My First Love Letter

I wrote a lovely letter to a girl I had a huge crush on. We were in the same class but in different schools. She was short, cute, light skin and very hairy so she had an afro, but the most important admirable feature of hers was that she was book-smart.

Her aunt and my mother are close friends, I only saw her twice in a week, during cooking days. Her aunt would bring her and her little brother along when she came to help my mother with her catering service. In the beginning, I thought she was annoying and prideful, because would always distant herself and not socialize. Therefore, I disliked her.

However, as time went by, my dislike for her gradually turned into a crush, I would be stealing glances at her or just admire her from a distance. Sometimes she would catch me staring or drooling at her but I would pretend I was looking in the sky or trying to kill a mosquito on my arm or something, and she would smile or giggle at me. Anytime she smiled at me, I took it as an invitation for a friendship. Soon, I started making moves at her, I used the excuse of school to get her to talk to me, we could talk about school and other school related stuff, the more I talked to her, the more I fell for her.

My feelings grew strong, I couldn’t stop thinking about her, I just could not get her out of my head, every second, minute, hours, days, she was all I could think of. I couldn’t take it any longer, I had to do something or at least say something, I wanted to tell her how I felt, but the question was, HOW? I did not know what to do.

The feeling of being rejected was a major concern; I was unsure how she would take it if I confessed my feelings. However, I knew I had to take my chance and risk it all, that was the only way. I had a long conversation with my conscience on the approach to use, my options were, through a face-to-face conversation or through a love letter.

I chose to write her a love letter like how my friends from school always did. I had to pour out my heart and tell her how I really felt. To write the perfect love letter, I started listening to love songs and picking lines from Michael Bolton, Elton John, Aaron Neville, and Lionel Richie, these people were the best as far as love songs were concerned. I was able to write the perfect love letter thanks to them.

Now that the letter was done, another headache was how to deliver it. I couldn’t go to her school to deliver it, that’s insane! And I couldn’t go to her house to hand it over, neither could I stalk her around hoping for a better chance to give it out. My only way was to give it to her when she tags along with her aunt when they came over to my mother’s kitchen.

I remember that night like it was yesterday, it was a calm Wednesday night, cloudy with a chance of precipitation and lightening, it was a little windy too. I crossed her just before she was about to enter the kitchen and I told her I had something for her, so she should not be in a rush to go home. I was nervous the entire evening, I could not concentrate, all I thought about was the letter I had in my back pocket.

The cooking session was over hours later, and she came to look for me. When she found me, we talked for a while, then she said she was going home, then I reached for my back pocket and pulled out the love letter I wrote, and begged her not to open it now, until when she arrived at home. She agreed and left.

I was eagerly waiting to get a reply the next cooking session, I knew I would get a reply and I was so looking forward to it. The next cooking session was in four days. However, four days felt like four years because I kept thinking if she would reply me or not, but slowly the days passed.

She came to our kitchen as usual, and I was excited to see her. Hours later, she called me to the back of the kitchen and handed me a sealed envelope, she had this awkward look on her face. We couldn’t talk for long, she said she was tired and had to leave early. Then she left.

I went to my room to read the letter she gave me, she had a lovely hand writing, the letter had a formal format. The introduction was straightforward and kinda weird, as I continued reading the letter, I stopped, norr she start dey advise me la, oh charle? Like my brains wan scatter, “Na love I say I love you, I no kill person. Na you p3 you be Christian way you dey come advise me say boyfriend girlfriend no good”, I thought to myself angrily.

In the letter, the girl told me to read Colossians 3:5, “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are on the earth as respects sexual immorality, uncleanness, uncontrolled sexual passion, hurtful desire, and greediness, which is idolatry”.

If you read this quotation from a Twi Bible, you’ll cry, you would feel the pain I felt in my heart that evening. Long story short, she rejected me and added a Bible quotation for me to read,  implying that I was a bad boy, the rejection really got to me, that night I couldn’t sleep. Being rejected was so painful, I felt numb on the inside, I felt bitterness for her. I didn’t want to talk or see her ever again. I couldn’t control the rage I felt towards her.

The following week, during the next cooking session, I ignored her, I pretended she didn’t exist, I didn’t talk to her, I never looked at her, I didn’t acknowledge her existence. When the evening cooking session was over, I went to my room. I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to even say bye.

A couple of meetings later, something happened, she realized I was ignoring her, and it was working. She rushed me to the back of the kitchen and started crying, she started begging me, I was confused! I didn’t know what was happening, she started begging and pleading for forgiveness, then she started saying, she didn’t mean everything she wrote in the letter.

She said, she couldn’t stop thinking about me, and that she also loved me, and she wants me to forget everything she said to me in the letter, and she willfully agrees to be my girlfriend.

herrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhh come and see me, my head became big and light like a feather, the feeling was amazing, the feeling that she loved me too was amazing…I calmed her down, held her in my arms, and  told her I forgave her.

And that was the beginning of a beautiful love story!