Neighbor Diaries: Chickening Out

Carole came to see me yesterday. Carole happens to be the girl I refer to as “my girlfriend”, a term I attach no serious importance to. I tell her I love her, but am not really sure. I don’t think I have ever been in love. True, I like her company, she is pleasant to talk to, and she minds her business, which I find great. But then, I know that if she left me, I wouldn’t mind at all. I would probably replace her that same day! And this is not because of Jasmine. I’ve got really bad vibes about Jasmine, she is heartless. I have decided to leave her alone, I don’t mind if you think am chickening out. Jasmine is a little too cold blooded for my liking; the chic trashed and cold heartedly dumped a guy in public. That same chic who, after she was told that a guy murdered himself because she jilted him, simply asked, “So what do you want me to do, bring him back to life?” Considering this behavior, and the fact that my pal Chris is interested in her, I decided to take a rain check. Maybe I’ll get more fun watching Chris spin his web around her. Chris could talk a mosquito into donating blood. On Tuesday morning, Roger got me gaping when he said Jasmine had asked him to ask me if she could come to my flat. Now why on earth would Jasmine want to come to my flat? I had never invited her, actually, I hadn’t even talked to the chic since the day of the groundnuts incident. Though I was itching to know what she wanted from me, I told Rogers to tell her that I didn’t want her in my flat. Roger didn’t understand why I had refused, but neither did I. I didn’t know what she wanted, and with a chic like Jasmine, you had to watch your every step. She was lethal, and I was a little scared of her. Fine I am a chicken, so what?! Carole came over to my flat that evening, and we were watching movies, when Roger came in again. Before I could shut him up, he was already blubbering about Jasmine. Jasmine had sent him again to “tell me she wanted to see me”. He hadn’t seen Carole, and I was too late to stop him. “Shem, Jasmine said she really wants to see you man. Why are you chickening out now, all of a sudden?” Rogers hadn’t seen Carole, and she hadn’t said anything yet. She’d heard everything although I didn’t really mind. I told Rogers to get lost, and to tell his sister that I really didn’t want to see her. Then I suggested to Carole that we go take a walk, and get some supper. In her unobtrusive way, she hadn’t reacted to the Jasmine news, although she was hurting inside. We left the flat just in time, because later I learnt that Jasmine actually did come to my flat soon after we left. See, Jasmine obviously wasn’t used to guys refusing her anything; she was the one who did the rejecting. And by rejecting her requests to come up to my flat twice, I had already set a record. I guessed she would just come up without asking again, and I was right. I didn’t want Jasmine in my flat with Carole around. Jasmine wasn’t the kind that brings good news. Whatever she wanted to see me about wasn’t something good, she wasn’t a good person. I didn’t think whatever she wanted to see me about was good. So, me and Carole took a walk, got us some supper, and somehow, I managed to convince her that Jasmine was “some ugly fake chic who had a silly crush on me”. We laughed about it, and she was in a good mood as we walked back to my flat. But when we reached the stairs, there was Jasmine standing at the stairs, like a super model posing for a photo shoot. She was looking at me with mix of cold fury and frustration. But even in anger, she still managed to look impossibly beautiful! She made my Carole look like a sketch. And Carole is a very beautiful girl, by any standards. Carole, seeing how Jasmine was looking at me, quietly asked; “Is that Jasmine?” I looked at her, remembered telling her “Jasmine is some ugly fake chic who has a silly crush on me”, and feeling like a total ejit, I answered “uhmm, yeah, that is Jasmine”. That’s how Carole got to know about Jasmine. Ends