Louise

Fridays were cool. I didn’t hate them, after all, it was everybody’s favorite day. A day to relax after a week of toiling, stress and all. Well, for some people, a day to club, to party, to go see movies, go on dates and all that shit. For me, it was a day to come back from lectures and stay home all night sleeping and fully Resting. Then, if I was in a good mood, get popcorn and coke and turn my room into a cinema. Only difference was I would be alone, as always. Laugh at the jokes in the movie alone, get scared alone and cry alone. Typical Friday evening, yay! If I didn’t see movies, I would draw. I loved drawing, it was more than a hobby to me. Art was life as far as I was concerned. If I didn’t draw, I would just sleep biko, nights were meant for sleeping na.
I’m Louise, but trust typical Nigerians, I was called Louis which made me more male than the female I was. My Igbo name is Ekpereamaka, not that I didn’t like it, obviously prayers were lovely but I would choose Louise a million times over it. I used glasses and I have been tagged a nerd because of that, another typical Nigerian trend. I was studying Chemical engineering and for a lady, that was so intense for most people, hence, putting me in the category of guys than ladies. I wasn’t a tomboy, I dressed OK, no too much makeup if I remembered there was something called makeup but I was hardly approached by the opposite sex for a relationship. Not that it mattered so much, my academics came first before anything. I had more male friends, yeah, it’s not cos of my course or my name, I clicked better with them, making my situation more critical. I think they saw me as one of them, telling me to help them with few of my female friends but never looking at me in that way. The few female friends I had loved to party and hangout which meant they would be out Friday nights.
On this particular Friday, I came back from lectures, washed my clothes, did a little clean up and heated my leftover rice that would serve as dinner, or not. At about 7pm, I was done with my chores, had taken my bath and used a rubber band to pack my hair. A wore a navy blue shirt which was oversize. It was like I was wearing my boyfriend’s shirt just that I didn’t have a boyfriend and it was my elder brother’s shirt I stole. I wore a black bum-short, wore my glasses, poured my popcorn in a bowl to be in the cinema spirit, brought out my bottle of coke and settled myself on my bed in front of my laptop to see some movies.
My movie had gone half way when I heard a knock on the door. That was odd, I wasn’t expecting anyone at all. I thought it might be Onyinye coming to borrow something as usual so I went to the door and opened it without asking who it was. Good news: it wasn’t a serial killer or a thief I opened my door for. Bad news: it wasn’t Onyinye, it was Obinna. Suddenly I was aware that my shirt was rumpled, a button was missing at the top, my hair was tousled and I had no makeup on. Damn, what was he doing here at such an ungodly hour for me. I wanted to enter inside the ground.
“Hello Louise”, he said, “I hope I didn’t come at the wrong time.”
“Of course not, I mean yes.. err, no, uhm, what are you doing here?” I stammered. Seriously, I couldn’t make a simple sentence without stammering because his eyes always made me weak. For someone who didn’t care what the opposite sex thought of her, I cared a whole deal what Obinna thought of me and now I was stammering. “I know it’s odd to come at this time unannounced, I need a favor from you’, he said. “Okay, come in then”, I said moving aside for him to come into the room. I quickly straightened my shirt and ran my fingers through my hair when his back was against me. “So what can I do for you?” I asked. “Well, a friend of mine is rewriting a course you are taking now and she needs notes. I heard Louise had the best notes with a beautiful handwriting. I didn’t have your number so I couldn’t reach you. I saw Bright downstairs and he said I could find you here, though I didn’t think you’d be in”. Of course I’m in, where else would I be?”
As soon as I said that, I was sorry, now he’d know I had a terrible social life.
“What course are we talking about here?” I asked going through my shelf already, desperately avoiding his eyes. “ENG 301”,he replied, “by the way, you have a nice place, and I can see your mini cinema. “Thanks, I laughed, in spite of the myself. “Here it is”, I said taking a note off my shelf, “but how and when am I getting it back, I have it on Monday morning?“
“You’ll get it Sunday evening, this time I’ll call before coming”, he laughed.
“Yeah, you should definitely call”, I said, “uhm, I guess that’s it.
“Yeah, that’s it”, he said, pulling out his phone from his pocket, “your number?” “Oh, yes”, I gave him the number and he left. Obinna is this really handsome and intelligent guy in final year, also in my department who I like very much. And he saw me looking so, ugh, I don’t even know what word to use to describe how I looked. And to top it all up, I acted like a 12-year old speaking to her crush for the first time. Obinna had spoken to me once before, when I represented my department in a quiz and he congratulated me for winning, other times it had been normal hi, hello, how are you doing conversations that didn’t last 30 seconds. Any hope of him liking me back might have been ruined by this visit. Oh well, he’s coming on Sunday, I won’t be taken by surprise that day. I was still thinking about my dilemma when I heard a knock on the door again. This time I asked who it was before Trey Songs walked in on me. “It’s Onyinye oh”, my visitor announced. I opened the door and she bombarded me with questions. “Was that Obinna who just left? What did he want? What happened? Hope you didn’t mess up?
“Seriously Onyinye, one question at a time”, I complained, “yes it was Obinna, he wanted a note, nothing happened, what do you mean by hope I didn’t mess up? well, I probably did. “Chai, Louise, your crush visited you and you just gave him note and he left, are you sure you are a girl? Onyinye said teasingly. “I’m a girl na”, I protested. “He’ll be back on Sunday though.” “Perfect”, Onyinye said, “you’ll look awesome that day, not all normal, but wait oh, who did he borrow note for?“
“I don’t know”, I said, “and I didn’t ask”. “Na wa for you oh, Louise”
“What should I have done, Onyinye? Rape him? Kill him with questions?“
“No na, but at least find out whether it’s a girl he wanted the note for. Anyways, on Sunday you’d know”. Yeah, Sunday I’ll know, all I have to do was get rid of Onyinye now and go back to my movies and not think of Obinna at all till tomorrow.
“Ehen, Louise, do you have maggi and small red oil I want to cook beans” Onyinye asked. I laughed, typical Onyinye.