Entry 10

TRUTH OR DARE ?

Truth or dare? Those words seem playful right? Wrong! From the wrong mouth, you could find yourself walking under the scorching sun to either the office of the SUG vice president or that of the director of welfare to get forms for the sessions MBGC contest and weeks later, you could find yourself strutting your stuff on the stage jelly kneed before a panel of judges.
If you aren’t careful, you’d find yourself quarreling with your beloved boyfriend on a daily bases until he threatens murder because he doesn’t approve of you being recognized as the Most Beautiful Girl on Campus.

“So Tabby, what would it be; the truth or a dare?” those were the exact words spoken to me at Von’s birthday party.
It was that one-of-a kind party you’d ask yourself years later “did I really do that?!” To put the ‘z’ in crazy, we decided to serve ‘bolĕ, fish with palm oil sauce’ instead of the regular rice and cold drinks.
Although there was the familiar beer and soft drinks hidden in the fridge, it remained hidden for a long time still.
To show the guests that we meant business, there was a huge gourd of palm wine complete with calabash cups at the entrance of the house[the venue for the bash]!
Someone spiked the punch with vodka, innocent me, the drink was ‘sweet’ I drank like a fish filtering the much needed oxygen from water.
THAT was what lead to my downfall.
At the end of the day, I found myself [drunk as I was] trying to weasel out of a dare to go for MBGC competition.
As my luck would have it, Nneka my ‘bosom buddy and lifelong pal’ was present too and G*d bless her, she had everything on tape so, there was no way I could use the ‘it wasn’t me’ line.
I ended up being chaperoned to follow through with my deal to do the dare or forfeit and pay the not so available sum of 6,500 naira.
Buh, when I found out there was going to be a car involved for the winner, I didn’t feel so threatened anymore.
I said to myself “Tahilita dearie, it’s just a bloody form you are going to be filling, what was the worst that could happen.” right?
The thing is that [I should have known better] anything Nneka puts her mind to doesn’t always come out at its best.
The target for the demonic missile[correction: her demonic missile, "HER" being Nneka of course!] was I and Stan.
It began with snide comments and little arguments from Stanley [Nneka had educated him on the behind the scene actions between participants of beauty pageants and the judges] naturally, he disapproved.
I tried to straighten him out and tell him there were exceptions but, he wouldn’t listen, he was being a child.
By the time I scaled through the first stage of the MBGC competition, he outright forbade me to participate.
Can you imagine that?! [Abi the bros put ring for my finger give me belle before?]
When I discovered he was ‘intimate’ friends with not just ordinary yahoo boys but the ‘yahoo plus’ boys (a secret he had kept from me for so long), I decided that ‘his order’ was the final straw that broke ‘this camel’s’ back (there is no way I’d pay musical chairs with a dude that pledged allegiance to some river goddess slash marine spirit. Ewhew!)
Buh, my participation in the competition was the latest buzz on campus and doubled with the jist that I and the most ‘eligible bachelor’ on campus were having family problems (hum... I wonder who fanned that particular smoke) by the time I won the not so popular contest, my name turned to a house hold name, the ‘meshai’ (bread and egg) sellers renamed all the girls ‘aunty Tabitha’ as for Stanley, I told him that if anything should happen to me even if it was as little as the package of my ‘brazilian hair’ weavon that went missing, he would have a lot of people to answer too, and I meant it.
He came to his senses a few days afterward and has been trying to get us back together.
Am still peeved and have decided to take a break from 'relationships' in all its assorted forms.

I miss Stanley so much, especially when we run into each other at the girl’s hostel [me with Ivy, him with his new 'Tile'] or when I go out to eat at ‘our’ favorite hang outs.

Still, I have to be strong and use my head to reason this one out; if one of his ‘runs’ should go wrong and something happens to me, what would they write on my obituary, what would become of my mother? How I wish he was still my precious crush, then I could spend all day wishing he’d turn my way. [Sigh] life is so full of it.

- TABBY