~~Daniel~~
Makena is arriving at Benford today.
I examine my new haircut in the dressing mirror before heading down to my car. My phone beeps.
Hi, can I come over tonight?
Lynn needs to chill.
I ended things with her three days ago, but she acts as if she doesn’t understand what I mean. Her text clearly shows she is still in denial.
What we had isn’t really a relationship. We used each other for our own selfish reasons, and now it’s over. I delete her text and block her number. I don’t want any distractions today.
It’s the first day of the September semester. First-year students like Makena arrive today. Continuing students like me are reporting back next week.
I park my car near the admission block and look towards the gate at the new faces trickling in. A few students are pointing at my red Porsche Cayenne. I lean back in my seat, although the windows are tinted.
An hour ago, Makena texted that Wanja put her in a bus, coming straight to Benford. She will arrive any minute now. I look for a beautiful girl in a cotton dress and long hair and a sweet smile. Just the thought of her makes me smile.
As if on cue, Makena walks through the gates. I look twice. She looks scrumptious in the blue jeans that outline her curvy hips and a white tank top that hugs her tiny waist. It’s like she looks better every time I see her. I’m spellbound, and for a moment, I can’t process my thoughts. She drags a suitcase in one hand and carries a brown envelope on the other.
She looks around, her brows squished in confusion. She stands under the bougainvillaea tree, and the purple flowers fall all around her and on her feet. To my enthralled eyes, everything is in slow motion.
A skinny idiot approaches her from the back.
I shake my head, get out of the car, and quickly walk towards them.
Makena smiles when she sees me. She points me to the idiot, and he scrambles away.
Good for him.
I crush her into my chest and hold her tight. She smells fruity, like a sweet peach, and I linger a little more before letting go.
“I broke up with Lynn.” I’ve been waiting to give her the news.
“Hi.” She gives me a shy smile.
“Hi.”
“I love your new haircut,” she says.
“Thank you. You look beautiful. Are you ready for campus life?”
“Yes.” She looks around, anxious and eager.
“Then come with me, Miss.”
First, I drag her suitcase to my car. Then I stand in line with her to register.
“This is a beautiful place,” she remarks.
This is one of the dullest places I know. I think of all the beautiful places I want to go with her. “I will show you around when you are done registering.”
“Thank you.” She smiled.
When she is happy, it makes me incredibly happy. This is the one girl I want to impress, hard. Usually, I don’t make much effort with girls. They throw themselves at me.
“Excuse me?” One of the girls on the line joins us. She wears gold heels, and a sweater tied around her waist and loop earrings too big for her face.
“Are you Daniel Ogana?” She asks.
I nod.
She squeals loudly. “Guys, I told you it was him. Come, come meet my friends.”
“As you can see, I’m in line.” I shrug.
“Oh, so sorry. Would you mind taking a picture then?”
Before long, I’m taking a hundred photos with the girls. I shrug a sorry to Makena, but she smiles. She is witnessing this side of my life for the first time, and she is taking it well.
“Perhaps I should take a photo too,” she says as I stand back in line again.
“Sure.” I take out my iPhone and snap a picture of us together.
“There.” I look down at it. It is beautiful.
After forever, we get to the front of the queue, and Makena brings her registration documents to the registrar.
When she is fully registered and given a convoluted summary of the student’s guide and the school rules, they hand her a student id card.
We are starving, so I first guide her to the cafeteria, and we eat pilau.
We visit the library as well as the computer room.
Makena loves that the swimming room is shaped like the Kenyan map with the words Benford Uni on the bottom.
Later, we head to my favourite part of the school, the sports field, where my teammates and I practice every evening. I hope she will soon come and watch me as I train one of these evenings.
My team and I are gearing up for the Rugby Inter Uni Championship which will happen in Pretoria in two weeks.
“Your classes are on Block E.” We tour the engineering wing, which is on the far, left side of the school. The school of law which I attend is further isolated from the rest on the right side.
“I don’t know how I would have survived today without you. Thanks, Daniel.”
“No biggie.”
“What about the hostels?’ She fumbles through her bag and points at the school brochure. “They are this way.”
“About that.”
“I meant to tell you that the scholarship comes with new hostels.” We walk back to my car, and I open the door for her, which gives me a chance to ogle at her curves again.
A short five-minute drive later we stop outside the new ivory-coloured apartment near the school. I’d organised so that the scholarship recipients would live here. They are much better than the school hostels, and I want Makena to be comfortable.
“All this for me?” She gasps as she steps inside the one-bedroom, fully furnished apartment.
There are cream leather chairs, a bookshelf with Engineering 101 books, a wooden coffee table, and right across is on open-plan kitchen with a half door. The bed is king-sized.
“It looks expensive. These are the new hostels?” She asks.
“Yes. It comes with the scholarship.”
She caresses the leather seat as she sits at the edge. It looks as if she is uncomfortable with it. Have I overdone it? I settle beside her and hold her soft hand in mine.
“You deserve it, hmm,” I tell her. “You deserve it and much more. You won the scholarship. It comes with the scholarship. So, enjoy. It’s yours.”
The tension straining her beautiful features dissipates.
“Yes or yes?” I want her to accept it. It will mean she accepts my world too.
“Yes.”
She deserves so much more. I will give her so much more.
It was 6:30, but I don’t want to leave yet. “Why don’t you freshen up? You must be tired from that long journey today, and yesterday.”
“Yes, that sounds great.”
As I go for her new laptop in my car, I hear her unzip her suitcase from the bedroom. When I come back, she is in the shower. She stays there for half an hour, and I fight the urge to join her.
Later, she emerges fresh-faced with her hair in a bun. Scratching my head, I check out her thighs as she sits.
“So, what did you chose?” She asks.
“Coming to America.”
In one of our late-night phone calls, she mentioned she never watched the movie but would like to.
Now I watch her laugh at Eddy Murphy antics.
Why do I feel so content around this girl?
At eight, after the movie ends, I fix us some scrambled eggs and a glass of pineapple juice. I will have someone deliver groceries tomorrow.
We eat as she recounts stories about her childhood escapades with her best friends Nduta and Wanja.
I wish I was staying overnight. Time always goes by so fast with her. We never have enough time around each other.
“Goodnight, Makena,” I say as I stand at the door. My hand grips my leather jacket a little too tight.
“Goodnight, Daniel” She smiles.
When I get in my apartment, I drop the keys on the table and remove my shirt. I crash on the couch and pull the phone from my pocket. I stare at the photo I took with Makena, zooming in on her face, tracing her eyes, her lips, and her smile with my finger.
Yes, I want her in my bed, but there is also something else about her. Is it possible to fall in love just like that? I don’t know. I’ve never been in love.
I dial her number.
“Hello,” her sweet voice comes through.
“What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?”
“Classes begin next week Monday, so I guess I will be in the house.”
“Cool. Would you like to go on a date with me?” My heart misses a beat. What if she says no?
“I would love that,” she answers.
A grin spreads on my face. “Alright. See you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I want to tell her to dream of me, but I don’t want to push it too hard. What matters is tomorrow Makena, and I will have our first date.