Earlyface

PULL OVER (Episode 1)

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Let’s start short and slow.
Permit me to introduce awesome Nigerian artistes as well and of course foreign ones too!
Songs that inspired me while writing chapter one and two are:
I’m for Real – Flavour
Gone for Good – Simi
Chance (Fre Me) – Guiltybeatz ft. Mr. Eazi

Zoya’s POV

… I’m for real, I’m for real
Girl, I want you to know that,
I’m for real
Girl, I want you to know that,
I’m for real, I’m for real
I’m for real
Girl, I want you to know that
When I look into your eyes I see
Nwane nkem mo …

Flavour’s voice crooned, with the sound of his guitar the following suit like he was trying to persuade the object of his desire to believe him no matter previous debacles. His voice filled the living room effortlessly in a calm way from the stereo. I hold back a scoff as I had told myself before leaving my place that I was not going to fall for any theatrics Manir thinks to pull. He can do better.


 
I paused as I stepped into Manir’s living room – memories where fleeting by; unforgettable ones, they were stamped in my mind like tattoos. My first visit, how I almost burnt the yam pottage I had proudly told him was the best in the history of pottages, the first time we made out, the other time he found my ticklish spot, the artworks I had bought for his living room when I went to the beach.

That’s enough. Don’t get sucked in, just get this over and done with.

I grimaced. I really shouldn’t be here but between Manir and me, I was always doing what I said I wouldn’t do, always is an understatement. The only justifiable reason I could give myself was that this, this mission, was a necessary evil. I needed to see the man whom I had thought I couldn’t do without, who left me for no reason.
He disappeared from my life.


 
Manir had called hours before pleading that I need to come around to listen to him. He even went as far as saying the location was his place. When I resisted, because I know the things he could do to me in enclosed places, he pleaded on the sake of our friendship and Mark Zuckerberg’s vision (seeing that he was one of the people that made their paths cross) which had made me laugh.

I really did not want to laugh, but when Manir starts talking – he is not one with much words – he can do the impossible. Like making me come here against my better judgment, signing huge investment deals and winning awards that shouldn’t even be his. Peace ambassador my ass.

Don’t get it wrong, Manir is an awesome guy. He just did so many things that I wasn’t even aware of while we were dating that makes me wish I had handled him or maybe our relationship differently. He was who he was at heart; a very entertaining person but brooding personality. I really don’t know how that mixes or maybe he is just entertaining with me.


 
I feel something had happened to him that made him into what he was today. I don’t know what, and he never cared to tell me, so much for a relationship and how much we have shared together. Maybe if he had opened up earlier, we would not be going through this right now. he was such a sweet baby sometimes and other times, the worst of his kind.

I am a fool for rushing to him at his call with what happened here the last time, but hadn’t someone sang, ‘Why do fools fall in Love?’

Yeah, I was the inspiration for that song that didn’t win an award.

His gatekeeper, Hassan, had unlocked and opened the gates eagerly before I could press the horn in the Chevrolet Manir had presented me with months back, that’s another drama to be told. Some of my friends told me to return the car but I am not stupid, it was a gift and it is mine.

The manner in which Hassan had unlocked the gate was as though he had been given a special order not to let me think twice or he would have to forfeit his salary. I didn’t have to murmur in his thick Hausa brogue to let me know as usual that ‘Oga’ was at home. I was sure he could feel the tension in the air and I hoped Manir had not been taking our relationship out on him.

I smiled as I drove into compound holding up a bungalow with four rooms; too much space for a supposedly introverted man and then I walked to the front door which had been suspiciously left unlocked and slightly opened.


 
“Manny?” I called out as I take cautious steps into the darkened room, scanning it for possible repairs which to my satisfaction have been done, hoping he could hear me above the music.

I didn’t have to look further after my fifth step or so because I caught his frame sitting in the shadows. He looked hunched, his elbows on his knees and both hands on his head. Typical Manir position for when he was brooding. This time though, I feel like he is lurking like a monster – a monster he thought he was. It was around 6 PM and he had ensured that his living room had a melancholic atmosphere – the song, the lights, and closed curtains.

Bravo Manir, I am not falling for this.

The song was definitely on repeat with the way Flavour kept repeating himself. I haven’t even spent an hour here and I am already tired of this game we are playing. Was this the best moody music he could lay hands on? Or was he trying to pass a message?

Whatever.

I am not moving an inch from this spot, I have tried my best by driving all the way without much prior notice.


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SOURCE: https://organicarticle.com/2019/03/10/pull-over-episode-1/