THE BOY stood on shaky legs just outside the entrance of the pharmacy store, across the road from the female hostel. He would walk in, but that was not possible at the time. In front of him were other students; male and female; some buying and others waiting for their friend to buy; most of them taller than him by at least one inch except for the girls. He tried to see the insides of the pharmacy store, to find a weak spot in the crowd from which to make his entrance but there was no weak spot. When Urch sent him on this errand, he knew it was going to be challenging, but he really had no idea how challenging it was going to be. He found his sunglasses that he hardly ever wore for fear that some folks might think him too dressy or too fashionable, and he used it to fortify himself.
Aham was the type of boy that liked to keep to himself. He was not sure if his was shyness or self-consciousness but, he was convinced that he did not want to be looked at for very long. He did not like to be involved in a kerfuffle of any sort. He certainly did not like any event, action or behaviour that would draw attention to himself. For that reason, he had carefully designed his life to avoid such incidents. Some of the things he did to avoid the situation he had found himself was to stay away from girls. He would spend months pining over a girl he had a crush on and eventually he would bury the feelings just to avoid situations such as these; conditions where he would have to risk being judged or being crushed under the weight of rejection, especially in front of friends or classmates.
The only place where the boy was indeed himself was at home. He knew that his brothers and sisters loved him unconditionally. At home, he was used to his brother's mockery, whether it was Al's measurement of his head with their mother's seamstress tape and declaring it the size of their hometown or the way Cas made faces at him when he was scolded and was about to cry. Having grown past the age when these things affected him, he wondered what it was about how Cas twisted his face whenever either of his parents scolded him which always ensured that the cry that was he was holding just under the surface would erupt. His thoughts were brought back to the present by what Urch had said as he sent him off.
"Please, hurry. I need to use it now. If you do not return quickly, she will go, and you would have managed to waste my money. So, be quick," he said through the crack of Aham's door.
Aham had three roommates, and they were all there when Urch delivered his instructions. They were technically all roommates, including Urch but the room was huge and, it was allocated to ten students. To better manage the space, the roommates decided to divide the room into three portions: the inner corner, the front left corner and the right corner. They were called "corners" because that was what they indeed were - corners of the room, except for the inner corner which spanned from one end of the room to the other but it is easy to see why it was also called a corner.
It would not make any sense to just call it inner room. That would suggest that something worth investigating by the school authority was going on there and the students would not want that since the whole arrangement was theirs. So Urch stayed in the inner corner being a final year student at the time. He had only one roommate, Paulo. Paulo used the room as a resting place since he had a reputation to maintain as the best student in his class and quite possibly, the whole University. So he would usually come in and sleep off within five minutes. One day he came back when Urch had a girl in the room, dropped his books and slept as usual. Urch and his visitor stayed another two hours before he walked her out. The theory among the roommates was that Paulo slept through everything that Urch and the girl did, and he was none the wiser.
Aham had waited in front of that pharmacy for ten minutes, and sweat was trickling down his face. He looked at the shirt he wore, and it was soaked. He was never any good at handling failure. He heard two of his roommates place a bet that he was going to return without the goods that Urch wanted. Well, he was going to prove them wrong. He looked past the heads in front of him to the insides of the pharmacy. The crowd was not getting smaller. He was getting frustrated until he had an i. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. If he did what he was thinking, it would not only help him achieve what he needed to achieve, but it would prove the naysayers wrong. But a small voice in his head told him, "Don't do it! Don't do it!"
"Excuse me," he said weakly to the few people in front of him, but they turned, looked at him and pretended that he was not there. That was it. He looked behind him and saw that about eight students were standing behind him, which meant that he had progressed from where he was in the beginning. But that was no consolation, he needed to leave, and he needed to leave immediately. People always told him that he sounded like a girl and even when he was mad at someone, he spoke gently. Well, not today. He summoned what he imagined was his most manly voice and shouted:
"I need some condoms. I want to get out of this place."
His words had the desired effect: the students, each of whom was trying to be the first to buy, stopped hustling and turned to look back. Even the attendant stopped what he was doing to see whose voice it was that would order a Durex with such audacity. Aham saw his chance and wriggled through the crowd and was at the counter within one second. He could feel their respect as he removed his shades to see clearly inside the dimly lit pharmacy. He handed over the cash to the pharmacy, and she carefully wrapped his goods in a paper bag for him. The jaws of some of the students were still hanging low as he walked out of the pharmacy. He could feel their eyes on his back as he walked away.
"Eat that," he thought, feeling satisfied with himself, "I may be a virgin, but I sure do know how to buy a Durex."
But that satisfaction was nothing compared to the one he got when he went back to his room and watched the roommate that bet against him lose his money as he handed it over.
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