My Facebook Crush (episode 1) - Short Story by Olivia

Emmy as I fondly called him was a guy I met on facebook. The first thing that caught my fancy where he was, were his numerous intellectually quipped posts on Facebook.  He always had a way of stringing words together that usually make imaginations real. His sense of humour reflected in his posts too. There was nothing not to like about him. To sum it up, I discovered he was handsome the day i went through his photos. It is quite rare to see an intelligent fine guy.  I can't recall how we became friends, either I added him through a comment he left on a friend's post. Or the reverse.
I took it a task upon myself to like all his posts. I desperately wanted him to notice my efforts or probably to just be aware of my existence. At a time, it seemed he doesn't give a hoot about me. I wasn't pained but swore I'd keep on with what I was doing till he notices. He had so many friends particularly female, most of whom seem caustic. It's banal for ladies to show undying fondness for guys on Facebook especially for some intellects like Emmy. They were like bees buzzing around him, waiting to sting whoever makes a move to touch their honey pot.

The situation momentarily threw me off guard. I asked myself why they wouldn't give him a breathing space to notice others. It was a flashback of what happened in my Secondary  school. The Emeka in my primary school was good. He always stayed atop class in every examination we took. It became norm and customary for him to always collect gifts as the best Student. He intimidated us all with his intelligence. He was admired  by all and sundry. There was no debate or competition held in school that he doesn't partake in.

I remember always looking up to him. I wanted to be his friend, I craved learning his reading skills and also for him to be my friend. Who wouldn't want to be friends with such person? All the girls in class back then were always blushing anytime they were opportuned to get an "hello" from him.  Myself included. Not only was Emeka smart and intelligent but he was handsome. He was a masterpiece. I was young but it didn't stop me from knowing that bit. He had wide gorgeous eyes and his jawline looked like that of a Jewish man. His nostrils looked like they were sculpted. All the girls nurtured the notion of becoming his friend.

It got serious that most of the girls bribes him bribes with their snacks during break period which he never refuse to collect. I can now categorise that action as demeaning. That was the kind of behaviour that degrades  someone's values.

There was an incident that happened which was engraved in my heart. Grace, a new girl in my class couldn't take it no more. She made up her mind not to be cooped by her feelings  and took it upon herself to draft a note to Emeka. It happened in basic 6. We were all seated when a note came from behind to be given to Emeka. It didn't contain much, just carelessly written words. The note read thus:


Dear Emeka,

My name is Grace. Hope you are fine. I'm writing this to tell you that you are a good boy.  Please can you be my friend?

Grace.

Emeka being the typical human parrot he was couldn't hold himself from mocking the hell out of Grace. He did well to inform  everyone in class. The note was monotonously passed from seat to seat with snickers and laughter. Grace turned red. Embarrassment clearly written on her fair face. Grace wasn't someone you can call ugly. She was chubby and had piercingly nice eyes. She wasn't tall and from a stance, one can deduce the height future held in stock for her. Not more than 4.8ft.

The incident made Grace miss school for a whole week. It wasn't about what Emeka did but the whole girls in class became her enemy. It was like she just got admitted in school and came to snatch their wonder boy. One particular girl named Stacey carried the matter on her head. She was Emeka's die hard fan. She was always acting like Emeka was her king and she, the queen. I didn't  criticise Grace but I remember admiring her guts.

Though i never hated Emeka because of the way he treated Grace, I became more cautious about the way I responded to his greetings. If he can do that to pretty Grace, then what about me that looked like a Tom boy?

I wasn't much like a girl while I was growing up. I looked like a boy or so they told me. I didn't care much, I played football with boys. I saw myself no different from them. I enjoyed their company more than I enjoy staying with girls.  I hardly mingle with girls because of their constant gossip, and jealousy that emanates from liking the same guy they did. So the convenient thing was to avoid them totally.

As I reminisced on the experience Grace had with Emeka, I wondered if my crush on Facebook would behave in such manner since they literally share same name.


  Continue reading, Episode 2


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Olivia Ngene