CONFUSED LOVE

It all began on April 1st, 2024, during the buzzing JAMB preparation period. The sun burned lightly over the roof of the tutorial center known as The Legacy, a place filled with the hopeful noise of pens, murmurs, and youthful dreams. Among the countless students who filled the benches day after day was a young man named Samuel. Samuel was nineteen—caught between boyhood and manhood—with a mind that carried more dreams than confidence. He wasn’t the brightest student in the room, not the one the lecturers pointed at for examples or praises. But beneath his quiet eyes lay a fierce determination. He had finished secondary school in 2023 and refused to become another statistic—another boy roaming the neighborhood with a worn-out plastic chair outside a kiosk, waiting for life to begin. No. He wanted more. But none of these ambitions prepared him for the moment that would alter the course of his life. It happened on an ordinary afternoon. Students were already settling in for Biology class, flipping through notes, searching for pens, adjusting their chairs. Samuel walked in late—again—and scanned the hall for a place to sit. The only empty space left was beside a girl he had never seen before. She had a calm, almost quiet glow around her. She wasn’t talking. She wasn’t trying to be noticed. Yet she radiated something that drew attention without demanding it. Alice. Samuel hesitated. Something in him told him to sit elsewhere, to avoid embarrassment, to keep to himself as usual—but another part of him, a softer and braver part, nudged him forward. He sat beside her. And fate smiled. A few minutes passed in awkward silence before Samuel gathered his courage. “Hi… I’m Samuel.” She turned gently, her voice soft. “I’m Alice.” Silence again. “How are you doing?” he asked. “I’m fine,” she replied with a small smile. He noticed she wasn’t writing. “Why aren’t you writing?” “I don’t really take Biology,” she said. “I’m just sitting in to learn whatever I can.” “Oh.” He chuckled. “Actually… I feel too lazy to write today. Can you help me with the note?” She laughed quietly—a small, warm sound that settled into his chest. “Hmmm… okay, no problem.” And that small moment… that tiny exchange… became the thread life would later use to weave a story neither of them saw coming. They exchanged contacts before leaving that day. And a journey began.