Diary Of A Shy College Kid – Episode 7
Diary Of A Shy College Kid – Episode 7
By Kayode Odusanya
Bisi Sanmi Versus Debby (Part 2)
We were going to write a total of twelve exams in thirty days, so the papers were well spaced, and we had enough time to study in-between. Even with that fact, I still couldn’t totally rekindle the love between Debby and I during this period. We would see, and exchange a few words, but nothing more than that. I was still spending time studying with Desola, Bisi Sanmi and their crew. After a while, it became just Bisi Sanmi and I studying at night, before I would walk her to the front of Moremi Hall, and then head back to class to read some more. By 6am, I would get the first cab home to sleep till afternoon, before returning to school to continue the cycle again.
One night, we had been studying for hours and decided to take a brake. Bisi Sanmi had a textbook wrapped in old newspaper, and I picked it up to read the news on the paper. I got to a word I wasn’t familiar with and turned to her to ask, “What’s cleavage?” She burst out laughing and had to cover her mouth when people started turning around, wondering what was going on. I really didn’t know the meaning of the word; there was no blogs or social media sites over promoting sexuality at the time.
When she stopped laughing, she looked down at her chest, and before she said anything, I got an idea what the word meant. But the thing was, Bisi Sanmi had a flat chest, so she couldn’t use herself as an example. She looked around and then pointed at a light skinned girl seated a few rows in front of us. The girl was sitting backward on the bench, talking to one of her friends, and she had a white plunging neckline top on that showed her cleavage. “That’s a cleavage; the exposed part of her breasts.” Bisi Sanmi said and I went “Oh” as I nodded my head a few times. When I looked at the girl longer, I realized she was the one that had called out Debby for me when I went to see her a few days ago, and I quickly looked away.
When I stylishly looked in that direction again, I saw another girl sitting on the same row with Debby’s roommate now looking at me, and I looked away again. She must think I’m a pervert or something. I thought to myself; little did I know that I knew very little about what was running through the strange girl’s mind.
She was quite pretty; in fact, she was very beautiful- not too slim, not too fat, caramel complexion, and there was a lovely way she smiled while she conversed with her friends. I had never seen her around before, but it seemed she was with the Diploma crew, as I had found out later that most of Debby’s roommates were Diploma students and she was in their circle.
Every time I looked in that direction, I always saw her looking my way. I couldn’t read any longer. I decided to take a walk to clear my head, and maybe buy Tomtom for my breath while at it. I went off, and took a little while before returning as I ran into some old friends who wanted to talk about music and I couldn’t resist it. When I got back, I met the strange girl on my seat, talking to Bisi Sanmi. I said hi to her, and sat on the right side of Bis Sanmi on the bench; the girl was sitting on the left side.
They stopped talking, and the girl left shortly after I got there. And then a few seconds later, Bisi Sanmi started packing our books and asked if we could move to another class. I nodded, and started packing our books, wondering what the heck was going on. Was she angry that the girl wanted to meet me? I wondered. But I got the shocker of my life when we got outside and she told me the girl had actually come there to ask her out.
“What!” I said in a low voice. My brain couldn’t comprehend what I had just heard. My ego was also bruised a bit as I had believed the girl had been checking me out. But more than that, I couldn’t believe this 17 year-old girl was a lesbian; and she was bold enough to ask my friend out.
Bisi Sanmi had probably not experienced anything like that before, as she appeared confused and disorganized. She asked that we go down a few floors to get away from the girl. As we were descending the stairs, we ran into Debby coming up. Even though the staircase was dimly lit, I could read her body language as we greeted each other, and I sensed she didn’t like the fact that I was with Bisi Sanmi.
Bisi Sanmi and I found an empty class to read, and both stayed silent, not even talking about the lesbian girl. Then all of a sudden, she turned to face me and asked, “Why don’t you like me like you like Debby?”
I was caught off guard. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. This was the same girl that had advised me to go see Debby the other day, why is she saying this? I wondered. After several seconds of rambling, I was able to make out these words, “I like you a lot, but I’m a messed up guy, and I don’t want to put you through shiit. You deserve a better guy.” She smiled and looked away. The kind of smile that said, ‘couldn’t you have come up with better bullshit?’ But there was no way I could look her in the eye and tell her the truth; that even though I liked her a lot, I was still obsessed with Debby, and I just couldn’t bring myself to date anyone while there was still a chance I could get Debby.
I don’t know if it was Debby that put the word out, but the very next day, people started approaching me with questions about my relationship with Bisi Sanmi. At the time, there were only two couples in our department, and it was like people were hungry for a third couple the way they jumped on the rumour. Most girls that I didn’t even know knew my name started teasing me, calling me Bisi Sanmi’s husband. I was a very reserved guy, and that started getting on my nerves at a point. And then there was the fact that Sope and Bisi Sanmi never ever got along, so Sope didn’t like the rumour at all. They were always fighting anytime I tried to hangout with both of them. At a point, I even thought they secretly liked each other.
I became like a mini celebrity for the remainder of the week as people kept looking at me with smiles on their faces as they walked past me. It was becoming really annoying, and I made, I think the second dumbest move I ever made in Unilag. I sat Bisi Sanmi down in class and told her we had to stop hanging out for a while till the rumours go away. She felt so dejected hearing me say what I said, but she quickly covered up her disappoint with a smile.
And that was how my friendship with Bisi Sanmi ended. And my pursuit of Debby continued.
To be continued
