Our love story continued to be the talk of the campus. At least while it lasted, we were known all over the campus, for every evening after the day's lectures, we'd rendezvous at our favourite love nest; Coke Villa.
We watched each other's back, making sure our academic pursuit suffered no setback, the goal was to have a successful lawyer married to a medical doctor. Oh how we fantasised about the day we'd be joined to become one soul officially!
Our little love sail started experiencing turbulence the moment Roy lost his father. He was in his fourth year and was so heartbroken when his uncles made sure his father's business didn't fall under his mother's control.
They had argued that the business was set up for his late father by their father (Roy's grandpa) and was expected to be inherited by either of his brothers.
Their winning point was the fact that Roy wasn't groomed to take over the business nor was the mother in the right frame to take over. Neither Roy, who was the first son of his parents, nor his mother could do anything to stop his uncles from taking his father's business away from them.
They had promised to ensure that Roy lacked nothing in school and that his other siblings also would get the chance to go to school like their father planned for them all; a promise they didn't keep for even a day.
Roy's mother kept selling her personal properties to offset some of the bills in their household, but when it was time for Roy to pay his fees in his final year, there was no help coming from anywhere.
His mother cried and worried so much that her blood pressure skyrocketed out of control. I was on my way to the bank to get the money my parents sent for my fees when I saw Roy coming out of the school gate in tears.
'What would make him cry so helplessly along the road?' I wondered. I was meant to have rounded off the year before but I had to defer my studies because I spent my fees on his younger brother's health the previous year. But seeing him in tears that day, got me so broken, I had to take a decision I shouldn't have.
I lied to my parents that my grades were poor and I was given an extra year. I had only gotten the money to pay my fees now after my parents had sworn to disown me if I played with my studies badly enough to get another extension.
'Roy, Roy' I screamed his name, but he was too lost in his grief to hear me. I ran after him while still calling his name. When I caught up with him, I noticed he didn't want to talk to me about his problems. He kept telling me that he'd find a way around it, I didn't need to bother, he said.
I insisted until he told me how his mother was lying in the hospital because of the inability to pay his fees to enable him to take the final exams. I was moved by how hard he tried to keep his problems from me. I was very sure he didn't want me to worry about his personal problems again.
Anger engulfed me when I thought of how he was going through so much when his father's business was taking care of his uncle's needs. Roy told me how his uncle had been very angry with him for asking for his fees.
According to his uncle, his sons can't be slaving away in the shop while he was free to laze around and ask for money like he kept it somewhere. His uncle had told him to forget about the school and join them in the shop if he wanted to enjoy any proceeds from the business.
Roy's father had the dream of having a medical doctor and since that was the man's last wish before he gave up, his mother had been fighting so hard to see it come to reality. He had been groomed from childhood to work towards being a medical doctor, but with his dad dead, the dream was about to die as well.
I felt so bad that our little plan of a lawyer getting married to a medical doctor was being threatened. I thought of what would become of me if I didn't pay my fees again, I reckoned my parents would make good their threat and disown me.
But when I thought of how blissful the end will be if I let Roy graduate and then defer my studies again till the following year, when he must have been able to raise money for my fees and we both stand out tall at the end of it all, I smiled triumphantly.
Initially when I told him of the plan, he didn't want to hear of it. He told me how my parents would be hurt so badly if they eventually found out all the hiccups my education has experienced so far were because of him.
I was glad I managed to convince him to accept the money. 'I promise this will never end like those tales we watch in movies. I'll never disappoint you, I promise to make you my wife and we'd look back at this day being happy forever' Roy swore fervently.
'I trust you Roy, and I trust what we share more' I told him honestly. By this time, we were already seated by the roadside, under a fruit seller's shade. He quickly went to the hostel to get his stuff and I was about to proceed to the bank as planned when the fruit seller asked me to spare her a minute.
She told me she knew how important it was for people to mind their businesses, but she just couldn't help talking to me. She told me how she had overheard everything Roy and I had been discussing and how she just couldn't keep shut and watch me fall into a pit.
She narrated how she became a fruit seller when actually she came to that town as an undergraduate. Her story looked so much like mine and she was shedding tears while she narrated how her guy got a chance to travel to another country to work with a well known company and she financed him with not just her school fees but also stole from her parents to actualize his dreams of travelling.
The plan was for him to travel and get her the following year, but she never heard from him again after he left. She only learnt that he returned to the country about two years later to marry the best graduating student in their class.
I felt so sorry for her and told her how badly I felt for her predicament. I also didn't fail to tell her how my own case was different because what Roy and I shared was different from what any one has ever shared. She was still crying and trying to dissuade me when Roy came out from the school gate again.
I thanked her for sharing her story and zoomed off. I gave Roy my fees and proceeded to the school admin office to process my deferment yet again.