Chapter 4

John

I'm a slender beautiful brown-skinned girl of 18 with very long dark hair and even though I don't wear fancy clothes nor shoes, I was very appealing to the eye.

I was the carbon copy of my mother. While growing up, my mother instilled self-love and confidence in me and always told me I was very beautiful and so, even when I was bullied and told otherwise of myself, I trusted in my mother's words and my mirror and carried myself with pride; refusing to let anyone else's words bring me down.

I didn't have beautiful outfits whatsoever but I sure knew I made heads turn. I was not really into makeup and those kind of stuff. I mean, who needed those things when you were naturally beautiful?

I applied only coconut oil on my skin but it glowed like I spent thousands of naira in taking care of it.

How about my beautiful set of white teeth? It sparkled when I smiled and my smile attracted a lot of customers to the supermarket and that's one of the reasons my boss loved me.

There had been many guys who had shown interest in being with me but I had ignored and shunned them all because I felt they didn't really like me and were just after me because I was a beautiful girl and they wanted something from me.

Besides, my mother had advised me to go into a relationship when I was much older and knew how the world works and in all sincerity, I wasn't really ready for all that so she didn't really have to tell me that because I wasn't gonna go into a relationship whether she had told me to or not.

However, John Thomas had caught my attention.

I started liking him from the instant he saved me from some girls who were picking on me in the neighbourhood.

I was 15 at the time and I had known him since he moved into our neighborhood about one year before the incident. I admired him a lot. He didn't have time for anyone and always minded his own business.

He'd go to work in the morning and come home late at night without saying so much as a word to anyone. He didn't mingle with people in the neighborhood but he had friends that would stop by to say hello to him. He respected himself and kept to himself.

I liked his charisma and the way he didn't involve himself with anything going on. Although we both stayed in that ghetto I call my neighbourhood, he was different from the street way of life and the thuggish lifestyle people in the neighborhood inhabited and I was different from them too and that was why I admired him.

On that fateful day, I was on my way home from school when three older girls that resembled gangsters approached me and warned me to stay away from their friend's boyfriend or I'd face their wrath.

I felt intimidated because of their appearance but I was also dumbfounded because I wasn't even in a relationship with anyone and yet, I had been wrongly accused.

I tried explaining to them that I was completely unaware of what they were talking about and that I wasn't even involved in a relationship but they disbelieved me and kept on threatening to do cruel things to me provided I kept on going out with their friend's boyfriend.

We had heard the sound of a police siren and the girls had immediately ran off, leaving me there, alone and confused.

"Hey," I had heard a voice say.

I had spun around to see John standing there, smiling and holding up his Android phone.

I was more confused and I wondered why he was smiling at me. He had never said a word to me before then and I didn't bother to talk to him too, I only admired him from a distance.

I had asked if everything was fine with him.

He then explained to me that he had seen the girls bullying me and had just played a siren tone from his phone which had made them leave in a hurry.

I could hardly believe it, he had saved me just like in the movies. I didn't know why but I immediately ran and gave him a tight embrace which had surprised him but he didn't pull away.

John was tall, fair, kinda handsome, creative and timid. He was older than me with 8 good years but the age difference wasn't important. I liked him a lot and I immediately gave him a positive reply when he asked me to be his girlfriend two years after the incident.

His family lived in Asaba while he was based in Jos where I also lived. He stayed alone and worked in a factory where he spent most of his time.

John was really caring and an awesome personality. He had even assisted in paying my mother's hospital bills at the time she was bedridden in the little way he could. My mum only saw him as a good neighbour and never knew he was actually my boyfriend because I didn't tell her about it.

John showed me love, generosity and he was a pro in handling my tantrums and my mood swings. He always apologized even when I was wrong and to top it all, he had respected my decision to be a virgin till I was ready for sex.

Where would one find such a gentleman these days?

I knew he wouldn't have #300,000... He was just managing and after talking to the few people my mum knew with no money forthcoming, the only available option was for me to give in to Mr Grumpy's demands but I had promised John he'd be the first guy to ever have sex with me. I wasn't ready to sleep with anyone, heaven knew I wasn't but my mother's life was at stake here and I couldn't live without my mother so I had made a decision for John and for my mother. It was right to be selfless, I reasoned.

John deserved everything good and I couldn't have made him just wait for me and be disappointed later on, it just didn't feel right so I went to his house to offer myself to him before going back to the unbearable man my mother worked for. I didn't have a choice and I couldn't blame myself, my mother would go to great lengths for me and it was only right that I did the same for her.

It was around 7pm I knocked on John's door. John opened the door and looked quite surprised at seeing me standing in the doorway, "Hey, baby, what are you doing here? My goodness! Have you been crying? Talk to me, baby. Your beautiful face is all messy and puffy. Did anyone do something to you? Tell me who it is, I'll break their bones."

I managed a faint smile.

"You don't look happy at all. Right, how's your mother? Hope the accident wasn't that bad," He said, cupping my face with his palms.

What a caring and loving guy! He knew when I had on a fake smile and he even remembered I had rushed off to see my mother. Men like him are rare.

"No, it wasn't," I responded.

I couldn't tell him what I was facing. It was my problem, not his. He didn't have to be dragged into it.

"That's great news, babe."

"I'm ready," I said, more like; I whispered.

"Ready for what?"

Great! He had heard what I had said.

I placed my left hand on his right cheek and looked deep into his eyes. All I saw was love and concern. I was doing the right thing, I told myself.

I leaned in for a kiss but he flinched, leaving me perplexed; but then, he was only concerned.

"Are you sure you want this?" He asked.

"I'm sure, very sure," I replied, nodding my head.

He sighed then took me in, shut the door behind us, and soon, he was mine and I was his.