บท 17: MEETING MARCUS RANKS

MEETING MARCUS RANKS

[MARTHA's POV]

Though the distance could be trekked on a proper day, Lily ordered a cab that took us directly to the venue. She told me she did that while I was doing my 'zero to none' makeup.

The venue was a storey building and the party was upstairs. As we climbed the fleet of stairs, we saw two boys and their female partners wildly making out and we quickly looked away. When we entered the house, the party was in full swing and the room was blaring with loud music. Disco lights flashed all around and bodies could be seen swaying to the music or chit chatting or playing games. I saw a sofa and dragged Lily for us to sit there when we saw an upgraded version of what we saw on the stairs.

I doubt if they knew that they were giving all a free public show but either way, they did not care and drowned in their own presences. I felt somewhat disgusted but Lily seemed fine with it. Lily directed me to the bar and ordered tequila for the both of us. She claimed that it would help in calming my nerves. As I gulped the first shot, it burned at the back of my throat and my eye felt teary.

Before I could place the empty shot cup down, Lily collected it from me and gave me another. "No I do not like that thing" I said and made a face. She laughed and crossed our arms on each other and counted to three for the both of us to take it together. It stung my throat and my eyes were pricked with tears. A song came up and Lily was soon on her feet, trotting to the dance floor.

"Care to dance" she asked me.

"Nah I'm good" I declined and she walked to the dance floor and soon began feeling the ambience to the music. She swayed to the delight of swooning spectators and soon a guy came to join her and danced at her back but kept his hands to himself. The dance floor soon became crowded and where there was formerly few bodies, now had a stream of bodies around. A lady come to the bar and asked for a Moscow Mule and while she took the first gulp, I watched as her face remained neutral like she was unaffected by the alcohol. Immediately she left, I asked for same and I weirdly preferred the taste to the tequila. Although it still stung the back of my throat, I took two more shots and began to feel a little light headed. I began to feel hot and decided to go to the terrace as I noticed no one venturing to that area of the building. I knew Lily would worry if I did not let her know of my decision so despite how I disliked being in the midst of persons who had their armpits up, I braced myself and thronged through the stream of bodies. The room was stuffy and I needed to breathe. The air was filled with the smell of alcohol, cheap perfume and body odour. I took a last swig of a tequila shots as I went over to Lily on the dance floor. I had to pass through a stream of tall and short bodies that paid me no attention before I could get to Lily.

"Hey! I am going to the terrace over there" I shouted to her due to the loud music as I pointed towards the direction of where I was going.

"You really don't want to dance?" she asked again.

"Nope!" I answered popping the 'p'.

"Be careful then. If anything unlikely happens, remember I am only a call away" she shouted to me.

"I think you should change that to a shout away" I said and we laughed.

"Alright then" I said and was about to get going when a boy came to my back dancing. "You have a nice body lady. Why are you not using it?" he said with his mouth oozing the smell of alcohol and he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I am not really a good dancer and now if you would excuse me" I said and pulled his sweaty palm away from my shoulder.

"Don'b be a kill joy bitch" he said as he pulled my waist closer to his. I was about to twist the arm he used to pull me to himself when Lily did exactly what I intended. He grunted as he held his twisted elbow and cursed "shameless bitches".

"You are the shameless dog here. Now get your sorry ass out of here before I draw blood from your almost lifeless form" she said in a very intimidating way. With his face still concocted in pain, he parted the bodies around as he headed for the door. I had never seen Lily like that and she definitely looked bad ass.

"Down to earth Lil! Never saw you as a tough guy".

"Many things you would never see me as. Now get going to the terrace before that dress of yours attracts another loser" she said as she shooed me.

"kay ma'am" I said as I headed for the terrace.

Cold breeze caressed my face as I stepped into the terrace. I was grateful to Lily for her choice of hair style as I did not have to worry about my hair flapping on my face. I held the railing and enjoyed some peace and quiet as all seemed to enjoy the noise that was going on inside. I looked down and saw the street still very boisterous and people minding their own businesses, nobody looking out for another.

I watched some students possibly from UA dancing to an electric song and they were in a frenzy. It first started off as a free style before it graduated to a dance off. A boy and a girl stood opposite each other ready to wow the small crowd of people that had gathered. People dropped money into a basket that was by the side of the dancers in anticipation of who would dance best and who the winner was going to be. Whoever should win, would have all the money to himself or herself.

"I bet the girl would win" I heard a voice say at my back. I turned sharply to my back as I came to face with a familiar person. I knew I had seen him somewhere but I could not just place where. "You must be a freshman?" he asked.

"Explains why I am here" I answered a little riled up at the fact that I was so immersed in a world of my own that I did not notice someone else's presence. I really need to get back to my trainings, I reminded myself.

"You are actually not here. You are supposed to be inside where the fun is going on" he said pointing towards the direction of those dancing inside.

"Sorry to disappoint you stranger but that is not my definition of fun" I answered as I faced the street where the dance off had begun.

"So, my bet is on the girl" he said as he came to stand by my side.

"I am not really one who places bets but I go for the boy" I said as I watched the boy do a stunt in the air.

"He is skilled, he is talented, he is flexible, he is definitely the winner"I said.

"You omitted something in your qualifications' he said as he took a sip of his drink and faced the side profile of my face.

"And what could that be?" I asked facing him.

"He is over confident. He already had a look of victory on his face before the dance started and though that might be a good thing but the look read something else. The look read that he under mined the girl" he said as he faced the street. I faced the street also to see the girl dancing. She had moves - very nice one might I add and the crowd was wowed. There were 'wuuus' and 'aaaahhs'of cheers from the crowd as she executed a perfect moon crawl facing the boy. She finished off her dance with Michael Jackson's signature dance where the body is angled to forty five degrees in the air and looks like the body is about to touch the floor. I have never seen a girl do that dance and do that well. It was truly an amusing sight.

"Hi, I'm Marcus Ranks nice to meet you" he said with his right hand outstretched. I was about to close his hand with mine when his name clicked in my brain and I remembered where I had seen him. He was the SUG representative that came to give the announcement on Dr Luke's cancellation of class.

"Good day, I'm Martha Jordan" I said and closed the distance between our hands. "Why do I feel like you know me?" he asked.

"Because I know you and I just remembered how. You were the SUG representative that gave the announcement on Dr Luke's cancellation of class in English and Literature department".

"Oh that! I was once his student you know?" he asked rhetorically.

"Was huh!" I said as I rubbed my hands as the once enjoyable breeze turned to cold air.

"If you remember the day I gave the announcement, I also added that I am currently studying Geography. I was studying English and Literature because my parents wanted me to and though I was good at the course, it was not what I had passion for. I became close to Mr Luke and he advised me to chase my dream. As sad as it sounds, he told me something that sounded harsh but it is actually the truth. He said that my parents could die before me and it would be sad if all I had to live with was the decision they made about one very fundamental part of my life" he narrated.

"Well that makes sense and I see a lot of reasoning to that" I said and I must have unconsciously rubbed at my arms again before he pulled off his jacket and wore it over my frame.

"You don't need to. I was about to go back in anyway" I said to him as I tried to pull off the jacket from my shoulders. He placed his large hands on my shoulder before I could completely pull it off and asked, "Are you sure because I don't think you have any intention of being inside?'.

"You sound sure enough that I do not want to be inside. How can you possibly be so sure?" I asked. With his hands still on my shoulder, he looked at our shoes and back to my face then said "I have met you before and when I saw you walk into the party and saw the faces you made on assessing the party, I knew you did not want to be inside. I also did not want to be in and I decided to walk up to you" he said.

I was shocked to express the least but I did not show it and I acted like I was visibly relaxed meanwhile, alarm bells were going off in my brain whether he was someone I had encountered in a mission for The Hearts or someone I had hurt during a mission.

"I don't expect you to remember me actually because it was just a brief meeting but I could not forget you. It was also the day I gave that announcement. I had forgotten a file on the podium when I came to give the announcement and I came back to retrieve it when we bumped at each other at the door. It seems you were also headed somewhere and I was smitten by the colour of your eyes. They are deep green and they are beautiful. It's like one of the very rare colours to see in the eyes. It's...it's fascinating" he narrated and removed his hands from my shoulders.

"Now that's a deep discovery" I said slightly conscious that this stranger knew a handful of things about me. As I was about to place my hand back on the railing, I saw a spider and I exclaimed ,"Yah!" and grabbed unto Marcus. "What is the issue?" he asked as he placed me behind him as he followed my line of sight as he checked for any possible danger.

"The spider?" he asked as he pointed at the arachnid that walked like it had no care in the world.

"Yes! Yes!" I answered wide eyed. He pulled off his right leg of shoe and killed the spider and I watched as the spider stopped moving and fluid came out of its side. He pushed it off and it tumbled down. I heaved a sigh of relief and let go of his shoulder I was grabbing very tightly unto. My finger nails left an impression on his shirt and I wondered if I had left a bruise.

"I am so sorry" I apologized as I pointed to his shoulder.

"It's nothing" he said as he dropped his shoe to the ground and placed his socked foot back in. I looked at my naturally long nails and knew that there was no way on earth I had not left a bruise and I felt sorry.

"If you feel sorry about what just happened because despite my denial I am sure there might be a slight chance that there is a little bruise, you can do this to feel less sorry" he said as he took my hand and placed it on his shoulder. He took a step closer to me and I became aware of our close proximity. I became aware of everything around me and I noticed that the loud upbeat music that was coming faintly from inside was replaced with a slow rhythmical beat.

"Dance with me Martha" he said as he placed a hand on the side of my waist. He took a step back and I followed, then right, then back and I was soon twirling around the terrace with me in his arms. It felt okay but it did not feel right and because I had promised myself that I was going to try to forget about Nathan, I decided to go with the flow. The music ended some minutes later and our chests heaved up and down due to the slight exercise we just carried out. I was still in his arms and decided that I had had enough for the night when he suddenly lowered his head and kissed me.

I wanted to push him but I decided to find out probably the reason why I could not get Nathan's kiss out of my head was because I had never had a long and stimulating kiss so I kissed Marcus back. I decided not to think and just act and that was what I did exactly. I am sure he was surprised because he kissed me back with more vigour than before. There was no warmth in my belly, no involuntary curling of toes and no fired tingles on my skin. I was very much aware that I was not in heaven, I was on earth and currently resting on the wall.

"What exactly did Nathan Martin do to me?" I rhetorically asked myself in my thoughts and broke off the kiss. I gently pushed him back and noticed how dazed he looked. He really was into the kiss and I led him on. That was so wrong of me and I needed to explain things to him but as I was about to open my lips that lacked gloss to explain my actions, a loud crash sound was heard inside. We quickly ran inside to check and we saw two guys exchanging blows. There were broken cups on the floor and two boys that tried to separate them were thrown to the side. We soon heard the whirling of police vehicles and I knew they would be up here in no time. This was not how I thought my first party would end but I needed to get out of there. I looked around for Lily and she was also looking around, possibly in search of me. I was about to go up to her when her eyes met mine and she jogged over to me. "We need to get out of here" she said to me. "Definitely, but how?" I asked as I checked around for a possible exit that the police would not come through.

"I know a way out but it might be quite dangerous but follow me" said Marcus and that was when I realized that he was still by my side. We entered a room and he took a curtain and tied it to a hook on the window tightly. He held unto the curtain and jumped out of the window as he glided down the curtain into the next compound.

"I'll catch you, just try it' he shouted. He must have thought I was some damsel in distress and wanted to act like my knight in shining armour but definitely not today and maybe never.

"Can you?" I asked Lily as I pointed towards the window.

"Yes I can. After you!" she encouraged.

"We'll be down to help in case" I said reassuringly to her. I quickly re did the knot he formed with the hook as I heard police men in the room where the party took place. I held unto the curtain and slid down with ease. I made a safe landing and looked up to see Lily re doing the knot. I could hear the police men loudly knocking at the door and Marcus and I urged her to be faster and join us. She was soon done re knotting and joined us down. Marcus resides in the compound we just entered and we got into his car as he took us back to campus. During the ride he commented on how I got down so easily and I thanked him. I also commented on how very good Lily landed because she did not make a landing like it was her first time. The school security knew about the freshmen' party that was taking place that day coupled with Marcus' influence, we were allowed into the school premises and to our hostels without intense questioning. Marcus dropped Lily off first before he stopped at the front of mine.

"Would it be somehow to get your phone number on our first proper encounter?" Marcus asked. "Well you helped us get out of that mess unscathed and you also protected me from the cold…" I said but could not complete my words as I touched my shoulder and could not find his jacket. I must have dropped it during our escape. He must have noticed my distressed face because he said "Do not worry about it, I could retrieve it or get another. It's no biggie" he said. "Thanks still. Alright, your phone?" I asked. He unlocked his phone and passed it to me. I typed in my phone number and gave it to him to save.

I watched him save it as 'MJ', the initials of my name and I smiled.

"Adios Marcus" I said as I got off his car and ran to my hostel.