Driving off, he had arranged with his boys the point of their meeting already, which was far away from the barracks or any military establishment within the city. A particular hotel around Alkfa was recommended to him but he didn't know the place. He planned on asking
Driving on Marian's road, he saw a boy and a girl talking by the road. For one he would have ignored them and asked someone else, but the beauty of the girl made him stop next to them.
He wore down the glass excusing them. "Good evening, please I'm looking for XYZ hotel at Alkfa, how do I get to the place?
He could see the look of disappointment on the boy's face when the girl said while pointing at the boy "You're in luck, that's where he's going right now. Axel, see you in school tomorrow" and then walked away in a manner that suggested the boy had been bugging her and she needed a lifeline.
The sad boy tried to stop her by holding her hand to no avail. Turning to face him, he greeted him "Good evening sir"
"Evening my bro, I can see I just ruined your day. Sorry about that" he apologized smiling.
Smiling back at him, the young boy said "It's nothing, sir"
"So are you going that way or she just said that to get rid of you?" he asked with his bet on the later
"Hahaha, she said that to get rid of me sir," he said laughingly
"Ok, here's the deal, I'll try to compensate for ruining everything for you. I just need you to take me there" he said offering the boy a deal.
He observed that the guy looked at the exterior of the car briefly, then peeped behind through the front glass down because the back glasses were tinted. Then he said "No problem sir" and opened the door entering the car.
He was impressed by his skepticism and the fact that the boy was security conscious. Perhaps, the mud all over the car must have convinced the boy he's new in town and just came from a long journey.
"I heard her call you Axel, is that your name?" he asked starting a discussion after the boy asked him to continue driving forward.
"Yes sir" he confirmed
"Wow, so who's the girl?" he asked curious
"She's my course mate sir" he answered in a way that suggested he was trying to woo the girl but she wasn't interested in him
"You're turning right by the roundabout," the boy said.
Within 10 minutes of picking up the boy, they were at the hotel.
AXEL
My name is Axel. You're probably wondering what kinda parent would name a child Axel. Well, the answer is my kind. Ok, just kidding, that's my nickname. I was nicknamed Axel from birth by my mom who claimed I was always kicking/restless while in her womb and also as a toddler.
So while I have my real name, or let's say my official name, I'm better known as Axel. If you visit my hood and say you're looking for me (calling my real name), chances are you would be told "No one goes by that name around here". Back then, only my immediate classmates and a few other students knew my real name in secondary school and it only got better in the university where only your registration number mattered.
So you see, I was able to go unnoticed by relevant authorities for most of my life. I crossed so many lecturer's paths but always came out clean because they were busy looking for Axel.
To describe myself, on a scale of 1-10, I score myself 8.. Yeah, I'm that good-looking. Not being light-skinned and the absence of beards on my face took away the remaining two points. A particular friend always referred to me as a tortoise for not being hairy. I'm the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. I have an athletic body and what some call pink lips (which I find annoying though).
You see, despite all my features and charm, I've never been lucky with the ladies. Firstly because I'm shy and mainly because I'm broke. Well, all that changed one day during the second semester of my first year at the university. By this time, the closest I've come to seeing a girl's panties was those that managed to hang theirs by the window or sides of the apartment to dry. I wasn't exactly a good boy, I was just a virgin due to a lack of opportunity.
You see, my mom had just three of us, an elder brother and a younger sister. But I was the most troublesome of the three. I did every bad thing most children do, well except I never watched porn until my university. I come from a strict catholic home, and my mom never fails to tell us how she wanted to be a reverend sister in a convent. How she managed not to be I don't know, but my problem about it was her forcing one of us, preferably my elder bro to become a priest.
So I come from the southwest part of the country, had my primary education in the west, secondary in the north (one of them (dis)unity schools), and found myself in UNICAN. You see, I'm far from the typical south-westerner, who hardly leaves the comfort of their zone. I love to travel, so I coped well schooling far from home.
I had wanted to be an engineer, but my mathematics teacher in SSC2 and 3 made me hate math. The dude was so mean that I always skipped his lessons (double periods) or pretended to be in class during his lessons. By the time I was registering for Jamb, I knew zilch in maths, and in other not to fail, I settled for MLS, since it didn't need maths in Jamb.
I didn't get admitted directly but had to go through the remedial (pre-degree) program, so by the time I was in my first year second semester, I had already spent two years in the city of Cantina. I'm not exactly a "walkabout", but I knew my way around the city.
Did I say a family friend helped me secure the admission? Yup, a family friend named Brenda helped me free of charge. Take it from me, admission to UNICAN is as difficult as…. I don't know what to say. Well, it wasn't exactly free of charge, it just depends on how you see it. This family friend of mine had to sleep with a man to get me admitted, though she collected nothing from me. And to tell you how screwed up UNICAN is, I only got admitted for remedial studies.
Bend your head lemme tell you the truth. *Begins whispering* Don't tell anyone, Brenda is my elder brother's ex, ex-girlfriend. Both of them were first lovers, but she broke up with him because just like me, he was broke too and they schooled apart. Having tasted the "good" things of life in Cantina and Amazo, she outgrew my brother. Yea, she became a "runs" girl. So when she learned I had just finished school and was seeking admission into one of the southwest universities, she paid my flight ticket to Cantina for my admission. ** stops whispering** Yeah she did.
Since my brother would have nothing to do with her, she felt it was the least she could do to pay him back for breaking his heart. According to her, she didn't deserve his love. Lol. Now she didn't stop there, she gave me an apartment worth 250k, paid in full for two years, i.e 500k. You see, she didn't exactly pay for it, she had a better-furnished apartment and a car given to her by her sugar daddy, or gotten from proceeds of "runs". However, she wasn't as stingy as most run girls are.
Brenda took care of me to the point that I became scared and worried she might demand from me what I could not repay sometimes. She told anyone who cared to listen I was her younger brother. She didn't have to say it out to me about what she did, I just knew. Also, I kept everything from my family. In advising me, she told me to face my studies as that was the primary reason I was here, but that the day I felt I'd started to grow wings, would be the day she took her hands off my welfare. She told me I couldn't afford to date any girl as I could not afford to maintain a Cantinan chick but would end up hurt like my brother. I followed that advice religiously.
I've been living a low-key life. Had no friends just a few talk buddies, and none of them knew where I lived. This was just to avoid a scenario where I'd be expected to live up to standard for being able to afford an apartment in such a place.
My next-door neighbor is a girl named Monalisa. The girl is as hot as lava, the daughter of one of the top medicine professionals at the UCTH. Monalisa kept the company of some weird but pretty girls that she seemed to have some powerful influence over. As much as I admired her a lot, I knew she was way out of my league and a no-go area. Besides, she only talked to me because we live in the same apartment building, else I'm not her type.
Over the months, I had become close to Monalisa with her powering my apartment with her power-generating set. And I got free meals from her too. Sometimes a complete pot of soup would be passed to me. She was a year above me and was studying law. We became very close the day she was about to go for a lecture and discovered her tire was down. Everyone in the building (mostly girls though) usually formed big boys/girls for each other, hence no one bothered to help. I was late for a lecture too, but I decided to help her change the tire to the spare.
Done she volunteered to drop me in school. As she drove she said, "You know, you've been here for over six months and I still don't know your name?"
"Axel. My name is Axel". She could smell my shyness from a thousand miles away as we talked because I was intimidated by her beauty and personality. When she got back later in the day, her first point of call was my door before hers.
Over time, despite the wealth of her parents and how comfortable she was, I got to know she was into campus prostitution. She just told me she organizes girls for clients but does not participate unless necessary and the pay is right. I wasn't judgmental because in a way I was enjoying her friendship and wasn't interested in knowing what falling out with her because of my "holier than" judgment would look like.
We're a month into the second semester of my first year. There's a girl in my class named Jessy. Jessica is everything I want in a girl. Beauty, brains, boobs, height, slim and light skinned. She's no match for Mona but I believed I could date her. She wasn't exactly the prettiest girl in my class, but she had a whole lot of male admirers to choose from. Jessy and I were close and by the beginning of the second semester, I made my feelings known to her. She told me how I looked like a brother to her because of how close we were. I was a friend zoned and she began to give me space. Though I knew if she knew where I stayed, she would reconsider, but that would amount to me starting on the wrong foot.
It's Tuesday evening and I went to a branch of the bank I bank with somewhere around Marian Road to withdraw my last 4k. I didn't want to use a different bank's ATM so I won't be charged 100 reducing the money to 3900 which meant 3000 would be the only amount that would be dispensed to me.
I had just come out of the bank and was waiting for a cab when I saw Jessy come out from the corner othe n the other side of the road. Smiling, I quickly crossed over and engaged her in a conversation about how much I would like her to be my girlfriend. She kept walking down the street until I raised my voice asking her to stop walking and give me a listening ear.
She did stop but gave me the "Did you just raise your voice at me?" kinda look.
"Look, I'm sorry Jessy. It's Just that…" I was cut short by the sound of a car honking by our side.
Turning to look, I saw the well-built man wind down asking about directions to XYZ hotel in Alkfa. Before I would open my mouth and say "Just keep going forward until you get to the roundabout, then take right", I heard Jessy say "You're in luck sir, he's going that way" and began to walk away. I tried to stop her and apologized because I knew she was hurt, but she didn't stop.
Then the man seeing what he had done suggested if I could go with him to the place he would pay for ruining my evening. At first, I thought it silly, but after a second look at the car which looked muddy, I felt he was new in town. Besides, that hotel was kinda unknown. But again, I took a second look inside the car to make sure no one was behind to cover my nose with a handkerchief. Satisfied, I entered the car.
We got talking until we got to the hotel. But I noticed some stickers on the car windscreen that suggested he was not just a military officer, but probably a high-ranking one. At the hotel, he didn't quite like the place, so I suggested another one around there. He preferred the new place and when I told him I wanted to leave, he told me "My friend, you can't just leave like that. Having traveled far, I need to eat somewhere and you should join me. Don't worry, I'll pay for your time"
"Hehehe.. wow", were the first words to come to my mind. 30 minutes later, we were in a restaurant eating and I was forced to ask him if he was a military man.
"I'm a major in the army" he answered proudly.
We went on to talk about the army with me asking why he didn't just go to one of the barracks as a senior official. He responded by saying "I'm not in Cantina."
It took me a while to understand what he meant "Yes, I'm a major in the army, but here for a private and unofficial business trip
"Axel, I need a companion for the night," he said out of the blue, my heart missed a beat as I felt that was a proposition to me that he wanted me for the night. No wonder he had insisted I hung around and he talked so much about paying for my time. "ok. So what do you want me to do?" I asked fearing the worst.
"I need a girl like the type I saw you with," he said before adding "Not a prostitute, a clean-looking student like that one. I don't fancy red-light girls," he said straightforwardly
In the spirit realm, I did a thousand "thank you Lord" signs of the cross he wasn't suggesting I spend the night with him. By the way, he talked about not wanting a red light district girl, but a student. "you don't know that all prostitutes In Cantina were students?" I asked in my head.
"OK sir, but they always seem to be more expensive. Besides, it's a Tuesday night so it might be hard a bit get you something good" I said thinking about asking Mona for help.
"Don't worry about that boy". He said. With that, he put his hand inside his breast pocket brought out a bundle of minted notes, and counted 15.
I was expecting him to say use this and pay her, but he said "Here, for ruining your evening and your time. Just make the call, if the girl is right, I add you another 5k. Don't Worry about her payment"
My eyes nearly fell into the glass of malt I was drinking from. Collecting the money, I excused him and went to a corner to call Mona.
"Axel what's up?" she asked. The sound from the background suggested she was driving
"Babe I'm Fine. I need your help like right now, one major just entered town, and I meet the man somehow and the guy says I should organize student babe for him for the night.
"Wow. Today is Tuesday. The person I would have given you is not in town, the other one also is sick" she said dashing my hopes
"Damn," I said scratching my head
"How the man dey? Him go pay well?" she asked reigniting my hopes
"Babe na sure guy o. Just gave me 15k, and promised to add 5k if the babe was sure. He had seen me with that Jessica girl from my class on the road, and that's the standard he set for me" I told her.
"OK then. Where are you?" she asked me.
"ABC restaurant. Someone is coming right ?" I asked wondering why the question
"No. I'm coming over myself " she said dropping the call.