Striding down the lane, I find myself pulling out the petals of a red hibiscus flower and muttering to myself “he loves me, he loves me not”…I stop dead in my tracks refusing to believe the end result of my little experiment. How on earth could the last petal fall on he loves me not! definitely, it must be wrong, I mean, its just so obvious but then, I ask myself, why then did I take the ‘test’ in the first place *shrug*, well, it never hurts to try. With my mind keen on fate, destiny and what have you, curious me decides to do mother nature a little bad by cutting off yet another budding flower…end result…he loves me! I knew it! …

I was nearing the apartment of my newly found friend with all hope and enthusiasm and admittedly, a little bit of doubt. “It’s rather too late to turn back now”  I say, and so, timidly I knock on the door, half expecting what I saw…it was like a party in there! “is there a party?” I ask. “yes babe it’s valentine!” he replied. Babe? That just didn’t sound right. Reluctantly, I enter with half of my mind ready to make a u-turn. He asked if I wanted anything, soda or juice, I said I was just fine…then he brought out a little box of red, opened it and out shone a glittering necklace, “that’s for you” he says…with a definite look of surprise, I took it and smiled. Minutes of baseless conversation passed and then my cell phone gave the beeping sound it always gives when someone called, I reached out for my clutch and brought it out and he reached out and took it from me, I looked at him stunned and he only smirked and said “you can’t take that!”…with a half smile lurking around his lips…

Really? I can’t take that, with no reasons attached, how convenient! I thought. Then I looked him squarely in the face and asked “why not?”, he only laughed and said “babe,you don’t need to, trust me”. The phone however kept ringing and out of pure frustration I asked “o.k then would you tell me who’s been calling?” He replied “oh, it’s just your mum”. Just my mum? This ‘new friend’ of mine barely knew me! I knew what I was in for, with my mum calling and me not picking. I decided then that it wasn’t worth it after all, I stood to take my leave “I should be going now, just give me back my phone”, I said matter of factly. “oh, not yet” he said and quickly rose to make a move at the door…

My instinct rose at once, I should have known this all along, and so just before he reached the door, I raced ahead and stood outside where the neighbours were out. Sensing whatever I was up to, he asked if or not I trusted him. I only laughed and being the make-the-best-use-of-the-situation kind of person, I started out asking him some questions as well…

“Why did you invite me here?”, he chuckled “well it’s valentine,and we ought to celebrate”. Pushing it a little bit further i asked “and just how do we celebrate?”,he laughed and said “oh you know, at least we’ve been friends for three weeks”, well maybe I did know and I didn’t want a part of such ‘celebration’. I sighed and gave him a piece of my mind, well it was quite ravenous, and it went something like “you are my friend quite alright, and I must admit, just a few minutes ago, I trusted you, which explains why I was not afraid to come over here, even though my parents hadn’t heard of it,I took a special liking for this valentine of a thing and I expected you to know better. Maybe I was wrong and yes, the hibiscus was too, anyway, my point is, this time is more than what we make of it, it is more than the gifts and what have you, it is and should be a time to celebrate love and not lust, friends and not self gratification…it most importantly stems beyond just today,it should be a everyday thing, we ought to live and act love and I expect you know more now…

” With that, he spitefully but briskly gave my phone back and I carefully reached out and gave him a book I bought…and afterwards I ran the 3 kilometers distance back to my house, not looking back for once. Once in my room, I slumped on my barely made bed all the while thinking “not everyone gets to be as lucky as I was”…after telling mum about the day’s ordeal, she started up a special thanksgiving chorus for me but then I was grounded anyway.

…live,love and in all you do, let God lead not a red hibiscus flower 🙂

12:45 pm from the desk of Uzoamaka (a fictional character)…