WOO ME

Woo Me

From the corner of my eye I could see him. He always sat a row or two away from me, and wasn’t known as one of the “finest” in the class. All the same, there was something about him that always seemed to get my motors running. He had this smug look and you could see him writing or drawing something in a jotter he kept, all the while smiling to himself. From time to time I’d steal a glance and turn away just as quick so I wouldn’t be caught staring.

One Thursday morning I got to school late and was asked to stay behind the door. Seconds turned to minutes and time dragged on. There I stood waiting and hoping to get back into the class…..I heard footsteps approaching, the sound of someone catching his breath.  I took a glance and there he stood, late as well. Extremely shy, he asked if class was already in session. I didn’t want to give anything away, so with a straight face I replied, “Yes! And you are late”. He gave me a reprimanding look to remind me I was equally late, thus the reason for being behind the door. We stood there for another 20 minutes without saying a word to each other until we were asked to join the class.

I have always wanted to sit next to him and find out what made him smile while writing and drawing in class. We had to sit next to each other as those were the only seats available. For being late, we were bombarded with a lot of questions, he unlike me seemed to have an answer to almost every question that was posed. He only fumbled once, but I swiftly came through with an answer. He turned to smile his thanks to me.

He was back at it again- drawing with that smug look on his face. I shifted closer to take a look, and who could have imagined. It was an anime of myself with the word “LATE” boldly written. I was both irritated and excited at the same time. The class ended and we went our various ways. For the next few classes we were never late and reverted to our previous sitting positions. I still saw him scribble and smile in class.

“Where is your partner?” asked one guy who sat in front of me. With a puzzled look, I responded “he’s probably behind the door for being late”. A few minutes later, I found myself trying to draw an anime of him with the words VERY LATE. I slipped my book to him when he walked in, which he received with a smile. Exam came and we both passed and the next was summer holidays. To my knowledge he usually travelled for the holidays , so I wasn’t expecting to see him for the next 3 months.

I’d been frequent at the gym so I was in pretty good shape. I was looking forward to strutting my stuff in the bright sunny weather. On this particular day I wore a pretty tight pair of jean pants and nice T-shirt. You could easily see the silhouette of my body. I knew I was definitely going to turn a few heads, considering I had my bum and hips protruding my pants. I bought myself ice-cream and was making my way towards a garden nearby, so I could sit and read a novel while I licked my ice-cream. I found a perfect spot, with enough shade from the sun and a beautiful view of blossomed flowers everywhere. I was almost sitting down when I tripped and my ice-cream came falling down. I was very disappointed but decided against getting a new one. I thought to myself…..”Well it’s nature’s way of telling me not to mess up my shape..lol!”

I sat down to read, and a few minutes later, I saw him with a bigger ice-cream cone and even more creamy flavours. He had been in the garden earlier and witnessed the whole scenario. We had a good chat about so many things. A few times I’d catch him looking somewhere else other than into my face while we spoke. It was late and so we walked towards the bus stop, there he complimented me on how fit I looked. We said our goodbyes and I headed to my apartment whilst he caught a bus to his place. For whatever reason, he did not ask for my number…..”Who in this 21^st century forgets to ask for a phone number??.....

Weeks passed and I had not been to the garden. I decided to visit the garden again. I got there late afternoon, enjoyed the scenery and went back home after an hour and half. For the next few days, I visited the place hoping to run into him again. Unfortunately, I never did, so I thought he may have travelled.

The summer temperatures were pretty high and I was bored at home. I called a few girlfriends and we decided to visit the poolside and hangout the next day. I was pretty excited and decided to bake a few cupcakes and tarts. It was a bright and sunny Saturday and we met at the poolside. My friends and I were looking pretty “chic” and smart. Most of us didn’t know how to swim, but we were dying to change into our swimsuits. Once we did, we jumped into the shallowest part of the pool, and as African as I am, I was trying so hard to avoid my hair from getting wet. Everything was running along smoothly, until time stood still. All our eyes were fixed towards the same direction. We all wanted to see his face. From behind you could see his broad shoulders, his back muscles well built and demarcated makes you just want him to turn already so we see the chest and the abs, instead he dove back into the water and swam towards the girls and I…………

Author : Yohannes   

Editors:  Abigail Doh Sedinam

Gifty Abogye Mensah

C.M