends didn't believe it too and now I also couldn't believe it. Maxwell was the exact opposite of me, wild, social, practically everyone knew him, I was glad I asked to be low key. "Maxwell is an asshole" Alex stated with a hint of annoyance. “I don't why pretty girls fall for the terrible guys when the good ones like us are here”, Niyi said which made me smile inside because he said I was pretty. “I'm not heartbroken, I'm over it and I'm not sad”, I said once again because I didn't want anyone pitying me. And I meant it. “You deserve better”, Niyi said staring at me. “Yeah I know” I replied, he held my gaze for long and I looked away when I got uncomfortable. Eye contacts always made me uncomfortable. Halima and Alex kept on talking and I went back to my phone but I was paying attention this time, just going through twitter reading tweets. Niyi also went back to his phone. About 10 minutes later, they got up to leave, I decided to see them out out of courtesy. Halima and Alex were still talking leaving Niyi and I at the back. “You've been on your phone since”, Niyi said snapping me out of my thoughts. “Yeah”, I replied not knowing what to say. Now that we were walking side by side, I realised how tall he was and I suddenly felt so small looking up to him. “Are you also in Economics?”, he asked and I nodded. “How about you,?” “Software Engineering” he replied and I was sort of shocked because most of them looked like nerds. “You must be really smart then” “Nope. I'm really lazy, I wish I could change to an easier course where I could just sleep and not attend classes and then crash read during exams” he said and I laughed because sometimes I thought the same. “wow so you can laugh?” he said making laugh further. “Yeah, why not?” “You looked so scary back in your room, I was like why did Halima bring us here, this girl obviously doesn't want us here”, I laughed again because he was right in a way. “Nah, not at all, I just woke up like I said” “You look prettier when you laugh”, he said staring at me which sent butterflies in my stomach but this time I didn't look away so fast until the sound of Halima's voice interrupted us. I was trying to figure out if he was flirting with me or if it was just a normal compliment because he seemed nice. “I have to go now, I enjoyed talking to you”, He said with a slight frown on his face. “Me too” I nodded then smiled. “Are you not going to ask for my number” he said and I laughed. “Maybe” “If you decide you want to text me, you could get it from Halima” he added. “Okay” “Bye Teni” “Bye Niyi” I watched him get into the car with his friend and he waved again and I waved back smiling. I suddenly felt excited, no one had made me feel so happy this way in a while. I really felt happy. I was always uncomfortable around guys but for the first time I felt comfortable and excited. Halima came running back to me after they left grinning so hard. “I saw you and Niyi really hitting it off” “Nah, we were just talking” “He asked me to give you his number” she said grinning hard and I had to smile. “Okay” “You like him” “No, I just met him” I replied defensively but I could tell she was obviously not buying it. “I just sent you his number, in case you wanna talk” I thought about whether to text him or not for hours until sleep enveloped me.