We Met On 2go (writing prompt)
It was on a Wednesday, and I couldn't wait to return home from school so I could log in on 2go with the small Nokia phone I shared with my siblings, 'the house phone' as my mom called it, indicating it belonged to all of us, and to none of us.
I hated my life for that. While my mates could boldly sneak in their Asher phones to school, and take pictures during games time, I didn't have one I could call mine.
Randomly, some of them had come to ask me for my username on 2go, or even in the few slumbooks I was given to fill, there was always a category for 2go username and I always filled it with 'Nil' because I didn't have an account at the time.
However, the pressure became overwhelming that I decided to secretly open an account for myself with the house phone, but instead of downloading the app, I used Chrome browser to log in whenever it was my turn to use the phone.
Soon I had a reply to those random questions and I no longer wrote 'Nil' in the slumbook Section that requested my username and instead wrote 'LondonAngel', which was very typical of me since I was obsessed with the idea of going to London.
I would stay on the phone, in a hidden corner of the house, my favourite spot was behind the couch in the living room, giggling as the boys in my class teased me, and reading through conversations in the 2go rooms I belonged to.
I made sure not to accept friend requests from people I didn't know, but made an exception for username M.Micheal435. Reason was because so far as I was concerned, his profile picture was the face of the prettiest boy my 14-year-old eyes had ever seen.
He was fair, his lips were pink, and he had a clean-cut punk hairstyle. I had heard girls in my class talk about how they started dating one of the boys in my class from endless chats on 2go. I envied them for it and wanted the same for myself, but I was too shy to be in a relationship with any of the boys in my school, let alone in my class.
M.Michael435 was a prayer answered and I could also brag, in case I ever wanted to stop being secretive, that he was a really fine boy. Scratch that. That I was dating a handsome guy.
So I accepted his friend request.
"Hey Angel" he texted me almost as soon as I accepted.
"Angel?" I asked, with a blush I could tell was there because my cheeks were burning.
"Yh. Dat's ur name right?"
"Oh. Yes. Hello"
"Hw re u?"
"I'm 5n, u?"
"Same. Whr u chatting 4rm?"
That was an unfamiliar question because I always chatted with people I knew and for the first time, I shivered to admit that I lived in one of the States you could easily miss when reciting the 36 States and Capitals in Nigeria.
After careful thought, I texted "Abj" instead of Nasarawa. It's close to Abj after all, so I'm not exactly lying, I told myself.
"Wow. Whr in Abj? I stay there 2" he texted, and hence began my problems.
It wasn't an issue of not knowing where to claim I stayed in Abj, I had aunts there and have visited a couple of times, it was an issue of him giving me the shock I didn't expect by saying he stayed there too because as smart as I was to come up with that lie, I was also smart enough to know what next would follow in our conversation and I knew I would not be ready for it.
"Really? I stay in Wuse, whr do u stay?" I replied, crossing my fingers that he wasn't staying in Wuse too.
"Ah dats far. U re staying inside inside Abj"
"Yh" I texted, relieved. "Wat abt u?"
"I stay in Mararaba".
" Oh"
"Yes. Maybe one day we'll c" he said, following the script of our conversation as I had predicted from when he said he stayed in Abj too.
"OK"
"Iz not OK now den later u will say no oo" as if reading my mind.
"Hahaha," I started keeping my response short because I feared having to lie more.
"Will u come if I invite u?"
My heart skipped a beat and for a minute, I froze. I didn't know what to say, I didn't want to lie, and I also wanted to see to the end that we ended up dating like most of my mates were already doing.
"Let's get 2 knw each oda 1st" I suggested, praying he would take the bait.
"Sure," he said simply.
Minutes passed and there was no follow-up text from him and that prompted another fear in me. What if he has lost interest in me already?
I waited a few more minutes then proceeded to ask "Tell me abt urself".
That simple request ignited evenings of long conversations between us, and I soon found out that he was an SS2 senior in Kings and Queens Secondary School, Mararaba, an art student who hoped to be a banker in the future. He was the second of five children and the first son. He was an Anglican Christian who played the drums in church and had never been in a relationship before. His favorite colour was brown, he loved spaghetti and hated beans. His hobbies were drawing, listening to music, and reading, so it was little wonder that he always made it to the top ten students in his class, and little wonder that I adored him.
On his part, he got to learn that I was staying with my aunt because my parents lived abroad and I would soon be joining them after secondary school. I was an SS1 senior in Brightest Children Secondary school, Wuse, one of the most prominent schools in Abj, a Catholic and an only child. My hobbies were singing, listening to music, and reading, I hated beans, and only ate rice and noodles, with the occasional tea and crackers for breakfast.
Everything he knew about me was a lie, and as I later found out, everything I knew about him was a lie also.
Wednesdays were usually games day in my original school in Nasarawa, Foundation International Secondary School, but because I had lied about not being allowed to leave the house for anything other than school and church, instead of meeting on a weekend, 2 months after chatting continuously, he picked a Friday, suggesting that we both skip school, since it was usually the shortest school day.
But I suggested Wednesday instead, saying that when I return late, I could easily use 'it's games day' as an excuse, and he was cool with it.
The Wednesday after the week we made our plans, and when the bell sounded for games time, I was as scared as I was excited. I changed into my gameswear like every other student. Earlier during break, I had hidden my schoolbag in an uncompleted building within my school compound and taken just a notebook out of it to write in the remainder of my classes for the day.
It was my notebook and the nylon containing my formal uniform that I held on the assembly ground as the sports prefect addressed us before we commenced. Looking side to side for ways to plot my escape. There was a fallen fence at the left wing of the school field, it's been both an escape route and a shortcut to school for students. That was my only choice.
The assembly was dismissed, and I waited a bit for students to dispatch to the various angles of the field, so I could make my ominous escape.
Escaping school at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday was easier than I thought, though my heart kept pouring. On my way home, I lied to everyone who cared to know why I was back so early, that I was on my period and was not padded, so I had only come home to wear a pad, and then return to school.
On my way, supposedly back to school, when they asked why I was wearing a mofti jean trouser and a black long-sleeved top, I told them my gameswear was stained with blood.
I was, however, on my way to the park to board a bus to Mararaba.
Every plan I made worked out successfully and when I alighted at the park in Mararaba. It had been a thirty-minute trip. I texted Michael to come pick me up, just as we agreed, and he came.
Seeing him physically for the first time, I decided he was not as handsome as his picture had painted, but he wasn't an easy pass still. His lips were still pink and his skin was still fair. But there was something about how tall and muscular he was that threw me off, questioning if he was indeed a secondary school senior or a senior senior.
The way he rushed to sweep me off my feet in an embrace when he saw me, erupted a soft and warm feeling in me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Oh my God, I can't believe you're really here," he said, smiling from ear to ear.
"I told you I would come," I said with a sense of pride.
He pulled me in a hug again and not long we were headed to the "hotel" room he rented.
Arriving at the place, it was neither a hotel nor worthy to be called a room. It was an uncompleted building with a clean space in one of the proposed rooms, where he had arranged a mat and concealed the window spaces with some make-shift curtains.
"I thought you said you'd rent a hotel?" I asked him when I saw the room.
"Did you give me any money?" He said with a scowl. "Sit down" he gestured to the mat on the ground and brought out some biscuits in a black nylon at the far edge of the room to offer me.
"Thank you," I said as I collected the biscuit.
I checked the time on the black rubber wristwatch I wore, it was almost five o'clock.
"I can't stay long. I'll have to be going soon before school closes and my aunt will start looking for me" I informed him.
"I know," he said. Then moving closer to me, he placed his hand on my lap. Something about that didn't seem right because I felt my heart jump in fear. Then he took hold of my hand, taking away the biscuit I was still eating and turning my body to himself, he bent his head to kiss me but I drew back.
"What is it?" He asked calmly as if there was no fault in what he was about to do and it was only natural.
"I, I , I don't think I want to do this" I stammered.
"It's just a kiss. Nothing more. Or don't you love me?"
Love? We had never spoken about that before, but I supposed if I wanted him to be my boyfriend, then we had to love each other, so I nodded my head in response.
"If you love me, you'll kiss me" he insisted and drew in more to kiss me. I tightened my eyes close as I allowed his tongue and lips to maneuver in my mouth.
In drawing closer to me, my back finally rested on the wall behind me, keeping me in a slant position so he could cross over one of his legs and keep me between them.
His hands that were holding my head soon trailed away and the next thing I knew, I felt them working their way to unzip my trousers. I tried protesting by shaking away from the kiss which was obviously meant to distract me, but his weight was greater than mine that I couldn't break off from the kiss without hurting my lips and my head which was shuffling on the hard rough unplastered block walls.
"Stop!" I muffled, but he didn't care and continued.
At this time, he had succeeded in opening my zip and lifting my body to pull down the jeans trousers. Then he made me lie back flat on the mat, pressing my both hands firmly above my head to the ground.
I cried even as I shut my eyes and pleaded with him to stop. Suddenly I felt something like skin but hard on my private part. When I opened my eyes to know what it was, I saw for the first time in my life, what a real-life penis looked like and it was about to be used on me. I screamed.
But he turned my screams to muffled sounds when he shoved a piece of dirty handkerchief into my mouth before continuing with what he had in mind. He had his way with me.
When he was done, I was still lying flat on the mat, thoughts of regrets flying in my head, and visions of possible scenes of what going home would be like terrified me. I didn't want to move a muscle, so I remained fixed, crying.
"It's 5:30 oo, come and be going" came the voice of the beast I had thought I knew as Michael some minutes ago.
I ignored him and remained as I was.
"Ah, come and be going before they start looking for you" he pulled me up from the mat, fixed my trousers, and tried to clean my tears, but when he saw it was a futile effort as the tears kept rolling, he gave up and began pushing me towards one of the entrances.
He probably pushed me all the way to the park, because I cannot recall how I got there or when I took a sit on one of the buses.
Thirty minutes later I arrived back in Nasarawa, and that was when I began to feel the pain between my thighs, as I had to walk with them wide apart and very slowly because the jean wasn't making it any easier.
I cried, not loudly, but the tears kept falling. Those who had seen me when I left for "school" asked if I was OK, but I gave no one no mind.
It was Aunty Mary, one of the people I usually pass on my way to school who saw me and came to assist me, letting me rest some of my weight on her as I limped back home.
The utter shock on my mom's face when she saw me in that state on Aunty Mary's shoulder, scared me to death, that was when my tears regained their voice.
"What happened?" My mom asked.
"I don't know oo. I just saw her coming back like this"
"Amara, what happened?" My mom asked me.
"Mommy I'm sorry" I cried and kept crying. Even after I was given a chair and cold water to drink to calm my nerves, "Mommy I'm sorry" was all I could say.
It was not until she couldn't continue pacifying me and shouted that I tell her immediately what had happened that I opened up, still in tears. Mucus was going in and out of my nostril as though I was a child, the veins in my head were popping out, my eyes were weary but still kept pouring, and my entire face was as wet as a face could get.
Everyone was in shock after they heard my story, was my vision not already blurred by my tears, I could swear I saw my mom cry.
"You say you met this person where?" She asked.
"We met on 2go" I sobbed.
