There's No Tomorrow For Me

Sometime Ago

The first time Jerry fought in school was because of Joy. Or rather, he had fought to defend her honour even if he didn't know what it meant then.

It was a Friday, they were in JSS 1, and this meant they didn't have many classes so the students had enough room to play and chitchat. So yes, it was the perfect time to approach Nneoma and finally let her know that he liked her.

“Just write a letter and put it in her bag if you're too shy to talk to her. It'll work. You can even buy that lollipop girls are always licking and add to it.”

Jerry had to take a break from staring at Nneoma to turn to Tej, who was still Teju back then. He sounded dead serious with his suggestion but he looked amused or maybe he was just too excited for Jerry. Tej was always excited about everything.

“What?” he asked Jerry, confused as to why he was still hesitating. Normally, Jerry would've simply done as Teju suggested but this was different. This was a girl.

“What if she doesn't like me back?” Jerry voiced his fear and Tej gave Jerry that look he usually gave him after he said or asked something stupid.

“You too dey fear,” Tej muttered, playfully shoving Jerry's head and rolling his eyes slightly in annoyance.

Jerry was afraid, yes. Add a little bit of shy and low self-esteem to that and you'd have the full picture of how he was feeling inside. But asides that, Jerry was serious about what he'd said. He was almost sure Nneoma didn't like him. She barely ever talked to him and she talked a lot.

She was a social butterfly. The extrovert of extroverts. Together with her best friend Damilare, they were the queen bees as far as queen bees went in junior secondary school. Not to mention that every boy was at their beck and call.

Jerry hadn't realized that he'd gone back to staring until Damilare turned to him, a coy smile dancing on her lipgloss-coated lips. “Jerry this one you're looking at me,” she said loud enough for the entire class to hear.

Nneoma who had been sitting next to her turned to meet Jerry's eyes and he turned away immediately but that didn't stop the side comments that came right after. They were all along the line of “Jerry's in love.” And at that age, Jerry could've sworn he was. He was in love. But not with Dami.

“Oya, see your chance. She's already looking at you.” Tej nudged his friend, grinning like they'd won a lottery.

Jerry didn't think Nneoma looking at him was a good thing. But he wanted to rip the band-aid off once and for all. What was the worst that could happen, right?

He sighed, mentally preparing himself to walk all the way to the front seat where Nneoma and Dami sat. Tej gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before he finally got up and out of their seat. He began making his way past his classmates who stood and sat everywhere, barely creating room for passage.

Jerry hadn't even noticed he'd stepped on someone until the boy began shouting like a mad man. Jerry turned around to find Ezekiel of all people pointing to his brand new white sneakers that he'd been showing off all week. The said sneakers now had a large smear of brown on it. Things would've gone smoother but Jerry and Ezekiel didn't see eye to eye.

“Abi you people have seen this bastard!” Ezekiel was already on his feet, his bad breath and drops of spittle all up in Jerry's face in a matter of seconds.

“Chill, I said sorry,” Jerry nonchalantly lied about apologizing and the taller boy now seemed to have steam comimg out of his ears. Jerry didn't care, if anything, he was happy those sneakers he'd been bragging about had another colour added to it now.