She Felt Alive From the Inside

Nkechi woke up early the following day for her usual exercise routine; she did stretches, squats and abdominal workouts.

Forty-five minutes into her exercise, Aisha woke up, went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and joined in the exercise.

When they were done, they went out to ride. Nkechi went with her bicycle and Aisha went out with a stopwatch to get the duration of time Nkechi would cycle around the neighbourhood.

"It's really cold this morning," said Nkechi.

"Nah, the weather is perfect for this ride," replied Aisha.

"Get on your bike and ride, be safe," she continued

And Nkechi was on her way, riding as fast as she could.

The neighbourhood had 15 buildings arranged on each side with a road in between and branching out left and right and around the 30 buildings. Hers was the first building while entering the neighbourhood.

Approaching the end of the neighbourhood, she took the turn at the right of the last building, in front of the gym, where she caught a gaze of a young man walking out of the gym.

Both eyes locked together like lovers sharing their very first kiss. He was astonished by her beauty and how she rode and she was stunned by his looks and physique.

The gaze rested on him like she had known him all her life while her legs paddled the bicycle with no idea of the direction where she was headed.

He immediately noticed she was about to go off the road, so he tried to get her to watch where she was heading, instead she smiled at him and waved.

The moment she turned to see the road, she had already ridden into the local swimming pool.

The young man ran after her in great haste and dived into the swimming pool to get her out.

"Are you alright? You lost focus on the road for a moment there," he said, bending down at the edge of the pool to get the bicycle out.

"Yes, I am okay. Thank you. Uhm... I got distracted by... Uhm... But, thank you so much," Nkechi responded.

It was unusual for her to let her feelings get the better of her. She quickly jumped on her bicycle and rode off.

The young man looking bemused shook his head and walked in the direction of the gym. He got to the entrance of the gym, turned around to see if she was still in sight, chuckled and walked in.

The distance felt longer for her, she wasn't paddling as fast as she normally would but it didn't bother her one bit. Eventually, along the way, she got down from the bicycle, talked to herself and smiled until she got to her building, walked past Aisha standing outside and went into the house.

Wild fantasies could make a person not realise certain things, people talking to them or people standing in their way. That was exactly what happened in her case.

Aisha went mute, if something bad were wrong with her friend, she'd be frowning while she walked past her, but she wasn't. She looked happier than she was the past few days. Not like something wasn't wrong, but it was a good wrong.

One foot after the other, she watched her friend match into the house, moving her head left to right.

Aisha walked closely behind her as she went in. Stood in front of her and waited for her to say something, anything that could make her ignore her presence.

Nkechi looked into the distance, smiling. She had an inexplicable feeling of excitement swarming all over her.

Inaudible words came out of her mouth that only she could hear and she started playing with the wheel of the bicycle, spinning it.

Aisha watched on.

"Baby girl, I think your bicycle should be outside, and not on our couch and why are you wet?" said Aisha.

Nkechi didn't respond, she seemed not to have heard what Aisha said. She looked at her but was far away.

"Nkechi!" Aisha called out.

But Nkechi responded not.

"Nkechi!!" Aisha called out louder and also tapped her on her shoulder.

Nkechi reacted so quickly in defence, then let down her stance when she noticed it was her friend.

"Why did you take him out of my head?" asked Nkechi.

"Him who?" asked Aisha, in surprise.

"Oh, you mean Efe? He's the one making you act like this. Did you see him again this morning?" Aisha continued and burst into laughter.

"Who's Efe? Oh, not him, not him," said Nkechi. She turned to Aisha, looked at her squarely and let out a wide smile and said, "someone else."

"You were feeling someone yesterday and today a new person?"

"Yesterday doesn't count. I was feeling the bicycle, not the person."

"Yeah, right. You ran all that way, for a long distance just for a bicycle," Aisha chuckled.

"It was for the bicycle. I wanted to ask about it, but—"

"But you saw how gorgeous he was looking and you forgot it was the bicycle that made you run that distance to catch up with him," Aisha interrupted.

"I mean, anyone who looks at Efe would fall in love with him that instance," Aisha continued.

"I could see the chemistry between both of you, it was magical."

Nkechi knew in her mind that the only magical thing that happened last night was because of the bicycle. It was no secret that Efe was a good-looking man but what caught her attention was what she ran after.

Aisha wouldn't understand how she was feeling at the moment. She felt alive from the inside. She had forgotten completely about the cycling competition and for the first time, something else is occupying her mind.

She laid back on the couch and focused on his face, not on Efe's but on the nameless stranger she was with earlier.

"No!!" said Nkechi, inwardly.

Nkechi hurried up and ran out of the house. Her friend ran after her but couldn't keep up.

"Where are you running to?" asked Aisha, in a loud voice.

"I didn't get his name," replied Nkechi, in a loud voice also.