THE CAMPUS WE LEAVE IN

EPISODE 1 I met Lilly at a JAMB center where I went to write my JAMB at one Secondary School at Aba Abia state. By then JAMB was Paper and Pencil Test (PPT) We both had the same center My seat number was 342 and hers was 343 She was from Rivers State while I came from Akaw Ibom She was very beautiful We exchanged phone contacts after the examination, just to keep in touch till the results were released. I did not even bother to waste my airtime to call her because I knew she was beyond my reach Poor me! That I got her number at the examination center was not my doing She demanded for my contact, so I gave her. And she in turn gave me hers She was too classic, so what would I tell her if I called? I decided to respect myself and maintained my limit, After all, there was no way on earth I could see her again, About 3 weeks later, I came back from the farm to see her missed calls She had called me twice and since I did not answer the calls, she dropped me a message “Hello dear. Long time. What’s going on? Not even a call. I hope you’re ok. I’ve checked my result and I have 299, what about yours? Please call me as soon as you get this”. That was the message Linda sent. My heart skipped as I read her message I did not even know the results were released ‘She scored 299?’ I asked myself I became ashamed to even check my result The thoughts of calling her struck me, but then I had no airtime By then to buy airtime was not easy That evening, I took my scratch card to the café When my result was checked, my brothers and sisters, I scored 181 How I got 181 is still a mystery till today, because I did not even know what I wrote Besides, shame did not allow me to ask her for help during the examination At around 8pm that evening, I sent Lilly a ‘please call me’ sms She didn’t call I sent another one There was yet no call I exhausted my 5 please call me that day At around 10pm, my phone rang When I checked, it was Linda. I picked “Good evening Lilly. I missed your calls and I didn’t have credit to call back” “Good evening Vazzy. How are you doing?” “I’m fine” Her English was well polished and her voice could awaken a dead man On hearing her voice, I leaped for joy like the Biblical infant John, who leaped in Elizabeth’s womb on hearing the voice of Mary, the would be mother of Jesus We spoke for about 10 minutes 10 whole minutes That was the first time I was on phone for that long during the day time I only made MTN free night calls back then But that day I spoke for about 10 minutes The conversation was going smooth until Lilly chose to humiliate me by asking of my JAMB result “Before I forget, what have you scored?”, she asked Just then, a cold breeze blew me as if I was standing near an air condition in a banking hall “Me?”, I asked as if there was a third party in our conversation “Yes, you. What did you score?” Shame did not allow me to tell her the truth, so I lied “Ok. I scored 233” She was very excited to hear that I scored 233 “Congratulations. I wish you good luck sourcing for admission”, she concluded I accepted the congratulation; after all, I was qualified to take part in the aptitude test that would be conducted in my school We ended the conversation and bid each other good bye Months later, I went to write aptitude test in one of the Federal universities in the Eastern part of the country To my greatest surprise, I saw Lilly “Hey! You. What are you doing here?”, I asked “Hey! I’m so happy to see you again. I didn’t expect to see you. How are you doing?”, she responded without answering my question “I’m fine. But you never told me this was your most preferred choice” “Yeah. I changed. I changed my most preferred choice from my former one to this school. I would have called but I lost your number. Please give me a beep let me save your number” I felt she did not want to talk about that, so I stopped asking further I gave her a beep and she saved my number We sat for the examination and by the grace of God, we both gained admission to study political science Lilly was my course mate in the university. We were in the same department She was very brilliant and her beauty was second to none Everybody wanted to associate with her, but she had only one friend – me. She confided in me so much to the extent that I knew everything about her, including when she had her period We were so close that people thought we were dating She stayed in a flat while I managed my life in a one bedroom apartment She was from a rich family One day as we were returning home from school, she said; “I am not very comfortable with you using my phones to do assignments. You should get an android phone” That statement would have meant nothing if Lilly was a talking type We can spend up to 3 hours together and Lilly would not utter a word So for her to make that statement that day had so much meaning to her, She had two apple phones and a laptop, while I was still managing an old Nokia phone that was given to me by my Uncle Was she trying to mock me? I was ashamed, but I managed to respond “I will get a new phone as soon as possible. My uncle will be coming home next month and he promised to buy me a phone” She knew I was not saying the truth, but she did not respond We both went to her place and she made something for us to eat After the meal, I left for my house At around 7pm my phone rang I checked and it was Lilly “Hello Lilly. How far?” “Come over to the house” She did not respond to my greetings, neither did she spend time on the phone That call was strange I had only N100 left with me So N100 would take me to and fro I got to her house and knocked on the door “Who’s there?”, she asked “Lilly”, I called She recognized my voice and hurried to open the door I went inside She was watching television “Go to the bedroom, there’s something on the bed for you” I went to the bedroom and I saw a small bag with something inside I opened it Behold! It was an android phone That was my first android phone I rushed back to the sitting room to thank her “Thank you so much, Lilly. I really appreciate. God bless you” She smiled and said “You’re welcome dear” I left for my place that night That was the kind of relationship I enjoyed with Lilly until things began to change WATCH OUT FOR EPISODE 2