Left For Snoring || Hive Learner's Prompt #126e2

Oma and Collins had been good friends from their university days. We were all in the same department and we knew one another very closely. Every morning as we walk through the yard to our lecture room, Oma would wait ahead to meet with Collins. We knew that there was no string attached. As a group of friends, we were in each other's company. From the beginning of the day, in the morning when we take photo shots at the school lawn, showing our dresses for each school day and in the afternoon when we bombard Mama Delta's cafeteria for lunch and our daily visit to the sport complex to watch the school basketball, soccer, volleyball and handball teams prepare for the universities games. It was a great memory.

Something started to change when Oma started creating more syringes for Collins than anyone among our friends. Well, no one knew that Oma was already having romantic feelings for Collins.

One day, as we concluded our boring sociology lecture, Oma deliberately went before Collins and dropped a love letter. This time, she did not hide it. She made it open. Collins did not hesitate to reciprocate his love for her.

Now that everything was no longer hidden, we started dealing with Oma with some respect. The lovebirds were always with each other.

Our only opportunity to see each other was outside of our hostels or when we had an outing on campus. Our friend, Collins, told us how much it feels to fall in love. And indeed, some of us felt like we were out of place since we had no one to date or found us worthy of being their dates.

Kampus production

In August of the year that we were in our semi-finals. Professor Ola Rotimi's famous stage play, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, was going to be displayed at our campus. It was one evening that we all looked out for. We bought our tickets and anticipated the day.

I and Adeife, a close pal, walked into the amphitheatre in our black tuxedo, a white collarless shirt and oxblood bow ties. I knew that my appearance would catch a glimpse from all those babes that were already on the queue to enter the theatre. Really, I did catch some babes looking my way.

Oma and Collins were already seated in the middle roll of the theatre with Oma laying her head on his shoulder while I watched at a beautiful lady popularly known as Monny who was sitting behind them. She knew that I was gazing at her but she looked away. My intention was to walk to her after the show but that was not meant to be.

I can tell that we had enough fun watching Major Lejoka Brown's character in the play. The play itself was a display of the natural Nigerian soldier character but it was fun and laughter all through.

One sad event that after the outing was the breakup of Oma and Collins. The lovebirds have retired to a secret abode after the show. Since it was both of them missing, we knew that they probably would be in each other's company wasn't wrong after all.

We just noticed that Oma keeps to herself and she wouldn't even want to share what her problem was. Something that has never in our three years of friendship. Anyways, if Oma was not going to share, then our next move was to meet Collins so that she could tell us what the problem was. Collins said only four words to express the breaking up.

She left because I snore

I froze as Collins uttered those words. How on earth would a love affair come to an abrupt end just because of the partner's snores?

We were all taken aback. Though we knew that Collins snores when he sleeps, we took it as a part of his life because of his plum size. And I thought as a person that such traits cannot be controlled.

I approached Oma to talk about how she feels opting out of the relationship. It appeared she wasn't happy but she also could not help it. She narrated how her mother also had fought over her father's attitude of snoring at night which prompted her mother to threaten leaving the marriage as she continued sleeping in the guest room every night for over twenty years.

Well, he.mind was made up. That doesn't stop us all from being friends. My only advice for her was to help Collins overcome the snoring problem. It could be a health challenge and could be treated, I suggested.

Before we graduated, Oma and Collins never mended their relationship. It has been over fifteen years now. They probably had settled down with different partners. What seemed to be a promising relationship got battered only because of snoring.