#5DaysToVals Contest Entry by Aremu Adams Adebisi

She was from a rich background. Her parents, though wealthy, still would not allow any form of promiscuity.’Education should be your first and foremost,’ they would always bang that into her ears. So she made her books her only resolution towards living a greater life — for that it seemed.

His parents were poor and couldn’t afford a three-square meal a day. He was her mate in school and his class was just a stone-throw to that of hers. He admired her beauty and intelligence she rarely failed to display at any educational outing. But he didn’t love her for that. There was something about her that endeared her to him — something he couldn’t fathom. And so, he would tip-toe behind her to where she lives and would stay in a covered area to throw glimpses at her personality. He knew she would be reading by the balcony. This he did everyday till darkness would set in before he would paddle his happy legs home. He took delight in it and would scribble every event in his diary, written with genuine passion and love.

She knew not what love is and what it entails. Her book, as she was being taught, was her first and foremost — just everything she needed in life. She often saw him dodging behind unseen barricades. She tagged him as unserious — an intruder who has come to pry into her private lives or to gain some information about her; or just someone who wanted to take advantage of her. She would increase her pace whenever she sensed his aura, for he had this fragrance which made her presume. Ofttimes, she would sound brave and tend not to quicken. She had it in mind she would confront him one day and show him the stuff she is made of.

February the 14th came with love. He dressed gorgeously. He had this ethereal feeling of ecstasy within him. He would say his feelings to her face, and see how events would unfold.’Afterall, I would know where to start from,’ he said to himself smiling. He found her a rose he  intended to gift her if she would be patient enough to listen.

She left for home after school activities. And joyously, she mummed a nursery rhyme as she walked past places she was familiar with. Her school was not far from home, likewise the latter. After she had covered some distance, she sensed that fragrance again. She looked back and surprisingly saw him calling at her with gestures to wait.

‘Silly bastard, I will show him,’

She muttered almost to herself, as she waited for him to catch up with her.

He did, panting under heavy exhaustion. He had run some miles to get to her. The rose he was to gift her tactically hidden in the diary which was in his left hand. He aimed to talk, and then…..

Gboa!

She pushed him onto the solid ground amidst flooding stinging accusations.

‘Never in your life should you follow me again. Next time you do, I will report you to the Police and you will be jailed. Stupid bastard!’

She spat on him and made to leave for home. But as she saw no response from the one she pushed, she looked back only to find him in a pool of blood, sprawling helplessly, lifelessly, as he tried to mutter his last words.

‘I…. I… I….’

He gave up the ghost.

‘Please stand up! Please, I was only joking. Please, stand up! Pleaaaase!’.

That was the only echo she could make meaning with. She wasn’t sure if that voice was hers. She cried bitterly when she realised he had given up the ghost. She made to find his contact or any information pertaining to him when she saw the diary and the rose with blood stains on them. She opened the diary and kept reading till where it said:

———————————–

Dear Diary,I am sorry for today I shall write you no more. I have endured fruitless abstracted stares at the one I love, and today I hope to amend that. I will take my love a step further today and confess my feelings to her. I will gift her this rose as a sign of my ceaseless love. Isn’t that cute, Diary? You know how much I love her, don’t you? Now, don’t be jealous; I love you also, but not as much as I love her.

February 14th.————————————She wished the ground could just swallow her. She wished for death, but could not find one. After she had cried her eyes out, she made to leave for home but was arrested by the police. Her parents attempts to bail her were both barren as they were fruitless, for the case had been transferred immediately she confessed her unintentional accidental murder.

After some few months, she committed suicide while serving her 2-years imprisonment.

She was nineteen.