By Abdul Abu
Voices whisper to me at night, like they are scared to talk by day. They whisper with a troubled tone which comes out in murmurs; and I am mystified trying to understand what they say. It has been three months since the accident to which I am a lone survivor. We had boarded a bus from the Kawo bus station in Kaduna heading for Lagos to spend the rest of Ramadan and of course enjoy the Eid celebration there; myself, Hafsah, Ben, Yusuf, Grace, and Tinu.
We had all met as course mates in school and mutually picked a liking for eachother. The six musketeers we jokingly call ourselves. It wasn’t long for love to link our hearts together. Favorably, we all fell in love with the one who shared similar emotions. Ben and Hafsah were the first to share a kiss and it was epic. They have been at it for quite a while, denying there was any such connection between them and we loved to tease even when they apparently got mad by our gestures. We were bent on proving to them they had a bond beyond mere friendship and there was nothing wrong with letting it show.
The denial went on for most of our freshman year until the second semester when Ben could no longer conceal his feelings. The memories are still fresh. We had attended a dinner night event, organized by the department at the end of every session. It was only right to book a table for the six of us. We all looked stunning but that was the first time I took time to truly appreciate Tinu’s beauty. I was marveled by how good she looked when we went to pick them up at their hostel via Yusuf’s car; the real rich kid among us, but he did all he could never to make anyone feel lesser of a person than he was; how odd to refer to him in the past.
We should take credit for their relationship, Yusuf and I, as we deliberately forced Ben to drive, insisting Hafsah sat at the front seat while the rest of us shared the back. This undoubtedly played a big part in fuelling the emotional tension that has already been present between them. The night was filled with much fun, performances by artiste and rib cracking comedians made us enjoyed every part of it. Many a time I caught Ben steal love-stricken glances at Hafsah, and I thought I was the only one who noticed until Tinu pinched me on the lap and pointed at Hafsah who was doing the same thing to Ben. I giggled in silence while savoring the amusement or side attraction if you may like it. When the tension was too much to handle, Ben excused himself to use the men’s room, it was only natural that we followed suit. As I stood to go, I caught Tinu giving me a look that rather confused me. There was obvious admiration and then something else, alien to my wit but seemingly flattering. While in the men’s room we talked Ben into doing away with his denial of the apparent situation, assuring him that he had nothing to fear because we believe Hafsah was into him too.
We returned just in time for ‘dance time’. As freshmen, we were told it was the most looked-forward-to part of the evening. The sweet sound of Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ was playing.As we took our seats, Ben walked over to Hafsah and asked if she’ll like to dance; Ofcourse she said yes! We watched the promising couple dance slowly in crossed arms with their eyes fixed on each other’s. If I wasn’t looking at them, I would find myself looking at Tinu who always seem to turn and look at me too at the same time. Somehow I found myself taking her hand while sitting, and she submitted her palms in mine without resistance; then our eyes went back to our friends obviously inlove.
Other couplesmarched to the dance floor as the song changed from one love hit to another, yet you couldn’t help but pick them out;then the most amazing thing happened. Ben leaned over to Hafsahand whispered something into her ear; we saw her pause, looked at him with surprised eyes as he leaned over and gave her a mild kiss. She looked puzzled and so did we,like we had not earlier encouraged him to make the move. Hafsah turned to look at us;impulsively we gave her a silent plea and blessing. She smiled, took her gaze back to him and nodded, affirming to whatever he had proposed. Not one of us had ever seen Ben that much happy, he leaned over, taking her neck into his palm and kissing her all over again, this time she wrapped her hands around his neck and reciprocated. It was like our favorite football club had just won the Champions League. We all sprang up from our seats screaming at the top of our voices. It was an unforgettable spectacle. When finally they came back to occupy their seats, Ben bent over to me and whispered‘now it’s your turn’. My eyes metTinu’s still giving me the look, and I wondered if I had been that transparent. I tried to ignore having a confrontation with the indecision battling in my head, this was a night to celebrate Ben and Hafsah and that was what I would concentrate on. But when nature is at work, we humans do very little to fetter its diktat.
When the event ended, it was about 2am in the morning so we made for the girl’s hostel; but Hafsah had decided to spend the night at Ben’s; thus we had to go drop them off. We joked and mocked the newcouple as we left. Yusuf drove us back to the hostel with Grace sitting in front with him while Tinu and I shared the back seat. Our fingers crossed into each others, I felt like we were saying much without uttering a single word. Tinu rested her chin on my shoulder and I occasionally caught Yusuf smiling as he starredthrough the rearview mirror. We reached the hostel, Tinuand I came out, but Yusuf and Grace remained indoors. We awkwardly stood there still without the company of words. At last she spread her hands gesturing I gave her a goodnight hug. I buried my fear in that embrace, which seem to take long. It was like none of us wanted to let go and when we finally did, it was with obvious reluctance. Tinu gave out a low pitched sigh. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had no idea where all these feelings were coming from, but in few seconds I realized why all her jokes seemed funny even when they weren’t, why I felt she was smarter than anyone of us was letting on, why I instinctively sat beside her anytime we hung out, why I am bound to pick her side in an argument, and why today there has been this much awkwardness between us. I thought what had happened between Ben and Hafsah played a big part in digging all these emotions but I realized there were a lot of reasons preceding that that could have been the ignition switch; I realized…I was inlove with her. She leaned by the front door to bid farewell to Yusuf and told Grace to meet her in the room, but when she turned to go, I found myself holding her hand. Still not saying a word, I went in for a kiss. It was like she had waited forever for this night. I could feel the submission in her lips, like she was so happy that I too shared a mutual feeling; but wasn’t she? A good night had turned out great. It took two weeks before the four of us got to convince Yusuf and Grace to date. They were reluctant at the idea at first but as nature would have it, of us all, Yusuf was the first to pop the big question to Grace.
