Ayo Next Door

6

The school year ends and I'm thrilled. There'll be no school for at least three months which means no lectures which are a total snooze fest and no class presentations which send my anxiety through the roof, just three months of bliss. Chi my closest friend, travels to Owerri to see her grandparents, I miss her but having Ayo around is enough compensation for her absence.
My friendship with Ayo continues to blossom. We have similar interests. He likes all genres of music like I do, he swears by Ariana Grande and Niniola and he even watches so called chick flicks. He is basically everything. Some days I eat lunch in his house and my mom totally adores him, I swear she secretly wants me to date him. Ordinarily she would flip if she saw me talking to a boy but with Ayo, she's all smiles and welcoming. He could punch a baby in the face and she'd still like him. Which makes sense, it's hard not to like Ayo. He's respectful, he listens, he has a wicked sense of humor, he's also really smart having studied computer engineering in the university. The one thing that blows my mind about Ayo is he is not handsy. He would never try to cop a feel like most young guys tend to do. I've had my fair share of experiences with boys I liked who ruined it by getting handsy really quickly. It's a huge turn off.
In my last year in secondary school, I liked a boy called Nelson. He was my classmate and one of the cool dudes, always knew everything nice and trendy, plus he was super cute and really smart. So you know all the girls were tripping and falling over him, so imagine my surprise when he decided he was interested in me. Not that I'm unattractive or anything, many people consider me pretty attractive at 5'5, dark skinned and slightly chubby. It was just that I liked to stay under the radar and I didn't think Nelson would notice me that way but he did.
The chat app 2go was still very much in use then and so he got my username and hit me up. I was elated when I discovered it was him and I couldn't quite contain my joy so I was in a jolly mood all day. After talking online for weeks and exchanging secret smiles in class without really saying anything to each other-which I didn't think was strange- we decided to hang out. We picked Saturday because it was convenient, there would be no school so we would have ample time to spend together.
On that day, I lied to my mom that I was going over to Chi's house for a group assignment. She would have flipped if she discovered her sixteen year old was going to hang with a teenage boy. Her African mom senses would immediately go into overdrive and she'd envision me coming back pregnant prepared to make her an unwilling grandmother. Of all the things my mother feared, the one that topped the list and couldn't be worse than any other thing was me getting pregnant. So she barred me from talking to boys, she didn't want anyone to fool her little girl or try to steal my precious 'flower', she didn't even let me talk to my brother's friends when they came around. Ironically she let me go to a co-ed school and there I talked to boys and girls out of her reach.
So after lying to my mom about where I would be I went to see Nelson at the eatery where we were supposed to hang. He was sitting in a booth at the far end of the eatery. His face lit up in a smile when he saw me. I smiled back and made my way towards him, sliding into the booth.
"Hey," I said shyly.
"Hi Aisha, howfar," he said then slurped on his milkshake.
"Fine, how are you".
He shrugged. " I'm good, what you would like to take? " he asked.
"Uhmm, I'll have what you're having", I said. He beckoned to one of the waitresses who took my order and soon there was a full cup of milkshake in front of me.
We sat in awkward silence for a minute as I sipped my milkshake slowly. It was really good. Then he left his side of the booth and came to mine, sitting really close to me. He turned around and tilted my face to the side so he could see me properly. I smiled shyly and he smiled back, I noticed he had a barely visible dimple on the left side of his cheek.
" Thank you for coming Aisha, I'm glad you're here, he said.
"Me too".
" I got a ten over ten in my English test today," I said to cut through the awkwardness. I realized it was a very nerdy, boring thing to say after it left my mouth, nobody wants to hear you brag about your bloody grades. But Nelson didn't seem to mind, he smiled.
"Not surprising, you're a smart one. That's why I like you".
" I like you too," I said smiling. He smiled back then inched closer to me in the booth.
"I mean, I really like you". I felt his hands on my lap where my skirt ends. I swallowed hard, I wasn't comfortable with his touch.
" okay, feels good to be liked ", I said. He gave me a funny look.
" You do know what I mean, right? "His hands went under my skirt. I jerked up and without thinking I slapped him across the face, he was shocked. I was too, I wasn't one to hit anyone. No one saw the scenario play out, too focused on their meals to. I felt really grateful, the last thing I needed was to cause a scene. Nelson held his face, still in shock, anger flaring in his eyes.
I open my bag, take out some naira notes to pay for my milkshake and dump them on the table.
" I'm not that type of girl ", I say before storming out.