Unfulfilled promise episode 20 – 21

Unfulfilled Promises
Season 1
Episode 20&21

They didn’t know the effect their conversation was having on Oleng. She had put a mental block against thinking of living without Eric but as her friends talked continuously about him and his two friends, reality dawned on her. She finally saw her future without Eric.

“Oleng!”Marvy exclaimed as she saw tears rolling down her friend’s eyes.

“What’s the matter?”

Oleng cleaned her unheeding tears and picked up her bag. “Please tell Eric I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”

“Oleng, what’s wrong?” Zinny demanded of her friend who was already walking away.

Oleng stopped and turned around. “A week from today, Eric will be leaving for California where he’s going to school. He’ll be gone for about four years.” she announced still in tears.
“Please tell him I’m sorry that I can’t share his joy on a special day like this. I don’t want to fool myself myself by wetting his shirt with my tears of sorrow instead of joy.”

With that sorrowful declaration she quickly walked away leaving her friends in a sad mood.

“No wonder she has been so sad.” Marvy commented at her friend’s receding figure.

“Yes, poor girl. Marvy, we must make sure that she doesn’t feel Eric’s absence. Let’s get closer to her now more than ever.”

“Sure. That’s if she’ll let us.”

“No matter what, we must try.”

They waited there alone with others quietly. They however became joyous again when students started filing out of the hall. Their fellow students scre-med and hugged them.

The three people they were waiting for came out together. Zinny rushed to hug Eddy, Marvy ran to hug Dave too. Eric looked around for Oleng but she was nowhere to be found. He was both hurt and disappointed. Zinny rushed to hug him and Marvy followed suit. Female students who had been looking for an opportunity to get close to the gorgeous former senior prefect saw their chance. They hugged and k-ssed him continuously. Zinny had to forcefully drag them away. She became his self appointed personal body guard. Eric put up a happy front but inwardly, he wasn’t happy. Where was his best friend on a day like this? He didn’t accept the excuse she had given to her friends. She had given no thought of his feelings whatsoever. Didn’t she think of how he would feel seeing she wasn’t there to share his joy? He knew how she felt but he felt the same way also.

He heard people whispering that they had quarreled, that was the reason why she wasn’t here. For the first time in their relationsh¡p, he was truly angry with her. She had behaved in a self-centered manner.

When he got home, his mum welcomed him like a king. His dad who was usually not at home at that time of the day welcomed him like a king also. They had arranged a small party for him. He tried his best to be cheerful. His brother and relatives called to congratulate him. He however kept rejecting Oleng’s calls. He didn’t feel like talking to her just yet. When the small party was over, he went to his room with the excuse that he was tired.

After awhile, he decided to pick Oleng’s call. He answered the call albeit coldly.

“Thank God you finally answered.” Oleng was full of relief but he kept her quiet.

“Please can you come over? I need to talk to you.” she eagerly requested.

“About what?” he coldly asked. He was obviously still angry.

“Please. I really need to talk to you.” He could hear the tears in her voice but he just wasn’t in the mood.

“Sorry, Oleng. I can’t come over. I’m tired. I need to rest.” With that he ended the call. He told himself that he would switch off his phone if she tried calling again. He was surprised when she didn’t call back. She was probably crying her eyes out. He sighed. He’d told her a number of times that she cried too much. Seeing a cute puppy could move her to tears. He signed and picked up his phone to call her back. He paused, shook his head and dropped the phone on the bed. He was the wronged party here. She should be the one doing the calling and begging. He laid on his bed but couldn’t sleep.

About thirty minutes later, one of his cousins staying with them came into the room. He sat up on the bed. Boma was funny and mischievous and Eric liked her like that; and of course for the fact that she called him ‘handsome’.

“Handsome, your girlfriend’s here.” Boma informed him as she sat down on the bed.

“God!” he winced. “Don’t tell me mum invited Bridget to dinner without my consent again?” he lamented and laid back on the bed.

Boma laughed. “No, not that one. I mean your real girlfriend.” she stressed in an undertone.

“Here you go again, Boma. You know I don’t have a girlfriend.”

She laughed again. ”That one” She stabbed a finger in the air at Oleng’s huge portrait on the wall.

Eric turned and looked at it in ringing disbelief. “No way! That’s not true. Oleng cannot be bold enough to come here on her own. She doesn’t like coming here. She’s been here only once and that’s because it was mum and dad’s anniversary and I threatened to end our friendsh¡p if she didn’t come. I even had to go and pick her myself.”

“Are you calling me a liar, handsome? Or maybe I’m blind?”

Eric paused and surveyed her steadily. “Boma please, I hope this isn’t one of your mischievous games.”

Boma got up then. “Well, I’ll go and tell her you don’t want to see her.” she said as a matter of fact and walked towards the door.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Like a heart attack.” she laughed heartily.

“I can’t believe Oleng actually came here. She must really be sorry.” he murmured under his breath. He didn’t want to start explaining things to his nosy cousin. He got up from the bed. “Where’s she?”

Boma still standing by the door said, “The lounge, but be warned, your parents saw her. Your mum was talking to her before I left to get you.”

“O no!” he exclaimed, putting on his light brown chinos trousers. “She’s terrified of mum.”

Boma giggled. “So was I until I got to know her. I discovered that that look of hers, that ‘Don’t come near me, you leper’ kind of look was just for show. She’s the sweetest person I know.”

Eric smiled. His mum was really like that to a lot of people. He had told Oleng a lot of times that his mum was different from the face she puts on but Oleng had never believed.
********

“Now that you know your parents are aware of her visit, don’t do what you guys normally do in her house.” Boma advised in a teasing manner.

“We don’t do anything in her house. What are you insinuating?” he asked buttoning his shirt.

“A handsome guy like you, a beautiful girl like her, tell me something else.”

“For crying out loud Boma, I’m just sixteen and she is just fifteen!” he protested.

“And Jesus died at the age of thirty three.” she put in as a matter of fact.

Eric just stared at her. “What has that got to do with the issue at hand?”

“Yeah well…” She shrugged. “Okay, maybe it doesn’t relate with what was just said. What I’m trying to say is that no one is too young to taste the forbidden fuit. Joleen, my elder sister lost her V-rginity at the age of twelve…ooops! Pretend you didn’t hear that.” she put a hand to her mouth.

Eric burst into laughter and walked to the door smiling brightly.

“Come on, handsome. Promise me you won’t tell anyone. Let this be our little secret.”

“Lets see,” Eric pretented to think with a finger underneath his chin. “Little secret number thirty four? How much?” He held out his hand, grinning.

“Cash or kind?” she questioned, rolling her eyes at him.

“Both.” Eric smiled mischievously.

“Alright, spoil sport. I’ll think of something.”

“You better do. ‘Cause we don’t want Joleen to know we know her little secret, right?” he remarked sweetly, still smiling mischievously and opened the door.

He walked slowly to the lounge. He knew his parents would be in the living room. He still didn’t believe Oleng had come to his house. He was indeed surprised to see her there. She quickly got up when she saw him. Eric had to appreciate Oleng’s mum once again. She knew how to buy good things for her daughter.

Oleng was looking drop dead gorgeous as usual in a beautiful top and h¡p hugging jeans, which brought out her hour glass figure. She wore black ballerinas on her feet and he knew it was some kind of jewellery other than gold and diamond that adorned her neck, ears and wrist. God! Oleng was beautiful.

She walked shyly towards him while he just stood in the middle of the room and put his hands in his pockets with an air of indifference. She stopped before him and stared at the thick rug. She t—-t out a beautiful hand-made card to him.

“I had this made specially for you. I should have given it to you earlier but…i’m sorry I wasn’t there when you were through with your exams….i just couldn’t handle everything then…I…” She was still staring at the rug. She smiled a little. “Zinny told me more than half of the girls in the school hugged you. I don’t blame them though. If I had been there, it wouldn’t have happened…I…won’t you at least take the card from me?” she queried when she looked up at him and he didn’t take it or say anything.

He waited for a full minute before he slowly removed his hand from his pocket and took the card.

“Thanks.” he quietly said.

“I’m sorry.” she apologised and stared at the rug again. When he still didn’t reply, she pleaded in almost a whisper, “Please say something.”

“What do you want me to say, Oleng?” he began impatiently. “You hurt me a lot today. For the first time since our friendsh¡p began, I was really angry with you. A very special day in my life and my best friend was nowhere to be found. I was surrounded by strangers and few friends but the most important person in my life was not there when I needed her just because she was too sentimental to hang around.” he said each word bitingly.

Tears slowly dropped from her eyes. She didn’t know what to say. At the time of her departure, escape had been the uppermost thing in her mind. She hadn’t thought about his feelings. It was when she had gone home and thought of everything before she realized the folly of her actions. It had been too late to go back and Eric had kept rejecting her calls which made her more miserable. She had known she had to see him. She knew she would be in trouble if she got home to meet her mum. She would receive a heavy scolding but she didn’t care. She just wanted to make things right with her best friend.

TBC