HOW I MET MY CHEATING GIRLFRIEND

Episode 18

I went back to the room. I thought of letting Betty go but I was afraid we could meet my mom at the centre or on her way back home. If that happened, she could not believe that Betty had been sent by Sweeney. "Dear, my mom is about to arrive. I want her to get us here so that she will believe you had been sent by Sweeney," I said. Betty stood up from her seat, moved her hands slowly on my chest and left for my beards that I had smartly kept.

"If only I can get the kiss, I'll be sure of her love." I said to myself, looking straight at her beautiful big eyes. "Remember I said it's only for today..." Betty reassured me. Finally, I got her kiss. I felt the warmth of her lips.

"Do you love me?" I asked her just immediately after the kiss. I wanted to get the response when the action was still hot.

"Of course, I love you...but just as a friend." She said.

As we went back to our seats, Betty insisted that she wanted to see whatever was in the envelope. I remembered Sweeney warned me not to show anyone the parcel. However, no condition is permanent. I decided to open the envelope together with her. Inside it, I found two red lollipops and a photo album. It had only Sweeney's photos. In one of the pages, I got a slim piece of paper that was handwritten, "When you miss me, my love, look at my photos. Am always right beside you. Keep yourself safe for me. I love you so much..." Below the writings was also a sign of love drawn like a cartoon. Betty cocked her head on the writings.

I gave her one lollipop. "Oscar, it's true Sweeney really loves you. What I know, she's still young and probably, you may be the first man she's seriously dating. Her parents have been too strict on her. You need to mould her into the woman of your choice. I fear the life in campus might change her perception on love. But you've planted her, water her well, do the weeding, pruning and you'll automatically have a good harvest." Betty said.

It was like she took our relationship with Sweeney so serious. "As my best friend now," I began, "I need you to be my spy on her. Try to guide and warn her about the campus boys and being "campus couples". Always remind her she have left her man behind." I added.

"It's challenging, Oscar! That I can assure you. There's always what we call "sliding". However, it's said that to slide doesn't necessarily mean you have to fall down. She may slide at one point, but let's pray she doesn't fall down should such storms of temptations befall her."

"Are you talking out of experience, Betty?"

"Yeah. Let me tell you something. It was in campus that I got the first heartbreak that nearly made me lose myself. At my first semester, a third year seduced me so well until I gave in. It happened at the time I was having a boyfriend who joined JKUAT the same last year. My roommate had a boyfriend and it was paining me seeing two of them most frequently in our room when personally, I lacked one. My boyfriend saw that travelling to Moi was a problem and he didn't want me to go and visit him either. But I understood him. He was an orphan being supported by some people, so maybe he had no money. But I loved him. So, one day, at the beginning of second semester, he told me he was not around..."

"Who?" I asked.

"My new boyfriend."

"Ooh, yes..." I responded, willing to get more of the story. She continued.

"He told me he had gone to town to look for some stuff. He was renting outside the school. However, that day, we had a class discussion. The venue happened to be a room in their rental. When I passed by his door, because where we were to have the discussion was past his place, I saw a lady removing clothes from the hanging line. I saw some of his trousers. I tried to assume and proceeded to our discussion. However, I was disturbed. The time reached that I couldn't withstand the stress I had. The more I could sit, the more I was losing my concentration. I excused myself from the discussion as if I was going to the washroom. I knocked his door three times. When he came to open the door, he was shocked. I found the same lady sleeping on his bed. It was around 7pm. He never hugged me as he always do. Instead, he went to his bed straight away and the two covered themselves with the same blanket. I don't think if that lady was a first year because she was never surprised. I sat down on the floor for about five minutes. The boy never bothered. I decided to leave."

Betty further explained to me that her breakup with her campus boy made her to fall in love with my brother who again broke her heart and trust. "My first boyfriend also went and keep silent. No communication was happening between us and I thought he had also moved on with another girl. When I met your brother, he went ahead to do the worst of all. I never imagined I could reach a point am aborting a baby. Whenever I feel like getting in love again, I think about my ex-boyfriend and your brother. That's the time I also feel I don't belong to this world." Betty was just about to break into tears. She had lost her strength.

We decided to leave for center so that she could take a vehicle back to town. Approaching the centre, I saw my mom conversing with some two other women. We decided to take another route.

"Oscar..." Betty called.

"Yes dear." I answered.

"Thanks for being so good to me. I love you. But please take care of Sweeney's heart. Let her disappoint you but not you."

"What do you think, Betty..."

"Think about what?"

"If I love both of you together. I just feel for you, my dear. I'm afraid you might fall in love with another man who will also use you as a dumping site."

"Do you think Sweeney will be comfortable with that?" She asked.

"We can't just let her know. It's a private thing between me and you."

"Could that mean am going to be like a side chick in this your relationship?"

"Side chick? No. I'll love you the way I do to her."

"Hehe, listen, Oscar. Sweeney is younger than me and I can't risk being under her. If at all you love me, choose between me and her. Or, make me the owner and let her be my assistant. But the vice versa is a big no!"

I quickly took a question and answer session on Betty's request. "She has aborted, she has dated my younger brother, she has been with three other men...and now she wants me to make her my girl over my virgin Sweeney...ah...I can't." I thought a lot of things about Betty. The decision to turn down her request was the hardest to make.

"Well. I think we can talk about it later," I responded.

"Why later, Oscar? You either tell me it's possible we date or impossible. That simple."

"It's possible. But let me think about the other request of making Sweeney come the second in command after you in this relationship." I said.

"Thanks for that assurance dear. I love you so much."

"I love you too baby," I said, while a lot of thoughts crisscrossing my mind.

Betty took a vehicle to town. I was to cross the busy highway when I heard a sound of a car's break at my back. I was totally deafened by the deep thoughts about Sweeney and Betty. I could love her too, but the way she wanted me to do it was wrong. Making Sweeney as an alternative girlfriend wasn't my best option. "A normal person like you doesn't have a brain, a fool." I heard someone in the car shouting. I had a lot to discuss with myself that I missed what to tell him.

When I reached home, I found my mom had already come. She seemed not to be happy. "Good afternoon mom?" I greeted her.

"Are you alright? Is it afternoon, now? Which kind of greetings are those?" She replied.

"Am sorry Mom, it's afternoon, oh, I mean evening."

"Don't feed me with a lot of useless things. Where were you?"

"I went to the toilet, momma." I said.

"Toilet? Do you have a running stomach? I came here almost twenty minutes ago and you can't tell me you were inside that toilet."

"No momma, am okay. I went to shave..."

"Oscar, what are those you're telling me? To shave with the lady I saw you with crossing to the other side of the road? You told me Sweeney had gone to school, do you want to replace her?"

Ah! So Mom saw us with Betty, or she's just kidding? But anyway, we did cross the road. She might have seen us.

"That's the lady we were given the CDF bursary forms with."

"Where are those forms? Let me see!" She ordered.

"She had taken it. She will be submitting them to the Bursary Committee's chairperson at night. That's her uncle. I thought it was easier that way because Monday I'll travel."