DRAVITE EYES

Stranger Man

It was the beginning of December, the dry and dusty harmattan breeze filled the air. Everyone had gotten lip balms and Vaseline to survive the season except Mario of course. He has always had oily skin so his lips were hardly dry.

Another boring day in his dormitory, Christmas was approaching so school activities were less as some of the lecturers and students had gone home for the holidays. Mario always waited  till the 23rd or 24th before going home cause for some reasons, his school happened to be in the same state with his family home.

He had woken up quite early cause he started a new workout routine with some app he got . It was quite long so he always woke up early to start before his friends came over, as usual. After his workout that morning he tried going back to sleep cause he had a big day ahead of him. His friend, Bolaji had asked him to take his other friend, Rex, to the mall cause Rex was new in town and didn't know anywhere but was up for some fun. Rex had suggested going to see a movie, Sugar Rush, and Mario was down for it so, he needed all the sleep he could get but then, unfortunately for him, the devil picked that morning to mess with him. He thought maybe if he saw family guy, he would get bored and sleepy but he ended up binge watching it till it was noon.

Rex called him to remind him of their date in an hour time and that was when Mario felt sleepy. He was going to ask Rex to post pone but, his conscience guilt tripped him so he jumped out of bed and took a quick cold shower hoping all the cold would make him feel more awake. Indeed it worked like magic. He had a cup of coffee and some leftover shortbread cookies from the previous night, threw on a white tee shirt and a blue short, a very short blue short. He loved wearing shorts cause they matched his tall and slender statue. Sometimes his friends would tease him about being so tall but he loved being 6ft especially cause he was a model. He wore a fanny pack across his chest and adidas slides on his feet. With that, he was done and out.

On his way out of the dormitory, he wondered  what he  would do for Christmas, contemplated staying back in school cause the Christmas break wasn't long anyway, thought of places to visit and of course his dream vacation with his imaginary lover, when someone said hi to him. Osas, the hottest boy in the dormitory was standing right before him. He was shocked cause Osas had never seemed like he ever noticed him.

"Nice shorts" Osas said
"Umm, th-Thanks" Mario stuttered cause he wasn't sure if he meant it as a compliment.
"I was going to ask you what you use for your hair. It's growing fast" he continued
"Oh... I have a couple serums and oils. I could show you"
"Please. But when you get back. So I don't delay you. No go cause accident for road with this your knicker oh " Osas joked as he walked away.

Mario didn't know how to feel about the conversation he just had with Osas. Is Osas gay? Or do straight boys compliment each other like this?

In a couple of minutes, he was at Bolaji's. Rex was already set and they left as soon as he got there.

Mario pulled down the window to buy Gala sausage rolls as they waited in the traffic. Lagos roads were always jammed for the slightest of reasons. The Uber driver pulled down the window to inquire about what was happening in front  from another driver who just came from checking and it turned out a tricycle driver bashed an Alhaji's car and the Alhaji wasn't ready to leave until he arrested the tricycle driver. After about thirty minutes they were back on the move.

"I love coming to malls" Rex said as they walked into the mall
"Okay that sounded weird. Why would you just love coming to malls?"
"Well, number one, window shopping. Number two, men scouting..."
"What the- how do people scout men in malls?"
"I don't know about others but I always give them stern looks and their reactions tell me what my next move should be." Rex responded with a wink.
"Wow. So have you ever gotten any men from the mall?"
"Every damn time."
"As in, you walk up to them and say hi? Or..."
"Girl, I would never chase a nigga. They walk up to me!" Rex pouted