ThrowbackThursday: The man who first stole my heart...

Few days ago, I logged onto my Instagram page and noticed I had more followers- I still haven’t gotten a hold of the platform you know, but I often surf around, so each time someone follows me I do mental version of the shoki dance and follow right back-To keep the followership and insta-hood spirit alive. On this fateful day, I was blessed to be followed by someone I had crushed on several years ago, all attempts to flaunt my skinny self at him had proved abortive from the onset. I did some pretty awkward stuffs then i don't like to remember but all the same, I decided to do a throwback of my first crush and I want to share it with you.

We all have those short-lived intense infatuation for that ‘cute’ someone whom we never let our feelings known to. Sometimes, we start doing weird things during that phase to get noticed or even convince ourselves that we are already in a ‘relationship’.

I remember my first crush vividly (henceforth referred to as EMJ) . I wasn’t even 14 yet but I knew I had this special affection for him. In my eyes he was the finest breed of men ever liveth- calm and soft-spoken-and his eyes... Gosh! I have always had a thing for eerie and creepy eyes- they are intense and can engulf you in an eternal bliss of pure heaven. Lol. I was just settled into my second year, in secondary school and I was trying to solidify my friendship with the click of girls I had become familiar with in the first year. We went to grab lunch at the famous kos and dos(akara and yam) kiosk strutting in our well-tucked short-sleeved shirts in skirts flaunting our skinny legs.

We were ‘summoned ‘by a group of seniors seated behind the kiosk to run errands for some drinks and other snacks (need I emphasise that this was probably the lowest point for any junior student, thankfully, ours was a day school with limitations on how much the seniors could intimidate the junior students). Well, that was when I first saw EMJ, he was staring right at me, or so I thought. My breathe seized at that point and I was mesmerized-God I had read so much Mills and Boons and according to most of the authors this was the total definition of every woman’s dream-tall, chocolate/dark and handsome. Though seated, I could visualize his height from his long stretched-out legs. I tried smiling but it froze on my face-and then he smiled. I almost did a back-flip. While his friends barked out their order and list of snacks we had to go get from the school kiosk, I quickly did a mental breakdown of how envious my friends would be when they see me with 'rolling' with EMJ (see balling na).

And then I saw her. Chai! so smartly dressed with her beret neatly and stylishly placed on her head, she walked passed me and went straight to join EMJ and friends. She was so beautiful, her teeth sparkled as she smiled and I could guess she smelled heavenly from where I stood and I hated her there and then. I almost cried, infact I cried bitterly when i returned to class. I felt so miserable the rest of the day and I could not bear the thought of sharing these feelings with my friends as they may not understand-they probably would have laughed their heads off at my silliness. 

Therein began the days of stalking and fancy dreams. I played FLAMES (remember that game?) with EMJ's name and mine, though the result wasn’t favourable, I remained hopeful and consistent that one day EMJ might notice me and even say Hello at least. Imagine my surprise when sometimes later, we met at my cousin's house. aah! See me drooling; I had imagined the beginning of our fairy love story and the happy ending.Although I didn’t get the attention I desired, we were finally on talking terms and he knew my name! yippee!

I remember hanging around after school at the bus stop (i made sure my friends had left) just to catch a glimpse of EMJ and how i skipped several buses to school in the morning just to make sure I catch up with EMJ at the next bus stop in a bid to seat close to him and inhale how nice he smelled. It became a daily routine to always say hi to him whenever i saw him in school or outside school until he finally noticed me for real and even engaged me in a chat sometimes.

Sadly EMJ was not into under-aged girls or maybe he was turned off with the way I stared at him intently with puppy love-struck eyes. Or maybe he just didn’t find the skinny-legged black girl the tiniest bit attractive. He kept our acquaintance strictly like a big bros and small sis. I even tried to befriend his younger sister so i could get closer to him but the babe was not forthcoming.Whew! poor me.And then he graduated and even left town. And there goes my crush...
I tried to stalk him on Facebook after several years but It seemed i had lost interest, finally abi? lol. Well, I’m all grown now and each time I remember some of the silly things I did growing up, i feel so embarrassed.

Dear EMJ, seeing you again brought back these memories. I hope you are happy where you are and i hope you never read this piece.

Your crush

PS:So I'm going to be to doing a Throwback every Thursdays of events/happenings on various issues.You can feel free to send your thoughts,story,article so we could all share in the fun memories. You could choose to remain anonymous too.
Send to drusilladavid@gmail.com 
Cheers!