Like any other girl, I too had my crush. There was this boy in our class called Mark and he wasn't quite the taste of many, he was my taste though. I still don't know why he was my taste but all in all, he was the person I desired, really drove fear into me.
Mark was a short boy, he had red eyes everytime, his skin was just a turn off though everything went positive because Mark was rich. I desired Mark since the first week of school, the fact that he sat behind me in class also complicated the matter. Still amidst all this, I didn't know why I loved Mark.
On the first Saturday of school, I was determined to approach him, few people were in class and he was among. He sat with his friends playing cards and they were noting down something as well, that was after every game ended. I presumed they were betting, but took the matter as a meer high school vice and soon ignored it. One by one stood up and left, the eleven boys were now amounting to only five. I had hope and was ready to approach when it was one boy left.
As the seventh boy stood up though, he put a fifty thousand shilling note in a bag that was next to Mark. I hadn't observed this though. So I quickly rushed to Arnold, who was a good friend of mine and asked him why he had placed all that money there. He looked at me and in a slow sorrowful voice, he said " Even if I am to tell you, you will never understand" and he went out.
Thoughts accumulated, but what stood victorious was that they were gambling and whoever lost left an amount of money.
Mark's going had left four boys in the game, and I was also warming up, swallowing saliva, fighting with the cautious inner me on whether to meet that boy. But no, I was determined, no amount of thinking was changing my mind.
"Boom", on looking behind, it was Ronnie, he was on the ground, "Where's the money man?", Mark asked, "where's our moneeyyyy" he added. Ronnie was on the ground and all looking scared, he told them he didn't have the money but would pay them and then that caused problems. Joel, one of the three standing around Ronnie, slapped Ronnie so had the a stream of blood was seen leaving his mouth. This was followed by others from Mark, Moses, and Joel himself adding. Mark was pleading for forgiveness but none listened. The single stream of blood was now a pool. Nevertheless, they continued beating, yelling that they wanted their money there and then. One more blow to the head from Mark, Ronnie was cold on the ground.
They shook him to speak, but all in vain, Ronnie was dead.
Mark, Joel and Moses closed their bag, and quickly ran out of class. They were followed by other two students who were the bookworms of the class, they had been watching the fight but were powerless to intervene and feared to report.
There I was, alone in class, with Ronnie, now the late. Not knowing what to do, filled with fear, I quickly ran out of class as well, into the chapel and I spent the rest of my time there until...
To be continued
