Ryan picked up the phone. It was Valarie and from her voice; he sensed that all was not well. She sounded scared and was breathing heavily. All signs of anxiety. He already knew what news to expect from her. He told her to calm down and take a deep breath before she could speak. All this time all he was wishing for was that what would come out of her mouth would be nothing but delightful news.
Ryan and Valarie had been dating for six months now. They met accidentally during an event in campus and had hit it off from the go. Still in campus, their love life was all about fun, merry making and love making. None of them was on an income but the little pocket money they got from their parents was enough to bankroll their lifestyle in campus. The only problem is that they came from different cities and holidays would always be a bummer because they could not see each other. Valarie came from Kitengela in Kajiado County while Ryan was a cool kid from Kisumu City.
Just like any other campus flings, they spent their evenings together up to about 10pm when he would escort her back to her hostel. Not unless they decided to exile the roommate that night. In the evenings they would strut around like peacocks hand in hand as they went to get their supper. Ryan’s friends had already started teasing him. They were saying ‘amekaliwa chapati’ and that he was not himself. To his friends he was a player, and seeing him all this smitten made them think she had cast a spell on him.
It was the end of the semester and one of the top artists in the country was coming to campus to headline the end of semester bash. Everybody was psyched up guys were all over looking for money. This is the time parents bought things they didn’t even know existed. Ryan was not left behind. He wanted to impress his girlfriend and also show off to his buddies. He managed to get two thousand shillings from his mum. He went to pick up Valarie from the hostel and convinced her to accompany him to the event. He later teamed up with his friends and they all got intoxicated as they had fan. Of course, guys pooled their resources to buy several bottles of vodka and whisky. The partied all night long as some of them passed out. Ryan was trying to keep it down as he had tagged Valarie along and he did not want to embarrass her.
They got high and at around one am, snack out of the graduation square, where the event was, and went back to Ryan’s room. They had planned a private party of their own. After all, that was the last time they would see each other, not until four months elapsed. Things got steamy and since they were intoxicated, nobody really remembered what happened that night. The two love birds trusted each other and so no one was worried about the events of the previous night.
The semester came to a close and the two love birds bid one another goodbyes,. It was an emotional moment for both but they had no control over it. The relationship went on via the phone. They texted each other day and night and it would only stop when they fell asleep. Valarie had started having funny feelings but did not tell Ryan until the time her periods did not come. She was so afraid and shuttered. She was the first born in the family and all her siblings were looking up to to her for inspiration. She had passed her KCSE exams was a pride of the family. Now she was pregnant.what was she going to do. Before telling Ryan, she confided in her closest and best friend Lynn. She advised her to take a pregnancy test. Before she did, she talked to Ryan.
When Ryan heard this news at first, he didn’t flinch, he told her not to worry because probably the periods had just delayed but all would be well. She had used emergency contraceptives and maybe they had affected her cycle. Valarie understood her body and she was almost certain she was pregnant. She told him she would buy a pregnancy test kit just to put all doubt to rest. He was good with it, but he had started feeling nervous. What would they do if she really was pregnant? They were still dependents and there was no way they were going to be able to take care of a baby.
When she called back, he was chilling with his friends at home. He could feel the worry in her voice but still felt optimistic. “The result came out positive!” she said feeling very frightened and confused. Ryan acted cool, though he was terrified inside. “ don’t worry babe, we are in this together. I will support you all through this time.” He said. That was reassuring for her and it gave her strength. Now the biggest problem was telling her parents and she didn’t wanna do so.
Later that day she called him and said she didn’t wanna keep the baby for it would destroy her life and her realationship with her mother and her family. That is what he wanted too but he couldn’t just agree with it. He didnt want to risk the life of the girl he loved plus risk destroying the hope of them having a family in future. She remained adamant and wanted to deal with it before it had developed. He agreed with her and decided to help her get the money to deal with it. One week later they got ten thousand shillings and it was time. Since she was miles away, all he could do was offer moral support as he would not accompany her to the hospital. Her friend told her of a doctor who did abortion somewhere in Nairobi town. She visited him.
After the procedure she lost a lot of blood and was too weak. She slept at the clinic up to around nine o'clock in the night. Ryan kept on texting her until she fell asleep. Being that he gave her all he had, he also didn’t even have airtime to call her,. He could not "sambaza" airtime from his folks phones because they were all using a different service provider. Luckily she got home safe and sounds, though weak and wasted. She went straight to bed just to avoid questions from her mum. She locked herself in her room and cried. What had she just done. The bleeding continued for some few days, though not constantly. Was she infected? she called the doctor who performed the procedure on her and he agreed to check up on her. Ryan was all this time scared to death. What had they done? It would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
After check up, the doctor assured her that she would be well. She was very lucky that she came out alive and safe. Ryan was relieved, first because she was fine, and secondly because he had dodged a bullet. He didn’t know what his dad would have done to him. The man was a straight forward man and very stern. He couldn’t imagine what would have happened to him.
After some time, she was all ok and her biological cycle was back to normal. They got back to school but their relationship started deteriorating. They quarreled over small things. She started going over his phone just to check his messages. The respect in the relationship had waned. She was heaping blames on Ryan for all the problems in her life. She blamed him for not talking her out of the procedure. She blamed him for the loss of flame in their relationship. Soon she started finding solace in her friend. The solace turned into a romantic affair and soon she lost interest in Ryan totally. The chatting and the visits ended. Later she broke up with Ryan. The relationship could not continue because he would not look at her the same again. They reminded each other of the evil they did.
