I met him 9 years ago when I was 15 and we instantly became the best of friends. His house was only 2 blocks away from my Aunt Lisa’s at cantonments where I used to live. He would check up on me every day after school, we’d talk about life, his girlfriend and how bad he intended on marrying her in future, share our dreams and even talk about how we’d attend each other’s wedding. He was four years older than I was
Ofori was his name. that light skinned guy with the real ‘American accent’… yeah, his was far from the Ghanaian ‘LAFA’, born to fabulously rich parents who defined the actual meaning of glitz and glam, he barely ever spoke twi because it was the only difficult thing he couldn’t do and he was in his final year at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School at Legon. But as strong minded as he was, Ofori always wanted to work for himself and not depend on his family’s riches. I on the other hand was a Junior High School graduate awaiting my results, born to strict and averagely rich educationists who were out of town almost all the time. So to keep an eye on me, I was asked to move in with my aunt (iron lady) at cantonments.
Soon it was time to go back to school. I gained admission into one of the best Senior High Schools in the country, St Joan Girls’ School. I had all A’s in my exam and my parents were extremely proud of me. My Aunt couldn’t hide her joy and I couldn’t wait to break the news to Ofori because I knew he would be very proud of me and most importantly, I was finally going to get the sneakers he promised.
“Hey Nicole…is everything good? What was so urgent that you didn’t allow me feed bonny (his dog)?” He asked. “Oh please, don’t even make it seem as if you weren’t in a rush to see me too. Anyways, the results are in and I had all A’s so this means that I won the bet so oya! Drop the sneakers (laughing).” I responded.
“I knew you’d make it; you’ve always been smart, intelligent and always found means to influence everything with your beautiful self. I’m proud of you.” Ofori hugged me and handed me a fresh pair of Nike shoes. I was beaming with smiles and then I realized the drop on Ofori’s face and he tried to hide it but failed. My friend was worried about something but wouldn’t tell me about it. I knew him to be always in a jolly mood but that wasn’t the case and I had the feeling it was about Valencia; his girlfriend. We said our goodbyes and promised never to break communication.
St Joan Girls’ School was everything I imagined it to be; it had a neat compound, visible green vegetation, state of the art laboratories and classrooms, a serene environment conducive for learning, well learned and professional teachers who were ever ready to assist the students even outside the lesson periods.
I remember I could call Ofori and run him through everything that happened during lessons, entertainment periods, school jams and what I was made to do during the famous ‘homos’ night and he would describe them as ‘hilariously beautiful.’ We never broke communication even for a day and amazingly, he still wouldn’t talk about what got him sad after I revealed my results to him.
On vacations, we would hang out and listen to my favorite song (let her go by passenger) together. He would hug me so tight and say “I never wanna loose what we have pumpkin (a name we fondly addressed each other by), you’ll be my best man on my wedding day.” And we’d laugh over it.
Now let me Introduce Cassie; my new bestie at the University of Arts who I met back at St Joan in my final year. Cassie and I did almost everything together; we cooked, cleaned and sometimes bathed together. She was my ‘soul sister.’ We operated on the girl code which was never to date each other’s exes!
“She’s pretty; do you think she is already taken?” Ofori asked one evening when he paid his regular sunday visits at my hostel. “Why? Aye pumpkin, so you’ve been spying her small small abi?” I asked. “Yes I have, she looks like a decent girl and I would really like to get to know her.” To cap it all, I introduced them both and soon a beautiful relationship started.
They loved each other so much that, they would never go out for functions without each other. If Cassie and I ever argued, Ofori would always side with her, to him, “Cassie was always right” and I respected that.
What they both had was real and I couldn’t help but be happy for them, after all, both of them were my friends and I loved them equally.
Ofori never stopped being there for me all the same. He still attended to me at all times and never hesitated to come to my aid. The two love birds started to plan their wedding and true to his words, Ofori asked me to be his ‘best man’ can you imagine? I said yes anyways.
Soon, it was time for graduation. I was finally going to leave school with the first class degree I always dreamt of and as a bonus, my friends were going tie the knot in six months and it was all so heavenly to me. It was like I existed in a perfect world where nothing could ever go wrong.
“Cassie called off the arrangements Nicole; I’m very devastated, I’m shattered and I feel like a fool. She left me with the excuse that she’s not ready to be tied down, but I think it is because I couldn’t give her most of the luxurious things she demanded. She never complained but why now? Why is she complaining now? When I had my heart set on her? Did you know about this? How could she do this to me?” Ofori cried out to me one evening.
“But…but…she…she… I had …had no idea this was going to happen. Pumpkin I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say now Ofori. I did not see this coming at all and I wish I did. If only I had paid much attention to the ins and outs of your relationship I could have at least prevented this humiliation from happening.” I said. Though I had no idea this was going to happen nor had a hand in it, I was still hot with shame.
Jermaine Ofori Danso was devastated and the look he had on his face was similar to the face he had on seven years ago; the night I broke the news of my success to him. Then I realized my friend got dumped by his ex Valerie and was too ashamed to let me in on it. A year on, Ofori was still broken and I was his only source of comfort. He no longer felt ashamed to cry on my shoulders. As for Cassie, she felt neither remorse nor saw the decency to apologise, she just hoped on to the next relationship train but we were still friends. I still kept contact with her regardless of what she did to Ofori. We would hang out sometimes and I did my best never to bring up what she did to him.
I sacrificed my time to be with Ofori at all times and he was quickly healed of all the wounds of the past. We spent more times together than we normally did and one night, the unexpected happened.
We went out for our regular Friday Karaoke night; shared some drinks together as always. That night, I felt different; I was happy inside and for some reasons unknown, I was anxious. The night was cold, the stars shone brighter than they normally did. Everything looked surprisingly beautiful. Ofori with his fruity voice said to me “pumpkin, I want to dedicate a song to you tonight. Come with me.” I hesitated but went up on stage with him anyways. Soon, the instrumental for Chris brown’s 2011 hit ‘I should have kissed you’ started playing. Honestly, I never knew Jermaine could sing that well. He looked into my eyes and sang word for word and for some reasons I felt he was speaking to me through the song especially when he got to the second verse which sang:
“Now why didn’t I Give you my two cents,
A million reasons why I should have,
And it makes no sense,
So here I am,
By myself again,
Stopping for green lights, and I know,
I wanna be more than friends,
How come every time I get the chance
I lose my cool and I blow it,
And I get all tongue tied,
Lost in your eyes,
I’m a fool and I know it!”
It felt awkward that night and then out of nowhere Ofori kissed me right there on stage, just like Chris Brown sang. He did so passionately and I felt every muscle in my body respond to it. It was very passionate and it lasted longer than I imagined my first kiss to be. Then I realized that I did feel something for Ofori all these years. I had always been in love with my best friend and I didn’t even know it. It did explain why we were always there for each other, it made me understand why I was sensitive and attentive to all his problems. He knew he loved me but kept it to himself so as not to wreck our beautiful friendship but now he could no longer hide it from me. He added “I love you Nicole and if I could go back into time, I would make everything happen faster so you see how true this is. I’ve always loved you but didn’t want to scare you with love issues because you always said that you were never ready for the roller coaster ride in relationships. Pumpkin, please be mine.” I broke down into tears. We had tolerated each other’s flaws from the scratch and we made it through nine years of a platonic but unique friendship.
Taking a cue from Keri Hilson’s ‘knock you down’, I guess love does come around sometimes to just knock you down. Now I’m crashing and I had no idea how it happened but all I know is, it feels so damn good.
What about Cassie and our ‘girl code’? Would this latest development bring an end to our friendship? How would she feel? I vowed never to date any of her exes and that included Ofori.
Would you ever date your friend’s ex? Would you jeopardize a solid bond you share with your friend to be with the one you love?
Ladies, would you ever break a ‘girl code’?
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