Frozen Love

The first thing that hit her when her eyes snapped open from sleep, was the cold. Jinna sat up, her palms rubbing softly against her skin in a faint attempt to keep warm.

Her joints felt balmy and stiff at the same time.

She still had her singlet and short on, instead of her night wear, which only meant that she had fallen asleep listening to her roommates gist, while it rained heavily outside. She had slept through the whole night scantily dressed and uncovered, now her shoulder blades ached as a result.

Stiffening her hold on the bunk edge, she jumped down lightly.

Her bunkmate, Fikemi snored lightly in disheveled hair. Her body curled up in a slight ball, which was her signature sleeping posture, that seemed more fetal than sleep-like, as if she hadn't yet left the womb and clearly had no plans of making any womb escape. Just curling up. The posture that earned her the nick name " posh baby", because she was fashion posh and slept like a baby.

The room was very quiet except for the occasional " drip! drip!", Sound of rain drops hitting metal outside. Then the rare, in- between sounds of creaking bunks.

Everyone else was asleep, still dwelling in one of their best feelings of sleeping through a rainy morning, knowing they really had nothing of much importance to do. Most of them, had no lectures. Friday mornings were secretly termed the beginning of campus weekend because most lecturers never showed up on those days and even if they did, most of the students damned their lectures until Monday morning. As for her, a seven o'clock lecture awaited her attendance. One she couldn't afford to miss. Not that she could even miss any lecture.

Shell sponsored her scholarship and they could withdraw, if she proved unserious in anyway. Loosing such a wonderful previledge to study in such an expensive state school was something she could never afford. She had a goal to help her family and losing the scholarship was not going to help matters in anyway and that was one of the things she never wanted to think about.

The corridor was empty when she came out. Totally devoid of people and dirty. Very dirty.

Dark brown muddy water formed puddles in the small crater- like pot holes, that seemed to riddle the whole corridor length. Cartons of beverages , even wet tissue and used pads lay strewn across like some one had emptied a whole dust bin on the corridor. Not just emptied but had evenly distributed the dirty contents across the whole passage length of the corridor. The eyesore she subjected her poor eyes to every morning in the girls hostel, made recently even worse by the wet sand coated foot prints on the floor. She felt her skin crawl .

On a second thought she decided to bathe in the corridor, since no one was awake yet and the fact that the bathroom was already messed up.

Bathing in the corridor was totally normal, since the bathrooms went to hell every morning. Girls even walked naked to their rooms without towels and if they wanted, they walked around the hostel like that, in their nude.

" Good morning, hair twin", a sharp pitched voice cut her off from her reverie.

She looked up . It was who she thought it was . Fikemi her bunkmate, she was standing above her in the corridor slab with her bucket of water beside her. Her eyes bored through jinna's body, the way men looked at her lustfully. In a way that felt like they were stripping her of her clothes. She felt a little uneasy, though it was Fikemi and the glaring fact that she was totally harmless.

" Kemi", Jinna replied with a mustered smile hoping that Fikemi would look away or do something else but she still stood there by looking with het soap dish in hand.

" What!", Jinna tried again. This time she felt more uncomfortable.

" Aren't you washing your hair?.", Fikemi asked , ignoring her question.

" No, I'll do that at home", she replied.

" You're going home!", Fikemi croaked, looking a little surprised. She totally didn't expect it.

" Yes I am", Jinna replied.

" Why?.", She asked " We still have a lot of food stuffs and mum sent me money",

" I know Kemi, I just want to see my parents. It's been long". She replied." Almost two months", she added.

" Oh", Fikemi fell silent. She watched Jinna scoop more water on her body.

" So when will you come back?, She asked thoughtfully.

" Maybe Monday morning, my first lecturer will be by 9am. I'll leave the house before six, so I can meet up",

" That's too long ", she stated. She looked disturbed. " I'll miss you then", she added.