THE BRIGHT yellow light beaming from the bulb on the wall very close to the barbecue stand made it possible for Mercy to see his facial features very clearly— chocolate skinned, wavy low hair cut, neatly carved full brows, cocoa brown eyes, tempting pale pink lower lips which were surrounded by a neatly shaved mustache and stubble. He was wearing a body hugging singlet that showed off his athletic build, like someone that worked out regularly and his height fit perfectly to Mercy's spec for a handsome guy. She had never seen anyone that handsome in her entire life. Not in person, not in movies and especially not a suya seller. Even Mawuli Gavor who was her celebrity crush had nothing on him. She was smitten. 

However, the guy didn't spare her a glance. 

"Hey Chief? How you dey?" A thick baritone voice ripped her from her swoon. The person reeked of cigar. "Give me suya two hundred naira."

"Mercy, let's go o!" Brianna called, and Mercy turned back and was surprised to see that Brianna had left the barbeque stand already. 

She walked briskly to catch up with Brianna and they were walking silently abreast each other, Mercy thinking about the handsome guy she had just seen, before Brianna broke the silence. 

"Aren't you going to take another suya?"

"Huh?" Mercy jolted. "Yeah, of course." She collected the wrapped suya from Brianna and took a piece into her mouth. 

"You like him huh?" Brianna said out of nowhere. 

"Eh?" Mercy was confused. 

"The suya guy. I saw the way you were looking at him. You like him huh?"

Mercy scoffed, scrunching her face. "No, of course not." She denied. 

"Hmm, you're sure?" Brianna looked at her skeptically. 

"Hell yeah! Why would I like a suya seller."

"It's possible for anyone to like Tony. I mean, he's a fine hot piece of chocolate, so I won't be surprised if you like him. Girls in Unilag are actually dying for him despite he isn’t rich" She shrugged, "But I don’t think selling suya is all he does though. He only sells suya at night and everyone knows Tony’s suya to be the best in Unilag."

"Wow, cool! The suya is really delicious though."

"If you like him, just say and I'd help you have him." Brianna shrugged. 

"No no!" It was an abrupt response. "I don't like him, period. Let's talk about something else. So tell me about jaja hostel." She said and took another piece of the suya.

***

The following day, Mercy was seated for the first time with her course mates in a political analysis class and because it wasn't a general course, there were just very few students in the class. Mercy was bored. Anything about politics wasn't her cup of tea and the lecturer made it even worse by droning on about how the economy was in a poor state because the politicians that promise the citizens a better country in their manifestoes would end up doing absolutely nothing when voted into power. Rather, they embezzled public funds. Like you wouldn't do the same thing too. Mercy thought. 

She was too uninterested she zoned out. She was thinking about the handsome suya seller she saw yesterday. Because of him, she was going to buy suya every night. 

A tap on her back interrupted her reverie. She turned back to see the person that tapped her and the guy gestured for her to look to the front of the class. Everyone, including the teacher, was staring at her. She swallowed nervously. 

"So miss, can you tell us what's on your mind?" The lecturer asked. 

"Uh," The class was dead silent; her voice resonated in her own ears. "I was just thinking of what you said sir." She said vacuously. 

The lecturer curved his lips downwards and nodded his head approvingly. "Good. So tell me, what did I say?" He folded his arms around his chest. 

Mercy hadn't been listening to him for the past five minutes to bail herself out so she didn't even try saying anything. She simply just looked at him, highly embarrassed. 

"Madam, you said you were thinking about what I said, so tell me what I said? Or have you suddenly developed amnesia?"

Silence. 

"Since you've suddenly become dumb, you can as well take your things and get out of my class." The lecturer said. 

Mercy wasn't bothered. The class was boring for her in the first place so without wasting any time, she took her book and carried her handbag. As she was strutting out of the class, the lecturer said, "I've marked your face. Don't ever come back and be expecting a carryover in this course."

She immediately halted in her tracks and turned back. "Sir please, sir please! I'm really sorry."

"Get out!" It was a yell. 

"Sir, please!" 

"Now!" 

Hesitantly, she walked out of the class with her head bowed and she whimpered like a child. What had she done to herself? Carry over? She thought. It was going to drop her grade and how was she going to get first class or second class upper now? She was in trouble. Her parents were going to kill her. She made a mental note to apologize to the lecturer later. She would cry before him and make sure he forgives her. 

"Hey!" Lee wrapped his arms around Mercy's neck, startling her and that incensed her.

She took his hands off her neck and pushed him, "Are you okay? What gives you the right to hold me like that? Who do you think you are?"

Lee was shocked. "Hey, calm down! I'm sorry." He said remorsefully. 

Mercy instantly regretted her action. She shouldn't have acted on impulse and irrationally. She sighed, "I'm really sorry too. I shouldn't have reacted that way."

"Are you okay? And why are you crying?" Lee asked, concerned. 

Mercy looked away and wiped her cheeks with her palm. "I'm not crying and I'm fine."

"You were obviously crying Mercy." 

Mercy couldn't hold it back anymore; she ran up to Lee and buried her face on his shoulders crying profusely. Lee was stiff at first, confused on what to do, but then his heart sank and he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. 

In between muffled sobs, Mercy said, "He sent me out of the class."

"Who?"

"And said I would have a carryover in his course. My parents would kill me?" Her sobs became louder.

Two male students walked passed and was looking at Lee and Mercy amusedly. "Wetin happen? You don give am belle." One of them said and the other laughed. 

Lee and Mercy ignored them and they went away. Lee exhaled deeply. "It's okay Mercy. Don't cry. Tell me what happened."

Mercy lifted her head from his shoulder and wiped the tears off her face with both of her palms. Then the realization just hit her that she had actually been crying on Lee's shoulder. She suddenly felt awkward and embarrassed. Lee, whom she barely knew, had seen her cry. And he had comforted her. That was a good thing, the fact he had comforted her. Perhaps she could just completely warm up to him and trust him as a friend. 

"Tell me, what happened?" Lee asked again. 

Mercy sniffed and recounted all that went down in the political analysis class in details to Lee. When she was done, Lee pitied and sympathized with her, but there was really nothing he could do and Mercy knew this. Mercy also told him of her plans to apologize to him and she asked if that was going to be a wise thing to do. 

"I think you should give it a shot." Lee said, "But all these bitter lecturers in Unilag though, they love to make students life miserable because they're miserable themselves. I just hope this one hears you out and forgives you."

"For someone that is a fresher like me, you sound like you've had a lot of experiences in this school."

"Not really. But before I came to Unilag, my friends that attend the school had furnished me with gist about things that go on here, so it almost feels to me like I've been here all my life. I'm not sure anything that happens in this school would take me by surprise."

At this point, Mercy started to walk and Lee followed abreast her. "But if the lecturer is bent on making me fail his course, will that drop my grades?" She asked. 

"Yes, but only if you don't pass your other courses well. Don't worry; I believe you'd be fine."

Mercy needed to hear that to feel alright. Her mood was beginning to get lighter. Lee wasn't all that bad to have around after all. But she made a mental note to talk about the issue with her roommates because they hadn't just heard, they had also been in the school long enough to know how things worked.

Mercy laughed suddenly. 

Lee turned to look at her like she had dementia. "Are you okay?"

Her laughter died down slowly, "I just remembered that crazy guy that asked if you had impregnated me." 

They both burst out laughing.

"Some guys make all guys look stupid."

"Tell me about it." Mercy looked at him and asked, "So, are the glasses recommended?"

Lee wasn't quick to catch up with the question but once he did, he answered, "Yeah, I'm shortsighted."

"Oh." There was a moment of silence that Mercy found very awkward, "So let's walk to your hostel before I go to mine."

"What did you hear about jaja?" He smirked as he asked. 

"A lot. A lot of TERRIBLE things." Mercy laid emphasis on the word terrible. 

He snorted, "They didn't lie to you, trust me."

Mercy and Lee engaged in small talks as they strolled to jaja hostel which was situated on campus and besides Faculty of science. When they got close to the hostel, Mercy wasn't surprised with the sight that greeted her. Brianna had filled her with information about the hostel and the way she had imagined it wasn't far from how it looked in reality. The building was large and the exterior looked so untidy; a lot of clothes that looked like rags were hung outside giving it an unpleasant sight. 

"Welcome to jaja!" Lee roared the last word.  "The hostel that prides itself on being neat and fresh, look at how dirty it is. Inside is even worse." He held Mercy back. "We can't go close to the hostel together o."

"Why?" Mercy squinted her eyes. 

"Those g—"

"You're ashamed of me?" She asked, annoyed. 

"No!"

"Then?" She looked at him quizzically. 

"Those guys are lunatics! Trust me, you don't want to fall in their trap."

Mercy hissed and grabbed Lee's arms and hustled towards the hostel. 

"Ah, Lee don get girlfriend!" A guy echoed from the window but Mercy couldn't see him. Lee blushed in embarrassment. He knew the guys in jaja hostel very well. They were going to torment him with this for the rest of his stay in Unilag. 

"Heesss! Lee's girlfriend!"

"Fine girl, fine girl!"

"Lee na your girlfriend be this?"

"She fine o!"

"She get yansh o."

"She no get yansh joor! This thing wey be like flat-screen!"

"Lee, you don taste from the forbidden fruit? Sharp guy!"

Mercy was disgusted by all the catcalls, compliments and perverted remarks that spewed out from the mouth of the guys in the hostel. They were barbaric. She wanted to give them the piece of her mind but Lee kept whispering "just ignore". Mercy turned back to leave and Lee trailed behind her, completely awash in embarrassment.

"Those guys are hooligans! Where do they come from?" Mercy said, walking away briskly. Lee was beside her now, trying to keep up with her pace. 

"From the slum I guess." Lee chuckled. "And slow down a bit."

"It's not funny actually. They called me flat-screen. Do you know how demoralizing that is? I'm never coming to this dung yard you call a hostel. Those guys are obviously dungs."

"I warned you." Lee shrugged. 

Mercy looked at him ruefully and slowed down her pace. "Yes, you actually did. I regret not listening to you."

"Your bad. Anyway, I'm sorry for the embarrassment."

"I'm sorry for not listening to you.” 

***

"So that's how my day went— one heck of a day." Mercy was sitting on the floor as she and her roommates were talking about how their day had gone and she was the last to fill them in. Her roommates erupted in a gale of laughter once she was done, after which, Faith advised her on what to do with the lecturer case. She told Mercy to apologize to him but not to stress if he didn't accept her apology. According to Faith, all she needed to do was study extra hard, avoid being noticed by lecturers and pray to God for good grade. Brianna, on the other hand, told her to give the old man some cash and he would automatically change his mind. Mercy liked Brianna's advice more. She thought to herself that if she tendered her apologies to the lecturer and he didn't accept, she would offer him some money.

While that thought was on her mind, her phone rang. It was an unknown number. She picked it up immediately. "Hello?"

"Hello Mercy." It was a male's voice and Mercy thought it to be very sexy but she had no idea who it was. 

"Sorry who's this?" When she asked, her roommates that were chatting suddenly kept quiet to listen in on her conversation. She wasn't comfortable about it so she walked out of the room pretending not to hear what the guy said from the other end of the line owing to poor network.

"Why don't you guess?"

"Your voice is really nice but I don't think I've heard it before." Mercy was trying so hard to figure out who could be speaking to her. 

"I'd take that as a compliment. Your voice is really sexy too."

Mercy didn't think so, but she said, "Thank you. So now, who's this because this is really getting creepy?"

"I'm Tony."

That name. Where had she heard it before?

"Who's Tony?" Her heartbeat picked up its rate. 

"The suya guy."

____________________

Is it not funny how it takes hours for me to come up with a chapter and y'all read it in a minute or two? Please appreciate the effort by voting and leaving a review. Just say something about the chapter. No matter how short. I love to read from y'all. 

Follow on ig @dan_lexicon