I got home and freshened up. I lay on my bed and stare blankly at the ceiling. The event of the day flashed through my mind and my mood suddenly changed. I felt bad that I couldn't answer a question confidently in class. Even when joy approached me nicely, I couldn't even say a word to her. Why am I always like this? will I ever be confident enough to speak with a lady without feeling nervous? when will I stop behaving this way? Am I the only one in this world with this kind of personality? what did I do wrong to be born with this kind of trait? Am I cursed or something? It seems like i'm the only one in the world with this trait. I have never come across any shy guy all my life. where did I get this kind of trait from?
I was lost in thought.
The vibration of my phone brought me back to reality. I stretched my hand to my table to get my phone. I stared into the screen and saw that it was an unknown number. My heart missed a beat when I realized I gave Joy my number. I sat up immediately still staring at my phone. I quickly rehearsed a few words I would say to her when I pick the call. I took a deep breath and placed my hand close to the green button. While I was still contemplating on whether to pick the call, it suddenly stopped ringing. it started ringing almost immediately. My phone suddenly became too heavy for me to hold. I needed to pick the call. I won't allow my personality to drive away someone who seems to care about me.
I summoned all the courage in me to pick the call. I placed the phone on my ear and said "hi" in the nicest way I could.
"Guy you didn't try at all. you have forgotten about me. you can't even call me" the voice at the other end said. it wasn't actually a lady's voice. it was a guy's voice. I felt relieved when I heard the voice.
"please who am I speaking with?" I asked
"so you don't recognize my voice?"
The voice rang a well. I knew I have heard that voice before. I thought for a while.
"Daniel" I called
"yes it's Daniel. I thought you won't recognize my voice." he said
"wow! so it's you Daniel. long time" I said happily
"yeah, long time" he responded
"How are you?" I asked
"I'm fine and you"
"I'm fine too" I responded
"so how is school?" he asked
"school is fine"
"I hope those girls in school are not giving you problem"
"not at all" I responded
"is this your number"
"yes this is my new number. I said I should call you, since you don't want to call me"
"Daniel you know that's not true. if I had your number, I would have called you" I said
"okay o, I just said I should hear from you"
"you did very well. I'm very grateful. I will save your number."
"okay then, we will talk later." Daniel said
"okay, thanks for the call"
I ended the call and stared at my phone screen with smiles on my face. it was good to hear from Daniel. Daniel is my childhood friend and a very good adviser. I placed my phone on the table and lay on my bed.
Just immediately I placed the phone on the table, it started vibrating again. I took the phone from the table and picked the call without looking at the caller.
"hello Daniel" I said into the phone
"Christian" the caller called
I froze when I heard a lady's voice. I slowly removed the phone from my ear and stared into the screen. The number was different from Daniel's number. I slowly placed the phone back on my ear. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.
"hello" I said calmly
"Christian how are you? This is Joy"
"Joy. how....... how are you?" I stammered
"Christian you don't sound too well. should I come over to your place?"
"No, no" I cut in immediately
"I'm not at home"
"where did you go to?" she asked
"I'm in the hospital"
"hospital!" she exclaimed
"is it that serious?"
What did I just say? I couldn't believe I just told her I was in the hospital. I quickly took back those words
"no Joy, I mean I went to get some drugs from a pharmacy.
"okay, how is your body" she asked
"I'm fine now. I will call you back. I'm on a busy road right now" I said
"okay" she responded
I ended the call and took a deep breath. I lay on my bed and didn't know when I slept off.
I woke up very late the next day. I quickly took my bath and got prepared for school. I left home immediately without having breakfast. I was supposed to have lecture by 8:am but it was already 8:15am. I got to the building the lecture was holding and peeped through the window. The lecture was already going on and the lecturer could be seen at the podium impacting knowledge on the students with enthusiasm. Every student focused there attention on the lecturer standing close to the door, and that was exactly the same place I was supposed to walk in through. I was sure everyone would focus there attention on me when I walk in, because there's no how I would walk into that class without being noticed. I stood at the window for close to 10minutes trying to come up with an idea of how I would walk into the class without being noticed. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see my course mate standing beside me. I was relieved it was a guy.
"are you not going in?" he asked
"I was about going in" I answered
"are you just coming?" I asked
"yes" he answered
"let's go in before we miss the important part of the lecture." he said
"okay" I responded
He walked ahead while I followed behind him. I tried as much as possible to hide behind him as we walked into the class. I never removed my gaze from the floor until I sat down at the back seat. I took a deep breath and silently thanked the guy who showed up when i needed him. I'm not sure I would have been able to walk into the class alone. I would have stayed outside until the end of the lecture. The lecturer continued with the lecture. After few minutes of listening, I was able to understand what was being taught. I was quite good in maths, and the course that was being taught was actually 'introduction to mathematics for economist'. Did I mentioned earlier that I'm an economics student.
when the class was over, the lecturer handed a brown envelope to our course rep, which I believed contained our test script we did in the previous class. To make matter worse for me, our course rep happened to be a lady. I had never approached her to get any information from her. Even when I needed an important information which I believed only her could provide, I still didn't approach her. Her beauty alone is intimidating. she distributed the script back to the students. just as the scripts went round, I could hear murmur from every corner of the class which means the scores were very bad. She had already shared all the scripts but I still didn't get mine. I wanted to bring to her notice that I had not received my script but didn't know how to approach her. I only sat on my seat staring at everyone faces as they stared at their script with a frown.
My course rep started walking towards me, immediately she was done distributing the script. I tried not to feel nervous, because she might not actually be coming to meet me. she got to me and sat next to me. I was very nervous but tried not to show it.
"Christian how did you do it?" she asked immediately.
"do what" I asked confused.
she brought out a script and showed to me.
"while everyone was scoring less than 10, you scored 23. How did you do it" she asked
I looked at the script in her hand and realized it was actually my script and I scored 23 just like she said. but I still didn't know why she did not give me my script when she was sharing it and had to bring it to me personally.
"you are really brilliant" she continued when I didn't respond
"Anyway, I just want to tell you that you just officially made yourself my private tutor. you will be tutoring me starting from next week."
My eyes widened in shock when she said that. Me that cannot even talk to a lady for a minute will now sit down for close to an hour to tutor her. she better rethink was she just said. what kind of difficult position did she want to put me in. I better look for a way to decline.
"so how will it be comfortable for you? will I be coming to your place for the tutorial, or you will be coming to my place?" she asked.
None of the options seem comfortable for me, I wanted to say that but dare not say it.
"anyhow you want it" I answered against my decision.
"Okay, we will be using both my place and yours for the tutorial. That would be fairer right?" she asked
"yes" I answered
Just when I was still dealing with the lady beside me, Joy came and joined us. she sat at my other side, making it two ladies sitting beside me. I haven't been myself sitting beside my course rep, and Joy had also joined us, making my blood pressure to rise.
"hi Sharon" Joy greeted our course rep
"hi Joy" Sharon replied
"Christian how is your body now?" Joy asked me
"fine" I answered briefly
She saw my script with Sharon and collected it. she stared at it
"23!" she exclaimed
"Christian you scored 23"
All eyes in class turned to our direction immediately they heard my score. I felt embarrassed at the number of eyes staring at me.
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