A Story Of Deceit

Episode 13

Dayo sat down again on the bench, I sat a
distance away from him, he was looking at
me but I couldn’t do the same. He stared at
me like he was a blind man who just opened
his eyes to see for the first time, this sent
my heart racing a bit, ‘Uwa, I really miss
you, staying with you feels like old times’, he
said, when I heard the words, ‘like old
times’, from Dayo, it made me recall our
platonic love when we were little. He stood
up, ‘mtcheeew, so he’s going’, I hissed and
complained in my thoughts, but I was
mistaken, he stood up and sat very close to
me, I knew what he wanted to do but I kept
quiet and stared like an innocent child. We
weren’t saying anything to each other, he
brought his head closer to mine, I could feel
his breath against mine as his lips brushed
my lips, this sent my heart racing faster
than before.

He pulled back, stared at me and smiled, I
bowed my head in shame, I couldn’t stare
back at him because of the way he looked
at me. He raised my head with his hands
and held the nape of my neck, this sent
chills down my spine, he repeated the action
of bringing his lips close to mine again but,
this time, he didn’t just brush his lips
against mine, he kissed me, his lips had a
different taste from mine but it tasted
warm, he caressed my hair through the lines
of the cornrows on my head. I was still in
shock so, I didn’t kiss back at first. Soon
enough, I adapted, I emulated the movement
of his mouth and kissed back, things began
to heat up between us, I pulled back,
‘Dayo,stop!’, I exclaimed angrily, ‘what is it?’,
he asked looking worried, ‘hmmmm’, I
sighed, ‘we can not sleep with each other
ooo’, I said rudely, ‘Uwa, I promise, I won’t
do anything to hurt you, I know, I was
stupid, I flirted with other girls when I
returned but none has your qualities, you’re
different from them Uwa, besides, we did
most of this when we were kids right?’, he
asked. Like a fool, I nodded my head in
agreement, ‘yes’, I replied. He drew closer
and kissed me again.

‘Uwanah, are you mad?, is it not this same
Dayo that treated you like a fool in front of
Bimbo?, is it not the Dayo that avoided you
like a plague when he returned from the
city?, he’s about to dump you again’, my
mind screamed from afar off, I listened to it
and for the second time, I pulled away from
the kiss, ‘Dayo, come and go home’, I said
those words, I didn’t mean them, but telling
him to go was the right thing to do, I
released his grip on my nape and stood up
from the bench. ‘Uwa’, he said, ‘Dayo, be
going home’, I ordered. He looked at me for
a while and said, ‘Uwa, I’m in love with you’,
those words made me lose my mind, he had
never said those words to me, nobody had
ever said it, it was my first time hearing it. I
looked to the floor in shame, ‘I love you
Uwa’, he said again, ‘I always have, it’s just
that, I was scared to believe it, now I just
won’t deny the fact that I’m in love with
you’, he said.

My mind screamed again, ‘na now, wey im
wan sleep with you, na im he con dey say,
‘I’m in love with you’, but did I listen?, No!, I
thought, ‘even if I had never seen my mum
in the act, at least, I was mature enough to
know even if I had not tried it before, my
mum did it and there was no harm, besides,
my own is different, it’s just Dayo’, I
convinced myself. After much persuasion
from Dayo, I gave in and we had s*x. I
couldn’t look at Dayo’s face that night, I
was extremely shy, honestly, I was in pain
but I didn’t say anything because he
persuaded me, he didn’t force me and I
allowed him.

When he left, I got up, picked up my clothes,
had a shower but I couldn’t eat anything, I
had no appetite. I picked up my phone, it
was 10:40pm, I wasn’t expecting my mum
anytime soon, therefore, I blew out the
candle. I sprayed the mat properly, it was
scattered from what happened earlier, I took
my phone from the stool and sat on the
mat, I looked round the house. Apart from
memories of my mum and I, the house was
also filled with memories of Dayo, there was
no way, I would forget what happened that
night. I just hoped and prayed Dayo’s
behaviour wouldn’t alter. My hands twitched
from the vibration of the phone on my hand,
due to a text message, I opened the
message, it was from Dayo, it read;
‘Uwa, I meant those words
tonight, I’m really sorry for
the way I behaved before,
I love you, hope to spend
more time with you again
goodnight’.

I chuckled when I saw it the text. Though,
some words like, ‘behaved’, ‘before’, ‘spend’
and ‘tonight’, were difficult to pronounce at
first but I looked closely at the combination
of the words, it was like my everyday
english, so I made sense out of it. I would
have replied the message, but for lack of
airtime, I couldn’t.

I woke up the next day a little tired, I
sluggishly stood up. My new work had no
specific resumption time, I’d have resumed
early,if I was their cook, fortunately for me, I
wasn’t. Despite the freedom I was given, I
still had the wisdom of knowing that the
time to resume didn’t have to exceed
10:00am or 11:00am. I picked up my phone,
looked at the time, it was some few minutes
past 7:00am. I still had plenty of time,
walking to Mr. Soji’s house, would take two
hours or at most two hours, thirty minutes if
I walked as sluggishly as I was feeling that
morning. I finished preparing that morning
but my mother was still sleeping. I hadn’t
even shown my new phone to her, I didn’t
want to wake her up, going to work without
informing her was becoming a norm and she
didn’t care if I went out or not. ‘If I’m still
awake when she comes back from the shop,
I’ll show her’, I said and dashed out.

I didn’t see Dayo on my way to work as I
had been seeing him for the past two days.

There was no call or text from him either, I
would have dialed his number, I remembered
I was short of airtime. I made up my mind
to get call card on my way from work to
avoid such limitations. When I got to their
house, Mr. Shola opened the gate as usual, I
greeted him and he responded with his usual
word, ‘ehen’ and the expression on his face
which seemed like, ‘I don’t give a d–n’.

Yemisi was still asleep, I didn’t bother to
wake her up, I dropped my phone in her
room and started the chores. Mr. Soji was
not around, I used his absence as an
advantage to play around while I ”worked”, .I
washed the dishes in the kitchen like a child
as I played with the taps, I was about to
turn on the tap in an attempt to rinse the
plates when I heard Yemisi’s yell. I was
frightened, ‘ when did she wake up?, what
happened?’, I thought and ran straight to her
room. I pulled the door knob with extreme
force and as a result, I almost fell down but
I didn’t care, I wanted to know why she
screamed.

‘I frowned immediately I saw her smiling at
her phone, ‘mtcheeeeew, I think sey Lion
wan chop this girl,so I just wasted my
time….’, I hissed and grumbled. ‘Uwa, you’re
here already, when did you come?’, she
asked with a surprise look, ‘I came an hour
ago’, I replied politely. ‘I heard you
screaming, that’s why I came’, I said, ‘yes,
something good happened, that’s why I
screamed, thank God, you’re here’, she said
happily and asked me to come closer. She
gave me her phone to read a text message,
it read;
‘I’ve fallen for you overtime,
I won’t hide it anymore,
I LOVE YOU, YEMISI, when
can I see you?’…

I smiled and said, ‘who is it from’. ‘Who
else?, Dayo na!’, she exclaimed excitedly.

‘Which Dayo?’, I asked myself, the smile on
my face froze.