Sister Deborah

EPISODE 5: BABY STEPS.

“Debbie, someone is calling you joor.” Divine tapped Deborah’s hand and unplugged one side of the earpiece from her ear.

“What is it?” Deborah asked, grimacing.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said someone wants your attention.”

“Who?”

“Look behind you.”

Deborah turned her head and our eyes met, and immediately, her countenance changed.

“I can’t see anybody.”

“Deborah, please wait, let’s talk.” I said calmly.

“Who is talking? Is anybody there? I can’t see anyone.”

“Debbie stop this na, the guy wants to talk to you.” Divine intervened. “Ahn ahn.”

“Which guy?! But I still can’t see anybody!”

I was getting fed up with the attitude she was putting up, so I did the only thing that crossed my mind right then. I went on my knees.

“Just so you know how serious I am.” I said bluntly, watching the change of expression on Deborah’s face as she turned around to me.

Passers-by were staring at the scene I was making, but I cared less. All I wanted was Deborah’s attention, not theirs.

“He wants to propose!” I heard from someone among the fast rising crowd of onlookers.

“I don’t think so,” said another. “They look too young for that.”

My eyes remained on Deborah despite the people’s reaction. Embarrassment, in the highest degree, etched across her face with her eyes wide open. She clearly didn’t see it coming, and I wondered what was going through her mind right now, but, to the least of my expectation, she turned around and started walking away.

“Oh my God, she turned him down!” The same person screamed, like she was deriving joy in my suffering.

“Bros take heart, sorry oh!” another voice said.

Divine was still standing there, baffled. I stood up to my feet, perplexed. Something in my mind urged me to run after Deborah but I shrugged it off, deciding to just let her go.

“I’ll talk to her…” Divine patted my shoulder and then left too.

Embarrassment, in all honesty, was the least of emotions I felt as I left that scene. I continued to walk to my faculty with a clouded, worried mind.

What have I done? I debated within myself. Was that even necessary? What prompted me to act that way? How did it cross my mind in the first place? Did I go too far?

More and more thoughts and questions piled up in my head as I walked on, to the point that I didn’t even realize when I arrived at the entrance of my department. I went inside, situated a vacant seat and sat down.

“Is it that you don’t usually see clearly during the day or what?” a voice startled me from behind. It sounded feminine.

I looked back and, true to my assertion, she was the very person I thought it would be. Within a second or two, she left her seat and came to mine.

“Chineche, I hope you know that today is Valentine’s Day. What do you have for me?”

I ignored her.

“You don’t want to talk to me?”

Again, I snubbed her.

“In case you don’t know, almost half of the class are on red and white clothes. Check me out, how do I look?”