In Her Darkest Hour (Under Serious Editing)

Chapter One

The rain poured heavily that Thursday night. The wind blew so hard, one would think the roofs will pull off as it rattled. The lightening lined the sky in beautiful vein patterns and followed by the loud rumble of thunder. Selah tucked herself into her duvet, picked up her phone and started replying her WhatsApp messages; three hundred and fifty-four messages.
Why are they wasting mb? Five group chats, like I asked them to add me, and they won't say anything relevant she said and hissed. It was her first week in college and she was going to be of her best behaviour.
'Don't date anyone when you enter the University. Keep it simple and at arm's length. Make money and read your books,' she reminded herself.
She was ready to keep those promises, no matter how hard it was going to be. She got up again and closed her window. Did the rain have to fall on Thursday night? Couldn't it wait till Friday so that she will sleep all through Saturday? Plugging her phone and climbing up her bunk, she switched off her wall light and went under her comfort blanket and as she felt she had figured out how her life will turn out, she smiled and slept.

'Wake up Selah,' her roommate Gold  tapped her.
Selah stretched and turned her body to face the other side and avoid the eyes Gold was giving her.
'Don't you have classes today?' she asked with a more authoritative voice.
Selah hissed inside her and tried to be utterly surprised that she didn't know it was morning already.
'Bunky, please what is the time?' she asked, as she stretched some more and sat up.
'It's 08:45am.'
Now Selah was really awake and honestly surprised. The rain had stopped falling before her first class. Damn you rain, she muttered.
'I have a class. Thank you bunky,' she added.
She had fifteen minutes to prepare and get to class. She rushed to the bathroom, washed the necessary places and got out; she arranged her books into her handbag and turned her cover shoe into palms as she ran down the second floor and out of the hostel. Surprisingly, she got to class two minutes before 09:00am.
'My God, see what rushing to class can make one do,' she whispered under her breath. She had forgotten to spray her underarm and clothes, but it was too late. The lecturer had entered the class. He taught for about an hour but Selah wasn't listening, and she checked the time constantly as to when the class will be over so she could go and get food in the cafeteria. This was the main purpose of her wearing the blue tight skirt with her shimmy and jacket; the bra underneath it pushed her little boobs up and made it look like she had it all. She walked into the cafeteria and scanned for handsome guys, then stuck her earpiece to her ear and pretended that no one or nothing mattered.
As she sat down, she pressed her phone and kept scanning for guys codedly until one walked up to her and sat down on the chair opposite hers
'Hello!'
'Hi,' she said, still pretending not to care.
'I saw you walk in and I decided to come say hello. My name is Eseoghene but you can call me Ese.'
'My name is Selah, nice to meet you Ese. Where are you from?' she asked, now noticing how handsome the guy was. She dropped her phone and paid attention to him like he was a movie.
'Well, I'm from Delta State, Warri boy to be precise. How about you?'
'I'm from Akwaibom State,  but I grew up and stay in Uyo.'
Selah and Ese spoke for a while, and she felt like she had known him for so long.
'I have to go Ese. Maybe we'll talk later, if that's okay by you.'
'Please give me your number, so that I can call you in the evening.'
Selah smiled, hesitated before giving him her number and walked away.

Two hours later, her phone rang and startled her from her sleep. She picked it up to check, and the caller ID said Ese. She sighed, remembering she hadn't saved his number. She cleared her eyes and picked up..
'Hello!' she said in a sleepy voice.
'Hello Selah. It's Ese. I'm around your hostel. Where are you?' he asked her
'In my room,' she responded and laid on her back.
'Were you sleeping?'
'Yes. Any problem?' she asked him.
'I'm sorry. There's no problem. I wanted to see you. Figured we'll hang out this evening and get to know each other better, you know; be friends,' he added.
Selah paused for a while, then cleared her throat. 'Give me twenty minutes, I'll be out. I'll call you when I'm outside.'
She dragged herself from bed, brushed her teeth and washed her face. Next, she wore her blue three- quarter ragged jeans and her black turtle neck top. Then she picked her phone and walked slowly down the stairs.
As she approached the hostel gate, she saw Ese standing, waiting for her. She walked up to him and gave a tired smile.
'What's up?' he asked her, as he held her hand.
'I'm good, just tired.' she replied.
'Have you eaten this evening?'
'Not yet. I slept most of my afternoon out,and so food was out of the question. I will get food when I'm going back to my room.'
He nodded and started walking, which Selah followed suit, with her hands in her back pocket.
'So what do you do in your spare time, besides classes and sleeping,' he asked and smiled at her.
'I read, make my friends life miserable and watch movies. Nothing much to that effect but I enjoy myself while I'm at it. How about you?' she directed the question back to him.
'You know, stuff. Play football, watch movies, play games and read,' he whispered the last like it was something abominable. Selah nodded and kept walking, smiling at people she knew and tagging alongside Ese. She looked at the time and gasped, it was quarter to 10:00pm. She stopped walking and Ese paused to the effect.

'I have to get to my room. My roommates are fond of locking the door early. Hopefully, I'll see you later Ese.' she looked at him for a confirmation of what she had said.
'No problem. Let me walk you to your hostel,' he offered.
'That won't be necessary,' she smiled and continued, 'its not far from here.'
'Okay then. Goodnight Selah' he side hugged her.
'Goodnight!' she wriggled free from the touch and turned towards her hostel. She thought Ese as a nice guy which gave her a weird chill but she ignored it. It was going to be a good friendship she assured herself. She walked into her room, climbed her bed and laid down to sleep.