THREE

It was barely five minutes after 10:00am before Dave stepped into the lecture hall. He felt all his mates’ eyes on him as the attention given to the lecturer was now deviated to him.

Walking briskly up the slope of the hall, he took the back seat, and when he had resumed full consciousness, his eyes met Julie’s. She occupied the space by his left side. 

Dave tried opening his lips to say ‘hi’, but his mouth only gaped and still closed back. He thought about all Lindsey had told him a few minutes back about keeping to himself for a few weeks, but he lacked the guts. He was too addicted to Julie to do so. 

He said to himself: “Besides, laws are made to be broken.”

“Hi!” Dave managed to say at last.

Julie gave a deafening ear as she pretended to be listening keenly to the Spanish lecturer.

Dave’s heartbeat now increased. He wished he had just kept his big mouth shut. Yet he couldn’t help it.

He now saw reasons to obey Lindsey’s advice, but still stole few glances at her, and was not aware that the lecturer had thrown a question at him.

“Dave Walters, can you please answer the question?” 

The fat bearded man in his mid-fifties asked him once more.

“Sorry Sir. I didn’t get your question.”

He looked confused as he stood up half bowed.

“You didn’t only come late to my class, but now you are distracted.”

The lecturer now took off his glasses. 

“I’ll repeat myself on the condition that you’d provide the correct answer or I leave the class.”

The whole class murmured as the lecture was boring and they couldn’t wait for the lecturer to be done and leave.

“I want you to give a short description about your hobbies in Spanish.”  

 There was silence at Dave’s end, and Mr Sergio without uttering a word, only shook his head in utter disappointment as he took his books and left the hall. 

A few of the students clattered behind him out of the hall, even though they had another lecture in an hour’s time.

Dave was now seated. Not minding being the villain of the lecture, he still stretched his hands and tapped Julie who pretended to be busy.

Avoiding her eyes, he blurted out.

“Julie I miss us. I miss our friendship, the closeness, the fun times, the happy moments. My walls feel crumbling each day that passes by without me speaking to you. I just want us back, even if it means just being friends as you suggested.”

“Mmmh…Everything just happened so fast. Please I need some space.”

She replied abruptly and stood up to leave the hall.

Dave was broken and left speechless. For a moment, he wondered why all the love he had craved in his life was always cut short from him at an immature stage.

At age six, he had lost both of his parents in a plane crash on their way back from a shopping spree at Dubai. 

The parents’ death had left him devastated as he had no sibling. He was only lucky to be accommodated by his dad’s elder brother, Sam. 

His uncle lived with his wife, Presh, and two kids, Katie and Nicki. Dave’s inclusion to the family meant a lot to the girls who always craved for a male sibling. 

Dave was loved by his new family, yet Julie’s presence in his life during the past two years was the only bond that made him forget of the trauma his parents’ death had left him with.

His first meeting with Julie was through a chat app. The two were offered admission into Lex University to study the same course. 

Luckily for her, she stayed in Liverpool where the University was situated. Dave on the other hand, stayed in Newcastle and was lucky to be given a scholarship to study in the University. 

The scholarship was given to him by his former school, Jidex High School, who rewarded all the best graduating students with financial difficulty. He was indeed lucky to be offered with such a grandiose opportunity, as that meant a weight lifted off the arms of Sam. 

In the month of December after receiving the letter of admission from the University through his e-mail, he had perused through groups in the chat app bearing the University’s name so he could make friends and not look like a stranger when he eventually starts the semester in April the following year. 

After joining the group, he came across an update an hour later, from the account named: ‘Julie Kelv’. He was drawn to the post, most especially by the fact the two names were coined from his late mum and dad. 

The post contained the following words: “Hi fellow Jolly New-bies, students of Foreign Languages should add up lets connect.” 

The post which he saw within five minutes had already 200 comments; it looked like she was a social media influencer. 

He also commented and then glanced through her profile. He zoomed through her image as though he was trying to get her x-ray results with his fingers. 

When he was done admiring her beautiful features with her white teeth that shone through his phone screen, he zoomed out and punched the ‘add friend’ button. 

He then became attracted to her not only as a result of the same names she bore with his parents but also because of her white teeth. Dave had some weird cravings for people with white teeth, even though his was short of white and more of brown as he hardly let a day passed without consuming chocolates.

In less than a minute, the notification came on. It was an accepted request. It seemed like magic to him. He began to imagine if she had anticipated the request from him. 

Immediately, he sent a ‘hello’ message across. He got the same from her. He then sent a blush emoji. He was glad that they both sent the same intro message at the same time. 

It was like love at first sight, but he didn’t want to make any conclusions yet, because he had never had a girlfriend since high-school and his idea about ladies in his head was that, all were involved in an intimate relationship. And so he didn’t want to give himself much hope.

 As the days went by, they were so close and could hardly go a day without receiving mobile calls from each other. 

Katie and Nicki, his cousins, on different occasions had complained of his sudden withdrawal as he hardly took notice of them and helped them with their dance videos like he used to in the past. 

“Dave, am I not your lovely coz anymore?” they screamed in his ears whenever he acted pretentiously like they were not talking to him. 

On such days, he barely smiled and only responded in few words.

“Don’t be jealous girls, it doesn’t look good on you two…I love you girls and no other lady can take your place; she’s only a course-mate of mine in Lex University, and we are just trying to bond so I don’t become a stranger when I start schooling.” 

On other days they had video chats, the two sisters were fond of intruding and making funny comments. This later made the four of them to become close friends as they joyfully had the video chats together. 

Dave felt very sad with their current distance. 

He felt very much alone, even though there were a few students seated close to him, chatting and making loud noises. 

He felt deserted, as he had lost his best friend. The same lady who he had shared everything with, just because of some selfish feelings he couldn’t keep in check.

He then rested his head on the desk in-front of him, as the cold weather seemed to penetrate his sweater and cause shrills to his bones. He just wanted to sleep and forget all the crises that were causing his head to ache