to be with you alone and tell you how
sorry I am. I know my mom came around
and apologized to you and you mom, but
I know I still owe you an explanation and
a personal apology. You must
understand that I never intended to see
you hurt. That day in the lab, I felt you
were well seated and only wanted to
simulate pulling the bench off you just to
get you to react but unfortunately, it led
to this” she said as she pointed my
hanging leg.
“Its ok Laura, I’ll live” I said to her
reassuringly.
“You know, I was kinda expecting you to
scream and charge at me, but only to
realize that it was something worse. At
that point I began to regret not heeding
Mr. Etim’s (seminar coordinator) advice
that we should stop the beef going on
between us.” she said becoming
emotional
“I’ve never had a beef with you Laura….”
“But you avoid and snub me?” she cut in
“That doesn’t mean I’m beefing you. You
have so many friends, followers and
admirers. There’s no point in me being
one of them. You take people for granted
too much and you’ve always struck me
as a snub. Everything seemed to revolve
around your world without you minding
the casualties you leave behind by your
actions and inactions. Agreed, you’re
from a wealthy home and you lack
nothing as everything seems to work in
your favour, but because of these
reasons, you find it convenient when
looking down on people you consider
below you. This is not even minding if
you’re in the same class with them, hence
for you to respect them as mates. I don’t
hate you, at least I admire your beauty,
but all I’ve been doing was to steer clear
off your path. Not like I had any personal
ish with you” I replied her while looking
up the ceiling not minding if she was
hurt or not. I felt I also owed her the
truth about what I really felt towards her.
After being silent for a few seconds, the
only thing she could say was “so you find
me beautiful?”
Laughingly I answered her “Geez, Laura,
that’s the problem i have with you.
You’re so full of yourself. So of all the
things I mentioned here, all you picked
was the I admire your beauty part?”
“Despite everything going on, Fury had
always admired me.. Gosh, you don’t
know what that means to me, that the
only guy I really liked actually liked me
too” she said looking in my eyes
Chuckling I told her “you seriously need
help Laura” before I continued, “at least
for the past years, I succeeded in
avoiding you until your drama on Friday”
Chuckling she said “As a matter of fact
eh, I had been bothered about the
possibility of me approaching you the
previous day to give you my presentation
when I learned you were to control the
slides, I begged Cindy to do it for me, but
she insisted I must meet you today (that
day). So I told her ok. But I still couldn’t
be the first one to talk to you so I
decided I’ll give it to you the next day. It
turned out I copied just my front and
introduction page which coincidentally
had the same title with with the main
document. So when I was on stage, and
realized the mistake i had made, the only
thing that came to my head instantly was
to turn in on you..”
“Yea, and it worked” I cut in
“Cindy was confused. She had always
supported you over me even though she
pretends not to like you. But at that
moment l could see how angry she was
with you because she believed I had
given it to you the previous day. But she
nearly ate me raw during the break when
I opened up to her” she revealed
“I guess it’s all over now?” I said in
defeat
“Yea, only I didn’t realize that and ended
up getting you a bed space in the
hospital” she said in a remorseful tone
“you’re so sweet when you’re remorseful”
I told her while giving her a light punch
on her shoulder.
She went on to tell me how she admired
how my mom doted me like an only
child, how she joked with her never
mentioning or reproaching her for what
she did. She also mentioned how mom
and her mom struck up an attraction for
each other the day they met saying her
mom had confided in her saying my
mom was such a nice person because if
it were her, (her mom) she wouldn’t have
been all nice had it been that the reverse
was the case and she (Laura) was hurt
by me.
That was how I and Laura became close
friends. 6 week after being admitted in
the hospital, I was discharged though
with crutches to aid my walking. I
resumed school and lectures having
missed alot, but fortunately I got lecture
notes to read while admitted.
Least I forget, I and Laura had the same
project supervisor and coincidentally had
similar project topics. While I was to
work on blood samples from students as
my specimen, she was to make use of
blood samples from out patients at the
teaching hospital. We spent most nights
together in the laboratory.
To the surprise of classmates, I and
Laura became a pair. We both fell in love
with each other, but neither of us
admitted to having feelings for each
other. Laura became friendly to everyone
in class, while I got a few more hates
from guys who had fancied her from day
one. And from what I found out, she
wasn’t dating anyone and she also
claimed not to have dated any guy in
school. Though I never believed her.
Few days to start of our final exams, on
a certain night, when a radio request
program students in my school loved to
call in requesting special songs for their
friends and loved ones was on, I called in
hoping she was listening and requested
the host to play “man in your life” by Joe
dedicating it to her. When asked by the
host why I was dedicating the song to
her, I told her Laura would understand..
But the host pressed me further saying
other listeners have to understand also.
That was when I said I was in love with
her and needed a place in her life.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Laura was
listening. I didn’t see her or hear from
her till the following week when our
finals began. She wouldn’t pick her calls
or chat with me on 2go. Throughout the
exams she avoided me before any paper
began and left immediately after it
ended. Everyone in my class had heard
about my call on the program and were
all curious as to why she was avoiding
me. I became worried because even Cindy
wouldn’t talk to me. But when I noticed
how she avoided me during the first day,
I chose not to bother about her again. I
had my finals to concentrate on and had
no emotional strength to worry about
her.
After our final exams, I decided to take a
break from everything including Laura,
school and PH by visiting Frank in
Calabar. My final paper was on a
Thursday, so the next day being Friday
around 1pm, I was already at Enarit Bus
terminal waiting to board the next bus to
Calabar when Laura called.
“Hello” I answered the phone with
indifference
“Hi Fury, how are you?” she asked
sounding nervous
“I’m good. You?” still with the tone of
indifference
“I’m ok. Where are you? I’m at your
place”
“What are you doing there?” I asked liked
she had just said something forbidden
“I want to see you. Look I’m sorry for…” I
cut in
“Laura there’s nothing to be sorry about.
You did nothing wrong. I offended you, I
get and you were just being Laura by
snubbing me all through” I told her
“Fury can you just let me speak please”
she screamed into the phone sounding
sober “where are you? I need to see you”
“Enarit park, I’m on my way to Calabar” I
told her
“When are you coming back?” she asked
“Why do you care?” I asked feigning
surprise
“We need to talk” she pleaded
“Dunno when I’ll be back. Just need a
break from everything”
“Ok please can you buy a ticket for me?
I’ll be with you shortly. I’ll go with you so
we can talk”
It was at this point I realized how serious
she was. But I wasn’t willing to give in
just yet. So I asked her “can’t we talk on
phone”?
“No. Get me the ticket. I’m on my way,
lemme pack a bag at home” she ended
the call. Perhaps she knew I might
wanna talk her out of it and also despite
claiming to be sorry or pretending to be,
she still exhibited the authority she
always felt she had by ended the call on
me.
I got the other ticket, but by two pm
when the bus was scheduled to leave, she
hadn’t arrived. I called severally and each
time she wouldn’t pick but would send a
text saying she’s on her way.
We had to be replaced in the bus by
other passengers. The next bus left by
3:30pm and Laura hadn’t shown up
claiming to be in traffic. I had already
lost patience because that was the
second bus I had just missed. When she
finally picked, I could hear the noise of
cars and confirmed she was actually in
traffic. Though I was still angry at her
somehow.
Now there were about 7 passengers left
in the park including myself and Laura
making it 8 passengers on the manifest.
But there was no bus left in the park as
the manager told us the bus we would
make use of was on its way from
Calabar. At exactly 4pm the bus arrived
and when the manager told the driver he
would embark on the 3hrs trip back to
Calabar, he became furious complaining
he was tired. After much pleading from
the passengers present and the manager,
he grudgingly asked us to board. Laura
hadn’t shown up. I had to disembark
calling her with her saying she was
already outside the gate. When I saw her
coming in with her bags, I ran to meet
her and we created a scene because
while my intention was just to hug her,
she added a long kiss to the hug.
Fortunately for us, the driver was still
talking with the manager. When we
returned to the bus, other passengers
were just staring at us.
Though I initially reserved the front seats
for both of us, but because of that kiss
and how much I wanted to cuddle her, I
decided with took the back seats since
the bus wasn’t full. We finally left the
park around 4:45pm and got to Eleme
junction around 6:pm because of the
traffic. We got to Calabar around
9:30pm. And for most part of the
journey, courtesy of the bus air
conditioning system, we slept cuddling
each other. We never talked about what
happened the past week.
I had already informed Frank I would be
late because of what was happening and
that Laura was coming with me. But
since Frank’s younger bro was around at
that time in Calabar, I had to lodge with
her.
To be Continued
