The Butterflies... Episode 3

ROOM G15, QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

“Tade, wake up. Your phone has been ringing…” Funke tapped her roommate, Tade Badmus

“I know. I’m not just in the mood to pick his calls” Tade responded with her sleepy voice.

She was not in the mood for any more pleas from Ade; she had grown tired of the whole relationship.
She forcefully got up from bed, checked her phone and saw 10 missed calls and a message that read:

“hey babe, I said I was sorry. I really am. Work is bringing me to Ib today. Thot we could see before I left. Call me. Love u… Dee”

She hissed and tossed the phone under her pillow.

“good morning jare, better person” Tade said facing Funke.

“it’s afternoon. I don’t blame you; it’s because you don’t have lectures till evening, that’s why you can afford to sleep till this time” Funke responded with her signature smile

“what can I say? It’s not my fault now” Tade laughed as she went to her wardrobe to pick her tooth brush.

“so, what is it this time? You and le boo are at it again?” Funke asked

“ see, it’s not my fault and don’t even start with your usual sermon of me appreciating what I have. Ade takes me for granted; all the time. He thinks I love him too much not to leave him. And I’m ready to shock him this time” Tade said with anger in her voice.

“just take it easy oh. That’s all I can say. You should know by now that it’s a constant thing for men to start misbehaving once they’ve gotten the girl of their dreams. I don’t know if it’s a curse or something… I’d see you soon, I have a tutorial class to attend now” Funke said as she stepped out of the room.

Tade pondered on Funke’s words. She was so pissed that her relationship had gotten to this stage.

When she first met Ade, they were so inseparable, he was all over her, and her him. She considered it the best choice she had ever made.

She had met Ade during her first semester in school. Ade was one of the GT Crea8 personnels (from GT Bank) that came to her school and pitched their tent at the car park of the Student Union Building, where they opened accounts for the new students that just resumed. Several other banks had their tents pitched at the car park also, and Tade and her friends had strolled to see what was happening. Loud, danceable music was playing, some people were dancing on top of a truck, all in a bid to draw attention. They had gone there casually not with any intention of opening any account, as the other 2 girls Tade went with had accounts of their own. It was only Tade that had not opened an account yet, as she didn’t see the need to. She was always going home if and when she needed money.

Ade had explained enthusiastically that she did not need to have money to open a savings account with his bank, and there and then, she collected an account opening form, filled it and returned it to Mr. Ade. Ade had also told her that her account number would be sent to her phone number through a text message and that her ATM Card would be processed as soon as she deposited some amount into her account.

She had not wasted time to do that, asking her mum to send money into her account and going to the Awolowo branch of GT Bank to meet Mr. Ade to help with the processing of her ATM Card.

Mr. Ade had been the one to call her and when she asked where he got her number from, he had laughed and said ‘you filled it in the form, remember?’. She had not found it funny though, but she wasn’t totally upset with him.
He had kept up with the calls, against Tade’s wish and had introduced himself as Adedapo but as time went by, Tade had felt comfortable with calling him Ade mi.. It was during their very many conversations that she had found out that he was a Corper at GT bank, and the reason why he kept calling was because he kinda liked her. She had laughed so hard and implored him not to bother as she was just in her first year at the university and she had so many other things to worry about, getting good grades being paramount, than a relationship with a corper. But it was though all she ever did to discourage him fell on deaf ears.
He had surprised her on her birthday in her second semester in school by coming to campus with a really big teddy bear in his car and giving her a treat at the KFC, at Osuntokun Avenue. She did not bother to ask how he found out about her birthday because GT Bank had sent her a birthday wish, which meant that Ade would have saved that as part of the details he saved from the form she filled.
He had made it a routine to spend his Thursdays with her, as he did not have to go to work on Thursdays because of CDS meetings for corpers, and coincidentally, Tade’s timetable for Thursday wasn’t jam packed. It allowed them ample time to hang out.

She couldn’t even remember when they officially started dating; it must have been after the birthday treat he gave her, Tade thought to herself.

Ade was a very caring person; he made time out of his very busy schedule to stay in touch with Tade. He occasionally drove to campus just to check up on her during his lunch break. He was also very supportive of Tade, especially by crediting her account once in a while, since he knew she came from a humble background and he had the money to spare.
When Tade had asked about his plans after NYSC, he had said he wanted to go for his masters, but not until after making enough money to finance his masters by himself (as his parents had other plans for him and would not spare anything to make him become what they wanted him to be – a manager in one of his father’s companies); he was not interested in working at his father’s company but instead, he had always wanted to work in a bank; he had pleaded with his father to help him work his nysc posting to a bank in Ibadan because of the light traffic situation in the city, unlike Lagos, and his father obliged him since he was adamant. His plan was to work for some time and then go for his masters before getting married. He had told her that that was his reason for asking her out, because he knew that if he started dating a graduate like himself, the lady may not be able to wait till he accomplished all his goals before settling down. His reasons sounded fair enough, and Tade had felt satisfied with being with Ade. To her, most of the other guys on campus were immature and would not be able to take care of her needs, especially her financial needs.

Tade had started off the relationship with Ade on low key. She had planned not to inform her parents until she was sure the relationship was heading some place more concrete. She was indeed grateful that Ade understood the need for her to keep her grades up when she requested that he reduced his visits to campus just so she could concentrate better on her academics. Ade got retained in GT Bank after his service year (thanks to his father’s connection), and Tade was the happiest. A year and some months had gone by and Ade had been transferred to Ife branch to help out with the GT Crea8 crew because he was one of those who opened the highest number of accounts at the GT Crea8 stand at U.I. He had explained to Tade that it was a temporary arrangement and that he would come back to Ibadan after the whole GT Crea8 forum was well grounded on OAU campus.

Their love for each other had grown so fast in their first 6 months together.

But Ade’s job became more demanding, at least that was what he told her, and his calls had reduced drastically. He barely picked her calls and wouldn’t return her calls till late in the night. He had apologized severally, explaining to Tade that the branch at Ife was still new and he had to do more work than he was originally assigned to. He had given some other excuses and everytime he fell short, he always promised to make it up to Tade by visiting whenever he could. He had however not been able to visit as often as he said he would and whenever Tade offered to visit, especially since she had a sister on campus and thus had a place to stay if she came visiting, Ade had vehemently refused, his excuse being that the Ife/Ibadan road was too dangerous.

 ***
The events of the past two days replayed in Tade’s head:

“Tade, please get up lets get you to the clinic” Funke said as she tried to persuade Tade who had woken up with strange feelings in her body.

Tade hated hospitals, but as much as she would have loved to lie back on her bed instead of going to the clinic, her bestie; Funke would just not give up.

“Okay,let me put a call through to Ade to tell him how I feel”, Tade told Funke.

 “uhmn,okay, I hear…love wa tintin” Funke said in her usual funny way.

“Hello, tade why don’t you just get it, I’m busy!” Ade exclaimed on phone as he picked Tade’s call on that fateful tuesday morning.

“I just, I just, just wanted to tell you…” Tade’s words seemed to have hit a jam lock as she just couldn’t talk again…

“please, please, please, I will call you whenever I can and then you can tell whatever the problem is” Ade said as he dropped the call.

Gentle tears rolled down tade’s cheeks.

“What did he say?” Funke asked really confused now.

“He scolded me for calling him on a busy Tuesday morning according to his words…”

Tade could no longer hold the tears in unlike her words while on phone with Ade.
“Now his job seems more important, I guess I’m just an attachment to his life now…oh, Ade its not your fault, how could I have been so stupid to let him…” Tade had thrown up on her bed trying to express some sort of regret but in actual fact, she felt really sick and weak too…

“Are you preggies?!” Funke exclaimed, “quick let’s get you to the clinic”, she said, helping Tade up from her bed.

***
Tade gone about her usual activities for the day. She had gone for her only lecture for the day and had totally ignored all calls from Ade. She was serious about ignoring him this time. She was just tired of having to embarrass him with her calls. She laughed as she thought about that word Ade used in describing her calls some weeks back.

***
“Alright guys, sleep tight…tomorrow is another day, we make money”, Ade bade his colleagues goodbye as he dropped in front of UI gate from his friend, Dotun’s car as he redialed Tade’s number on his phone. He had been calling her for about 30 minutes since he closed at work without response. He just wanted to see her before he left Ib the following day for Ife…




*the butterflies
*Faith Tunde-Yara
*Co-written by Seyi Olatunbosun
*photocredit: jharkhandsatenews.com