HOSTEL CONFESSIONS (Chapter Seven)

Chapter 7: One Step Closer

I was excited for yet another session, maybe because I would be finally able to put Bode’s issues behind me. SS2 was much tougher class than SS1, because the current SS3 guys were more callous and power-hungry than their predecessors. But I didn’t let this reality deter me from fulfilling my purpose in school. In fact, I had two besties that I always hung out with. Akinolu and I had been friends since JSS2. He was a fellow queen in the same house as I was and we grew close because of our effeminacy. Chigbogu was a queen from another house. He and I met occasionally during drama rehearsals back in junior school, and even as we were sometimes cast in the same plays, we were never really close. It was in senior school that we became really close. The three of us – me, Akinolu and Chigbogu – were always together. So much so that we were tagged the Destiny’s Child of the boarding house.

When I resumed in SS2, I picked up my acting career from where I stopped. I began attending rehearsals and got roles in school plays. Chigbogu and Akinolu were also in the drama club. So, there was all this good natured competition between us for roles.

I was still getting both positive and negative reactions to my career as a school actor. The positive included admiration from some school members, both my mates and seniors, and favours from teachers. The negative was much more depressing; I get bullied and taunted without provocation – ridicule that was especially painful because it mostly came from the queer boys who were down low.

Let me tell you about the incident that made me consider quitting my acting career for good.

One night, I was coming back from night prep and I was called over by Senior Ifeanyi, who was standing in the balcony, looking out for someone to send out on an errand. I went over to him and he beckoned for me to come into the dormitory and take a bucket to fetch water for him for his night bath. Without any disgruntlement, I took the bucket and did as he asked. When I returned with the bucket of water, he thanked me and dismissed me.

As I was exiting the SS3 corner of the dormitory, a voice behind me called out, “Come back here!”

I turned to see if it was Ifeanyi calling me back. It wasn’t. It was another SS3 boy, Teddy.

“Shebi na you be the poté wey dey wear woman cloth dey act nonsense drama,” he said sneeringly at me as he drew close to me. (Poté is the school slang for Fag)

I’d opened my mouth to respond when a deafening slap landed on my face. Before I could recover from the slap, two more slaps had followed after in rapid succession. It was then I realised I was in trouble. I brought up my hands to protect my face from any further slaps, and Teddy switched to lashing out at my body with punches. He was just striking out at me, blow after unprovoked blow, while I concentrated on blocking off the blows from my face. When he exhausted his violent rage, he proceeded to drag me to his corner, and ordered me to frog-jump. Feeling very embittered, I did that for close to an hour before he asked me to stop. At that point, I was drenched by the sweat from my body and the tears from my eyes.

“Henceforth,” Teddy snarled at me, “I never want to see you acting all that nonsense drama you’re acting. The day I see you in another play, I will track you and beat the leaving hell out of you. If you don’t want to behave like a man, I’ll make sure you land in the hospital.”

I was dismissed. And I left him in a run, fleeing to my bed where I cried my heart out.

After that night, I began staying away from drama rehearsals and even the members of the drama club. I would make up excuses to explain why I wasn’t present at rehearsals. The club president noticed my continued absence and accosted me with questions. And I told him the truth, about the ridicule I’d been suffering and the threat I got from Teddy. He was understanding, but encouraged me to continue acting.

“You’ll be surprised that these people that bully and insult you low-key have a crush on you, or envy you for your freedom to be who you are, and that is why they react the way they do,” he said to me.

Those words stuck with me. I pondered over what he said to me and thought to myself: Could Senior Teddy be low-key crushing on me?

I mean, Akinolu had once told me that Teddy swings the other way but was very lowkey about it. And then, the night came when I was in bed, all set to retire for the night, when someone came over to my bunk and tapped me.

“Senior Teddy said I should call you,” he said.

At once, dread crashed through me as I began wondering what wrong I’d done. Knowing that I hadn’t been in any play since he threatened me gave me some comfort.

When I got to his bunk, I saw him lying face down. “Can you massage me?” he asked when he noticed me standing there.

“I’m not sure I know how to,” I answered.

Ignoring my response, he told me to take the Vaseline petroleum jelly from his locker. As I rummaged in his locker for the Vaseline, he was stripping off his clothes to just his boxers. He returned to lying on his stomach and instructed me to commence. With the Vaseline now on my hands, I began working on his back and neck. As I worked, I couldn’t help observing the kind of body he had. I hated the boy, but I could appreciate the stocky, chocolate skinned build that he had.

After some minutes of back and neck rubs, he told me to go lower. I couldn’t help the instant boner I got when he said that. He told me to massage his butt, thighs and legs. I went to work, confirming the efficacy of my massaging from the low moans coming from him.

Then he turned on his back, and I confronted by the fullness of his erection straining against his boxers. For a millisecond, I really wanted to pull back his boxers and take that dick in my mouth. He snapped me out of my erotic thoughts when he told me to massage his chest and thighs. I tried my best not to go near his dick, because in as much as I wanted to ride his joystick, I also didn’t want trouble.

After close to an hour of massaging, Teddy dismissed me.

Two days later, I ran into him at the dining hall. “I was looking for you last night,” he said to me.

“I didn’t know you were looking for me,” I said.

He told me how he really enjoyed my massage, and had slept very well after it. He said he wanted to see me again that night for another massage.

Something about that interaction gave me the boldness to decide to defy him and return to the drama club. By his own acknowledgement, I had done something good for him. He owed me. I didn’t imagine he would go through with his threat considering my usefulness to him.

And I was right. I returned to rehearsals the very next time the drama club had a meeting, much to the delight of most of the other club members. I slipped right into doing what I loved doing. And at first, I waited and waited, but never felt the backlash of Teddy’s wrath.

Written by Pleasure Bunny