Tiwatope’s Redemption – Episode 1
Tiwatope’s Redemption – Episode 1
By
Kayode Odusanya
The small room had two colors; grey on two opposite sides, and white on the other two opposite sides. The reading table and a bed took up most of the space in the room, with duffel bags here and there on the rug. She sat Unclad in bed, with a lit cigarette in her left hand and a silver colored iPad in her right. The extremely dark skinned guy beside her looked dead till he rolled over on his side. She looked at him briefly and as she brought her focus back to the screen of the tab in her hand; she saw a red dot on her left br-ast. She let the iPad drop to her lap and looked at the mark intensely with a frown on her face. Her mind went back to a few minutes ago when she was making love to David, and she remembered he had been nibbling too hærd on her small perky br-ast. Gently, she rubbed the s₱0t and looked at him angrily.
The lit end of the cigarette had burnt a wh0le lot and she shook her hand slowly to let the ash drop in the glass ashtray on the bedside stool. Sting’s ‘English Man in New York’ came on the radio, and although she wasn’t familiar with classic song, its beat and sweet melody made her start bobbing her head. She took a drag from her cigarette and exhaled smoke in the air.
Towards the middle point of the song, the beat changed to a hærd knocking 80s h¡p hop beat for a few second, and it got her more hyped up. She dropped the iPad on her friend’s back and started dancing in bed. The end of the song had the singer repeating same thing over and over, and with time, she found herself singing along with him, repeating the words, ‘be yourself, no matter what they say.’
When the song ended, she didn’t feel like sticking around any longer, and she shook David, but from the look of things, she knew he wasn’t waking up any time soon. She picked her tab from his back, killed the cigarette on the ashtray, and got out of bed. Her denim jeans and white spaghetti top were on his reading chair, but she couldn’t find her bag anywhere. She sat back on the bed, and reached for her black b-ra and p-nties on the black duffel bag beside the bed.
A dog started barking outside as she moved around, dressing up, and looking for her bag at the same time. She briefly checked her time and saw it was 10:45pm. ‘Shiit!’ she cursed under her breath and hastened her search. Tucked underneath the fluffy pillow she had been resting her back on was her big red bag. She shook her head as she unzipped it, threw her iPad in it, zipped up the bag, and swung it around her shoulder. She was about exiting the room but stopped and walked back in; rushed to the table, grabbed a pen and scribbled something quickly on a jotter, tore out the page she had written in, and walked over to place it on the bed beside David. She looked at him sleeping for a few seconds, and then turned around to leave the room.
David lived in a boys’ quarter room, so, she was facing the dark of the night once she walked out the door. A few meters in front of her was the building that housed the bathroom. In between the two buildings was overgrown weed about ankle high, with a small clear path in the middle that indicated where people usually walked through to get to the bathroom. To her right was a bushy path, and the parking lot to the left. She sighed, let go of the door handle, and walked towards her little blue Nissan Micra.
There was a puddle of water in her path from the earlier rains of that day, so she climbed a little heap of gravel to her left to avoid getting her shoes w-t. She caught a reflection of something to her left; she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a guy in white t shirt standing still a few meters away from her. She panicked and quickened her pace towards her car, but she slipped on the gravel, and almost like he was using a magnet to get her to him, she slid all the way to the left, till she fell into his arms. ‘Hi?’ he said with a smile and her scre-m echoed through the night.
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He pulled her back, restrained her from running, and covered her mouth. She struggled, tried to get out of his grip. She was petite, but her full curly hair was getting in his face and it was a battle trying to hold on to her. She stopped struggling when she heard him say, “Tiwatope, we’re in the same department.” He slowly removed his arm from around her wa-ist, and then quietly said, “Promise not to scre-m?” She nodded and he let go of her mouth. She turned around and got a good look at him. She recognized him as one of the less popular guys in her class; a ski-ny and tall guy that was called scarecrow behind his back. “What are you doing out here this late?” He asked.
“I…you scared the shiit out of me.” She said in a low voice and frowned at him. “What are you doing standing here in the middle of the night?” A few doors could be heard being opened at the staff quarters building in front of them. She turned around and looked towards the place.
“I was looking for my dog.” He said.
She turned back to him with a quizzical look on her face before saying, “Okay. Good luck with that. I got to go.”
She thought his story was bullsh*t, but didn’t want to question him any further, not wanting to find out what she didn’t want to know. “I’m sorry, my friend scared me.” She said to the concerned middle aged lecturer outside his door. The chubby man in his sky blue pyjamas shook his head before turning around and walking back into his apartment. She took one last look at him before opening and getting into her car. He was still standing in the same s₱0t. It freaked her out.
Tiwatope turned the key in the ignition, and her hearth skipped a beat when the car didn’t start. But on the second try, it came to life. When she looked his way again, he waved at her. She reluctantly waved back as she drove out of the parking lot.
……….
Tiwatope had switched her phone to airplane mode when she decided to hook up with David earlier in the day, and as she turned it back to normal mode, she got a barrage of text messages; mostly from Tayo, her supposed boyfriend. He had agreed to an open relationsh¡p at the beginning, but the last couple of weeks he had been trying to get them to be monogamous. She skimmed through the message as she kept one eye on the road. Solar powered street lights lit up the length of the campus’s major road. It was a Thursday night, and although it was really late, there was a party outside campus today, and a lot of cars were still on the road.
Her stomach growled, and she frowned. Her right hand robbed her belly for a few seconds, and then she reached out to the glove compartment. Her hand found a chocolate bar she had been forced to buy at a store earlier on in the day because they didn’t have change. She had bought her hands on the top of the steering wheel now as she struggled to tear the chocolate bar open. The first bite she took from it gave her an orgasmic feeling.
Up ahead on the right was her hostel. A dozen cars were parked outside, with people coming and going like it was daytime.
Right at the gate of her hostel was Tayo standing with her bunkie, Rukayat. Tiwatope ducked, but then thought of how stupid it was, since her boyfriend would recognize the car anyway. She pulled up to their side, and she saw Rukayat slowly let go of Tayo’s hand. Tayo had a frown on his face as she came out of the car and walked over to meet them. He had a very intimidating physique, like that of an American wrestler, and anybody that didn’t know him would be scared of him right now, but not Tiwatope.
Rukayat had a smile on her face, obviously feeling guilty for flirting with her friend’s boyfriend. “Where have you been?” Tayo said in a low sinister voice. Tiwatope rolled her eyes and walked past them. Tayo pulled her back towards him. “I’m talking to you.” He said slowly, looking down at her with a mean look on his face. Her mind flashed back to earlier when she had been grabbed same way, and she overreacted by slapping his hand.
Tayo and Rukayat were taken aback as they had never seen her react like that before. “You are not my father.” She backed out and then the shocked look on Tayo’s face changed to one of concern. She turned around and walked slowly towards the hostel gate. Tears rolled down her eyes as she walked up the stairs of her hostel block.
When she got to her floor, she leaned on the veranda and looked down at the activities in the quadrangle. Girls you would have thought to be miss goody two shoes in the day were dressed in clothes that did very little to cover their bodies; b-obs pouring out of tops, and asses almost busting out of skirts. “Tiwa baby! What’s up?” A plump girl in blue camouflage t shirt shouted out from downstairs. Tiwatope stylishly wiped the tears off her face with the back of her right hand as she responded with, “I’m cool mami.”
“I’ve been looking all over for you.” The girl said and made a sign with her hand for her friends to walk on.
“Oh! I kinda want to stay in tonight.”
“Come on girl. You know a party ain’t a party without a little Tiwa spirit.”
Tiwa laughed and phlegm came out her nose. She leaned back quickly got out her handkerchief from her bag.
“What do you say? I can ask the guys to wait for like 10 minutes.”
As she wiped her nose, she weighed her options, wondering if she was really about to burst out crying earlier. Not wanting to dwell in any sadness right now, she responded with, “Okay mami! Give me 15 minutes.”
“You got it.”
To be continued