19

Ziyana

Vittorio's car zoomed off as soon as I entered the university gates.

“Freedom,” I muttered as I stood in the middle of the road. I took in the sweet smell of air,the clean environment, the chattering of students and the sweet singing of the birds on the nearby tree.

The weather today looked particularly nice and encouraging. It is as a brand new day to start afresh. The decision I made was indeed a great start away from the dramas of the men. At least, for the hours I'd be spending away from the house, there wouldn't anyone watching me secretly or muttering words of dominance in my ears.

No worries.

Just vibes.

No lurking brothers too.

I fastened my bag across my shoulders and walked slowly in the new boots I had on. Salvatore had taken me in shopping few days after the talk at the gym. Vittorio did his best to get me settled and it wasn't long before my letter of admission arrived. If anything I was more than happy to get out of the house and so, I didn't even mind what course Vittorio had picked.

The lines of halls and sculptural design in the surrounding clouded my sense of description. Vittorio had described them for me but I wasn't paying attention at all, all I had on my mind was to get the hell out of my face and let me explore the new world.

After walking for more than thirty minutes and still unable to find my way. I sat down aimlessly beside a nearby fountain, catching my breath. I brought out the university map from my backpack and stared at it. It looked more like jargon to me. The map had the name of my faculty; Faculty of Social Sciences.

“If I'm able to just locate the faculty,” it'd be easier to find the lecture room, " I muttered, scratching my hair in frustration and messing up the neat bun I had packed it in earlier.

“Uh.. that's not good for your scalp. Are you lost?” I heard a voice say and I looked up. I blinked as I looked into her face .

She looked the same age of me. She had a distinctive figure, the kind of one I always wanted. Tall and slender. She wore a joggers and a sports bra which was visible underneath the oversized sweatshirt she had on. She wore a black sneakers that looked like they had been through a lot that morning with mud on them. She has melanie pop skin and has her hair done in beautiful cornrows. Her smile was infectious, and the dimple on her cheeks deeper. Her beautiful sets of teeth stand out with its tiny diastema. 

“Yeah,I can't seem to make out anything from the map,” I said, thrusting the paper into her hands. She took it from me and perused it 

“Intro to Psychology? Peace and conflict studies?” She asked and I nodded with the remaining strengths I had left in me.

“Well,that makes us two. I'm Elizabeth, you can call me Eliza. I'm from Nigeria…well I grew up here, mom is an Italian. So, I guess I'm just a Nigerian in name,” she rambled on, her hand still stretched towards. I was fascinated by her features and the way she talks.

“I like you,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “Can we be friends?” I asked. She looked astonished by my outspokenness but smiled anyway. I probably looked too desperate to make friends but still, it's better than being lonely.

“Of course, I'd like for us to be friends.” She said as we shook each other's hands firmly. She brought out her own schedule too and I discovered that we have mostly the same thing at the same time. 

Great! 

It would be nice to have someone to talk too considering the fact that I never had any friends while I grew up. The closest I had was my maids, they were the only ones who listened to me and talked to me a times about their problems

“So, why study peace and conflict?” I asked, striking up a conversation.

“I just love it, you know how it feels…as if you were born to do something?” She said and I nodded. “That's how I feel about this course, plus, I would love to work with the UN someday, it has always been my wish. What about you?”

“Well, I grew up in a family with a lot of drama,so I need all the diplomacy education I can get” I replied.

She nodded as if she understands where I was coming from

“Didn't expect that we'd kick off with an elective to be honest. I might as well skip it if it's not too important,” I said.

“I doubt if you'd want to do that, really,” she said with a glint of mischief in her eyes

“Oh, why is that?” I asked

“Apparently the professor teaching this course is super hot, more like a demigod. In fact, I heard some girls boycott their major classes just for this one. Rumours have that some of the guys too want to have their own share of his beauty.”

“That's…unbelievable,” I said in surprise but Eliza was no longer listening, we had gotten to the lecture hall successfully. All we had to do was find our way to class 4D, where the class would be held. We found the class without any stress because it was the only hall which had noise coming from it. 

It looked like the exact way She had described it with students trudging in with excitement. It felt strange to see a lot of people in a single place like that. We stood in the middle of the class wonder where to seat.

“I told you, didn't I?” She whispered 

“I hate to admit it,” I said.

“Hey!” We heard a voice say to us. We looked around and found a pair of four eyes staring at us. Well it was two but together with his thick glasses counted as four right?

He beckoned to us to come over. We looked around hoping that we'd see some space but we didn't, so we accepted his invitation. After muttering a lot of sorry, excuse me, we found our way to him. He smiled warmly at us and offered us a seat.

“Uhmm.” Thanks, Eliza spoke first and then introduced herself.

“This is Ziyana”, she introduced me too and I smiled at him.

“I don't know why but I feel drawn to the both of you, I'm Ben, " he said but I wasn't listening. My heart was racing like mad and I was getting nervous. I rubbed my chest repeatedly and cleared my throat a number of times but nothing was working. Eliza and Ben were still talking and getting acquainted. From the corners of my eyes, I saw them exchanging their numbers.

Eliza and Ben faced me asking if I was alright when a sudden hush fell across the room. The three of us turned around, hoping to see what caused the silence.

And we saw for ourselves.

The demigod lecturer–Vittorio

I was shocked to my core as I saw him put down his MacBook and a textbook. He was wearing a black shirt with a matching black rimmed oversized glasses. His sleeves were rolled up, displaying his taut muscles.

“Isn't this a demigod?” Eliza said, ogling him with her mouth agape. Anger surged through me when our gaze met for a brief moment before he looked away and I swear, I saw him smirked. Was this their plan all along? To entangle me in some sort of bondage again? Here I thought I was free from them but I just took a hundred thousand steps backwards right into their hands.

“Are you listening?” Ben jerked me back to the present 

“…of your choice and write an essay on it. It will cover a part of your continuous assessment, so do me a favour by not copying it from the internet. I want to actually see your brains at work.” He said smiling.

“Are you sure they'll be enough for us considering the large number of students here? one of us, a beautiful one, asked. She looked like she was trying to seduce him but he wasn't even looking at her.

“Of course,I have more than enough but even if two students choose one topic, I guess their brains would do things differently right?” He said and that silenced her.

With that, he packed his bag and book and took the tutors' exit door, leaving me in a dilemma. I stared into space for a long time and I could only ask myself one question.

“What the hell would I do with him as my professor?”