05/06/2025
Episode 3 – “Mixed Signals”
The rain had stopped, but the air was still heavy. The kind of air that makes your chest feel tight, like it's holding a story that won’t come out easily.
Mariama sat on her porch, notebook in hand. She had written his name four times now—Khalid. Then she crossed it out and replaced it with “K.” Less dangerous. Less obvious.
Her cousin Zainab sat beside her, chewing roasted groundnuts, eyeing her suspiciously.
"You dey write that boy in name again?" Zainab asked, raising her brow.
Mariama quickly covered the page. "No, just lyrics."
"Lyrics for who? Us or him?"
Mariama sighed. "I just like writing. It’s not that serious."
But it was. Because ever since the walk home that day, things felt... strange. Good-strange. The kind you pretend you don’t notice, but you feel it in your stomach. Like butterflies, or hunger for something you don’t know how to ask for.
At school, Khalid had started acting different too. Sometimes he smiled longer. Other times, he looked away fast, like he was afraid to let his eyes say too much.
He’d walk by her class and pretend not to look. But Mariama caught him—his quick glances, the way he slowed his steps when she laughed too loud.
One afternoon, their teacher asked them to pair up for a history project. Mariama had planned to sit with Zainab. But before she could move, Khalid stood beside her table.
"Can I sit here?" he asked, voice soft.
Zainab gave her a look and shifted to another chair. “Well well,” she whispered, smirking.
As they worked on the project, Khalid barely spoke at first. He tapped his pen on the desk, staring at the paper, pretending to focus. Mariama waited, heart pounding, pretending too.
Then he spoke.
“Do you like stories?”
“Depends,” she said, without looking at him. “Happy ones or sad ones?”
“I like the kind that feels real,” he said. “Even if it ends bad.”
Mariama looked up. Their eyes met again. That same quiet, heavy feeling between them.
Episode to continue