Rob and Leila

Rob lived in a noisy apartment building imperfectly decorated in hues of orange and with a dominant liquor joint on the ground floor. One could easily forgive the owner of the building for the choice of painting and pin it on financial strains or poor taste but the financial decision to lease out the seemingly largest rental space in the building to a disorganized and unethical businessman like Kamaa, was unforgivable, not to mention the tight spaces and limited passageways that meandered around and inside the pub which easily passed as a security threat to the tenants. The interior of the building, too, was flawed; not only was it claustrophobic and deprived of natural light, but it also emanated mouldy scents intertwined with whiffs of washing powder and a wide range of cigarette odours. Like his expressive neighbours, Rob too possessed a sound system with blasting speakers that boomed throughout the day and halfway through the night, playing music that glorified intoxicants and explored human genitalia in bewildering vulgarity. 

The premises was a dwelling place for the tireless and a shelter for night owls. A place of dramatic occurrences that one could only endure if they had a well-set voice box or an ice-cold heart, both of which Leila did not possess. When Rob had suggested that she move in with him, she was hesitant, but after he assured her of his protection and convinced her that it was only a matter of time before he moved out to a better place, her heart opened up, and she delighted in the idea that he actually cared for her. She had been to his place several times before but not long enough to be considered a roommate and not long enough to attract an audience with the locals. Sometimes they spent weekends in his tiny bedsitter, doing nothing else but smoking weed, chugging beer at every top of the hour, and having long naked naps. On better days, they would order large amounts of takeout, stuff themselves up, and have sex every time their eyes met, and being in an enclosed tiny space, their eyes met a lot!

They were both freshmen when they stumbled on each other one afternoon under the wild heat of January's sun. They met on campus grounds; she an aspiring actress, and he an unwilling Computer Science student but an ardent basketball player. He was in his training garb, and a couple of faded tattoos peeked from his wide chest and sturdy biceps, but she was more attracted to his ear piercings and his towering stature. She stood at the edge of the basketball court and whisked her wig provocatively in his direction. It did not take long for him to notice that she had her eyes on him. He jogged to where she was, shouted "I'm gassed" in the direction of the other players, and immediately got lost in the fullness of her chest, and for the first time, he was willing to skip a day of training if it meant getting a chance to walk with her to the hostels. "I could help you carry some of that weight, ya know," was the first thing he said to her as he glanced towards her breasts but then he sensed a discomfort from how she winced her face, which made him shift his gaze to her tote bag, hanging from her left shoulder, and pulled it into his hand. Redeeming himself, he said, "I was talking about the bag."

Her hostel room was themed in pink and blue wallpapers. The bunk bed she shared with her roommate was washed in all pink, from the rims of the bed to the covers and pillowcases. The sole neutral item in the room was an old rackety wardrobe which they had turned into a bookshelf but still had stickers of Barbie dolls dressed in pink. There were stickers of fairyland entities running on the walls and the room smelled of chocolates and coconut oil. Leila motioned to the edge of the lower bed and pointed Rob to a seat by the window close to where she was seated.

"Whoa, I don't think I've ever seen this amount of pink in one place," he expressed his amazement.

"Hmm, the colour found us, and we embraced it. Cindy did not like the idea at first but once I did the much-needed makeover, she couldn't resist it," Leila chimed in, grinning.

"Who's Cindy?"

"My roommate. Are you always this slow?" She chuckled.

"Only when I've spotted a delicious prey and I'm getting ready to pounce." He said, and to his delight, Leila responded with a cheerful laughter.

They talked about how their first month on campus had been toxic lecturers, exclusive parties, cool clubs, vibrant societies, but mostly pointed out each other's beauty marks. He was a charmer with a cute face and a master at dad jokes. He probably hadn't done much training that afternoon because he smelt alright. His cologne smelled good, but it was something she could do without, like the smell of sweet bread in a hot afternoon or the scent of honey in a bathroom. She asked him to mention his top five attractive qualities in a woman and he was careful enough only to mention what she possessed. "Fat cheeks. Not the facial ones by the way... clear skin... brown eyes, bubbly spirit, and... irresistible!" he said. She let herself get lost in his deep, wide-set eyes as he spoke. Moments later, she had already decided she wanted to be his girlfriend and so she asked him to kiss her. One month in, they decided that the hostel rules were too restrictive and started looking into other options and that is when he suggested that she could move in with him. It did not take long for her to consider her decision. She did not even wait to exhaust her hostel rent until the end of the semester. Before long, she was balancing colours in Rob's apartment, rearranging the room and marking the territory.

The first week was bliss: they shared chores, re-watched each other's favourite movies and shows, hosted a wild housewarming party, explored new sex positions, and got friends to cover up for their missed classes. Rob even hired a mama fua who would come every three days to do the laundry and clean the house. The second week was mostly filled with conversations about the plan to move out to a more spacious apartment closer to campus, and loads of sex. The third week was mostly uneventful, except for Friday afternoon when Leila came back to the apartment from a two-hour lecture on Film Production. As she made her way through the pub back to the apartment, she spotted Rob lulled on one of the corner tables, with Kamaa bending over him and saying something into his ear. She did not bother to ask since she knew he would eventually sober up and climb back up to the room before 9 pm, she was beginning to get used to his drinking routine. However, about ten minutes after her arrival, she heard a knock on the door, convinced that Rob had decided to follow her, she flung the door open and went back to the couch, ready to express her disgust and get him to apologize for the embarrassment he almost caused her at the pub but then she noticed it wasn't him but a much rather massive male figure. It did not take long for her to realize that it was Kamaa.

He did not wait to be invited in since the door was already fully open. As he inched closer to her, the stench of grease and cigarettes moved along with him and in a second, covered the entire house. She was not used to seeing him on the upper floors of the building, and his presence caused an unfamiliar aura. She did not know what to say to him since they had never been acquainted. He stared at her with red glassy eyes, looked around the house with curiosity then barked.

"Chali yako amenituma nikujie malipo yangu ya drinks."

It was not only strange for him to come and demand payment of Rob's drinks from the house but Leila also found it despicable and disrespectful for him to claim that Rob had sent him to demand it from her. She did not counter or show disapproval, though, lest Kamaa felt provoked, so to protect her sanity, she decided to cater for the bill and work it out with Rob later.

"How much?" she asked, opening the zipper to her tote bag.

"Sijakujia dough, mresh, ni wewe nadai," Kamaa exploded, tightening one hand around Leila's arm and letting her know that he did not come for money but for her.

Leila felt her heart beating faster. She wanted to scream but she knew her voice could not beat the numerous hoofers blasting from almost every neighbor's apartment. She thought about the kitchen knife and where she had left it earlier after slicing apples. She figured she could kick him on the balls and make her way out but he was too close for her knee to get the perfect range. She cursed the engineers of the building for the window guards that now acted as a barrier to her freedom. She let her mind run into different options, but first, she decided to plead and if possible, reason with Kamaa.

"Ngoja Kamaa, I'll pay you double, and if that's not enough, you can take the TV ama kitu yoyote unataka, laptop, blender, anything! Please." She offered everything and made a mental note to fight at all costs rather than to have this animal pound on her.

"Cheki! It's either ufanye ama ufanywe lakini sitoki hapa bila malipo umeskia! Hizo TV zako jiekee" He gave her two options, "...to do or to be done..." and he was adamant about not leaving until he had gotten his payment, which, to him, had to be nothing but a chance with her. 

She knew he meant every word he said. She saw it from the movement of his lips, spitting wet, sticky saliva on her face, as he spoke. She saw it on his sweaty forehead and on the bulging hardness of his fly. She knew he was determined to wreck her, but she was also determined not to let it happen. As he pulled her closer to him by the waist and rubbed his member on her crotch, she remembered where she had left the knife: it was lying on the plate with the rest of the uneaten apple slices, resting on the armrest of the couch just an arm stretch away from behind her. She felt it begging for her to reach it. She tried to but Kamaa's hands were quicker and heavier against hers. In a split second, he had removed his belt, gagged her with it, bent her over and tightened the belt behind her neck. Leila knew she had to act fast because her arms would definitely be restrained next.  

The man was heavy. His belly held more than a decade-load of alcohol and his body weight was probably three times more than that of Leila. She felt defeated and began having regretful monologues in her head. I should not have gotten into a relationship with Rob that fast. I should have stayed at the hostel. Why was I even at Rob's apartment when I had known from the first time, that Mawazoni Flats was not a conducive place to live? Why did I not wait to move in with him until after he had moved out to a safer place, at least? What will now become of me? A victim of rape? Another number raising the statistics of gender-based violence? 

"No! I have to do something. I have to stop him. I have to try." She repeated that statement between heavy breaths and just before Kamaa grabbed her right hand to join it together with the left one, she grabbed the knife and dipped it into his right thigh. She was surprised at how fast her reflexes were. There was a slight chance between Kamaa's reaction to the pain and her releasing herself from his bondage. With her mouth still gagged, she pulled out the knife from his thigh and proceeded to swipe the blade on his waist, back and upper arms. She had no idea the number of times she cut him but she did it ferociously and immobilized him. Kamaa fell hard on the couch and although he struggled to get back up, he had already lost too much blood and was forced to give up the fight. She removed the belt from her mouth, tied it to Kamaa's, ensuring to put too much pressure to it and then spat a huge chunk of saliva on his face. Without much thinking, Leila grabbed her tote bag and phone and ran out barefoot. As she treaded the passageway in the pub, she noticed Rob struggling to get up from his seat and their eyes met as she moved quickly towards the exit. Her goodbye sign to him was her middle finger and a hard bite to her lip. Her next stop was at the school's security office, where she worked out the details of her next move. It was sure going to be an exhausting journey with the legalities of the matter but she was hopeful it would be worth it. She was even ready to defer a semester or two to heal from the trauma but all that would be a small sacrifice compared to what she would have gone through in the hands of Kamaa.