FREDERICK

Frederick was her supposed high school boyfriend, whom she never broke up with, and in that moment the scar ripped open. Everything they shared flashed through her mind in seconds like a movie trailer, she thought she was but apparently, she was not over him yet, she deceived herself the whole time.

His iris was green, his sclera was immaculate white, he always had a neatly cut wavy brown hair, his eyelashes overlapped as though he wouldn’t see anything when he smiled, one would think his smile was everything but his neatly set dentition was. Oh, he had a handsome oval face too, I particularly liked how his philtrum columns indented to join the brick of his cupid’s bow. From my observation, Frederick hasn’t aged a day.

Frederick removed his right hand from his pocket and snapped his fingers across my face.

“I was asked to walk in here, I wish to speak to the Manager of this establishment or are you that person”?

“Uh, erm, He is in the next office by your left” Kenina answered trying to focus anywhere but his face.

“Thanks” He replied shutting the door on his way out.

Kenina expected that he showed some kind of surprise to see me or at least greeted like they had an intimate history.

”It was just us in my office after all”, “us?” My subconscious mocked, Perhaps he didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She tried to get him off her mind but all actions proved futile.

Frederick was visiting for the second time, this time, Kenina was in the walkway, she managed not to stare and concentrated on the conversation she was having with Isobel.

“Oh, this gentleman is here again, seems he needs our services or wants to invest, you really opened the door of investors for us, this is the fourth person in two weeks, what is your strategy, tell me” Isobel asked.

Shortly after, Mr Martinez scheduled for an urgent meeting with the new client, Frederick obviously.

While the meeting lasted, Kenina avoided eye contact with Frederick like a plague, towards the end, Frederick made it clear that He would love to work with Kenina as she would be the middleman that relayed messages between the rest of the team and himself.

“Gutsy” Kenina muttered

“Did you say something?” Mr Martinez inquired.

“No, I was just reading the paper” She denied

“With that being said, everyone can return to work”. Mr Martinez concluded, Kenina left without hesitation.

She was already engrossed in attending to the pile of files she had on her desk when she was informed that Mr Martinez wanted to meet with her.

Kenina walked into his office only to get lectures about how she should do her absolute best.

“Of course” she replied.

It was indeed a long day that finally ended, she took her shower and had dinner before retiring to bed. Gauging by how spent she felt, she would have slept immediately she laid down, but she rather spent half an hour wide awake. Frederick now lived rent free in her mind again, things didn’t exactly end well with him back in school, they never had the chance to talk things out either, she always hoped they would, and now, so much time had gone by, yet it still felt like it was some weeks ago. He still made her look dumbly in love with him.

Back then in school, Kenina had just made it from being a junior to a senior, Frederick and Kenina were in same class, he was a popular athlete. He was that athlete that popular girls would do anything to have, he was the athlete his peers didn’t want around their girlfriends. To be honest, Kenina knew that, but she didn’t care about having a boyfriend like that not until one day, the day he dedicated his winning to her out of the blue, she never expected it, they never talked, had nothing in common, never bumped into each other, were never seatmates, we never even shared team project. Kenina really thought he was mistaken until she saw how other girls looked at her like they would eat me up with their eyes. She never asked for this, she just wanted to go to school, get her certificate and graduate quietly, unfortunately Frederick had jeopardized her plans.

Kenina didn’t move with any squad, she was usually on my own, but that incident had everyone staring each time she passed. It got her really uncomfortable, worst of all, she never set eyes on Frederick after that day. She went to school one day to see a note in her locker, written in a pretty handwriting she didn’t recognize. The note bore a venue, time and lastly, Frederick’s name. She hurried out to the venue after the dismissal bell rang, Frederick was there already.

“Can you explain why you chose to make my life uncomfortable in this school, I don...” to the venue started once Federick was in sight

“No pleasantries and definitely not a moment to allow yourself catch your breathe after coming up the stairs to the rooftop”. Frederick responded

“That is not why I’m here” Kenina replied

“I like you” Frederick admitted smiling, probably enjoying how furious I was.

“Nonsense, stop the games, I’m not your type, besides I’m not one of those girls gushing ov...”

“For your information, you’re my type, can I take you to somewhere nice sometime” He cut her short again and this time, her hand had formed a fist, she really fought not to punch him in that face that kept smiling like something was funny.

“How arrogant, there’s no need talking to you” Kenina said lastly and stumbled out in anger.

He kept following behind and talking, she didn’t want to show up in her house with this gutsy tail, she warned him severally to stop following but he didn’t listen, He wanted her to agree to go out with him and give him my contact, that was way too many favours to grant, she finally agreed against her will hence he turned around and left.

Now she had to keep up to my side of the deal. Kenina had a really nice day out with Frederick, he made her laugh a lot and treated me nicely, they went out a couple of times more, during those times, he allowed her into his life, she learnt he wasn’t who she thought he was, except that he was still a handsome athlete every girl wanted. It was difficult letting him into her life, she didn’t know her limits when she likes someone, she also didn’t know how to say goodbyes. Even though Frederick said she gave him a tough time, she felt like she let her guard down too soon for him, but for the time it lasted, it felt like the best thing and the best decision she ever took, not until he was listed among the athletes that won the full funded scholarship to study in a prestigious school that had chances of making it big for athletes like him. The only thing she knew was that he didn’t want to go but his parents wanted otherwise. Kenina felt that he didn’t want to go so that he would stay with her and she didn’t want to be that hindrance against his bright future, so she asked him to go and promised each other that it won’t harm their relationship, that they would always call as much as they wanted.

They had the best senior year and their relationship waxed stronger during the holidays, she had finally succeeded in convincing him to follow his dreams, until it was time for college. She secured an admission too, so they prepared and shopped for our different school together. The first few weeks went really well, they kept each other abreast of all that was done differently in our schools, they streaked and spoke every day, their first holiday aligned so they spent it together. They resumed again and that was the last time she heard from him, she kept calling his number everyday but he went from not answering sometimes to not answering at all. Kenina never stopped, she hoped he would call one day, she hoped things would go back to before, she hoped she didn’t make the worst mistake of my life but everything she hoped for was completely shattered like they meant nothing to who she shared them with, she was broken.

It hadn’t been long since she made that difficult decision of letting him go for good and here he was again, to stir up settled emotions again, how heartless and inhumane.

Kenina thought that if he apologized and explained why he did the things he did, maybe she would take him back, it wasn’t the first time she forgave him and acted like nothing of that sort happened, but the case was different here, they spent years apart, she wasn’t even sure they would love each other as much, their personalities and preferences must have changed too.