What is love?

 Brown, like the earth, like wine, like his eyes. It was a colour that was magnificent in its own way. Dull, uninteresting to look at at first but once you take a closer look, the moment you break the thousand years old barrier, you’ll be lost forever.

Love they say is mighty and strong, it’s a feeling, much like all the others but I’ve heard people say so many times that it’s much greater and the most powerful form of emotion. It could collapse mountains, cause storms and earthquake but still, I’ve never felt it. I don’t know what it means to love or to be loved. Mama would always tell me that she loves me and I’ll say it to her back but I didn’t really understand what it was.

Since I was a little girl, I used the fictional world to escape reality. I’ll read so much, at night, in the day time, whenever I got the chance, till my eyes hurt. It’s something that has become part of me now, devouring the pages of the book like it was my favourite food and getting lost, sinking in, deeper and deeper as the story unfolded. Mama would always yell at me because I’ll forget my self especially, when I’m in the kitchen thinking of what the next chapter might be.

The books I’ve read revolved mostly around love and romance. How far and how much the protagonist is ready to go for the love of her life, die even and in my mind I’ll always call the characters stupid and gullible for falling for such cheap words. Maybe because it’s fiction, it doesn’t always make sense. The real world is harsh and hard, painted in white and black, not rose coloured like in novels.

I’m twenty two and still haven’t had my first kiss or dated anyone. Maybe the ideal partner I’ve set for myself doesn’t exist or the fact that I don’t understand the true concept of love.

“Chizaram! Chuma is here ohh" Mama’s deep assertive voice broke me from my inner dialogue and the thought of him caused something inside of me to stir. Soft, wet and bubbly.

“I’m coming!” I replied.

In the sitting room was Chuma and a girl, dark and very beautiful, one that I could place as one of those main characters in books.

“Zara!” Chuma called in that deep voice that was at the same time calm and enchanting. My heart beat, I didn’t know what was wrong, it was so loud and fast that I was scared it was going to cause something disastrous.

“This is my friend, Chinaza” He introduced and the girl in turn smiled, her smile so wide that it felt like I was doing something wrong. She went closer to Chuma, her hands on his shoulders and that stupid and irrational part of me wanted to go to her, remove her hands from his body and push her so faraway but my reality was me seating opposite them, trying to feign a smile.

We talked, for hours now. I tried my best to involve myself. Chuma would laugh every once in a while, showing those perfect teeth. He was my best friend and we talked about lots and lots of things and I would tell him secrets, one that I’ve never told anyone.

Chinaza, was a smart talker, seizing every opportunity she’s got to tell something so exciting and compelling and the way she’ll look at Chuma, waiting for him to laugh and her gaze on me which were more like the fire from the pit of hell. Maybe I had imagined it or not but we both were poles that would never come together and would always repel.

“Zara, remember that time that Tochukwu told you he liked you and you just stared at him like he had just committed the biggest crime,” Chuma reminded and I nodded my head sheepishly because the event was so funny and I didn’t even understand a thing he was saying because I tried to imagine the boy’s face as a crocodile spouting such unintelligible words. He wasn’t even that good looking and was far from the points I would give my ideal one.

“He just kept going on and on about how I’m the princess in distress that he was supposed to rescue. His words were mismatched, missing pidgin and English and why, just tell me Chuma, why would I want to go out with someone like that? He wasn’t even that good looking and made no sense,”

Chinaza let out the loudest giggle that I felt was fake. She looked at Chuma and the next she was whispering something in his ear that I couldn’t make out. My blood was boiling so much that it could even burn down the whole building and most importantly, destroying her pretty face.

“I’ll be right back” I said to the both of them before I left for the kitchen. Mama was preparing rice and chicken, one that I’ll soon serve them.

“Mama!” I called to my mother and immediately, her gaze was on mine.

“What is love?” I asked her as she hadn’t expected. She looked at me, seizing the opportunity to smile, her hands, shifting the strand of hair on my face.

“Love is beautiful my dear and there is no one perfect explanation for it. It’s unexpected. If you love someone you’ll want to do things for them, you’ll think about them all the time and you would not Stand the idea of another person close to them and most importantly, you can’t live without them and would even die for them just the way you feel for Chuma dear,”

That moment, I wanted to cover my face because of the visible blush on. My next set of words were stuttering and unintelligible. Mama looked at me but i couldn't meet her gaze. Why did it take this long to realize that I'm in love with this man.

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A 1000 words short story challenge. How was it? Did you like it? What do you understand love to be? Have you ever fallen in love?