IS THIS LOVE Episode – 16

IS THIS LOVE – Episode 16

A story by Kennedy C Katongo

 

TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE

When I arrived at the room, there was no one. Mwenda’s phone was plugged in to the charger. I quickly undressed and went to take a bath. All I wanted was to let the water pour on me… ‘Busy talking about how I need to show some emotions… I’m never going back to being a mess.’ I said to myself.

When I was done. I immediately slept.

I was woken up by the sound of keys making noise through the keyhole as Mwenda struggled to open the door. I sat up waiting for him to walk in.

“You back?” He said, sounding a little surprised for that matter.

“Yes, came back like 2hrs ago.” I said as I lay down.

“You look funny, you never bath when going to bed. What’s wrong?” He asked me.

“What! Shut up. I always bath.” I spoke defensively. For some reason Mwenda and I were both whispering as we spoke, “I had another episode.” I told him as I calmed down.

“Another episode? Ooh! What happened?” He asked me.

Before I could even answer him I could tell something wasn’t right. “Is there someone standing outside the door?” I asked him.

“What makes you think that?” He laughed nervously.

“Dah! You been looking at that door like 2 times per second. You with s girl ain’t you?”

“Shush, lower your voice.” Mwenda whispered.

“You sneaky devil. What you doing? What if your girl finds out?” I asked him. Mwenda had brought a girl to the room and the unexpected happened, me!

“Don’t you bring my girlfriend into this. Am starving, I just want to get some. How was I to know you would be back so early… Am going to tell her to leave.” He said as he walked out the room.

I could hear them talk as the girl didn’t want to go, she kept insisting that she spend the night with him.

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“I don’t get it, what happened? What made you panic?” Mwenda asked me. He got the small plate stove from underneath the bed and began to arrange food that needed to be warmed.

“Do you know, when you have that special moment with someone and you think you mean a lot to them? Now, in the middle of that moment some dude called her and she couldn’t pick up the call.” I nagged.

“Wait, you panicked because you became insecure of a phone call from a guy who had no idea?” He looked at me as I shook my head in agreement. “Chileshe this is becoming serious. You really need to talk to a professional…”

I gave him a long stare, “Don’t worry. I will be okay. I just let it get to me.”

“Tell yourself what ever you need to feel good. But these panic attacks get worse every single time they come back. So what did you do?” Mwenda asked me.

“I kind of slept underneath the mango tree at the clinic. It’s not like I didn’t try calling you.” I smiled so that Mwenda wouldn’t get dead serious and worried about me.

“Am serious about you seeing someone though.” He said as he sat down to change into his night wear.

Soon it was going to be my turn to flip the cards on him. After all, not even a single word came out of his mouth regarding the girl he had brought over.

“For someone who has been panicking, you look more serious than worried. What’s going on…” Mwenda asked me. He just on the bed and went on his side, he liked sleeping next to the war. For some strange reason we slept in different directions.

“Who was that girl?”

“She was nobody. She’s just some girl that’s been following me around.” He giggled as he spoke with confidence.

“She was nobody? Yet you wanted to sleep with her?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. I can’t manage putting out a romantic lie or showing my emotions just to get layed. No way.” Mwenda responded.

I knew he was a big problem. After all, he was always having sex with some stranger the moment his girlfriend would leave to visit her family.

“Emotions make us human bro.” I objected to his statement.

“Nah. Emotions make you week. Most girls don’t care about that ‘i love you’ theory. Just give them money. Buy some drinks for them and that’s it, you good to go. Look at you, you already panicking about a girl you not even dating simply because you have involved your feelings.” Mwenda said to me strongly.

“What’s your point exactly?”

“My point? Date 3 girls, if one messes up go to the other one for comfort and relief. Don’t leave room for being heart broken.”

I sat up in shock as I tried to organise myself and figure out how I would object to his way of reasoning. However, things didn’t go that way. Everything ended with me thinking really hard about what my friend had just told me. Despite the emptiness in that, he did have a point when it came to having heart breaks.

@@ @@ MATIMBA @@ @@

‘You guys are still drinking?’ I had just parked the car and walked up barefooted towards the guys. Lister, My cousin and the rest of the team were now busy dancing and shouting.

“We need to go!” I called out.

“Come on, let’s just hang around for a bit.” One of the ladies responded as she came to pull me into the dancing circle they had made.

I stomped my feet on my ground in frustration because I really wanted to go home.

“Come on, okay. I will drop you off personally. How is that with you?” Lister asked me as she tried to make me stay over.

“I don’t want. I just miss my bed right now.”

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“You seem pissed about something. My opinion about the party – lit. Just that.” My cousin said as we walked into the house. “Last one closes the door… She said as she rush to the rest room.” My cousin was crazy and also cool like that.

I locked up the door and went to throw myself on the bed. For some reason, talking to Ben after being around Chileshe felt wrong for me.

“So that’s the college guy huh!” My cousin came as she sat on my bed with a bow of conflakes.

“Why are you saying it like that?”

“Like how?” She smiled at me.

“Like that! As if am hiding something.” I responded as I got a pillow to lean on.

“Are you hiding something?” She giggled.

“Am not hiding anything. And what’s that about you interrogating him? You really made him feel uncomfortable you know.” I told her.

“I think your college buddy has a temper. I know you going to say am wrong of which 90% most of the time am correct.” She said as she pointed her spoon at me.

“You only spoke to him for less than 5 minutes. And you telling me he has a temper. Unless you say you saw it in the spirit.” I said rudely as I ship her up.

Little did I know that I feel years from now, I would actually wish I took her word.

After dozing a bit, I went to take a shower so that I could come my body down. I had not drunk a lot of alcohol, but since it had been a while I got drunk quite fast. I wanted to call Chileshe and check up on how he was doing but the little voice in me couldn’t let me do it.

BEN: ‘Are you sleeping?’

A message popped up on my phone.

 

To be continued…