LOVE FOR TWO

Tinuke looked around the deserted canteen and immediately lost her appetite. She had been very hungry but looking around her now, the only thing she wanted was to leave. The serving girl came to her table, gave her a look down and asked:

“wetin you wan chop?”

Tinuke eyed her and stood up, picked her bag and left.

Outside the canteen, she spotted O.J; the guy who has been following her around since last week. She made a u-turn and walked towards her department. O.J had seen her at a birthday party the week before and she now regretted telling him her department. Sometimes you just have to watch how nice you are. She made a left and there he was, standing right in front of her. She was fed up and she showed it. O.J gave a smile and said:

“Baby, why you dey run from me now?”

One thing that gets her angry was his stupid smile, the way he talks………always speaking pidgin English, another was his pride. He always boasted he knew everybody that matters in and outside the school and if she should say “yes’ to him, she wont need to read again.

“I not running, I’ve just been busy.

She was trying hard now not to shout at him

“baby please, try and share your love with me now”

This man doesn’t just understand.

“No be only you I go share the love with, go find people join” Tinuke scoffed.

She turned and stormed off.

**************

Tinuke walked briskly towards the gate. She hated leaving the campus this late. She had just wanted to finish the last chapter of the textbook; she never knew it would take this long.

She would start jogging when she gets outside, no need jogging from here. O.J pulled up beside her.

“Make I help you reach house”

Tinuke wanted to say no but she thought about how many minutes jog she would be saving herself and entered the car. She said hi to the four guys sitting at the back and faced front.

One of the guys hit her with something and the next time she woke up, she was lying naked on a bed in a dim room with the four guys and O.J wearing only their boxers. O.J spoke:

‘you say make I go find people join me to share the love……………..na them be this”

Tinuke screamed, shouted, begged and cried as the five guys raped her. After, they dropped her along the road.

Blood dripped down her legs, she couldn’t stand. What was she going to tell Mia and Ada her bestfriends? What was she going to tell Laide who had waited for her all these years? What was she going to tell her mother who she promised not to fail? Her life was over…………..over. She fell on the road and fainted.

**************

Tinuke woke up the next morning in the hospital. Somebody must have found her. She blinked back tears as last night’s memories started coming back. The doctor came in and started reading from a paper; he didn’t look at her. The only words she heard before she fainted again were:

“HIV positive”