Neighbour Diaries: Tough Decisions

It has been a slow week. I am broke, I haven’t gotten salary yet. There is a way things just slow down and get real boring when money is low. That’s when I notice that I need about a thousand things, I need new clothes and shoes, my phone is really old and lots of other stuff that require money. Last Saturday, I was at home instead of attending a “get out of town” party which all my friends had gone for. I could afford it, but then I wouldn’t have money to buy Jojo a gift. Yeah, I want to buy her a gift. Not that I am the romantic kind, but because I know that girls like such things. My idea was to buy her a really classy sweater, like the ones I had seen on TV. And I went ahead and did that. When the sweater arrived, wrapped it up and wrote on the gift pack “just for you, wishing you a special week”. And I sent it to her home. As it happened, it’s her big brother who landed on it. And he was furious. I don’t know why the guy doesn’t like me, but the truth is that he actually hates me. I could understand that part about him; not like me being the guy that his little sister is hot for. But the extra hate, that is just too much. Jojo got the sweater eventually, and when she came over to say thanks, we had a good laugh about it. It looked like it was going to be a good afternoon, with Jojo in a good mood, and everything going smoothly until Melissa decided to spoil everything. First, she called my phone. Seeing who was calling, I put my phone in silence and refused to answer. She called about six times, until I switched off the phone. Then she switched her attention to Jojo. I knew it from the very first time I met Mellissa, that she was going to be trouble, but not this much trouble. Jojo answered the phone call. They had already talked and had even made plans to meet, but they hadn’t met yet. Well, Mellissa wanted to know why I wasn’t answering her phone calls. In the sweetest of voices, Jojo told her that I was probably very busy, but she was certain I was ok, and she would try to contact me and tell me to answer my phone. She said that while looking at me, with a face that was hard to read. Then she hung up, and didn’t say anything about it. In fact she went on talking about the sweater like we hadn’t been interrupted. But in my head I was wondering what on earth was wrong with Mellissa! There was joking about her calling up my girlfriend, but there was actually calling her up. It was no longer funny. When I got a moment, I went outside and called Mellissa, and asked her what she thought she was doing! She clearly knew exactly who Jojo was and what she could do, and there she was calling her up. I asked her if she just wanted to see me and Jojo breaking up, and she said, “sure, wouldn’t be a bad idea!” And I hang up. There was no point in reasoning with Mellissa, that’s exactly what she wanted; my attention. Back inside the house, I found Jojo preparing to leave. She said she was stepping out for a bit, she would be back later. I said fine, and went back to watching my movies. A while later, Jojo walked in and said; “sorted!” I asked her what was sorted, and she said, “Mellissa”. She won’t be bothering you again. That was strange! What exactly did Jojo mean by “sorting out Mellissa”? And clearly, she had just met her. Since Jojo wasn’t giving me any details, I called Mellissa to find out what had happened, and learnt that Jojo was even worse than I had ever imagined. Mellissa’s brother worked in a telecommunications company as an accountant. I don’t know how Jojo learnt about that, but she had used her extensive connections to threaten the brother’s job. Jojo had told Mellissa that if she ever even called me again, her brother would lose her job. And to prove her point, Mellissa’s brother had received a warning letter from his boss. Mellissa told me she never wanted to hear from me again That’s when I drew the line. There was one case of a girl wanting no competition. But what Jojo was doing was just not human! I had to make a tough decision, and make it fast!shemmugisha@gmail.com